Use of lead colours, especially by painters and decorators, causes relatively much lead poisoning. Apart from ignorance of danger on the part of the worker, and lack of personal cleanliness, unsuitable methods of working add to the danger, especially dry rubbing of painted surfaces, which gives rise to much dust containing lead. Again, the crushing and mixing of lumps of white lead and rubbing lead colours with the hand are very dangerous. The following German and Austrian figures enable conclusions to be drawn as to the frequency of lead poisoning among painters. In the sick insurance societies of Frankfurt-a-M. in 1903 of every 100 painters 11·6 suffered from an attack of lead poisoning. The similar sick insurance society of painters in Berlin has kept useful statistics which are given in the following table for the ten years 1900-9: +--------+----------+------------+--------------+ | | | No. | | | | No. of | of Cases | Cases per | | Year. | Members. | of Lead | 100 Members. | | | | Poisoning. | | +--------+----------+------------+--------------+ | 1900 | 3889 | 357 | 9·18 | | 1901 | 3616 | 335 | 9·26 | | 1902 | 3815 | 308 | 8·07 | | 1903 | 4397 | 470 | 10·69 | | 1904 | 5029 | 516 | 10·26 | | 1905 | 5328 | 471 | 8·84 | | 1906 | 5355 | 347 | 6·48 | | 1907 | 5173 | 379 | 7·32 | | 1908 | 4992 | 298 | 5·97 | | 1909 | 4781 | 285 | 5·96 | +--------+----------+------------+--------------+ |Average | 4637 | 376·6 | 8·11 | +--------+----------+------------+--------------+ This shows that lead poisoning among the painters of Berlin is happily diminishing, which may be attributed to recent regulations. The society, however, complains in its reports that not all cases of lead appear as such in their statistics, and believes that all diseases entered as rheumatism, gastric catarrh, nervous complaints, heart and kidney disease, should be regarded as associated with lead. The kinds of work in which painters suffer most are painting iron girders and machines, sheet metal and iron furniture, railway waggons, agricultural implements, coach painting, cabinet-making, shipbuilding, and the use of red and white lead. The use of lead colours, _lead acetate_, and _lead chromate_ often give rise to lead poisoning. Colours containing lead are not infrequently used in the textile industry in dyeing, printing, and finishing. White lead has been used for weighting the weft.