Heritage
Verdigris (copper acetate) gave medieval manuscripts their greens; it was unstable, eating through parchment over centuries. Terre verte (green earth) was used for under-painting flesh in the Italian tradition. Scheele's green and Paris green, both 19th-century arsenic compounds, killed an unknown number of wallpaper-makers and Victorian children before viridian and phthalo greens replaced them. Modern green pigments are remarkably stable; the iconic Brunswick green that became British Racing Green dates to the same chemistry.