ARSENIC IN PAPER-HANGINGS. 323 
dealers in the latter articles, they are confiscated, and the 
owner punished with fine or imprisonment.” 
Assuming that the Prussian Government is labouring 
under a complete mistake in issuing this prohibition, it will 
require, in the face of recorded facts, stronger evidence in 
support of this view than the opinions of the arsenic-pigment 
manufacturers. 
The manufacture of this paper in England practically fur- 
nishes arsenic to the million. It is found not merely on the 
walls of rooms, but we meet with it in paper wrappers for 
confectionery, lozenges, cakes, isinglass, gelatine, and other 
articles of food. I have lately noticed that it is largely em- 
ployed for wrapping night-lights. I pointed out to a 
manufacturer of these articles the danger that might arise 
from the accidental ignition and smouldering of the arsenical 
wrapper — since, in a close and confined bedroom, the 
fumes of arsenic might thus be breathed, and affect a 
person while sleeping. He informed me that the men 
employed to cut the strips of paper for placing round the 
night-lights could not perform the work many hours without 
suffering, especially in their eyes. I have also been informed,, 
that men who hang this paper on the walls frequently suffer 
in the eyes and nose. 
ON ARSENIC IN PAPER-HANGINGS. 
By F. A. Abel, Director of the Chemical Establishment 
of the War Department. 
The experiments performed by Mr. Dugald Campbell 
with paper-hangings containing arsenic, which were de- 
scribed in the last number of the Pharmaceutical Journal , are 
similar to a series which I have just completed, having 
been induced to undertake them at the time Dr. Halley’s 
letter on the subject appeared in the Times , in consequence 
of repeated appeals for my opinion on the necessity of 
removing arsenical paper-hangings from apartments. As 
these experiments have been varied so as to fulfil every 
condition presumed to be favorable to the volatilization of 
arsenic from paper-hangings, and have been carried on 
for much longer periods than those of Mr. Campbell, I 
venture to hope that a brief description of them will not be 
uninteresting. 
Two experiments were made, in the first instance, in a room 
