HYDROCYANIC-ACID GAS AGAINST HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. ¥ 
three cases of fatal accidents to human beings have been recorded. 
These were due to extreme carelessness in its use. In one case the 
operator went back into the house after having dropped the bags 
and closed the building for some time. The abundant experience 
which has been gained by the different members of the force of the 
Bureau of Entomology and many others in the fumigation of dwell- 
ing houses has demonstrated that all danger is easily overcome by 
care in conducting the operation. In all the house-fumigation work 
which has been done during the last 10 years no aceident has 
occurred, except in one or two instances the burning of rugs in 
attempting to set off charges in too small vessels and a case of head- 
ache where a few whiffs of much diluted gas had been accidentally 
breathed. 
It follows, from what we have just said, that there may be danger 
from fumigating one house in a row of houses separated only by 
party walls, the other houses being inhabited. Unnoticed cracks in 
a wall would admit the poisonous gas to the neighboring house. In 
such a case a householder must consult his neighbors. In isolated 
houses, however, with the precautions indicated, the operation will be 
a safe one. The fact that birds resting on the ridge of houses in which 
the gas was being liberated have been killed by the ascending fumes 
indicates also that where the house to be fumigated immediately ad- 
joins a higher structure to which the gas may possibly gain entrance 
there may be some danger to the occupants of the higher structure. 
Single apartments or rooms in buildings should not be fumigated 
except when the whole building can be vacated during the operation. 
In case of contiguous houses of loose construction an arrangement 
should be made so that the adjoining houses also may be vacated 
during fumigation. 
In handling the acid great care should be used in pouring it from 
the bottle and in putting it into the vessels to avoid spattering on the 
hands or face, since it will burn rapidly through the skin, and should 
it spatter into the eyes would cause serious inflammation or loss of 
sight, or if on the clothing it would burn a hole in the garment. 
Should a drop fly to the hands or face, bathe the part promptly and 
freely in water, and the same also for garments or the carpet. It is 
further desirable to have at hand a bottle of ammonia to neutralize 
the acid should it spatter on clothing. 
The handling of the dry cyanid is not accompanied by any danger 
if there be no open wound on the hand, but it is advisable to wear an 
old pair of gloves in breaking up the cyanid and putting it into the 
1One of the fatalities mentioned in a preceding paragraph resulted from the fumiga- 
tion of a basement in an apartment house not only without seeing that these apartments 
and the entire building were vacated and closed during the operation, but without even 
warning the occupants in the apartments above. 
