Mr. Napier on the Effects of inhaling Cyanide Fumes. 189 



therefore be useful as well as interesting to give a brief notice of the 

 effects produced upon the health of those employed in a new art or trade, 

 namely, electro-plating and gilding ; it may be remarked, however, that the 

 effects to be described were under conditions where proper caution was not 

 taken, so that the magnitude of the evils to be i-eferred to is not necessarily 

 connected with the new art, where care is taken, which is the more 

 gratifying, so far as gilding is concerned^ as it supersedes a process 

 notoriously injurious to health, even under every care, namely, the gilding 

 by mercury. 



The operations of electro-plating and gilding are performed, as is well 

 known, by depositing the metal from its solution by means of electricity. 

 The solutions used are a double salt of cyanide of potassium, and the 

 metal, whether silver or gold, having a great excess of cyanide of potassium, 

 which is constantly undergoing slow decomposition, and giving ofl fumes 

 of hydro-cyanic acid. The room in which the subsequent observations 

 were made, measured 20 feet by 16 feet, having very imperfect means 

 of ventilation. The vats containing the solution were at one end, 

 exposed a surface of solution of 16 square feet, and contained dissolved 

 not less than from 50 to 70 lbs. weight of cyanide of potassium, so that 

 although the decomposition was slow, the quantity of solution made it 

 great in that size of room, which always smelt strongly of cyanogen gas. 

 In the mornings especially, after being closed during the night, the smell 

 was heavy and sickening. 



On entering the room, the first impression was a heavy smell, and after 

 a short time a saline taste was perceptible, producing a dry frothy spittle. 

 This, with other effects, makes me believe that the poison, although in a 

 gaseous state, was not taken into the lungs, but was dissolved by the 

 saliva of the mouth, and went into the stomach ; so that the effects are 

 those of taking very minute and constant doses of prussic acid, extending 

 over a period of at least from two to three years. 



I may here mention an occasional effect of an intermitting sort. The 

 uose becomes dry and itchy, and breaks out internally into small pimples, 

 80 painful that they can hardly be touched. This effect, however, I have 

 often, and more constantly, experienced in breathing the hydrogen evolved 

 from the galvanic batteries, than from the fumes of cyanide solutions, 

 although cyanide fumes produce the same results. 



The first permanent impression is languor — a feeling of weariness comes 

 over the body, with an inclination to seek warmth, without feeling any 

 actual sensation of cold. Then follows the want of inclination to eat — 

 the meals being begun as a matter of duty, although when commenced 

 the relish seems restored, and the persons are capable of taking the usual 

 quantity of food. These feelings were worse towards evening than morn- 

 ing, and often long after I was sensible of the effects produced did I feel 

 quite well iu tlie morning. Then the colour of the face becomes pale or 

 sallow, the visage grows sharp, eyes sunk in the head, and a dark colour 

 immediately round llieni. 



