as in great matters, so people will wear, and allow their children to wear, clothes thoroughly impregnated with filthy and poisonous matters—as dirty as they can be—because, forsooth, they are of a dark colour, and people cannot see that there is anything wrong with them. Thus dresses and coats, and trousers and petticoats may be worn unconcernedly for months, when, if their colour had only been white, their wearers would have been ashamed of their dirty appearance in less than a week, and they would have been speedily despatched to the laundress's or cleaner's.
Clothes can hardly be changed too often, and if they are made of white materials we are constantly reminded of that fact. Moreover, dyes bring new dangers, as poisonous matters are often employed in the processes of dyeing. For instance, every one has heard of the use of arsenic in dyeing, and although I believe it is not now used so much as formerly, it is just as well to be on one's guard against it. It is arsenic which produces that beautiful bright green known as Scheele's green.
The colouring principle of the aniline dyes, of which the worst are the red and yellow coraline, is a very active poison, and produces an eruption on the skin, which has more than once been mistaken for erysipelas, but which disappears when the irritating cause is removed. Some time ago Dr. Woodland called attention to a number of cases of eruptions on the legs and feet, for which he had been consulted. His suspicions were aroused by finding all the patients had worn red
