A curious case, illustrating the effect of arsenical wall-papers, is furnished by Dr Dalzell, of Malvern. He was attending a lady ill with scarlet fever, and during the attack her husband occupied a small bedroom. The first night he slept in it his slumbers were most unrefreshing and disturbed by horrible dreams, and on rising in the morning he felt languid and weak, had lost his appetite, and had a dull headache. Towards the evening these unpleasant symptoms had nearly vanished. On the second night (when he occupied the same dormitory) and on the day following the same disagreeable symptoms returned. He then changed his bedroom, and forthwith they troubled him no more. A servant, who next occupied the chamber, was affected as her master had been. Dr Dalzell suspecting the wall-paper as the cause, examined it, and found it to contain a large quantity of arsenic.
Some little time since Mr Bolas examined a sample of wall-paper containing 27·53 grains of arsenious acid in the square foot, and in this case the pigment was so loosely fixed that the slightest friction was sufficient to detach a portion and diffuse it through the air. Nor is this surprising when we consider how slightly the arsenical colour is attached to the surface of the paper, as well as how easily it may become liberated from it by the desiccation of the air of the room when heated by a fire. This may be exemplified by drawing the sleeve of a black or dark-coloured coat over an arsenical wall-paper, and observing the green deposit that is left on the garment.
After this we shall be prepared for the following statement: “Hamberg drew, by means of aspirators, the air of a room, the walls of which were papered with a very old 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 evidence of arsenic, as well as of sulphide of silver.” (‘Phar. Jour.’)
Not many years since Professor Fleck showed that the arsenious acid in the Schweinfurt green, when in contact with moist organic substances, and especially starch-sizing, forms arseniuretted hydrogen, which diffuses in the room, and which is no doubt the cause of some of the cases of arsenical poisoning from green papers. So that a contrary condition to a dry atmosphere, viz. a moist or damp one, may also lead to results nearly, if not quite as objectionable, when rooms are papered with arsenical papers. We have Mr Blyth’s word for the assertion, that the most dangerous of the arsenical papers, viz. those covered with a thick, unvarnished, loosely coherent layer of Seheele’s green are most frequently to be met with in our nurseries, where the beds are placed next the wall, and where the attrition of the bedclothes frequently removes portions of the poisonous colouring matter. The fine cupro-arsenical dust which thus becomes diffused through the room, now and then produces in children symptoms resembling those of violent catarrh. Some of the wall-papers of these nurseries have been found to yield 18 grains of arsenious acid in a square foot. It would appear that the use of arsenical pigments is by no means restricted to green wall-papers. Very recently an analytical chemist examined a great number of samples of wall-papers of different colours, and was surprised to find arsenic in most of them. Within the last year the writer examined the pigment which he could disengage without much difficulty from a very small piece of green muslin window curtain, and found it yield a large quantity of arsenic. In Paris alone there are more than 15,000 people who earn their living by making artificial flowers, a quarter at least of these workers being engaged in that branch of the manufacture in which Schweinfurt green is used. From the instances already adduced of the ill effects caused, although in a mild degree, by occasional and accidental exposure to arsenical pigments, we shall be prepared to learn that the danger and the damage to health is very much more intensified when, as in the case of these poor artisans, the workman is constantly handling the deadly material, and incessantly inhaling an atmosphere laden with its particles. Dr Vernois has published a most interesting description, which we subjoin, of the artificial flower-maker at work. He says:—“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, as they are painted directly on the leaves or petals of flowers worked on cloths of various textures. For these various purposes they buy the Schweinfurt or the English green (vert Anglaise), 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 with a pair of forceps. This operation, which is termed ‘steeping,’ stains the fingers, the arms, the person, and the clothes of the workman, and the surrounding 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 forty-eight hours. At the end of that time 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 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 speciality of the florist the operations of steeping, drying, powdering, and arranging the flowers for bouquets, which in their details 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, ill-lighted, and which they never sweep, and of which the floor like the furniture, and like the clothing of the workpeople, is continually impregnated by pigment and covered with arsenical dust. The preparers of the cloth destined for the manufacture of the artificial 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 principally with starch, and in rare instances associated with acetate of copper in variable proportions. Some use eublèe, 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. It is this preliminary operation which stains the workman’s fingers yellow. Frequently the latter mixes 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, to which operation attention must next be directed. 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. The 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), 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 instrument. 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 the 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 are the same manipulations, the same production of dust, the same action on the skin and mucous membrane, 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. It 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 the 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 the fixing of the flowers, a notable quantity of the toxic dust is still produced. However well prepared the fabrics may be, you have only to tear it, to detach the coating under the form of a palpable powder.