BISULPHITE OF LIME PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION. 
445 
Suffocation by Sulphuretted Hydrogen. —A serious accident, involving the 
sacrifice of two lives, has occurred at the Iceland Chemical Works, Bow. Amos Trowel 
and Matthew Clarke were ordered by the foreman to empty a tank containing sulphate 
of ammonia, and while so engaged they were overpowered by the gas arising—sulphu¬ 
retted hydrogen—and perished. It is believed that a third workman was rescued by 
Trowel, who then, in attempting to save Clarke, was himself overcome, and fell into the 
liquor. Only a month ago, Clarke had rescued Trowel from a tank under almost similar 
circumstances. No light test was employed before Clarke went into the tank. The 
deceased was accustomed to the work. The jury returned a verdict, “That the deceased 
men were accidentally suffocated by sulphuretted hydrogen gas,” and added that the fore¬ 
man was highly censurable for allowing the men to descend into the tank without 
having properly tested its condition. 
©fattuarg* 
From the Bristol papers we gather that William Herapath, F.C.S., of Old Park, the 
well-known analytical chemist, died on Thursday, February 13th, in the seventy-third 
year of his age. 
Mr. Herapath began life as a maltster, in which business he succeeded his father, and 
' in connection with which, we learn that he was led to the study of chemistry, which 
proved to him a more congenial pursuit. As a toxicologist, Mr. Herapath was first 
brought prominently before the public in the well-known case of Burdock for poisoning 
Mrs. Smith, of Bristol, thirty years ago, since which time his name has become familiar 
in similar investigations. 
Mr. Herapath was one of the founders of the Chemical Society, of which he was a 
Fellow, and also of the Bristol Medical Society, of which he became the Professor of 
Chemistry on its first opening in 1828. He was an honorary member of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society, and a frequent contributor to this Journal, as will be seen from the 
following list of communications:—“On Poisoning by Bryony Root,” Vol. xvii. page 
542 ; “The Lead Panic at Hastings,” Vol. xviii. page 618 ; “Arsenic in Copper Wire,” 
Vol. i. (n. s.) page 377; “ Poisoning by the Sulphates of Zinc and Iron,” Vol. vii. (n. s.) 
page 13; “Detection of Phosphorus in cases of Poisoning,” Vol. vii. (n. s.) page 57; 
“The Ashburton Poisoning Case,” Vol. vii. (n. s.) page 107; “On Poisoning with 
Arsenic and Strychnia,” Vol. vii. (n.s.) page 609. 
Mr. Herapath was better known in Bristol in connection with civic life, in which he 
took great interest, and at the time of his death he was the senior magistrate of the city. 
He leaves a wife and several children, Dr. Bird Herapath being his eldest son. 
USE OF BISULPHITE OF LIME FOR PREVENTING THE DECOMPOSITION 
OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES. 
In the desire to satisfy a correspondent with reference to the use of bisulphite of lime 
(see “ Notices to Correspondents” in our January and February numbers) we have called 
forth communications from the agents of a patentee, two of which we were only able 
to allude to briefly in our last number, and a third we now insert entire. 
“ 24, Lincoln's Inn Fields , London , IF. C., 
“ 20th February, 1868. 
“ Gentlemen,—Messrs. Prince and Co. are, no doubt, quite right when they tell you 
that the Specification of Rattray’s Patent, 1861, in no way resembles the process de¬ 
scribed in that of Medlock and Bailey. Indeed we do not see how any one acquainted 
with the law of patents could come to any other conclusion. 
“We beg to assure you that we had read Rattray’s specification when we wrote to you 
last month, and it was from having done so carefully that we made the statement in 
our letter quoted in your last number. If the whole of our letter had been printed, our 
meaniug would have been clearer. 
“We repeat that Rattray does not indicate any particular sulphite as the substance 
