148 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



V. 



ON CHRONIC ARSENICAL POISONING FROM WALL 

 PAPERS AND FABRICS. 



By Charles Robert Sanger. 



Received November 9, 1893. 



During the spring of 1886, while a6sistaut in the Harvard Labora- 

 tory, several cases of chronic arsenical poisoning from wall papers 

 were brought to my notice, as the suspected papers and fabrics were 

 sent to me for analysis. In many cases an examination of the urine 

 for arsenic was made, this being done under the supposition that the 

 elimination of arsenic in cases of chronic poisoning had been well stud- 

 ied. I was surprised to find, however, that analyses of the urine in 

 such cases had been comparatively rare, and that little or nothing was 

 known at that time of the elimination of arsenic under the conditions 

 of chronic poisoning from wall papers. 



Some of the results of my work were read, by invitation, at a meet- 

 ing of the South Middlesex (Massachusetts) Society for Medical Im- 

 provement in the summer of 1886, but were not published, as so much 

 reference and analytical work remained to be done before the paper 

 could be presented in proper form. I was then called from Cam- 

 bridge, and for three or four years the completion of the paper was 

 continually prevented by other duties. In the mean time the analysis 

 of the urine became recognized as a necessary step iu the diagnosis 

 of chronic arsenical poisoning from wall papers, and the records of 

 such analyses have been frequent, chief among them being the paper 

 of Putnam,* in March, 1889. In nine of the cases cited in this article 

 the analyses had been made by me, and were sent to Dr. Putnam at 

 his request. 



Although so much time has elapsed since my work was undertaken, 

 and the cases, as far as the actual poisoning goes, are merely additions 

 to the already long list, yet many facts brought out during the prepara- 

 tion of the paper make it still worthy of publication. Two years ago 



* Bost. Med. Surg. Journ., CXX. 235. 



