Beware of Poisons in Toys.

The Manufacturer and Builder 7, 1876

The Sanitary Inspector of Glasgow (Scotland) has found that the yellow toy balloons sold to children, are poisonous. He says that the coloring matter consists of one part of chromate of lead and three parts of carbotane of lime. Children, being in the habit of applying their mouths to the orifice of these balloons for the purpose of filling them with air, may readilly receive a quantity of such poisonous powder into their mouths. Toy balloons, therefore, although admirably fitted for playthings at baby farms and other institutions of a similar character, should be viewed with suspicion in every well-regulated nursery.

That colored candies have sometimes contained poisons is well known, and those also should be avoided. Many other painted toys should be suspected, especially the bright-colored ones, which most always are of a mineral nature, and if not directly poisonous, are certainly injurious to health. As there is an abundance of good toys without colors or paints, there is no necessity to get suspicious-looking things for children, and all small colored or painted toys adapted for use on the table, and which babies may put into their mouths, should be banished from a nursery. The paint on large objects, like sleighs and wagons, is of course not so apt to do injury as that on small objects.