_Arsenite of Copper_, in one form or another, either as Scheele’s green,
emerald green, Brunswick green, &c., is unfortunately largely employed
in the manufacture of green paper-hangings, artificial flowers, toys,
and even some kinds of confectionery. Too many cases of ill-health
caused by this practice have been recorded to permit any doubt as to its
deleterious effects. These may be manifested by people living in rooms
furnished with such paper-hangings. The chief symptoms are, sneezing,
lachrymation, frontal headache, nausea, and loss of appetite, with
colicky pains, thirst, &c. Among those employed in preparing the
paper-hangings more serious symptoms manifest themselves. The irritation
of the pigment gives rise to circular patches of ulceration on the alæ
of the nose, in the folds of the arm, in the groin and scrotum—in
short, wherever dirt tends to lodge. These prove very untractable,
except the employment be abandoned. In November, 1861, a young woman
died in London from the poisonous effects of arsenite of copper used in
dusting wax leaves. The workmen who employ the pigment in its dry state
suffer, while those who use it in a moist condition are probably
unaffected by it. A simple method for roughly detecting arsenite of
copper in these fabrics was published in the _Chemical News_ (vol. 1, p.
12). A small portion of the suspected material is to be put into a test
tube with strong ammonia. If a blue tint be produced, a salt of copper
is shown to be present. Withdraw the object, and drop a piece of nitrate
of silver into the ammonia; if arsenic be there, the nitrate of silver
will be covered with a yellow coating of arseniate of silver, which will
disappear on stirring. On igniting arsenical paper and allowing it to
smoulder, the odor of garlic may be detected in the fumes given off.
Another mode in which the noxious effects of arsenic are produced is by
the use of bright green tarlatans as ball dresses. One could hardly
conceive a more deadly amusement than dancing in an arsenicated dress,
sweeping against an arsenicated wall-paper. When both are lightly
adherent the arsenic is scattered in showers about the room.
ARSENIOUS ACID (_White Oxide of Arsenic_, _White Arsenic_,
_Arsenic_).—This is the preparation of arsenic most frequently used as
a poison; the facility with which it used to be procured, its cheapness
(twopence an ounce), and the ease with which it may be administered, all
tended to recommend it to the murderer or suicide. According to a
parliamentary report, the number of fatal cases of poisoning in England
in the years 1837, 1838, amounted to 543, of which no less than 186 were
caused by arsenic, 185 arising from the use of the arsenious acid, and 1
from orpiment or yellow arsenic.
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