A case of metaphenylene diamine poisoning is quoted in the Report of the Union of Chemical Industry for 1906. A worker had brought his coffee and bread, contrary to the rules, into the workroom and hidden them under a vessel containing the substance. Immediately after drinking his coffee he was seized with poisoning symptoms, and died a few days later. Some of the poison must have dropped into his coffee. Few instances of poisoning from pure aniline colours are recorded. At first all tar colours were looked upon as poisonous, but as they were mostly triphenylmethane colours they would contain arsenious acid. When the arsenic process was given up people fell into the other extreme of regarding not only the triphenylmethane colours but all others as non-poisonous, until experience showed that production and use of some of the tar colours might affect the skin. Finally, mention must be made of inflammation of the cornea caused by methyl violet dust. The basic aniline dyes are said to damage the eye. As opposed to this view is the fact that methyl violet and auramine are used as anti-bactericidal agents, for treatment of malignant tumours, and especially in ophthalmic practice. II. SMELTING OF METALS LEAD (ZINC, SILVER) OCCURRENCE OF INDUSTRIAL LEAD POISONING IN GENERAL _Chronic lead poisoning_ plays the most important rôle in industrial metallic poisoning, and indeed in industrial poisoning generally. The result everywhere where inquiry into industrial poisoning has been instituted has been to place the number of cases of lead poisoning at the top of the list; for one case of other forms of industrial poisoning there are twenty of lead. In the last few years a very extensive literature and one not easily to be surveyed has grown up on the subject of chronic industrial lead poisoning. I cannot attempt as I have done with other forms of poisoning to do justice to all sources of literature on this subject. As there is no obligation to notify industrial lead poisoning[B]—or indeed any form of industrial poisoning—in many countries, the most important source of information is wanting. Nevertheless more or less comprehensive inquiries as to the extent of the disease in general have been made in different countries and large cities which furnish valuable data. An idea of the yearly number of cases of lead poisoning occurring in Prussia is given in the following statistics of cases treated in Prussian hospitals for the years 1895-1901: +-------+--------+----------+--------+ | Year. | Males. | Females. | Total. | +-------+--------+----------+--------+ | 1895 | 1120 | 43 | 1163 | | 1899 | 1601 | 23 | 1624 | | 1900 | 1509 | 14 | 1523 | | 1901 | 1359 | 24 | 1383 | +-------+--------+----------+--------+ The occupation of these cases was as follows: