38 
ON THE POISONOUS CHAEACTER OF NITllOGLYCEllINE. 
SULPHUR IN GAS. 
Dr. Letheby, in his evidence before tbe Committee of tbe House of Commons, gave a 
table of tbe illuminating power and grains per 100 feet of sulphur of tbe gases of tbe 
most important towns in tbe United Kingdom. Tbe value of gas may practically be 
viewed as dependent upon these two items. The illuminating power represents the 
money value, whilst, as sulphur is the most deleterious impurity found in gas, both as re¬ 
gards our health and its injurious effects upon property, it is necessary to have as small 
an amount of that substance as possible. But in looking over the tables given by Dr. 
Letheby, we are sorry to see that frequently the relative position of these two points are 
in inverse ratio to what they should be, and that as the percentage of sulphur increases 
the illuminating power decreases. In the large towns, such as Birmingham, Liverpool, 
Manchester, etc., we find the illuminating power great, but also a large percentage of 
sulphur. The increased illuminating power of gases in these places can be well under¬ 
stood, as it is no doubt due to competition, and the absolute necessity for good lighting 
in manufacturing and commercial districts ; but still they do not seem to be alive to the 
importance of the absence of sulphur—a matter of serious danger to their goods if they 
have no regard to their lungs. The gas in “Pusey ” may be taken as a fair specimen. 
The illuminating power was put at 16'49, and it contained 3’8 grains of sulphur in every 
100 feet. 
Chatham may be viewed as an example of a bad specimen of gas, as its illuminat¬ 
ing pov/er was put at 8’46, and yet it contained 18-2 grains of sulphur in the 100 feet. 
It is a pity that Dublin cuts so sorry a figure in this respect. 
Dr. Letheby gives the illuminating power of the Dublin gas as 14‘3, and says that it 
contains about 18 grains of sulphur in the 100 feet (17-92). He attributes the large 
amount of the sulphur in the gas now in use to the substitution of oxide of iron in the 
purifiers instead of lime, the removal of the re&ase lime from the purifiers being consi¬ 
dered a nuisance by those residing in the neighbourhood of the gas-works ; but we ques¬ 
tion if the pouring of eighteen grains of sulphur, which is equivalent to fifty-five grains 
of sulphuric acid, during the combustion of 100 feet of gas, will not be more deleterious 
in the long-run than any local nuisance. Until a better mode of purifying the gas 
from sulphur than that now in use be devised, we should advocate a return to the lime 
purifiers. We believe that gas engineers wash the gas with the ammoniacal water, by 
which means a considerable percentage of sulphur is removed.— Mr. C. C. Tichhorne^ in 
Medical F?'ess. 
ON THE POISONOUS CHARACTER OF NITROGLYCERINE. 
In the ‘ Hanoverian Journal for Practical Surgery and Medicine ’ {Zeitschrift fur 
praktische Heilkiinde und Medicinalwesen^ heft i.) there is an article by Mr. B. Schuchardt 
on the injurious effects of nitroglycerine upon men and animals. Among the higher 
animals he found that it acted chiefly on the brain, and in large doses caused death. In 
order to study its effect upon himself the author took one drop at 10 a.m. ; five minutes 
after great giddiness came on, accompanied by weakness of sight, headache with throb¬ 
bing in the temples, weariness, sleepiness, strong aromatic taste in the mouth, a burning 
feeling in the throat, and pain in the region of the heart. An hour later, whilst incau¬ 
tiously endeavouring to take some nitroglycerine out of a bottle by means of a tube, he 
received a considerable quantity in the throat. Although he spat it out at once, and 
rinsed out his mouth with alcohol, he felt the above-described symptoms return, so that 
he was obliged to go to bed. He then fell into a half-senseless condition, w'hicli lasted 
some hours, and left behind a violent throbbing headache, with sensitiveness to light, 
giddiness, and trembling in the whole body. At first a feeling of warmth spread over 
the whole system, and the pulse increased in'speed, later a feeling of cold came over him ; 
besides this, there was burning sensation in the region of the heart, and nausea, but no 
vomiting. On the following day every symptom of poisoning had disappeared: There 
was no sign at all of convulsions. 
When applied external^, nitroglycerine produces no effect at all; to have any action 
it must be absorbed into the blood. This seems to show that its poisonous effects are due 
