LEAD IN VARIOUS ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTS. 307 
influence on animals. It is possible that the same effect 
might be produced by matters containing arsenic, which 
having been buried, and then disseminated by subterraneous 
waters, might be brought back again to the surface of the 
soil, at a distance from the place in which they were 
deposited. 5 ' 
The report in which the above passage is to be met with, 
was made by myself the 11th and 18th March, 1839, and 
the same year, being just then published, I read in the me- 
moirs of the Royal Society of Sciences, Letters, and Arts 
of Nancy, for the year 1838, a note of M. Braconnot, su- 
perscribed, " On a circumstance which may cause error 
in the detection of arsenic." 
Here follows the first part of this note : — " For about 
thirty years, during which a manufacturer of colored pa- 
per has prepared his colors with various mineral sub- 
stances, several families living in the house adjoining his 
establishment have experienced in succession, with more 
or less intensity, the following symptoms : — headache, las- 
situde, nausea, painful digestion, almost continued colics, 
alvine dejections, swelling of the legs, discomfiture, and 
loss of spirits ; in consequence of which affections, several 
members of these families died. Two years ago, new vic- 
tims having suffered, a suspicion was raised that the water 
of the wells might contain some of the poisonous substances 
employed in the manufacture, but in the investigation which 
we then made, nothing was discovered, and the present in- 
habitants of this house continue to make use of the same 
water; they even sensibly recovered, but the above-men- 
tioned symptoms manifested themselves with so much vio- 
lence, that the case evidently appeared to be one of poi- 
soning. M. Simonin and I were requested again to ex- 
amine the water of this well, we then easily discovered the 
presence of arsenic associated with an alkali, alum, and a 
coloring matter." 
M. Braconnot terminates his note by " earnestly inviting 
