EFFECT OF FKE-SH PAINT ON HEALTH. 
517 
of the Horse Fund Association should refuse to work upon 
either machine-made shoes or shoes made by non-society 
men. 
EFFECT OF FRESH PAINT ON HEALTH. 
At the last sitting of the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. 
Chevreul gave an account of a paper sent in by M. Leclaire, 
a house-painter in Paris, describing certain curious experi¬ 
ments made by him with a view to ascertain the effects of 
new paint on animal life. M. Leclaire* s method is this :—He 
had deal boxes made, of the size of a cubic metre each, and 
painted white inside, with white lead in one case and the 
white oxide of zinc in the other, with the intervention of 
essence of turpentine. Cages containing rabbits were then 
put in, and the effects watched, with the following results - 
1. The animals did not suffer particularly when there was a 
sufficient current of air through the boxes. 2. They suffered 
during the first twelve hours when the current of air was 
suppressed, after which time they gradually recovered, none 
dying during the experiments. 3. None of the animals 
appeared to be affected by the paint when dry; hence M. 
Leclaire concludes that emanations of oil of turpentine are 
not dangerous when fresh, in ventilated apartments, and that 
as soon as paint is dry it is innocuous, whether the apartments 
he ventilated or not. 
M. Leclaire made also some other experiments for the 
purpose of obtaining deposits of these emanations from the 
fresh paintings of houses. Instead of rabbits he placed plates 
containing a small quantit}^ of water in these chests. After 
the water had evaporated from the plates he found some 
remarkable crystallizations like needles, which consisted of 
combinations in which the oils or essences employed formed 
the principal part. These crystalline combinations were 
obtained even when linseed oil, essence of lavender, or benzine 
were used. He further ascertained that water absorbed 
nothing when the paint was dry. 
M. Chevreul added that, having himself placed two vessels, 
one containing water and the other essence of turpentine, 
under a glass receiver, he after a certain time found perfectly 
limpid crystals in the water, which he considered to be of the 
same nature as M. Ste. Claire Deville’s hydrates of essence 
of turpentine. 
XXXIV. 
39 
