30 



of snufFs, which he had found to be more or less impregnated 

 with lead compounds, especially the black rappee, and he 

 found on further investigation that the presence of lead was 

 due to the corrosive action of the snuflP upon the lead foil used 

 for packing it. He also stated that it was his intention to 

 examine several other substances usually packed in lead foils, 

 and that he would lay the results of his observations before 

 the Society, as he thought it highly desirable to make the 

 public aware of such sources of injury and to induce manufac- 

 turers to adopt means to avoid inflicting this serious evil on 

 their consumers. 



Dr. Calvert concluded by stating that he had been engaged 

 for the last few months in investigating the action of the 

 Manchester Waterworks w^ater on various kinds of leaden 

 pipes, and that he was arriving at such results as would show 

 the necessity for serious consideration on the part of the 

 inhabitants of this city with respect to the evils arising from 

 the introduction of the water into their dwellings through 

 leaden pipes. 



Being requested by the Chairman to give his opinion. 

 Dr. Angus Smith said that he had never found any 

 Manchester water which had passed through lead pipes to be 

 entirely free from lead. At the same time, the quantity is in 

 almost all cases so small that, as far as we know, it can 

 produce no bad effects, and is practically equal to nothing. 

 There is, however, a great difficulty in knowing what is hurt- 

 ful ; medical men had not settled the point. Persons said to 

 be suffering from lead paralysis were known to have taken 

 water with as little as one-hundredth of a grain of oxide of 

 lead per gallon, whereas it was considered generally not to 



