chained up all their miserable lives in dark stables and fed on brewery slops, slay annually thousands and thousands of helpless babes in our cities. Such milk is unfit for any purpose, and it should be kept out of the market. Those who vend such milk are deliberate murderers, and they should meet with the punishment commensurate with their cowardly crime. The other class consists of the mothers and nurses who will persist in over-feeding babes, dreading starvation, ignoring the fact that babes, need water, not milk, when fretful and feverish from indigestion. The crime of this class is ignorance, and they must be educated out of their pernicious practice. Thousands of children may be saved by lessening the amount of food during the heated term.

Arsenic in Wall Paper.

By F. C. ROBINSON, Member of the Board. Professor of Chemistry, Bowdoin College.

It is now many years since the attention of physicians and chemists, and through them of the public generally, was called to the fact that arsenic was largely used in the manufacture of wall paper, and that numerous cases of dangerous, if not fatal poisoning had resulted therefrom. These statements were at first denied by dealers and manufacturers of room papers. They could not deny that arsenic was present in such papers, especially in the green colored samples, but they denied most strenuously that poisoning could result therefrom unless the paper was actually taken into the mouth. Doubtless they were sincere in their denials, but it was another case of believing easily what one wants to. At this late day all doubt is removed, especially as concerning those old Paris-green papers, and they are rarely seen in the wall papers now sold. Case after case of their evil influence has been most positively identified, not only by the well known symptoms of arsenical poisoning developed in persons occupying such papered rooms, but the arsenic has been actually obtained from their urine, and to make the chain of evidence complete, both the symptoms and the arsenic have disappeared upon removing the patient or the paper from the room.

It is thus of no use for anyone to contend that the use of arsenic in making wall papers is not a source of danger; and the practical question for us here in Maine to-day is, what is our condition with reference to the matter? One thing is certain, however, and that is that even if poisonous papers are sold within our borders we have at present no redress. It is not at all against the law. We may be "ground down" by the "sumptuary law" which forbids a man from selling us rum to poison us or our children, as some think we are,

but one may with impunity sell us paper loaded with Paris green, which will more surely destroy the health or lives of ourselves or children. No officer can say him nay. But are such papers being actually sold in Maine to-day, and, if so, how can we recognize and avoid them? It was to answer and if possible settle this question that I began investigating the matter the present winter, at the instance of the State Board of Health. The investigation is not yet completed to my satisfaction, and so this report is only a preliminary one. It seemed best however to state at this time the results already found, and the general condition of the subject, and to continue the matter in some future publication. It is hoped too that the spreading of the fact that such work is being done will serve to call the attention of physicians and others to the matter, and bring in - cases and samples of papers which could not otherwise be obtained. And I take this opportunity to invite the cooperation of all in this most important matter, to the health of the State.

My first work was to collect samples from different quarters of the State, and by the aid of the local health boards in Bangor, Calais, Portland and Brunswick, I soon received several hundred samples, obtained from the dealers in those cities. And I wish to say here that I found a ready wish expressed by all dealers I came in contact with, to give all aid in their power to my investigation. Of course examination of such samples would not represent the actual condition of rooms in Maine, for they were taken from the new stock of the dealers, but by this time, many of them are probably on rooms, and their examination will tend to answer one part of the question, at least, and a very important one, as to the character of the papers being now offered for sale in the State. Upwards of one hundred of these samples have now been examined for arsenic and it is gratifying to be able to state that the vast majority of these are free from the poison or contain but the merest trace. In fact but three only have been found which are unmistakably dangerous But while this number is so gratifyingly small, one of them is so typical of what has been sold so largely in the past, and so dangerous in its nature, that if my investigation had succeeded only in finding it I should have regarded it as a most profitable work. It happens, too, that the paper in question was not simply obtained in sample from a dealer but was used upon two rooms within my knowledge, and in one case caused the serious illness of children occupying the room. I am glad to say, however, that it was not a paper made in this

country but imported from England, being too poisonous for sale there it was sent like a "forced emigrant" to do its deadly work upon our shores. It was a landscape paper made for pleasing children, representing a scene in the grape region, and the bright green grape vines and purple clusters of grapes and gay-colored clothes of the workers made truly a pleasing sight.

one.

Temperance people will perhaps regard it as very appropriate that such scenes should be represented in poisonous pigments. The arsenic is not confined to the green parts but exists largely also in the purple, blue and drab tints. The paper contains on the average, as nearly as it can be got, 125 grains of pure arsenic, equivalent to 168 grains of arsenious acid in every square yard. When we remember that two grains of arsenic may be regarded as a fatal dose, the astounding fact comes out that every square yard of this paper contains arsenic enough to kill seventy-five men. The bright green color is Paris-green, the blue probably London-purple, and the other shades only a little less in their amount of arsenic. But is it not harmless when securely fastened to the wall? Paint does not escape when once dried to the woodwork of a room, and how can the colors from a paper? The apparent analogy is not a real Paint contains oil which hardens and holds firmly any color however poisonous. It would probably be perfectly safe to sleep in a room painted with an oil paint containing as much Paris-green as this paper. Wall paper contains no such protector. Its colors are loosely held as every one knows. Rub your hand over most any wall paper and behold how the colors rub off! Every disturbance or jarring of the room by walking, sweeping, or in other ways, sends into the air of it particles of these colors from the paper. From one of the rooms papered with this sample I secured a small portion of dust from under the carpet and the presence of arsenic was very manifest in it by the chemical test. It has been proved to, that arsenic escapes from a wall paper in other ways than as dust. Some one or more of its many gaseous compounds, all very poisonous, is undoubtedly formed, especially if the room be damp so that the paste tends to mold. Now it is well known that arsenic is not a poison which accumulates in the system as lead does. It is constantly being eliminated, especially through the kidneys. But yet if one be exposed to small doses of arsenic taken very frequently, the system becomes gradually undermined and death may result. It is well known, too, that a weakened body is more

liable to contract disease than a strong one. So one weakened by arsenic may contract and die of other disease, and the agency of the arsenic never be suspected.

There is an impression among dealers and paperers that an arsenical paper can be told at a glance. While getting samples of paper for analysis, dealers informed me that they now sold no arsenical green papers, and seemed to think it strange that I should think of finding arsenic in those of any other color. But it is a well known fact to physicians and chemists, who have had to do with such things, that the color of a paper is no guide to its character. It happened that the papers colored by Paris-green were those which first caught the attention of physicians as sources of poisoning to their patients, and so the notion arose that such only were dangerous. But in every report upon the subject, in recent years at least, it has been made very clear that almost any colored paper may contain arsenic in dangerous amount. Dr. E. S. Wood in his elaborate report on the subject contained in the Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts for 1883, says: "There is absolutely nothing in the appearance of a paper by which we can form any opinion as to its arsenical or non-arsenical nature." Again, in the more recent report of D. H. Galloway to the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1889, after having examined more than 100 samples, we find the statement. "I am now convinced that it is impossible to say before examination whether a given sample contains arsenic or not." My own experience would confirm these statements in general, and yet I think I observe that the darker colored papers are the greatest sinners in this respect. It may have been simply accidental, but I found no arsenic in any of the light colored papers yet examined. One cannot help noticing, too, that the samples of arsenical paper pasted into the report of Dr. Wood, referred to above, are all dark with perhaps two exceptions. For many years past dark papers were "all the fashion" as we know, but now the light colors prevail, at least the large majority of the samples I got were light. I at first thought that my results indicated that the agitation of the matter by physicians and health boards had at last exerted that wholesome restraining action upon the manufacturers and dealers which is so desirable. I am more inclined now to think that such is not the case; and to believe, that, unless there be more positive restraint, when fashion next calls for the darker