546 
POISONOUS DYES. 
think it unwise, impolitic, and unbecoming our position as pharmaceutists, to 
pander to uneducated or depraved popular tastes in these matters. Rather let 
us endeavour to elevate them to a higher standard, by selling only genuine and 
unadulterated drugs, and abide the consequences. If we offend the ignorant 
few, we shall gain the intelligent many; otherwise, to be consistent, we ought, 
for instance, to revert to the old-fashioned, lumpy, and discoloured plumbi acet., 
and zinci sulph., instead of selling the pure and beautifully crystalline salts we 
are now supplied with, because some ancient farrier or village doctor prefers 
them, and hates “ new-fangled notions.” 
Whilst on the subject, I am reminded of ung. cetacei. How many apprentices 
can well remember the various devices resorted to, to obtain a white ointment, 
—violent and long continued stirring, aq. rosae and liq. potassae being the usual 
adjuncts, not forgetting a liberal percentage of adeps ppt.! Alas! all was sacri¬ 
ficed to appearance.; how soon it went rancid, and how inferior was the pro¬ 
duct to the agreeably emollient but pale yellow ointment of the P.L. or P.B. ! 
Those who have once tried the latter on an excoriated and painful surface, 
speak highly of its soothing and cooling effects. In conclusion, the public will 
thank us, in the long-run, for calling their attention to these popular fallacies, 
and be willing to remunerate us fairly for our services. 
I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 
William Young. 
116, Balls Pond Road, February 8, 1869. 
POISONOUS DYES. 
Judging by some facts which have recently come to our knowledge, the poisonous 
effects of certain dyes, applied externally or swallowed, will soon attract a considerable 
share of public attention. We allude more particularly to the dyes of the aniline series, 
respecting two of which, known abroad as coralline rouge and coralline jaune, Tardieu, 
professor of legal medicine at Paris, made a very important communication to the Aca¬ 
demy of Sciences on the 1st inst., of which the following is an abstract:—In the month 
of May, 1868, Tardieu was consulted by a young man, twenty-three years of age, quite 
healthy and free from herpetic rash, who had been attacked in both feet with a very 
acute and very painful vesicular eruption exactly limited to the part of the foot covered 
by the shoe, and tracing on the skin the perfectly regular form of the “ pump” which he 
wore. The skin was violently inflamed, swollen, of a uniform red colour, covered with 
innumerable small vesicles, uniting to form large bullae filled with a sero-purulent liquid. 
The eruption was attended by general malaise , fever, headache, and pain over the heart. 
The seat and form of the eruption led Tardieu at once to the conclusion that its cause 
was entirely local; and he did not hesitate to trace it to what the young man was wear¬ 
ing on the foot. He had only a few days previously taken into wear some socks of red 
silk of a very elegant and fashionable colour. 
Some time after this, a young man, a friend of his, was affected precisely in the same 
way from the same cause. Later still, in the month of September, the papers published 
a letter, in which M. Bidard, professor of chemistry at Rouen, described a similar ob¬ 
servation which he had made on a pair of socks sent to him by an Englishman, and 
which presented, on a lilac ground, circular lines in silk of a bright red tint. The in¬ 
flammation of the skin of the feet was limited to the parts in contact with the red 
lines. The lilac colour was given by the violet of aniline, the red by coralline. Lastly, 
it is but a few days since the Paris journals gave the case of an American lady, who, 
having worn stockings of red silk, found her legs covered with blisters, some of which 
had ulcerated ; and she suffered from giddiness and severe pains. 
Tardieu, assisted by M. Roussin, submitted the socks worn by the first patient seen 
by him to a careful examination. They were treated by boiling alcohol, in which the 
red colouring matter quickly dissolved. This alcoholic solution, evaporated to dryness, 
yielded an extract of which the poisonous properties were proved by the experiments 
now to be described. 
