April 30, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



393 



cates that the danger has been exaggerated." So 

 far is this from being the case, and so great is the 

 real danger, that I beg space for the presentation of 

 some facts. The immediate cause of the present 

 investigation was a letter published in the Boston 

 Herald on Jan. 19, in which I gave a detailed account 

 of sufferings in our own house due to arsenic in the 

 wall-papers, and involving all the members of the 

 household. Since that time many persons have pub- 

 lished similar accounts in the Boston papers. Ab- 

 stracts of twenty-two such letters appeared in the 

 Boston Advertiser of March 2 and 12, fourteen of the 

 same appearing in the Boston Herald of March 2 ; 

 and in the four hearings given by the public health 

 committee to the petitioners a mass of evidence was 

 presented which must have convinced any unpreju- 

 diced mind. The committee have not yet made their 

 report to the legislature, but it is expected that they 

 will soon do so. The statement has already been 

 published in the Boston papers, that the committee 

 will recommend legislation, and it would be a matter 

 of great surprise if they should do otherwise, — a 

 surprise even to those who are trying to defeat 

 legislation. 



Science also adds, "Prof. C. F. Chandler testi- 

 fied, that, from careful experiments, under no con- 

 ditions could arsenical poisoning occur through 

 breathing arseniuretted hydrogen from wall-paper, 

 and that the only source of danger would be from 

 friction alone." In point of fact, Professor Chandler's 

 testimony was much stronger than this. He not only 

 stated that he believed the generation of arseniuret- 

 ted hydrogen from arsenical wall-papers to be im- 

 possible, but he also said of this gas that he con- 

 sidered ' a small quantity comparatively harmless.' 

 As to the legislation, for which those of us who have 

 suffered were asking, he said that he was ' not in 

 favor of any law on the subject ; ' that personally he 

 was ' not afraid of arsenical wall-paper under any 

 circumstances, with any quantity ; ' and that he con- 

 sidered the evidence of persons who suppose that 

 they have suffered from wall-paper poison to be 4 of 

 very little value.' He also said that some years ago 

 he investigated the whole subject of dangers from 

 arsenical wall-papers, ' and concluded that there was 

 nothing in it ; ' while his conviction that the genera- 

 tion of arseniuretted hydrogen from arsenical wall- 

 papers is impossible was based on experiments made 

 by two of his students in his laboratory six years ago. 



As to all the essential points involved in the inves- 

 tigation, the petition is supDorted by the best chemi- 

 cal opinion in Harvard university, by some of the 

 best medical opinion in Massachusetts, and by a body 

 of evidence from actual sufferers unimpeachable and 

 unanswerable. But I desire specially to call atten- 

 tion to the fact that Professor Chandler himself gives 

 indirect support to the petition. As one of the origi- 

 nal editors of Johnson's 'Universal cyclopaedia,' and 

 one of the active editors in the revision now going 

 through the press, Professor Chandler publishes in 

 vol. i. (New York, 1886) an article on arsenious oxide, 

 wherein he calls attention to the danger from arseni- 

 cal paper. His language is, "Recent inquiry would 

 lead to the belief that rooms covered with paper 

 coated with this green arsenite of copper are detri- 

 mental to health, from the readiness with which 

 minute particles of the poisonous pigment are de- 

 tached from the walls by the slightest friction, are 

 diffused through the room, and ultimately pass 

 into the animal system. It is also said that arseniu- 



retted hydrogen (H 3 As), a very poisonous gas, is 

 generated in damp weather." 



True, this language was first written for an earlier 

 edition ; but inasmuch as no expense was spared in 

 the revision (see publisher's announcement), and in- 

 asmuch as Professor Chandler was one of the re- 

 visers, the language may be taken as the utterance 

 of all that Professor Chandler considered it worth 

 while to say at the time when the new volume was 

 published. I have called this article an ' indirect 

 support' to our petition, because, although the writer 

 does not squarely state an opinion of his own, yet his 

 language undoubtedly makes the impression that he 

 considers the subject an important one, — one, indeed, 

 which he has not investigated, and on which he 

 therefore has not formed an opinion, but important 

 enough to call attention to the danger. 



It is also interesting to observe that one of the 

 authorities whom Professor Chandler quotes against 

 the theory that arseniuretted hydrogen escapes from 

 arsenical wall-papers has subsequently changed his 

 opinion. I refer to Watts's ' Dictionary of chemistry.' 

 So far as I have been able to learn, the last expres- 

 sion of Dr. Watts on the subject in hand is found in 

 the third supplement, which is vol. viii. of the whole 

 work, in part i. p. 122 (London, 1879). There we 

 read, " Arsenic in the air of rooms. — From experi- 

 ments by H. Fleck (Zeitschr. fur biologie, viii. 444), 

 it appears that the air of rooms, the carpets or wall- 

 papers of which are colored with Schweinfurth green, 

 often contains arseniuretted hydrogen, produced by 

 the action of moisture and organic matter on the 

 arsenical pigment. The size, starch, paste, etc., used 

 in hanging the paper, appear to be especially active 

 in this respect." 



Also another authority, whose opinion of 1862 

 Professor Chandler quotes against our petition, has 

 long since given up that opinion. I refer to Dr. Hoff- 

 man of Berlin. Dr. Hoffman was one of the scientific 

 men summoned a few years ago to aid the German 

 royal sanitary commission in investigating the 

 dangers from arsenic in objects of domestic use. 

 Dr. Hoffman's present opinion is seen in the report 

 of the commission, which resulted in a stringent law 

 in Germany. The language bearing on this subject 

 is as follows: "Wall-papers are deserving special 

 attention, and also window-curtains, which fre- 

 quently contain large amounts of arsenic. The in- 

 jurious action of this is not only through the lading 

 of the atmosphere with arsenical dust, but also from 

 the continued formation of arseniuretted hydrogen, 

 a gas extremely dangerous to health." 



I am happy to state that the public health com- 

 mittee of the Massachusetts legislature have ordered 

 the publication of the stenographic report of the 

 hearings given on this subject, and this document 

 cannot fail to be of value to the legislative commit- 

 tees of other states or of congress when the enor- 

 mity of the arsenic evil shall become more widely 

 known. D. G, Lyon. 



Cambridge, Mass., April 24. 



On two plates of stratigraphical sections of the 



Taconic ranges by Prof. James Hall. 



In an article in the number for April, 1886, of The 

 American journal of science, entitled ' On lower 

 Silurian fossils from a limestone of the original 

 Taconic of Emmons,' on p. 247, the author speaks of 



