December io, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
465 
POISONING BY SNUFF CONTAMINATED BY 
LEAD. 
The following curious case of lead poisoning, which 
has come under the notice of Dr. Garrod., was mentioned 
by him in a lecture at King’s College Hospital, and is 
reported in the Lancet :— 
A gentleman, a resident in India, began to suffer some 
time since from nervous exhaustion, anaemia, and debility 
of both upper extremities; he was a great snuff-taker, 
taking, on an average, as much as an ounce in the course 
of a day. He consulted several medical men in India, 
and they attributed his symptoms to inordinate snuff¬ 
taking. He, however, continued to take snuff and to get 
worse, and at last came to England to seek further ad¬ 
vice. When Dr. Garrod saw him ho discovered a blue 
line on the gums. His suspicions were directed to the 
snuff, which he found to contain a considerable quantity 
of lead. To ascertain whether or not the presence of 
lead in this specimen was an accidental circumstance, six 
packets were ordered from the house in Calcutta with 
which the gentleman had been in the habit of dealing. 
The snuff was contained in sheet-lead packages, which 
were all found to contain lead to about the same extent 
as the first specimen. Dr. Garrod exhibited a solution 
which he had tested in the following way : Ten grains 
of snuff were burned in a platinum capsule, and the ash 
was treated with nitric acid ; the crystallized result was 
dissolved in distilled water,, with the addition of a small 
quantity of acetic acid, and then tested with iodide of 
potassium, which threw down an abundant precipitate of 
yellow iodide of lead. The leaden packages were labelled 
“best brown rappee,” and bore the name of a well- 
known English firm, from which they had been exported 
to India. The snuff itself was rather moist. Where it 
adhered to the sides of the case, it was dotted with white 
spots, probably consisting of carbonate of lead, formed, 
Dr. Garrod suggests, by the fermentation of the damp 
snuff. Since Dr. Garrod’s attention has been directed to 
this subject, he has spoken to a medical man recently re¬ 
turned from Calcutta, who told him that he had quite 
lately met with three cases of lead-poisoning, which on 
investigation were found to be due to the use of snuff. 
Sulphurous Acid.— The value of sulphurous acid 
gas as a disinfectant has been established by many and 
crucial experiments, and is generally admitted. This 
agent is specially recommended by medical officers of 
health. There is a want of convenient methods of apply¬ 
ing it, and especially of applying it in a limited space 
and to a definite and measured degree. Mr. John Gamgee 
has called attention to the convenience of employing it 
as disengaged from an alcoholic solution. Cold alcohol 
will, lie states, take up throe hundred time3 its bulk 
of sulphurous acid gas. Where, for example, it is de¬ 
sired to saturate a box of clothing with this gas, it is 
sufficient to drop a certain quantity of its saturated solu¬ 
tion of alcohol into the floor of the box, and a large de¬ 
finite quantity is set free by the evaporation. The sug¬ 
gestion is one of importance, and seems to us worthy of 
attention. The solution of sulphurous acid in alcohol 
could easily, and probably with advantage, become a 
general article of pharmaceutical commerce for medical 
and sanitary use.— British Medical Journal. 
Baths for University College Hospital. —A com¬ 
plete set of ordinary and medicinal baths, the first in 
connection with any London hospital, is about to be 
erected at University College Hospital. The expense wall 
be about £1300, of which sum £1100 has been collected 
through the energy of Dr. Tilbury Fox, the Physician 
to the Skin Department. The general bath-hall will be 
30 feet by 23 feet, and have attached to it a dressing- 
platform 15 feet by 10 feet, and a Turkish bath 10 feet 
by 7 feet, into which both hot air and steam will be ad¬ 
missible. The hall itself will be fitted with four or five 
ordinary baths—hip, sit, and others—and also a large 
needle-bath and apparatus for douche and shower appli¬ 
cations. In this part will also be the alkaline and acid 
baths. Entirely separated by a lobby and anteroom, 
and having a distinct entrance, will be the chamber, 15 
feet by 11 feet, in which patients affected with conta¬ 
gious skin complaints and syphilitic eruptions are to be 
fumigated or otherwise treated,—the fumes from the 
iodine, sulphur, and mercurial medications here given, 
being carried away by a special pipe to the top of the 
hospital building. Patients suffering from contagious 
complaints will be kept entirely away from the place in 
which the simpler baths are given. Adjoining this part 
of the baths will be a large chamber, 7 feet by 5 feet, for 
disinfecting* by a strong heat the clothes of such patients 
as are suffering from phtheiriasis. 
Artificial Ice. —We learn from the Mew York Timex 
that an ice machine, constructed on Tellier’s principle, is 
now being exhibited in the United States. The material 
used is gaseous ammonia, which is liquefied by pressure. 
It is said, that the machine will make one hundred tons 
a day, at a cost of four or five shillings per ton ; and that 
the ice made by it is transparent and durable. The 
cooling effect of the vaporization of liquefied ammonia; 
may be applied to chambers containing articles of food 
to be preserved, or refrigerators might be constructed on. 
any scale. The holds of ships coidd thus be converted 
into refrigerating chambers with the greatest ease, offer¬ 
ing a ready means for the conveyance of meat from ona 
port to another in a wholesome state. 
Epsom Salts. —In reply to a query propounded by 
the American Pharmaceutical Association, as to the best, 
method for disguising the taste of Epsom Salt, Mr. J. W, 
Smith, of Nashville, suggests the following :—• 
p. Liquorice Root (deprived of the outer bark), 4 02 - 
Boiling water, 2 pints, or a sufficiency. 
Mix and allow to strain, with occasional stirring until 
cold; express through muslin, adding more water, if ne¬ 
cessary, until the residue in the strainer is tasteless; 
then filter and to the filtrate add 4 oz. of sulphate of 
magnesia. Finally evaporate to dryness over a water 
bath. Each ounce of the compound represents about 
one ounce of the crystallized salt.— Revie w of Pharmacy. 
A Pleasant Remedy for Sea-Sickness.— There 
have been many suggestions made as to the prevention 
of sea-sickness, none of which have, to say the least, been 
found completely successful in practice. The introduc¬ 
tion into practice of hydrate of chloral, which produces 
with certainty sleep for a definite number of hours, has 
suggested a means of escaping the horrors of a short sea- 
passage at least, and possibly of mitigating the mort 
prolonged horrors of sea-sickness. To go asleep at Dover, 
and wake to find oneself at Calais, is a plan which, fail¬ 
ing other expedients, has in it much promise. An ordi¬ 
nary dose of hydrate of chloral produces sleep usually 
in a quarter of an hour, and with almost unfailing cer¬ 
tainty. Some cases just published by Dr. Doring, of 
Vienna, seem to show that the value of hydrate of chlo¬ 
ral to obviate sea-sickness is very great. It produces 
quiet and prolonged sleep. In all the instances recorded, 
it seems to have been of great value even during pro¬ 
longed sea-voyages, giving a good night’s rest, arresting 
violent sickness when it had set in, and stopping the 
tendency to its recurrence.— British Medical Journal. 
Explosion of an Ammonia Still. —An explosion 
of an ammonia still took place last week at Mr. J. 
Barrow’s chemical werks. West Gorton, Manchester, 
doing* serious injury to throe workmen. The still, which 
was made of iron, boiler form, and about seven, inches 
diameter, was blown over a cottage three storeys high 
into a pool of water, about eighty yards distant. The 
three injured men were taken to the Manchester In¬ 
firmary, one of them having had his skull fractured. 
standard. 
