To think William Morris and Gransnet are poles apart

I did a life drawing class there 25 years ago. It was a residential.
I met a very dashing older man on said course.
To cut a long story short;
reader, he was married

Kali2

To Grannies in Glasgow- what is happening with the Museum after the 2 terrible fires. It has always been my dream to visit one day.

Do you mean the Glasgow College of Art?

To Grannies in Glasgow- what is happening with the Museum after the 2 terrible fires. It has always been my dream to visit one day.

What an interesting thread. Doodledog you’re becoming an expert on curious causes of death in Victorian days.

Elegran, thanks so much for the Lord Peter Whimsey/Dorothy Sayers reference. When I culled my large collection of paper backs, I couldn’t put the collection of Sayers in the charity box. I’m planning one as afternoon comfort with a cup of tea and maybe a biscuit later.

This is turning into a fascinating discussion. A few years back I was poisoned, not by DH or by arsenic, and I had to take a toxicology test. My mercury reading was in the red danger zone but so was cadmium which is found in cereals, nuts and pulses. On the other hand it is also found in artists' paints, red and yellow. To this day I don't know where it came from in me? We probably all walk round with imbalances due to exposures.

Galaxy

I never rinse rice. I am probably lucky to be alive.

?

Ironically, I do rinse basmati rice (low arsenic) but not brown (the worst offender).

Fanny. I’ve sent you a pm

This is the book

I never rinse rice. I am probably lucky to be alive.

There is a brilliant book all about stuff that they used to put in food.
It was book of the week in Radio 4.

I started a thread about it in the Book Section on here, because I couldn’t remember its title.

And guess what, I still can’t remember it’s bloody title

What wonderful source of information and entertainment GN is, from Morris, murder and arsenic in rice.
I have read that if you rinse rice well then par boil for 5 mins in preboiled water, then drain and rinse and cook with smaller amount of water til absorbed it gets rid of 75% arsenic. Most important with young kids I think.
If ever I get on to Mastermind my specialist subject will be Gransnet ?

It wasn't just William Morris's wallpaper that used the green dyes, it was very common.
No, it wasn't just him, and arguably when it started being used it wouldn't have been known that it was harmful. The problem with Morris's involvement is that he was simultaneously making a lot of money from the production of arsenic, and even when it became suspected of being harmful he continued to use it in his products.

William Morriss described the uproar about the arsenic in wallpaper as "bitten by witch fever". There's a lovely book of the same title about the patterns that were popular and the use of arsenic in Victorian times.
www.amazon.co.uk/Bitten-Witch-Fever-Wallpaper-Victorian/dp/0500518386?tag=gransnetforum-21
His family owned an arsenic mine.

Lead was used in theatrical makeup up until at least the thirties. My mother, as cook in a nursing home that had a lot of theatrical patients, cooked for one famous actress/music hall star (Florrie Desmond) who was very ill because of it.

Arsenic was the asbestos of its day. It was suspected that it was a problem in textiles and things like wallpaper, but there was profit being made, so the production continued long after it should have been.

Casdon

Jane Austen is thought to have died as a result of lupus, not arsenic poisoning - although somebody wrote a fiction book based on her being poisoned with arsenic.
chawtonhouse.org/2021/03/the-death-of-jane-austen/

That was very interesting. I read the longer article. It’s convincing. Thanks?

It was a bright green pigment that contained the arsenic, from a compound of copper arsenite. Vivid chemical dyes were a new thing in the 19th Century, and all the rage. It wasn't just William Morris's wallpaper that used the green dyes, it was very common.

"That arsenic was poisonous was certainly not a secret; every Victorian home had a bit of the powder lying around for rats and mice, and people likely knew tales of the “inheritance powder” being used for murder. Yet they also applied arsenic cosmetics, gave their children toys painted with arsenic, wore dresses and hats dyed with arsenic, and ate meat dipped into it to keep away flies.

(I have a death certificate of one of my ancestors where the cause of death is "arsenic poisoning" but no mention of an enquiry, and I can find no sign of a coroner's report. Arsenic was so common that accidental deaths must have been frequent. )

Of course, very small regular doses of arsenic were taken by some middle-aged men. It made their hair shiny and thick, improved their skin, and gave them more stamina in important (to them) areas where they felt they were wilting. There is a detective story by Dorothy Sayers where a murderer had deflected suspicion by sharing his victim's poisoned meal, and surviving because he had been accustoming himself to arsenic for months beforehand. Lord Peter Whimsy noticed the luxuriant barnet and unmasked the villain.)

In some kind of disconnect, people believed that only by licking the walls would they get poisoned, or only by the green colors. In this way, it wasn’t too different from the radium cosmetics that took off in the mid-20th century, even while the potentially dangerous power of radiation was evident. Left untouched, Victorian wallpaper could still release flakes of arsenic into the air or produce arsenical gas when conditions were damp.

There is a parallel too with the use of asbestos. and luminous radioactive paint on the hands and numerals of clocks and watches.

and milliners were poisoned by mercury

Victorian women were also poisoned by arsenic in their clothing! I learnt that on a visit to a NT house. Arsenic was used to dye textiles green and this meant woman were slowly absorbing arsenic through their skin. Let’s not forget the workers making these items, too.

Here’s a gruesome article about it. jezebel.com/the-arsenic-dress-how-poisonous-green-pigments-terrori-1738374597

Jane Austen is thought to have died as a result of lupus, not arsenic poisoning - although somebody wrote a fiction book based on her being poisoned with arsenic.
chawtonhouse.org/2021/03/the-death-of-jane-austen/

Some GF bread contains rice flour

Well this is fascinating.

Basmati rice grown in Pakistan has the the least arsenic. White rice with the outer grain removed is better than brown since arsenic accumulates mostly in the outer layers.

The main concern is for children’s diets with the rise in demand for things like rice milk, rice baby food, rice cakes as snacks etc and obviously the ratio of rice consumed to body weight.

Actually it’s a bit alarming that you could think you were giving children a healthy diet and actually be overload them with arsenic.

Yes, I wondered that Galaxy.

Dodgy stuff, rice!
It can develop toxins if left warm.

How can that be though if you look at countries who eat it daily? I feel am being dragged down a rabbit hole