Chrome compounds are well known for their irritating and corrosive action on skin and mucous membranes, and the literature abounds in reports of dermatitis, ulceration of the skin and perforation of the nasal septum as a result of exposure to them. Systemic poisoning by chrome, on the other hand, is seldom reported in spite of the fact that some of its compounds have markedly toxic properties when absorbed in sufficient amounts. Chromium itself, a shining white metal of great hardness, is nontoxic, but the trioxide of chrome or chromic acid and the alkaline chromates are directly poisonous as well as being powerful irritants on account of their oxidizing properties. In medicine, chrome compounds have a limited employment as caustic applications, but in industry they are put to a great diversity of uses. The more important of these are dyeing, the manufacture of colored crayons and papers, the making of dyes