Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.  1919. 
}    Uranium  as  an  Industrial  Poison. 
631 
so  that  it  is  not  only  applied  at  the  center  by  a  large  screw,  as  in 
most  of  our  presses,  but  also  horizontally  along  the  sides  of  the 
press;  (3)  at  one  place  we  saw  an  excellent  automatic  nitration  sys- 
tem, based  upon  the  alternate  filling  and  refilling  of  a  small  tank 
with  a  measured  quantity  of  water,  which  in  turn  was  connected 
with  valves  releasing  definite  amounts  of  acid  and  benzol;  (4)  the 
Germans  have  in  practically  all  of  their  plants  a  very  high  grade  of 
lead  fittings-,  in  which  art  they  have  advanced  remarkably  well;  (5) 
in  many  cases  it  was  also  noted  they  used  square  flanges  on  the 
elbows  for  their  high-pressure  piping  connections.  On  the  other 
hand,  one  notices  considerable  lack  of  conveying  equipment,  such  as 
bucket  elevators  and  belt  conveyors  through  these  plants,  the  prob- 
ability being  that  they  utilize  man  power  much  more  than  we  do, 
and  do  not  rely  upon  mechanical  equipment  so  much.  .  .  . 
"Among  the  developments  to  be  noted  during  the  war  in  Ger- 
many, which  are  of  special  interest,  was  the  production  of  synthetic 
rubber  on  a  large  scale  and  a  practical  basis.  This  was  done  at  the 
Bayer  plant  in  Leverkusen,  and  the  production,  though  very  ex- 
pensive, was  of  material  assistance  in  meeting  their  great  shortage 
of  rubber." 
URAXIUM  AS  AN  INDUSTRIAL  POISOX.1 
Certain  toxicologic  effects  of  salts  of  uranium  have  long  been 
recognized  and  applied  in  the  study  of  experimental  physiology  and 
pathology.  Recently  industrial  conditions  have  arisen  which  may 
place  this  element  in  the  class  of  possible  dangers  of  occupation. 
Karsner  and  his  collaborators2  of  the  Western  Reserve  University 
School  of  Medicine,  Cleveland,  have  asserted  that  in  certain  indus- 
tries uranium  is  employed  or  appears  as  a  by-product,  and  that 
with  war  time  scarcity  of  some  other  heavy  metals,  such  as  tungsten, 
uranium  may  be  utilized  as  a  partial  substitute.  In  the  production 
of  radium,  uranium  oxide  is  produced  in  large  quantities,  and  if 
1  Reprinted  form  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  June 
28,  1919. 
2  Karsner,  H.  T.,  and  Reimann,  S.  P.,  "  Studies  of  Uranium  Poisoning,  I. 
The  Toxicity  of  Certain  Water-Insoluble  Salts  of  Uranium,"  Jo  nr.  Med.  Res., 
39>  !57  (Nov.),  1918.  Karsner,  H.  T.,  Reimann,  S.  P.,  and  Brooks.  S.  C, 
"  Studies  of  Uranium  Poisoning,  II.  The  Solubility  of  Uranium  Oxide  in 
Artificial  and  Human  Gastric  Juice,"  ibid.,  39,  163,  169,  177  (Nov.),  1918. 
