POISONOUS METALS ON SPRAYED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 11 



on the other hand, beheved that the use of arsenicals, with the ex- 

 ception of lead arsenate, should be permitted in agriculture, but only 

 under proper regulation. 



In 1909, a committee appointed by the Academy of Medicine (1) 

 (21) (112) to study this question recommended (96) the strict en- 

 forcement of the ordinance, thus causing a very lively discussion. 

 Weiss (130), believing that the committee did not have sufficient 

 evidence to substantiate its recommendation, proposed a medical 

 investigation, this proposal being adopted (2) and sent to the min- 

 ister of the interior as the advice of the academy. A year later the 

 academy asked (32) that a new investigation, essentially medical, 

 be carried on for two years, and, to avoid accidents, recommended 

 strict regulations in the use of arsenicals and the complete exclusion 

 of lead arsenate. The direction of the investigation was to be in- 

 trusted to the councils of hygiene and the sanitary commissions of 

 each department, after consultation with the professors of agricul- 

 ture (33). In 1911, dissatisfied with the lack of enforcement of its 

 suggestions, the academy decided (34) to recall to the public powers 

 the conditions they had recommended as to the use of arsenicals in 

 agriculture. Malvy, undersecretary of state, stated (80) that since 

 the investigation conducted by the minister of the interior had dis- 

 closed no accident, either among the workers who handled the ar- 

 senicals or among the consumers, to prohibit the use of lead arsenate 

 would be to impose useless annoyances on merchants and viticul- 

 turists. In 1913 the minister of the interior submitted to the Acade- 

 my of Medicine a draft of a decree carrying modifications of the ordi- 

 nance of 1846, permitting the use of insoluble arsenicals in agri- 

 culture (3). 



After much discussion (5) (22) (53) (54) (76), articles 9 and 10 of 

 the draft, authorizing the use of arsenicals in agriculture under speci- 

 fied regulations, were adopted by the academy (4) (5), with the recom- 

 mendation that the order of the minister of agriculture dealing with 

 the precautions to be taken in their use should apply to all arsenicals 

 and not merely to lead arsenate, and article 11, which prohibited the 

 sale and use of soluble arsenic salts, was amended to permit their 

 sale when "denatured'- (5). The academy also voted (5) that the 

 public powers be requested to take every means to inform the public 

 of these regulations and to impose penalties for their infraction, and 

 that the Government be requested to encourage researches to find 

 substitutes for arsenicals. The French decree authorizing the use of 

 insoluble arsenicals in agriculture, under regulation (81), and the 

 minister of agriculture's instructions for the sale and use of these 

 arsenical compounds were published in 1916 (86). The sale and 

 use of soluble arsenicals as insecticides were prohibited. 



Breteau (17) analyzed 15 samples of wine from vines sprayed with 

 arsenicals, finding from none to 0.04 milligram of arsenic per liter in 



