52 ARSENIC IN PAPERS AND FABRICS. 



Now the hydrogen stream is started in the Marsh apparatus and the tube is 

 heated five minutes in order to be sure no arsenic is present. In case there is no 

 dark coating in the bulging part of the tube, the solutions mentioned after A and 

 B are added to the Marsh apparatus, and the tube is now heated twenty minutes 

 with a gas generation of the above-mentioned power. If after this lapse of time 

 there appears in the tube a dark coating which corresponds in size to or surpasses 

 the prepared mirrors of 0. 1 mg mentioned above, and entirely disappears when 

 the solution of sodium hypochlorite is sucked into the tube forward and backward 

 over the mirror, the article is declared to contain arsenic, and it is forbidden to 

 be kept for sale. 



In case no mirror is formed of the size mentioned, or if the mirror which has 

 appeared remains entirely unchanged by the treatment with sodium hypo jhlorite, 

 the sale of this article is not forbidden. 



Remark: If it happens that an article in passing through the treatment here 

 described produces a mirror which in size evidently surpasses the limit above 

 stated and at the same time appears partly soluble in sodium hypochlorite, the 

 solution of the mirror brought about in this way is boiled with hydrochloric acid 

 until it does not smell of chlorin, and is then treated in the Marsh apparatus. 

 If, now, after heating the tube twenty minutes, there appears in it a clear coating 

 of arsenic, the article is declared to contain arsenic. 



SWITZERLAND. 



The Swiss Confederation as a whole has no laws regulating the 

 amount of arsenic in wall papers, fabrics, etc., but some of the Can- 

 tons have passed such laws, which are given below. 



CANTON OF GENEVA. 



The following extracts were taken from the police regulations of 

 April 26, 1878: 



ARTICLE I. Confectioners are forbidden to sell or use tinted papers or tapes- 

 tries colored with arsenical substances, notably with Scheele and Schweinfurt 

 greon. 



The use of these substances for dyeing fabrics is also prohibited. 



ART. II. Arsenical paper and fabrics exposed for sale in stores and by dyers 

 will be seized by the authority of the police. 



ART. III. Offenders against these rules will be liable to the penalty of the police, 

 and to damage if there be occasion. 



CANTON OF ZURICH. 



Ordinance of August 5, 1892, concerning the employment of dyes containing 



po'sonous substances. 



ART. V. Articles of dress such as clothing, textile fabrics, woven fabrics, paper 

 collars and cuffs leather linings and tapestries, carpets, curtains, window shades, 

 colored paper, and all such manufactured articles must ba free from arsenic and 

 its compounds. a 



The Federal inspector of factories interprets this paragraph as follows: %% The 

 expression ' free from arsenic ' must be understood as referring to a percentage 

 artificially imparted to the objects in question, but not to slight traces of arsenic, 

 such as are naturally contained in such objects." 



