Breath of Death.

Breath of Death.

“A great deal of slow poisoning is going on in Great Britain.”

Dr William Hinds 1857

            In the 1850’s a change came over the nation. As oil lamps, with their brighter light, replaced candles as the main source of household illumination, walls no longer needed to be pale reflective colours. Dark shades became fashionable and of these, there was a positive passion for Scheele’s Green and Schweinfurt Green. Anyone who considered themselves fashionable, had to have a ‘green room,’ and manufacturers estimated that in 1858 there were an estimated 100 million squares miles of green wallpaper in Britain alone. Unfortunately, what people failed to realize at the time was that their prized wallpaper was coloured with arsenic, and very likely poisoning them.

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