194 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
DOMESTIC POISONS.* 
I T is a pretty well-known fact that certain bright green wall-papers con_ 
tain a considerable quantity of arsenic, and that this deleterious sub- 
stance is not so firmly fixed to the paper as to be incapable of detaching 
itself and floating about in the air as a poisonous dust. Of the ill effects 
produced by this dust there is abundant medical evidence ; and from some 
observations it would appear that in certain cases, even when, the arsenical 
compound is unable to break away in the solid form, an evolution of arseni- 
uretted gas may take place and produce an equal amount of mischief. Mr. 
Henry Carr has collected a considerable body of evidence bearing upon this 
subject and other collateral matters connected’ with this insidious mode of 
introducing virulent poisons into our houses, and has published the results 
of his investigations in a small book, which certainly opens up a sufficiently 
alarming prospect. He finds that, contrary to the general opinion, the pre- 
sence of arsenic is by no means confined to papers and other articles of 
domestic use of a bright green colour, but that many dull green articles are 
equally dangerous, and in fact that, thanks to the numerous modern applica- 
tions of chemistry to the arts, a great number of colouring materials in 
common use contain arsenic, even when there is nothing green about them. 
The aniline dyes, for example, are not unfrequently contaminated by a 
residue of the arsenic used in their preparation. Mr. Carr cites a long list 
of things which may be rendered dangerous by the employment of poisonous 
dyes — articles of clothing, curtains, &c. — and cites a sufficient number of 
authorities to show that there is a grave reality in the charge he brings 
against many modern manufactures of domestic use. His main object is 
to call the attention of the public to the matter, with the view of obtaining 
legislative interference in the interests of public health. 
^ESTHETICS.! 
7T1STIIETICS, like Social Science, is, it appears to us, so much in its 
infancy, notwithstanding the many writers on the subject, that it in 
fact has scarcely yet earned for itself the title of a science at all, for hardly 
any two writers appear to agree even as to its definition ; and a science which 
is yet so crude that its very exponents hardly know what are the bases of 
the subject on which they write scarcely seems deserving of the name at all. 
M. Veron, however, gives his definition thus : “ ^Esthetics is the science 
whose object is the study and elucidation of the manifestations of artistic 
genius,” which is certainly brief enough — and, as the author very justly 
remarks, avoids those u inconveniences and obscurities ” into which others, 
who have perhaps endeavoured to give a juster, or at least a more detailed, 
definition have been led. As a treatise on Art, however, the book is ex- 
* “ Our Domestic Poisons ; or, the Poisonous Effects of Certain Dyes and 
Colours used in Domestic Fabrics.” By Henry Carr. Sm. 8vo. London : 
"\V. Ridgway. 1879. 
t “ -Esthetics.” By Eugene Vdron. Translated by W. H. Armstrong, 
B.A. “ Library of Contemporary Science.” London : Chapman & Hall. 
1879. 
