Year: 1866

Are Paper Collars Poisonousp


The Round Table says the question at
the head Of this article is one of great in.
terest and importance. Invented almost by
accident, and ut first worn only by young
men in arrears with their washer. women,
paper collars have now become popular
institution, both in this country and in
Europe. Ladies have adopted them, and
comparatively few gentlemen now prefer
the more expensive but substantial linen.
Thousands of persons, therefore, are deeply
anxious in regard to the recent rumor that
these collars arepoisouous. Manufacturers,
who announce every style of collar and cuff
in paper, may be ruined if their wares are
proved to be detrimental to the health of
the wearers. But in snoh matter as
this it would be criminal to conceal the
facts. - .l-, ..... ..- Ill. $780,.


A Boston paper states that a clerk in q
wholesale store in that city was recently
afflicted with painful eruption about the
neck. Thinking that it was merely boil
he paid little attention to it at first; but as
the pain grew more intense be was induced
to consult physician, who declared that
his patient was suffering from the effect Of
poison absorbed into the system from paper
collars. The physician also remarked that
be had been consulted 10 numerous similar
cases, and upon careful inquiry it was ascer'
tanned that half dozen of the young clerks
companions, all of whom wore paper COL
lars, were constantly troubled with the same
eruptions. -.-..r, 49, .. I'D.


But, without attempting to argue from
these cases, let us look at the general facts
in regard to paper collars. In order to
initiate linen as nearly as possible, these
collars are enameled, and in this process
arsenic is used. Everybody knows that the
enamel upon visiting cards is poisonous.
Children have died from being allowed to
play with such cards. 1t will be remem.
bered that the first importation Of swans
for the Central Park were poisoned by some
careless and thoughtless persons who threw
pieces of cardboard into the lake for the
swans to eat One would suppose that q
knowledge of facts like these would long
since have aroused the suspicious of the
public as to the danger from paper collars
prepared in the same way as cardboard
but the majority Of people did not reflect
upon the subject at all, or fell into the error
of believing that the enamel.was only pois.
onous when eaten. '


tits easily susceptible of proof, however,
that arsenic is very deleterious no matter
how it may be absorbed into the system.
When taken directly into the stomach it
may be more fatal; but when it enters
through the pores of the skin and infects
the blood, its operations ale hardly less
deadly, although they may be slower. The
very name of the arsenic, derived from the
Greek, announces its power Of destroying
men. The workmen who prepare it are
obliged to dress in costume and helmet
of leather, the eyes protected BY glasses
and the nostrils by wet sponge; but 10
spite of these precautions and carefully
regulated diet they only average thirty
years of life. Instances are on record of
persons who have died from sleeping in
rooms covered with arsenieal paper, and the
green wallpaper, once so much in use, is
now almost completely discarded because Of
the arsenic employed in its manufacture.
Here is a poison, then, which is equally
dangerous, whether eaten, inhaled or alb.
sorbed, and which is used to enamel the
collars to be worn around the neck. It thus
enters the system through the pores, reach
es the blood directly when the skin is fray
ed, and, being rendered volatile by the heat
of the body, is also inhaled at every breath.
Could anything be more dangerous, more
pernioious


But although we are compelled to answer
the question, Are paper collars p6isonousY
in the affirmative, some persons may object
that they have worn these collars for long
time without perceiving any evil effects.
This may be true, and yet the effects may
exist. The eruptions which afflicted the
Boston clerk were the protests of nature
against the poison which he was absorbing.
In all strong constitutions nature can make
such protests End utter such warnings
against further indulgence; but in the
weak the poison may be left to doits deadly
work without any outward signs of danger.
We recall the case of an invalid American
at Paris who was accustomed to smoke a
new clay pipe every day. These pipes were
whitened with arsenic, as the paper collars
are, and the poison was released by the
heat of the burning tobacco, just as it is
released from the paper collars by the heat
of the body. The smoker slowly but stead
lily declined, and not until after bis decease
did the physicians discover that they had
cured his original malady, and that be had
died of arsenical poisons.


Many men and all the ladies who wear
paper collars are liable to the same gradual
That they have no eruptions
upon the neck is only proof of their
greater peril; for it shows that the system
is so corrupted or weakened as to take in
the arsenic without that natural, healthy