1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 479 



A very serious objection to the use of lacquer in this country is the 

 danger of lacquer poisoning from the fresh material. I have recently 

 heard of a piano-maker who tried to use it, but it affected his workmen 

 so seriously that he was obliged to give it up. The Japanese arc very 

 much in dread of the poison, as I found when I tried to get some of 

 my students to accompany ine as interpreters to the places of manu- 

 facture. Those who are subject to the poison suffer precisely as pa- 

 tients afflicted by the Rhus or poison-ivy. Of course those engaged in 

 lacquer work are not affected by it, but whether one acquires immunity 

 after a time I am unable to tell. However, if the poison is a volatile 

 acid, as Rein supposes, it would seem possible to remove it by a heat 

 that would leave the lacquer uninjured, and thus make it available for 

 use in this country. 



