Now, were can I get hold of a bit of Paris Green to get rid of the thrips and a few annoying neighbours?

Thanks, Ann! Aren't those old guides fun? Nik, that stuff is still manufactured...Paris Green. It's really scary realizing what used to be so commonly used and available, isn't it? Control of Tobacco Insects 1950 states Taxophene can be substituted for Paris Green and Lindane dust has been applied for Japanese Beetles and aphids! Lindane is a systemic pesticide, stored in the wood and is about the only effective control for Flat Head Apple Borers. I used to be able to buy a 6 oz bottle for $9 of it at KMart! The label carries a "Danger" listing, the highest toxicity to Humans. The first line of the warning is, "Causes blindness"! Scary stuff!

The wiki Paris Green page is totally terrifying. Until you ask yourself: Malaria or ? Then it becomes a real conundrum.

The mention of use in Rome ...maybe they got it from near Naples where the huge volcano is still simmering, and all sorts of stuff could be associated with the vulcanism.

That Tobacco link is just as terrifying! To think, all that stuff has been dumped in the environment for more than a century and a half and always presented as being "safe"! Scary!

Childhood memories of playing outside and watching the man with the large sprayer that came to do the fields with pesticides. No one knew and no one took precautions. They were safe or so you were told.

Still to go in and read the guide, but here quickly to say one of the early California rose books advocated dusting with arsenic powder. Lovely Gibson Girl photographed doing same. Wonder how long she lasted.

Imagine the walls this color, trim white, mahogany table and sideboard and tied back lace panels at the windows. I really is quite a stunning shade of green. I can see why it was so popular.

Arsenic also helped to keep ladies hands white, as did lead powder. Many years ago, I was given a book from the 1890s called, Polite Society at Home and Abroad. Reading what was used to keep womens hair dark; their hands and faces white; to clean stains, etc., was truly frightening. Had more been "upper crust" and used those remedies, there may not have been quite so many people today!

I love reading old books like that! I'm sure 100 years from now people will look back at books and articles from today and marvel at how insane people were in our era.

P.S. Polite Society at Home and Abroad is available to read online. Guess I know what I'm going to be perusing tomorrow.

Where would Victorian murder mysteries be without all those crazy, toxic everyday household helpers? A plethora of poisons from which to choose! We could write a new play: Arsenic and Old Roses.

Not to mention you could buy arsenic, opium, cocaine and morphine at your local Main Street pharmacy. I've always wondered how many people who died from seemingly natural causes were actually poisoned.

OOO! Madame de Watteville!

Kim, I remember arguing with the professor of the swine dept. at Cal Poly Pomona over spraying the pigs with lindane. They were aiming right at their faces. Poor pigs! Glad we've moved on.

Thank you for this link, Ann! I downloaded the pdf and will enjoy it later.