CASES OF POISONING. 21 



in urine, however, its determination therein is not robbed of any of 

 its diagnostic value, for the following reasons: (1) It is not excreted 

 normally in anything like the quantities in which it is found in the 

 urine of persons poisoned by this substance, (2) the usual methods of 

 analysis will not detect it at all, and (3) it will not gradually decrease 

 unless more than the normal amount has been stored up in the body. 



The presence of arsenic as a normal constituent of the body, if such 

 be the case, helps to explain why its elimination from patients suffer- 

 ing from wall-paper poisoning is so slow. It might easily happen 

 that the ingestion of minute quantities of arsenic day by day would 

 lead to an increased production of those arsenical compounds nor- 

 mally present in the tissues, just as a constant diet of fat would lead 

 to a storing up of this substance in the organism. Such being the 

 case, the excess of arsenic would only be excreted as fast as the tissues 

 containing it were broken down and replaced by new material. In 

 case this deposition was principally in those tissues that are more 

 slowly changed, such #s bone, nervous tissue, etc., the elimination 

 of arsenic would be correspondingly slow. 



Having established the fact that arsenic can be set free from wall 

 papers, either as a gaseous compound or as a powder, and having 

 cited numerous instances to show undoubted cases of poisoning by 

 arsenical wall papers, fabrics, playing cards, etc., the next point of 

 interest to the public is to ascertain whether papers and fabrics as 

 now sold contain sufficient quantities of this poisonous substance to 

 be dangerous, and to point out whether the general tendency is toward 

 a betterment of these conditions or the reverse. 



ARSENIC CONTENT OF WALL PAPERS AND FABRICS SOLD ON 

 THE AMERICAN MARKET. 



COMPILED INVESTIGATIONS. 



In 1872 Draper a published an article calling attention to the wide- 

 spread use of Paris and Scheele greens as pigments in coloring arti- 

 ficial flowers, articles of dress, pastry ornaments, toys, house paints, 

 glazed papers, and paper hangings. He published the analysis of 

 three sucli papers. The first, a green glazed paper for covering 

 boxes, contained 78.03 grains of arsenic per square yard; the second, 

 an unglazed light-green wall paper, 48.78 grains per square yard, and 

 the third, a brilliant green glazed wall paper, 263.88 grains per square 

 yard. b It is evident from the above analysis and from the personal 

 investigations of Draper carried out in manufacturing plants that the 

 employment of Paris and Scheele greens, either alone or diluted with 



"Report Mass. State Board of Health, 1872, p. 18. 



6 It is not plain whether metallic arsenic or arseniotis oxid (commonly called 

 arsenic ) is meant. In all analyses made by the authors the term ' ' arsenic ' ' refers 

 to metallic arsenic. 



