On the 22nd March 1878, complaint was made by Mr. Octavius Deacon, of Golding's Hill, Loughton, to Mr. Secretary Cross, that a serious attack by skin disease of his own infant had resulted from the use for nursery purposes of violet powder, which on analysis by Mr. G. Jones, F.C.S., had been found to contain in large proportion white arsenic; and further, Mr. Deacon stated his belief that a large and fatal prevalence of skin disease among infants in Loughton had been due to the use in a similar way of violet powder of a like sort. This representation was referred by Mr. Cross to the Local Government Board. On 25th March the Board received a communication from the clerk to the Epping Rural Sanitary Authority enclosing a statement by the Medical Officer of Health to the effect that a special mortality among infants in his district, already reported by him, had, he has now reason to believe, resulted from the use of violet powder impregnated with arsenic. Hereupon the present inquiry was ordered.
