August 26, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



105 



hardly have considered it as meant to be taken seriously, but, ap- 

 pearing as it does, I must beg space to answer some of the writer's 

 points in some detail. Mr. Glenn says that the paper, " curiously 

 enough, does not offer the slightest evidence that chromium or any 

 of its compounds, in any quantity, however larg-e or small, can in- 

 juriously affect the animal body. Furthermore, there is no reliable 

 tradition or literature to that effect." It is barely possible that the 

 gentleman may have been misled by a statement in the paper re- 

 ferred to, that I had been unable to find any reported cases of gen- 

 eral or local affection attributable to chrome-mordanted clothing. 

 No evidence was offered as ts the poisonous character of chromium 

 compounds on the animal body, for the reason that it was supposed 

 to be a matter of common knowledge with the medical gentlemen 

 before whom the paper was read. As to literature, I suppose that 

 ever}'body will concede the reliability of the few authors (out of 

 many) whom I will quote. 



Wharton and Stille {Medical Jurisprudence, 4th ed. vol. ii., Phila- 

 delphia, Kay & Bro., 1884) say of bichromate of potassium, " This 

 salt, being extensively used in dyeing, has given rise in several in- 

 stances to accidental poisoning. Locally applied, its action is irri- 

 tant, causing in the workmen who use it troublesome sores and ul- 

 cerations upon the hands. Taken in poisonous doses internally, its 

 action is highly irritant also, and death has been caused by it with 

 the symptoms usually attending the action of irritant poisons. . . . 

 Several fatal cases have occurred in Baltimore." A number of 

 cases are reported in detail. " Experiments upon animals have 

 shown, that, after the subcutaneous injection of chromic acid, ani- 

 mals suffer from vomiting, diarrhoea, albuminuria, and finally die in a 

 few days : after death inflammation of the kidneys is found. The 

 same results were produced by the injection of a neutral chromate 

 (yellow chromate of potassium)." 



Taylor {A Treatise on Poisons, London, Churchill) says, " There 

 can be no doubt that bichromate of potassium is an active poison," 

 and quotes the following case from Beck's ' Medical Jurisprudence,' 

 which is also quoted by Stille : " Dr. Baer of Baltimore has re- 

 ported the following case. A man, in drawing off a solution of the 

 bichromate by a siphon, accidentally received a small quantity 

 into his mouth. In a few minutes he perceived great heat in the 

 throat and stomach, and this was followed by violent vomiting of 

 blood and mucus. The vomiting continued incessantly until his 

 death, which took place in five hours. On dissection the mucous 

 membrane of the stomach, duodenum, and about one-fifth of the 

 jejunum, was destroyed in patches. In this case the salt acted as a 

 corrosive irritant." 



Schuchardt {Maschka's Ha}idbuch der gerichtliche7i Medicin, 

 Band ii., Tiibingen, 1882) says, " Poisoning by chrome compounds 

 (including lead chromate) is not rare. The chromic-acid com- 

 pounds are more or less violent poisons." Reference is made to 

 numerous cases. " According to the researches of E. Pelikau 

 {Beitrage zur gerichtl. Med. Toxikologie und Pharmakodynaniik, 

 Wiirzburg, 1858), bichromate of potassium is very similar in action 

 to arsenic and corrosive sublimate. It causes, when taken into the 

 stomach, marked inflammation of the same and of the intestine ; 

 easily causes vomiting, and, after absorption into the system, calls 

 forth a train of general symptoms, particularly albuminuria and 

 hemorrhage from the kidneys, and causes death with more or less 

 rapidity." Reference is made to the results of the observations of 

 Gergens {Arck.fi'ir experiment. Pathol, u. Pharniakol, Band vi., 

 1876), Weigert {Die Bright' sche Nierendegeneration vom patho- 

 logisch-anatmuiscken Standpunkte), and Kabierske (Die Chrom- 

 niere, Breslau. 1880). The experiments of Gergens were repeated 

 by Posner ( Virchow's Archiv fiir pathol. Anat., Band Ixxix., Heft 

 2), with the same results. " The action of this poison on the gen- 

 eral system is extraordinarily rapid and intense." 



Falck (Lehrbuch der Practischeti Toxikologie, Stuttgart, 1880) 

 says, " Cases of poisoning by compounds of chromium are not rare. 

 We find reported up to the present time (1880) seventeen cases, of 

 which three were from chromic acid, two from the chromate and 

 twelve from the bichromate of potassium. Of the seventeen cases, 

 nine (or 53 per cent) ended fatally. . . . Workmen in dye-houses 

 who have to deal constantly with solutions of chrome compounds 

 are afflicted with painful deep ulcers on the hands, which heal with 

 great difficulty ; similar affections may be produced by the same 



substance in the form of dust. . . . Experiments on the effects of 

 chromates on animals have proved the intense poisonous action of 

 these substances. According to Gergens, rabbits died after the 

 subcutaneous injection of 0.26 of a centimetre of chromate of potas- 

 sium, and showed hyperemia of the intestinal tract, nephritis, and 

 cystitis. According to Priestley, the vaso-motor centre is first ex- 

 cited, then paralyzed. Mayer found chromium in the blood, heart, 

 liver, and kidneys." 



Many more authors could be quoted on this point, but the above 

 is, I think, enough ; and, furthermore, the evidence quoted is a suffi- 

 cient reply to the negative evidence of the weavers in the Philadel- 

 phia mills, the dyers, and bichromate-makers interviewed by Mr. 

 Glenn. With regard to the cases reported by me as being caused 

 by chrome mordants, I wish to say, in the first place, that they were 

 not reported for the purpose of beginning an agitation against the 

 use of bichromate as a mordant, nor was it my idea to cause need- 

 less alarm among the people. The paper was written for a medical 

 society, and was intended to call to the attention of the members a 

 possible cause of affections of the skin, the removal of the cause in 

 any given case being of a certain value in treatment. I am very 

 well aware of the great value and importance of the bichromate as 

 a mordant, and also of the fact that to the vast majority of people 

 clothing dyed by its aid is not likely to produce any injury under 

 ordinary circumstances ; and any idea of restricting its use as a 

 mordant on account of an occasional idiosyncracy would seem tO' 

 me as absurd as to legislate against railroads on account of the 

 possibility of accidents. I have worn, as have others of my ac- 

 quaintance, clothing (including stockings) dyed with the aid of bi- 

 chromate, without experiencing the least injury therefrom, and the 

 same is undoubtedly true of thousands of others ; but neither these 

 facts nor Mr. Glenn's experiments are conclusive evidence that 

 everybody is exempt. The grounds for concluding that the trouble 

 in these cases was due to the mordant seem to me to have been 

 justifiable. Mr. Glenn says on this point, " It would have been 

 strange if he had not [found chromium], since most cloth is chrome- 

 dyed. Had he examined further, equally certain he would have 

 found iron, cellulose, keratin, and some other organic products. 

 Why not assign to one or all of them the maladies of the patients 

 mentioned ? " My experience in the examination of cloth for irri- 

 tants has proved to me that a very large proportion of textile fabrics 

 do not contain chromium in any form whatever, and it therefore 

 never strikes me as remarkably curious in such examinations to 

 find no chromium. In the examination of the specimens in ques- 

 tion, no other substance was found which could in any way what- 

 ever be considered poisonous. Chromium, then, being the only 

 substance present which is known to act as a poison in certain com- 

 binations, was the only substance which could be reasonably sus- 

 pected. Anybody who has read the original article will, I think,, 

 concede that in each case the disturbance was due to something in 

 the cloth. That the conclusion that this something was a com- 

 pound of chromium was correct, I have very good confirmatory evi- 

 dence. A young man purchased a cheap pair of trousers, which he 

 wore all summer without drawers, and without perceptible injury. 

 Becoming faded, he had them dyed a dark blue, and shortly after,, 

 resuming them under the same conditions as before, he was 

 troubled by an outbreak on the skin of both legs, with irritation and 

 inflammation of a very intense character, particularly on the inner 

 side of the thighs and about the generative organs. Through the 

 courtesy of his physician, I was enabled to make an examination 

 and inquiiy, which brought out the fact that the dyer had used bi- 

 chromate of potassium. The young man had worn the trousers a 

 whole summer without injury, but had suffered intensely from wear- 

 ing them after they had been dyed with bichromate. Would it, 

 perhaps, be as sensible to ascribe the symptoms to cellulose or 

 keratin ? 



I cannot see the appHcation of Mr. Glenn's calculation of the 

 loss in weight undergone in a week by a small boy's suit, and of 

 the probable amount inhaled by the wearer, unless he assumes 

 that in the cases reported in my paper the poison was 'simply in- 

 haled. In these two cases the clothing gave off large amounts of 

 dust, much of which was conveyed to their mouths by wet fingers. 

 Mr. Glenn's figures (that is, that a small boy's suit loses three 

 hundred and forty milligrams in a week) can hardly be taken as a 



