PROCEEDIXGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 1015 

 POLSOXOUS COLOKING M.VTTER IX HoSIERY. 



SeveraLremai-kable cases of poisoning from wearing colored hosiery 

 have hcen lately reported. The Paris Zes 3lonrIes states that M. 

 Bidard, of Rouen, France, o])tained from an Engh'shnian a pair of 

 stockings of lilac color, in which were woven circular stripes of bright 

 red silk. The wearing of the stockings produced an intensely pain- 

 ful inflammation of the skin in circular lines around the limb. On 

 analyzing the red silk in the stockings the coloring matter was found 

 to be corallin, a new dye derived from carbolic (phenic) acid. 



Mr. Webber, of London, recently brouglit to the notice of the 

 sitting aldermen, the fact that the dye used in some of the gorgeous 

 socks and other underclothing displayed in the windows of metro- 

 politan hosiers exercises a very deleterious influence upon the skins 

 of the wearers, producing irritation, and an eruption, and leading, if 

 persisted in, to actual sores. The London Lancet^ in commenting on 

 this statement, adds, that last year during the time of the perfor- 

 mance of the "Doo;e of Venice," at Drurv Lane theatre, one of the 

 dansneses applied to one of the metropolitan hospitals with an 

 anomalous eruption affecting one foot, and exactly those parts which 

 are covered by an ordinary dancing shoe. It was immediately 

 perceived that the heat of the foot, where covered by the shoe, acted 

 upon the dye of the stocking, which the patient stated was of a 

 brilliant red color, and thus affected the skin ; but the absolute 

 immunity of the opposite foot was not readily intelligible, until the 

 fact was avowed that the exigencies of the ballet necessitated another 

 color on the other lind). In this instance, it appeared that the other 

 performers who wore white hose beneath their colored garments 

 escaped all injury ; and the patient's skin recovered its normal con- 

 dition shortly after adopting this plan. The manufacturers of the 

 dangerous articles alluded to by Mr. Webber, have already taken 

 steps to abate the evil. In reference to this subject, Prof. Wanklyn, 

 of the London Institution, states in the British Medical Jou-rnal^ 

 that he had made an examination of the beautifully. crystallized 

 magenta dye, which was being manutaetured by one of the largest 

 coal tar works of Europe, and found it to be arseniate of roseine. The 

 crude magenta cake and liquor found in the market soon after the 

 first introduction of this coloring matter, was found to be largely- 

 contaminated with arsenic. 



Dr. P. Vanderweyde remarked that t»lie pure aniline eoiWrs ai'e 

 v^yy harmless to the skin, but are poisonous .if t^^teu JixternaUj^ It 



