210 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



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notice is adverse to the possibility of " arsenic-eating," only in so far as 

 relates to the large quantities of the poison which, as is aflirnicd, the human 

 body can accustom itself by long-continued habit to support with impunity. 

 This last inquiry, however interesting- in itself, is one on which very little is 

 known with certainty as yet, and is plainly of quite secondary importance, in 

 a scientific point of view, to that of the beneficial action of moderate doses 

 of arsenious acid, which would now appear to be proved. Chemical News, 

 et SMiman's Journal (F. II. Storer). 



Arsenic in England. Recent English journals give the following account 

 of the existence of arsenic in a brook or stream that gives name to the 

 village of Whitbeck. in the county of "Westmoreland. This brook rises 

 among the mountains of Cumberland, and probably derives the arsenic 

 which has been found in its waters from veins of arsenical cobalt ore, 

 through which its waters percolate; for a few yards above the sources of the 

 stream is the entrance of a mine, which yields this arsenical ore in abun- 

 dance. So marked is the character of the Whitbeck water, that fish are 

 never found in it, and ducks, if confined to it, soon perish ; and yet it is 

 habitually used for every purpose by the inhabitants of Whitbeck, and with 

 beneficial etfects so apparent that one might be justified in paradoxically 

 characterizing arsenic as a very wholesome poison. The deadly clement in 

 dilution is productive of the most sanitary effects, as among the Styrian 

 arsenic-eaters; and the villagers generally live to enjoy a healthy and robust 

 old age, their lives extending much beyond the average in surrounding 

 towns. The traveller is struck by the handsome features and rosy checks of 

 the children. In the case of some laborers sent to work upon a railroad in 

 the vicinity, the water at first produced the usual soreness of mouth, but 

 after this had passed away their health was extremely good. The only 

 effect it produces on horses is visible in the remarkable sleekness of their 

 coats. 



Arsenic in Artid<s of Domestic Use. In the July number of the American 

 Medical Journal Mr. M. Carey Lea calls attention to the great extension 

 which the use of arsenical pigments has obtained in manufactures intended 

 for household use. He shows that the greater part of green wall-papers, 

 green borders, and green window-shades, are colored with Seheele's green or 

 Schweinfurth green, both preparations of arsenic: in the former being the 

 arsenite, and the latter the aceto-arsenite of copper. 



Two specimens of wall-paper, one of border and three of window-shade 

 material (all that he submitted to examination), were found to be colored 

 with these pigments. He cites numerous instances where these materials 

 have proved prejudicial to the health of those who inhabited the rooms ia 

 which they were contained. 



It is a common idea that the quantity of this substance used in coloring is 

 so small that its poisonous character is unimportant. This is a grave error. 

 Mr. Lea obtained, by precipitating with nitrate of silver, from two square 

 inches of material prepared for window-shades, no less than MX grains of the 

 yellow compound of arsenious acid with sliver. If we suppose this to be 

 the salt 3AgO, AsOs described by Filhol, it corresponds to a quan- 

 tity of white arsenic (arsenious acid), which, in an ordinary window-shade, 

 three feet by cu'ht, would amount to no less than one-third of an avoirdupois 

 pound! When a room is papered with paper colored with arsenic, it is safe 

 to say that many pounds of this deleterious substance are spread over the 

 walls. 



