A report on arsenical poisoning by means of wall-papers, paints, etc. : presented to the Medical Society of London on the part of a committee of the Society / by Malcolm A. Morris.

  • Medical Society of London.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on arsenical poisoning by means of wall-papers, paints, etc. : presented to the Medical Society of London on the part of a committee of the Society / by Malcolm A. Morris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    days afterwards being affected with similar symptoms, the paint of the sitting-room was suspected by the physician in attendance. It was found to contain a large quantity of arsenic. Case vi.—A consulting physician had a severe attack of enteritis, with hremorrhage and great prostration. All the symptoms disappeared on the removal of the paper of his study. It contained a large amount of arsenic. Case vii.—A physician, in reporting his own case, says he had “intense, cephalalgia, conjunctivitis with intolerance of light, great depression, loss of appetite with gastric irritation—worse when using the study, the wall-paper of which contained arsenic.” Case viii.—A physician says he suffered from griping, constipation, and headache for more than two years. He noticed that the symptoms were worse on entering the dining-room in the morning after it had been closed during the night. “I soon recovered on the removal of the cause.” The dining-room paper contained arsenic. Case ix.—A consulting physician and his wife both suffered from restlessness, loss of sleep, malaise, and headache. The symptoms lasted a fortnight, but disappeared when the bedroom paper was removed. This was proved to contain arsenic. Case x.—A surgeon says that his wit's, child, and himself had irri- table cough, accompanied by wakefulness, restlessness during sleep, and irritation of the eyelids. All the symptoms disappeared in a week or ten days after the removal of the bedroom paper, which contained arsenic. In the remainder of the cases reported, diarrhoea, nausea, and intes- tinal mischief occurred in thirty-five ; severe depression in sixteen; conjunctivitis in nineteen; and cough, asthma, etc., in nine. Several instances of external irritation are mentioned, such as eczema from stockings and gloves, conjunctivitis from tulle dresses, eczema of the head from artificial flowers, etc. It should be remarked that the foregoing statements have not emanated, by any means, exclusively from men having preconceived notions of the value of careful investigation in such circumstances. The conclusions arrived at by them have been forced upon them by stern necessity as the only solution of the enigma, and in many cases in direct opposition to their own H priori judgment and previous opinions. They are men, many of them standing high in the profes- sion, whose opinions should carry weight with their colleagues; and it follows that if only after much careful watching and by a process of