20 ARSENIC Iff PAPERS AND FABRICS. 



ing abnormal was found until September 30, when a faint systolic murmur was 

 heard at the apex. About the 1st of February he ceased to gain and lost his appe- 

 tite. About the middle of February he began to lose color rapidly, and by the 

 1st of March the pallor was very marked. Two or three days later he began to 

 pass his urine often, but in small amounts; it stained the diapers red. At this 

 time, March 8, Doctor Ogden found a trace of arsenic in the urine. Almost every- 

 thing in the room was at once examined for arsenic. The blue sateen with which 

 the basinette was lined contained a trace of arsenic; nothing else contained an 

 appreciable amount. There seemed no doubt that the source of the arsenic in 

 the urine was to be found in the blue lining of the basinette. He was taken 

 March 12 and put in another room that contained no arsenic; after this he 

 improved. 



Numerous cases of arsenical poisoning brought about through the 

 agency of wall papers, fabrics, etc., are cited by Wood, Sanger, Put- 

 nam, 6 and others, but will not be quoted further, since enough typical 

 cases have been given to show that arsenical poisoning from these 

 sources is of common occurrence, and that often only a small amount 

 of arsenic is necessary to cause symptoms of poisoning. It will also 

 be noted that several of the cases quoted occurred during the last few 

 years, so that this constant source of danger to the community may 

 be considered to be still in existence. 



Of the thirteen cases cited above, examinations of the urine were 

 made in six instances. It was found where the case was followed up 

 that the urine first contained relatively large amounts of arsenious 

 oxid (from about 0.01 to 0.03 mg per liter c ) and that this quantity 

 very gradually decreased, so that at the end of from two to four 

 months 0.002 to 0.003 mg of arsenious oxid per liter was excreted. 

 None of the cases quoted above were followed for a sufficiently long 

 time to see if the elimination of arsenic would entirely cease. In one 

 of the cases quoted by Sanger, but not mentioned here, it was found 

 that about eight months after removing a patient from arsenical sur- 

 roundings the elimination of arsenic had ceased. 



In the recently published work of Gautier and Bertrand it is stated 

 that arsenic is a normal constituent of the body.** If such be the case, 

 it is extremely likely that a very minute amount is constantly excreted 

 in the urine. In this case it would appear that if Sanger had had 

 sufficiently large quantities of urine and had followed the extremely 

 delicate modification of the Marsh-Berzelius method devised by Gau- 

 tier and Bertrand he would very likely have found that the excretion 

 of arsenic never ceased entirely. Even if arsenic is always present 



Morse, Archives of Pediatrics, New York, 1901, 18: 702. 



* Putnam, Boston, Mass., Med. and Surg. J., 1889, 120: 235. 



c ln some of the cases quoted by Sanger as much as 0.068 mg of arsenious oxid 

 per liter was eliminated in the urine. 



''While the two authors differ to some extent in their opinion concerning 

 arsenic, one believing that it is localized in certain organs and the other that it 

 occurs in all living tissues, yet they both believe that it is a normal constituent 

 of at least some of the living tissues. 



