ARSENIC IN PAPER-HANGINGS. 
325 
ments the tube connecting the test^apparatus with the large 
tube which contained the paper was plugged with cotton 
wool, to prevent any particles of the pigment from being 
mechanically carried over into the test-solutions. 
8 th Experiment , — Strips of arsenical paper-hanging were 
pasted together, back to back, with paste in a state of 
decomposition. Air, collected over the gas-flame, was 
passed over this paper for a period of nine days ; the 
tube containing the paper was not heated until after the 
second day. 
Not a trace of arsenic was detected in the solutions in any 
one of these experiments, neither were any arsenical parti- 
cles carried away mechanically by the air as it swept over 
the paper, as was proved by a careful chemical examination, 
after each experiment, of the plug of cotton wool above 
referred to. 
In order to furnish indisputable proof that the green 
arsenical colour employed in the manufacture of paper- 
hangings is not affected by air, even when in a finely-divided 
and perfectly unprotected condition, 600 grains of finely^ 
powdered emerald green were uniformly dispersed through a 
quantity of cotton wool, sufficient to fill compactly a tall jar 
of about a half-gallon capacity. A tube, connected with the 
test-apparatus, and plugged with cotton wool, was passed to 
the bottom of the jar, and air was drawn through the appa- 
ratus continuously for one week, the jar which contained 
the emerald green being maintained at 90° F. during a 
portion of the time. Not a trace of arsenic was found 
to have been volatilized at the conclusion of this experiment. 
It may, I think, be very safely concluded from the 
experiments detailed above, added to those performed by 
Mr. Campbell, that the possibility of injurious consequences 
resulting from the employment of paper-hangings coloured 
with arsenical pigments has been disproved ; and that the 
symptoms which have been described as exhibited by 
persons who happened to occupy rooms hung with such 
paper-hangings, can only be regarded as essentially connected 
with that circumstance, and are ascribable to other causes. 
[We need hardly inform our readers that the above 
subject has lately agitated the public mind. We have, 
therefore, selected the foregoing articles on it from our 
contemporary, and are sorry to be obliged, in the words of 
the adage, to ask, “ Who shall decide when doctors disagree ?” 
We are, however, able to corroborate Dr. Taylor’s state- 
ment respecting lead-poisoning. And this reminds us of an 
