SOME POTENT DRUGS.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 125, 24 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOME POTENT DRUGS.

«, I'.U'Krn away behind a wilderness of gigantic warehouses and tumble-down tenements, in a remote suburb of South London, is one of the strangest establishments iu tho world. It is a f ictory but what a factory ! Vr'om morning till night its great ehiinncys arc continuously belching forth clou's of fetid-smelling smoke. Occasionally a great column of steam will shoot, high ii.to the air ; not honest, whito steam, but, purple ami green and yellow, reminding one of some bloated and gigantic srpent. During the hours of darUi.e.-s its location is betrayed io the most casual observer by the red glare iu the sky from if i innunin-able furnace. Tlu massive gates loading to this strange Cita l li Irnent arc loekod ami jealously guarded, for iusklo them lurk danger and death to tue unwary trespasser. Poisons of such terrilic strength as would sullies. l> soul an i rmy of men to eternity in the fractional put of a second lie around loose, and are handle i with a-i little apparent cire in if they were the most harmless substances iu the wor'.d. As h:s alrealy been intimated, this factory is a dangerous place to vhit It, is not enough for the casual comer to bo careful where he steps and to refrain from touching. He must iu addition refrain from using his olfactory powera without special permission, for there are poisons there which it, is death even to smell. One of thes3 is the pure or anhydrous prussic, acid—a terrible preparation, which is soldom or never scpu outside a chemical laboratory. The original discoverer of this, the deadliest, of all known poisons, was stie'een dead through accidentally inhaling its fumes, and sores of other deaths have happened from the same cms?. It is this anhydrous acid from which the ordinary and infinitely weak, r prn-sic acid of commci'OJ is made, by diluting it with fr im 9-5 to !)? per cent of water. Even in this form, however, it is suflieiently strong to e. msc almost instant death, even when taken in exceedingly small doses, " Next to anhydrous acid,'' remarked the proprietor of the works in question while piloting the writer round the factory one day recently, " tho most deadly stuff we in ike is cyanide of potassium. Last year we turned out. over 1000 tons of it, and, five grains being a fatal dose, it follows that our output of this chemical alono would have been sufficient to kill two millions and a-hilf of people. Altogether wo minufaeteiv, in the course of each twelvemonth, enough deadly poison to depopulate the United Kingdom. This may seem a somewhat stiirt'ing assertion, but if is, nevertheless, well withiu the truth." While we were conversing we had entered one of the workrooms, where a number of men were engaged round a sort of gigantic witch's uiuldron, containing over a hundred-weight of melton cyanide. It was a picture such as would have delighted the heart of a Rubens or a Titien. The glare rciloted from the seething miss of white-hot liquid poison ; the lambent play of the furnaoo fires ; and ever and anon a phantom face, enveloped in an uncanny-looking glass mask, peering through the thick, unctuous fum°s, right into the heart of the horrible mixture ! In another r ,o n were tons upon lons ol the linis'ied product, looking for all the world like white crystallised sugar. " It looks ?,ood enough to eat," 1 remarked jocularly. '• Ah," replied my guide gravely, " that is just one of tho dangers we have to guar! against. Lor some inexplicable reason cyanide of potassium (-xeicisis a remarkable f.ifcinatiou ov.-r (he men engaged in its manufacture. They are haunted by a e >nst int and ewv-recuniug desiie to eit it. They are perfectly alive t ) the fact, however,"that to give way (o the craving would mean instant death, and are c msequcn'.ly usually able to resist if. I Jut not, always. During the time 1 have been le re three of our besr and steadie.-t workmen have commit te.l suicide in this sf ian re manner, impelled thereto apparently by no cause save this mysterious, horrible longing. I myself have been long expose! to flic cyanide fumes, and have had to leave the works for a time in consequence, So well is this curious fact reeognLod that there arc always two men at work together in this br inch of our business, and a jar of ammonia, which, as you may know, i- the antidote to the poison, is kept e instantly near at. hind." Apart from this remark able infatuation, which may be likened to tho desire experienced by many people when standing o:i the brink of a pr.eipice to tlro.v themselves down, the manufacture potassium cyanide is not particularly dangerous. Neither is it unhealthy. In fact, it is asserted that men have cone into the cyanide houso ill and dcbilititel, and in a short time lnve beau restored to robust health. Tho samo cannot, however, be said of corrosive sublimate. This fiightful poison, in common with alc-.ostall the mercurial preparations, is exceedingly treacherous, and prolonged exposure to the fumes is often attaided by wry dangerous consequent: \ To persons unaccustomed t > it? proximity, even a cotnp iritivtly short sojourn in that pait of the works devoted to its manufacture sometimes gives rise to vaiious unpleasant symptoms, as the writer c in testify. In my eis-\ 10 miuutes' exposure t > the fumes sufiiced to iudu"o profuse running at the eyes, nose, and mouth, ;.c<-nnpatiied by a constant desire to expectorate, and followed by shivering, nausea, and headache. The room in which this particular poison is prepared, with its vast, eollectim of struigely shaped stills, and its nnzes of pipes and retorts, resembles an alchemist's laboratory. Of coins', net nil the products of this weird fact >ry are poisonou'. Neither are all the saiells nauseous, nor all the sights uncanny. In one apartment, for inst nice, my nos'rils were saluted with an exceedingly sweet savour, reminding me of •• peardrops," sweets beloved of my youth. It is ; cet .to of amyl. the precise drug used to j:ire to the confection in question its peculiar llivour. Another smaller chamber, from which emanates a strong odour of camphor, is a, veritable fairy palace of pure white crystals. Facsimiles of palms, ferns, and misses of tropic d veget ition drop iu gricefid festoons from the roof, and completely over the wa'l.s A reproduction of the interior of this wondrous chamber on the stage of Dimry Lane would be siilliaient to assure the success of lipxt year's pantomime. Of cause, the lluves and ferns are ooniposed of neither ice nor suj.V, but pure while c iniphor crystals. S one of the substances tin sioxoedi ig|y volatile thai, during the process of in mule-lure, they must never be permitted I ' c nne into e ml list with the out - s de air. A typical casj i- tint of ether, which is pus-iil from still in still and from retort by means of long copper pipes. until at last il emerges llie linisbed article of c nnuier.se. it produces, when swallowed, nn iilmist immediate cxhilirJion uf spirits, followed by unsteadiness of Kait. thiekness -if uttermce. confusion of nl-eis -in fid all the typieil symptoms of m-liuary inl ixiuation. Tne elfeel pass's away i|aickly, however, so that an cthcr-cii-iu'lier can get dr ink throe or four times in an hour. My Iu -I visit, b -fere quitting llie work-, was to t':c l.'stt.nr rojui, where, sur-

rounded by liut.dreds of samples of the deadliest poisons known to science, sat. a tall, slender, and pr.'tty young girl. Ranged in front of her svas a collection of tubes of various shapes and sizes ; thermometers graduated to the one-hundredth part of a degree centigrade ; and scales so delieately poised that an eyelash laid upon one of the balances deflected the indicator ns.irlv half an inch. IJy the aid of these and othir strange and beautiful pieces of apparatus she was enabled tj record the ex ict strength of the various product-i of the factory.