The San Francisco call., 1905-06-04

covered with paris green and subse-
quently a coat of another color had
been laid over 1t.
The servant who had attempted to
wash this was confined to his bed for
three days with cramps and acute in
testinal trouble. Finally the two MEM
bers Of the doctors household who had
taken considerable interest in what
was being done were attacked with
similar symptoms and he himself had
one of his old familiar attacks. Since
repapering, now six months ago, he
has had none of his old trouble.
ARSENIC IN NURSES GOWNS.
Another case occurred in a Massa-
chusetts infant asylum. where the
wholesale arsenical poisoning of the
children and nurses was traced to some
blue dresses adopted as uniform by
the nurses. Much of the arsenic was
found to be loose in the cloth. The
authorities had the dresses thoroughly
washed. thinking thereby to eliminate
the poison, but upon their resumption
by the nurses there was another out
break Of alarming symptoms among
the babies. so that the dresses had to
be discarded. Since then the trouble
has entirely disappeared
Ten years ago the use of arsenic IN
colored wall papers and house furnish
ings was common. Some official tests
in Massachusetts at that time showed
that one-third of the papers examined
contained more or less of the poison
and the proportion of arsenical house
furnishings, prints and ginghams was
as great or greater. EilkS and wOolens
were comparatively free
AS a result the Legislature of Mas
sachusetts enacted a law limiting the
amount of arsenic in papers and wov-
en- fabrics other than dress goods to
10 of a grain to the square yard and
of dress to .01 grain to each square
yard, or just one-tenth as much as
is allowed in wall papers. owing to the
liability of fabrics coming into inti-
mate contact with the body.
PUBLIC WARNED OF DANGER.
Recently there has been a popular
agitation in England in regard to ar
senical beer and the Department of
Agriculture, recognizing the great i'm
portance of the question, has made a
representative collection of goods pur-
chasable in the open market in Wash
ington, d. c.. with the idea of warn
ing the public of their danger. The
Massachusetts, law has been quite eff
fective in raising the wall paper
standard throughout the country.
Green is by no means the only ar
senic tinted paper, as some OF the most
heavily loaded papers are the reds
and browns, and in fabrics blues and
blacks are often the most dangerous.
AS showing what can be done one line
of wall papers by an American manu-
facturer was examined which en-
braced the whole field of color and
was found to contain not a trace of
arsenic or any of it's compounds.
English manufacturers are the most
f1agrant disregarders of public health
in this matter. 1t is surprising that
the most expensive papers, as well as
the cheap stocks. contain arsenic in
the coloring tints- The improvement
in dress goods during the last decade
has been marked, but nevertheless IL
per cent Of the dress goods sold con-
tain enough arsenic to be injurious to
health. OF forty-one samples of stock
ings examined 20 per cent contain
more than the prescribed maximum Of
.91 grain to the square yard: 81 per
cent contained determinable amounts,
and less than 8 per cent none. Car
pets are one of the most dangerous
sources of arsenic poisoning Furs
and fur rugs are often extremely dan
gerOuS.