state, and it sometimes occurs united with oxygen and certain metals, constituting arseniates such as those of iron, copper, and lead. More rarely it is found united with sulphur, either as the red sulphide (As,S2) realgar, or as the yellow sesquisulphide (As,S) known as orpiment. The arsenic of commerce is usually prepared from mispickel (FeAsS), an arsenical sulphide of iron furnished abundantly by Silesian mines; and from the arsenides of nickel and cobalt, which yield arsenious sesquioxide as a secondary product in the ordinary process of working these ores.

Arsenic, Effects of.-Arsenical vapour or dust diffused, in certain arts, through the atmosphere, seldom fails to exercise an injurious influence on the health. Recent accidents observed to follow the employment of arsenical greens in the manufacture of leaves and artificial flowers, and of certain fabrics, may now be added to facts formerly ascer tained amongst workmen in painted paper.

Dr. Blandet, in a memoir on "Poisoning" by Schweinfurt green, showed that the workmen employed in printing, brushing, and glazing the paper are subject to a kind of arsenical poisoning, which causes an oedema of the scrotum, preceded by swelling of the face and a papulose or pustulous eruption on the skin. Similar symptoms have been noticed from the use of an arsenical paste in the manufacture of jewellery.

These observations have been questioned by MM. Guérard and Chevallier. They conclude that the manufacturers are not agreed upon the influence of Schweinfurt green on the workmen, that some have observed the symptoms, and others have only heard of them; that according to some, the injurious consequences are to be attributed to faulty manufacture of the green; according to others, to differences in the constitution of the workmen, and that the effects of the green have been exaggerated. These objections have, however, now been disproved by a number of independent observers who corroborate Dr. Blandet, e.g., MM. Beaugraud, Vernois, and Pietra-Santa, more especially in the case of artificial flowerworkers.

In France, all manufacturers who, even involuntarily, are the cause of such accidents, are severely corrected by the law. Why it is considered of so much importance in France may be readily understood, if the number of workpeople employed at Paris in the manufacture of artificial flowers be considered: they amount to more than 15,000, a quarter at least of whom are employed in fabrics in which Schweinfurt green is used, and a great number of them work in small, ill-furnished and ill-ventilated rooms.

The details of the operations are thus given by Dr. Vernois :—

These greens are formed either from arsenite of copper alone, or mixed in variable proportions with acetate of copper (English green). Arsenical greens are employed to colour different herbs, to tint the fabric destined to prepare the leaves of artificial flowers, or they are painted directly on the leaves or petals of flowers worked on cloths of various texture.

For these various uses they buy the Schweinfurt or the English green (vert Anglais), either in powder or in aqueous solution, and add to it, according to the effect desired, a certain quantity of Flanders glue, starch, gum, honey, or turpentine. Sometimes it is applied in the dry state, in order to sprinkle it over the things already coloured by the arsenical green. They frequently also, in order to modify the colour, mix with it a certain quantity of chromate of lead or picric acid.

The preparation of herbs is carried on as follows: The workman plunges into a shallow vessel, containing a sufficiently liquid solution of Schweinfurt green, one or several stalks of natural plants, perfectly dried, and agitates them quickly, seizing them by their roots by a pair of forceps. This is the steeping. This operation stains the fingers, the arms, the person, and the clothes of the workman, and the sur

rounding objects are covered with traces of this kind of paint. The plants thus prepared are hung on a line, and there allowed to dry for thirty-four or fortyeight hours. At the end of that, all the stalks are gathered and formed into bundles, which are used finally for bouquets. Often enough, to satisfy some freak of fashion, they are sprinkled with powdered arsenite of copper. This is the powdering. The bouquet-work constitutes one of the principal dangers; for the colouring-matter not having been fixed by any mordant, detaches itself in the form of a fine dust, which penetrates the skin of the hands, and which the workman breathes constantly. This danger is still more increased when he handles the bouquets covered with arsenical powder. At other times, however, in the manufacture of the plants, the Schweinfurt green is diluted with a sufficient quantity of turpentine. In this way the colour takes a smooth appearance, not altered by contact with water, and does not escape immediately in the form of powder by gentle handling; but when it is

thoroughly dry it falls to the ground in little flakes,

and may again rise in the air with ordinary dust. Thus the danger is modified, a little retarded, but always exists. There are then in this specialty of the florist the operations of steeping, drying, powdering, and arranging the flowers for bouquets, which, in their detail, place the workman or the

purchaser under the more or less direct, and more or

less active, influence of arsenical salt. This particular industry is exercised under conditions which render it still more injurious; for it is freely practised by a number of poor workpeople, by households living in one or two rooms, ill-ventilated, illlighted, and which they never sweep, and of which the floor, like the furniture, and like the clothing of the and covered with arsenical dust. The preparers of workpeople, is continually impregnated by pigment,

the cloth destined for the manufacture of the artifi

cial leaves by the aid of arsenical greens, comprehend the portion of the work most exposed to deleterious action. They use arsenite of copper alone, mixed prin

It

cipally with starch, and in rare instances associated with acetate of copper in variable proportions. Some use enliée, a mixture of picric acid and of greenish indigo, in which they steep their stuffs. Other manufacturers use fabrics prepared with hot solutions by ordinary dyers. According to the hue which the Schweinfurt dyer wishes to obtain, the workman commences by giving the stuff a yellow shade, by plunging it into a solution of picric acid and pure alcohol. He squeezes it between his fingers, in order to completely impregnate it, and dries it. is this preliminary operation which stains the workman's fingers yellow. Frequently the latter mixes the picric acid by grinding it with the Schweinfurt green, and applies this paste immediately to the fabric. The paste is prepared by kneading the Schweinfurt green, already treated with water, with a solution of starch, thick enough, yet sufficiently liquid to be easily spread on the cloth. During this working up the paste, the fingers, arms, and hands of the workman are covered with arsenical solution. This being ready, the workman lays out his stuff, distributes the paste over it, then beats it between his hands, in order to make the colouring-matter thoroughly penetrate the cloth. The longer it is beaten, the better is the quality of the article. During this operation the skin of the hands and arms is completely impregnated with the solution. Sometimes the cloth, having been touched here and there with arsenical paste, is attached to a hook in the wall, and twisted different ways-wrung, as it were. In this way a very uniform colouring is obtained. This process is as bad to the workman as the former. Lastly, a process, which is generally practised, consists in placing the fabric, stained or not with picric acid, on a wooden table, and distributing on both sides the arsenical preparation with a brush, and then beating the stuff with a thick rubber. In this way the hands and arms of the workman are much less exposed to the paste than in the preceding processes. After the brushing and beating of the fabric, comes the drying, and this is the operation to which I wish to call attention. Once impregnated with the green colour by whatever process, the pieces, in squares of about 1 metre 50 cent., are hung on wooden frames furnished with teeth, on which the borders of the cloth are transfixed. During this simple operation, the workmen stain themselves much. When the stuffs are detached from the squares, they are folded; and from every crease falls a fine dust, which may then be carried into the mucous membranes. These workmen, then, are liable to all the accidents of the manufacturers of flowers, especially in the operations of kneading the paste, or during the beating, brushing, drying, and folding of the cloths. From the hands of the fabricator the fabrics are very often immediately consigned to the manufacturers of

artificial flowers, who press them, figure them (that is to say, make the nerves), and arm them with a wire, and mount them with flowers. It may be at once understood how much all the manipulations I have just mentioned are liable to develop the arsenical dust. The paste has not been fixed on the stuffs by any mordant; the starch with which it is mixed has given it a very brittle consistence, and has predisposed it to be easily detached from the cloth. The stamping is effected by putting a certain number of folded pieces one above the other, and submitting them to the pressure of a stamping in

strument. Repeated blows of this instrument detach the paste in scales, and cover with dust the fingers and person of the workman. A series of small packets are taken from the stamping-press, which contain, strongly pressed together, from twelve to twenty-four leaves. They are passed on to another workman who is charged with the folding. This operation is performed by holding the little bundle of leaves between the thumb and index-finger of the left hand. The thumb of the right hand presses the edges quickly and sharply so as to separate leaves one from another, as you separate the leaves of a book recently bound. During this process still more dust escapes. Then comes the figuring, which, by reason of successive blows applied to each leaf, covers the body of the operator with the same pulverulent material. Fixing a wire to the leaves at their lowest part by the aid of gum follows that operation. Then the leaves are arranged together in dozens, and passed to the bouquet manufacturers, who mount them. From thence they go to the milliners, who adapt them to different articles of dress, and sell them to the public. Through all this series of transformations there is the same manipulations, the same production of dust, the same action on the skin and mucous membranes, only in a decreasing degree, from the first preparer to the milliner. There is, however, a process of preparing the cloth which diminishes notably the severity and frequency of the evils of the Schweinfurt green. is that which immediately after the drying of the stuffs submits them at once to the "Calendrage." This operation causes the arsenical paste to penetrate mechanically into the fibres of the stuff, and gives it a smooth and glazed aspect which only permits imperfectly the production of the arsenical dust. This process renders the successive workings of this cloth less injurious, but it would be an error to consider it as inoffensive. During the action of the press, and especially during the separating and figuring of the flowers, a notable quantity of the toxic dust is still produced. However well prepared the fabric may be, you have only to tear it to detach the coating under the form of a palpable powder. It is only necessary to add that the waxing of the leaves, after they have been separated and figured, and before putting them into bouquets, constitutes a protecting envelope against the effects of the powdered coating for workmen who then handle them, as well as for women who wear them; but this film of wax is only applied, comparatively speaking, to a small number of leaves, for it alters the green and vivacity of its colour.

It

The poisonous symptoms of arsenic produced by these different trades, &c., are loss of appetite, pain in the præcordia, disturbance of the bowels, constant headache, and a distressing oppression. The muscular force, especially of the extremities, is much weakened. This is a very constant and characteristic sign. Actual paralysis may indeed occur, and persist long after the individual has ceased to be exposed to the arsenical poisoning. The eyelids are red and irritable, and vesicular and pustular eruptions appear in several parts of the body. It is especially on the face, forehead, scrotum,

In the preparing of the stuffs, in the process of drying, Dr. Vernois says:

A new condition, and serious results appear. The multiplicity of sharp points fixed in the wooden squares inevitably pricks and scratches the skin of the workmen. An inoculation of the arsenical salt

immediately takes place, as if it had been practised experimentally. The skin irritates and inflames, a vesicle first, then a large pustule covers the orifice of the prick, and undergoes all the stages of inflammation, which produces suppuration and often gangrene, below which a deep and painful ulceration is developed-all the more tedious to heal, as the inoculation is renewed from day to day. The action of picric acid, mixed with the paste, can only augment and aggravate the irritation of the wounds. If the ulcerations are numerous, the workman may absorb the arsenious acid, and be liable to serious results. I have seen a certain number of workmen with glandular enlargements under the armpits, and the hands in such a state that they were obliged to come to the hospital, where they were only cured after one or several months of treatment. The aspect of the hand was then characteristic; to the

greenish-yellow tint of all the skin, and especially

of the palmar aspect of the hands, to the greenish crust under the nails, was nearly always added a yellow colour of the nails, produced by the repeated contact with picric acid. When we add a generally diffused erythema, then a series of black points, or of inflamed pustules, and sometimes a whitlow, we shall have a faithful representation of the evils which most frequently present themselves in the preparers of stuffs for artificial flowers tinted with Schweinfurt green.

Among the endeavours made to make this branch of industry more healthy, should be noticed, on the one hand, the satin-making machine of M. Ebert; on the other, the attempt to substitute chrome for Schweinfurt green, and the ingenious process of directly incorporating the arsenical colouring-matter with a special collodion invented by M. BérardZenzelin.

The following cases will well illustrate the foregoing remarks: In the month of December 1872, Dr. Isambert had under his charge, at St. Antoine, a patient suffering from arsenical intoxication, through external absorption. The man had been handling cakes of Schweinfurt green, and reducing them to powder. Four days after, an eruption broke out on the face and scrotum. In this latter situation the eruption was followed by an eschar. Two months later, intense pain (nocturnal especially) supervened along the limbs and in the joints. At the same time disorders of mobility and sensibility appeared in the limbs, especially the lower ones, which now presented

In these cases of poisoning, through external absorption, symptoms of internal poisoning are exceedingly rare.

A case is recorded by Dr. Wintrebert of Lille, in the "Bulletin Médical du Nord," of arsenical ulcerations of the arms. The lesions were brought on by the local use of a green paper (intended for bills), and which had been dyed with arsenite of copper. They disappeared on the patient ceasing to use the paper.

Notwithstanding that so much has been said against green papers, they are far from uncommon; and, strange to say, the most dangerous of these-those covered with a thick, unvarnished, loosely coherent layer of Scheele's green-are most frequently met with in our nurseries. The beds, too, are frequently placed next the wall, and the attrition of the bedclothes easily removes portions of the poisonous colouring-matter. The fine cupro-arsenical dust, which thus becomes diffused through the air, occasionally produces in children symptoms resembling those of violent catarrh. Some of the paper described has been found to contain nearly 18 grains of arsenious acid in a square foot.

Some little time since, Mr. T. Bolas of the Charing Cross Hospital examined a sample of wall-paper containing 27 53 grains of arsenious acid in the square foot, and in this case the poison was so loosely fixed that very slight friction sufficed to detach a portion and diffuse it through the air. In Prussia the use of arsenical pigments is interdicted unless the colouring-matter is properly fixed or protected from accidental removal, and it most certainly appears desirable that some such regulation should come into force here. It is not generally known that arsenic is also occasionally found in the white or cream-coloured enamel papers so frequently used in drawingrooms, and in drab papers tinted with native ochre.

A curious case, illustrating the effect of arsenical wall-papers, is related by Dr. D. B. Dalzell of Malvern. He was attending a lady who was attacked by scarlet fever; during her illness her husband occupied a small bedroom. The very first night, while sleeping in it, he experienced much discomfort, his sleep being unrefreshing, and disturbed by frightful dreams; and he rose in the morning languid and weak, with much nausea and dull headache. Towards the evening the symptoms considerably abated. The second night, and day following, there was a repetition of the

same symptoms. He now changed his room, and from that hour his symptoms steadily and gradually disappeared. A servant next occupied the chamber, and immediately became affected in the same way as her master. On examination being made by Dr. Dalzell, he found that the wall-paper contained a large quantity of arsenic, which was, no doubt, the cause of the mysterious visitation on the sleepers.

It has recently been shown by Professor Fleck (Zeitsch. für Biologie, bd. viii. p. 445, 1872) that the arsenious acid in the Schweinfurt green, when in contact with moist or ganic substances, and especially starch sizing, forms arseniuretted hydrogen, which diffuses in the room, and is, no doubt, the cause of some of the cases of arsenical poisoning from green papers. Arsenic is also used to give that bright green often seen in coloured sweets. During the Christmas of 1873, a large cake, in which was imbedded a green card labelled, “For the bairnies,” was seized in a baker's shop at Greenock. The card was coated with sugar, and on being submitted to analysis, was found to contain 7:04 grains of arsenious acid! We find arsenic in green wax candles and green tapers. Mr. T. Bolas of Charing Cross Hospital having noticed the arsenical odour which was present during the burning of green wax tapers, Christmas candles, and similar articles, was induced to examine several samples, with the following results: Of thirteen samples, one only contained arsenic, the majority being coloured with verdigris, and two samples were tinted with ultramarine green. The arsenical tapers were of the kind usually employed in houses for lighting gas; and one taper, weighing 17 69 grains, was found to contain 0.276 grains of arsenious acid. When we consider how extremely sensitive some people are to the action of this poison, especially when it enters the system through the respiratory organs, it will be sufficiently apparent that it is highly reprehensible to use a volatile poison like arsenic, even though the amount employed may be small, for colouring tapers or other similar articles intended for burning in houses. A Christmas tree brilliantly illuminated with

* That arsenic is actually present in the air of rooms papered with arsenical papers has been lately demonstrated by experiment:—

Hamberg drew by means of aspirators the air of a room, the walls of which were papered with a very old dry green paper, through various tubes containing cotton wool and silver nitrate. On examination scarcely any solid particles could be discovered. The cotton wool was fused with sodium nitrate and carbonate, and gave a little ferric-oxide and a trace of arsenic, but the solution of nitrate of silver gave decided evidences of arsenic as well as of sulphide of silver."-(Pharm. J., Trans. [3], iv. 81-83.)

arsenical candles may be taken as an extreme instance of the danger likely to arise from this source. Vinegar not unfrequently presents traces of arsenic, this being introduced through the sulphuric acid used largely in the sophistication of the vinegar. Mr. Scanlan, in his evidence before the Parliamentary committee, says: "You get arsenic in oil of vitriol to a great extent. This arises from the employment of pyrites instead of sulphur. Oil of vitriol is made in large quantities by alkalimakers, and when the price of sulphur is high, they use pyrites instead; and pyrites almost invariably contains arsenic. Irish pyrites contains a good deal; but I have understood that Cornish pyrites contains still more. Some few years ago, I found an enormous quantity in sulphuric acid here in London. It finds its way into muriatic acid made from that sulphuric acid, or in the manufacture of which that sulphuric acid is employed; and hence it may be very mischievous. A mixture of muriatic acid and soda has been used in bread, and I have seen muriatic acid containing a very fearful quantity of arsenic."

For the washing of sheep an arsenical composition is employed. At Lincoln, in April 1872, a piece of this fell upon the floor, and was eaten by a child, who shortly afterwards died.

Arsenic is adulterated with gypsum and chalk; these can readily be detected by not subliming with heat.

Tests for Purity.-It is entirely volatilised by a heat of 400°. Four grains dissolved in boiling water with eight grains of bicarbonate of soda, discharge the colour of 808 grainmeasures of a volumetric solution of iodine, containing 127 grains of iodine in a 1000 grain - measures. This decolorisation is effected by the conversion of the iodine into hydriodic acid. The change may be represented by the formula: As2O3 + 2H2O+41= As2O +4HI, four equivalents of iodine corresponding to one equivalent of arsenious acid. The hydrated peroxide of iron is the antidote generally used in an overdose of arsenic.

The following are the principal tests for arsenic: A few drops of a neutral solution of ammonia nitrate of silver added to a solution of arsenical sublimate above mentioned, produce a lemon-yellow precipitate of arsenite of silver, which is soluble in aq. ammoniæ.

Ammonia sulphate of copper produces an apple-green precipitate of arsenite of copper, known as Scheele's green, so extensively used for making green-coloured paper, sugar ornaments, &c. To test the presence of arsenic in containing a little ammonia - water; after green wall-papers, immerse a piece in a dish standing some few minutes, pour off the blue

E