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Arsenical Poisoning by Wall-Papers [September, 
IV. ARSENICAL POISONING BY WALL-PAPERS 
AND OTHER MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. 
By Jabez Hogg, M.R.C.S., F.R.M.S., &c., 
Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic 
Hospital. 
SlT has been very generally recognised that some persons 
W are never well in any given place, or particular locality, 
^ long together. In such a case it is commonly said 
this or that place, or locality, does not agree with them, 
and, after failure of remedies, change of air is tried wit 
marked improvement ; but this proves, in the majority of 
cases, to be only of a temporary nature. I he amount of 
distress inflicted in this way, m a large number of house- 
holds, is of no light or insignificant character, and the 
cause long remained concealed from observation. It is only 
of quite modern date that a clue has been obtained to 
certain of the “ mysterious illnesses ” referred to, and which 
for yeas were vaguely assigned to some inexplicable cause, 
-an “ idTosyncrtcy,” “ antipathy,” or peculiarity of con- 
stitutmn^ow known that many remarkable and insidious 
forms of disease are entirely due to certain insanitary m u- 
ences ; that the lurking poison which infests our homes by 
night and by day may at one time, from defective drainage, 
fi n g d its way into the house through the sewer, to be absoibed 
in the drinking-water, or, by putting on other kinds of 
disguises, may for a time baffle the most observant and 
le9 Who would, indeed, have thought that a deadly poison 
could lurk in a pretty and attractively coloured wall-paper, 
a newly-painted decorated room, an attractive aiticle o 
dress, the chintz of the window-curtains, the stockings, the 
gloves, the playing-cards of the whist party, the cand es 
and lamp-shades, the children’s toys, and the sweeties. 
Yet in all of these, and many other articles in domestic 
use, arsenic enough has been found to produce a laige 
amount of disease, and in 'some cases death. 
It is an unquestionable fact that the health of the com 
munity is imperilled by the large use of arsenical pigments 
and other poisons in the manufacture of articles in geneial 
