First report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning [1900] from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning
Date:
1901-1903
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Credit: First report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning [1900] from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Mr. C. H. Tattersfill. Arsenic in Nicholson's acid, am iniormed that, to make 400 parts of beer the brewer lakes lOU parts of solid laaterial (7o per cent, at least of malt and from 6 to 26 per cent, ol substitutes) and 22 Feb. 1901. adds OuO parts of water. This is mixed in the mash tun, and cJie resulting wort or mixture is boiled to- gether with the sugar and hops in a copper vessel ; the ijoiling fluid IS then hltered through tlie exliausted hops and cooled, yeast is added, and fermentation takes place. The yeast is afterwards removed, and the beer mn oif •.nto barrels. V arious other substances are used in the brewery, in addition to glucose, malt, hops, and grain. In summer, it is said to be desirable to add some sub- stance to prevent the beer turning sour, and various forms of preservatives are used, which appear to be largely sulphites. 'Priming' is added to the barrels of the cheaper beers by some brewers ; this is usually a limited quantity of inverted sugar. Then ' finings' are added to the barrel by the beer retailer. The only specimen of ' finings' I obtained was isinglass. 'jTjuis two substances, malt and sugar (glucose or inverted sugar), are used in considerable quantity, and a num- ber of others, yeast, hops, presei-vative, priming, and finings in small quantities. I believe hop substitutes are also occasionally used, but I do not lind any in the five breweries examined. Oonsequently the two sub- stances which above all others should be kept pure are malt and sugar, since small amounts of impurity in the others would not affect the beer to any material extent. The analysis of the sulphuric acid obtained from Messrs. Bostock's works showed that apart from the precipitate it contained at least 1-45 per cent, of white arsenic. 10. {Chairman.) Apart from th© precipitate, what happened ?—The sample of acid we obta.ined, on stand- ing, deposited a considerable precipitate. 11. Without any treatment?—The acid, without any treatment. _ 12. It showed a precipitate 1—It did, and that pre- cipitate is very largely, if not almost entirely, arsemous acid ; but Professor Delepine will deal with this question from the scientific point of view. The fluid, apart from the precipitate, contained this veiy large proportion of arsenious acid, 1'45 per cent. 13. (Professor Thorpe.) Is it not a fact that the pre- cipitate might largely consist of sulphate of lead?—It did not. That was what we thought it was when we liltered off the precipitate and examined the sulphuric acid in the first instance. We did not think we were taking the arsenic out to any extent, and thought it was probably sulphate of lead, but further examination has shown that it is not sulphate of lead, but practically almost pure arsenious acid—^white arsenic 14. (Chairman.) We shall hear from Professor Dele- pine perhaps, but did the prff^ipitate contain nearly pure arsenious acid ? Perhaps it contained more arsenic than that which was left in the solution ?^That is th e reason why I give the analysis here of Dr. Campbell Brown, of Liverpool, and Mr. T. A. Reid, of Liverpool, as given in their evidence before the coroners. They found that the total percentage of arsenic in the sidphuric acid was at least 2 per cent., rising in one sample to 26 per cent. 15. Per cent, by weight?—Yes, per cent, by weight. I go on to say in my report : This would more than account for the largest amount found in Messrs. Bostock's „i„„ „, Klucose, namelv, '095 per cent., and this again would tOOK glucose, ,' . , 1 , r. ■ n • ijT, T, k account for at least 2 grams per gallon in the beer. As a matter of fact, 1-5 grains per gallon is the highes.t amount found in the beer. I might refer here to the table of analysis. (See Appendix No. 12.) Table 1 has been worked out to show the amount in grains per gallon approximately of what arseiuc is in those samples of beer. All those marked with a star were beers brewed more or less from Bostock's sugar, and it will be seen that the amounts vary very much, front ]-30th to Ij grains per gallon. 16. (Professor Thorpe.) Are these Professor Delepine's observations ?—They are. 17. This is marbe'd as private. Does that mean a private brewery ?—^Yes- 18. Was it not for sale ?—Private is meant to indicate there that it was not. a sample I took ofBcially, buit a sample that readied us in amothier ^vay. 19. Was it beer for sale?—^It was beer for sale, only it did not come from Salford, but from another district. That is really the explanation. _ These are Professor Delepine's tables (see Appendix No. 12.), and he will explain the source of the sample v;hen lie is before you. The cause of so much variation in the amount of arsenic appearing in and in Bos- jVIanufactuK of L'hicose. the beer is—lirst that there can be no doubt (j the acid itself varies greatly from this point Ti'ttcmnU. of view. Then the amount of areenic removed from the ^— glucose by the charcoal filters wiU vaiy very much ; and ~ ^^eb. 1901. again, tlie amount of glucose used by different brewers is -i-,,. a verj- variable quantity. Some brewers mixed the j Bostock with other sugars, and so again reduced the arsenic in the amount in the beer. In beers not brewed \vith Bostock implicated sugar the highest amount has been l-28th grain per , fjers. gallon, and this was brewed in a brewery where Bostock sugar had previously been used. I should not be pre- pared to say that it is quite safe to drink beer which contains 1-lOOtli grain or mor© of arsenic per gallon. A full medicinal dose of arsenic is l-12tli gi'ain, and that is rarely given even under the constant super\'isioin of medical men. The more usual medicinal dose would be from l-20th to l-50th grain of arsenic. I may say that I myself liavo seen symptoms of arsenical poison- ing, vomiting, and diarrhcea resulting from an odd dose of l-50th of a grain. 20. {Ch airman.) From one single dose?—From one ijjjjyjfiya^j single dose. That was in a patient who was very pecu- susceptibilin liarly susceptible to arsenic, and it was tried for a arsenic number of j-ears several times over, always with the same result. I state this simply to indicate that to some '.ndividuals an extremely small amount of arsenic is a dangerous thing. As the beer brewed from Bostock sugar contained on the average l-32nd of a grain of arsenic per pint, it is at once seen that the phenomena of poisoning are ac- counted for, and from the fact tliat the amount may have been 3-16ths grain per pint it can be undersixDod that, as appeal's to have frequently happened, an odd pint of the contaminated beer has been sufficient to pro- duce veiy unpleasant symptoms in individuals. Instances where this occurred have been authentically descrlibed to me. Glucose is prepared from various starches by the action of sulphuric acid and heat. Maize, sago, tapioca, wheat, and rice flour are all used for this jiurpose. The flour is thoroughly mixed with water, and sulphuric acid added to the extent of about 6 per cent. The mixture is boiled for about two hours and then run oif. Whiting is added to the liquid, and this neutralises any acid not used up in the process of converting the starch into grape sugar. The mixture is then pressed through can- vas bags which remove all suspended matter, and is filtered through animal charcoal, in some cases several times. The clear liquid is treated with sulphurous acid, for the purpose of bleaohdng it, and is placed in pans and concentrated to a point at which when cooled it will become a solid substance. Inverted sugar is prepared in a manner exactly similar to glucose, except that can-e sugar is used instead of starch, and the sulphuric acid is added in smaller quantity, 2 to 4 per cent., instead of 6 per cent, as in the glucose. It is also not heated to so high a temperature, inversion being carried on at 160deg. Fahrenheit. In each instance the resulting pro- duct is a perfectly harmless and satisfactory form of grape sugar, provided that pure materials are originally used, and it is found in practice that the filtering pro- cesses take out undesirable substances. Thus traces of arsenic are taken out in the charcoal filters. An exam- ination of the charcoal used by Messrs. Bostock showed that the charcoal from the used filters (it should be used once only and then reburnt) contained large quantities of arsenic, whereas the reburnt charcoal from the same filters contained smaller quantities of that substance. Ghioose is used fnr a number of purposes, namely: — malt substitute in brewing, in the preparation of leather, by jam makers (especially makers of whole fruit jams, which fetdh the highest prices), in confec- tionery, and in the preparation of the clear breakfast syrups, which in many cases are almost entirely glucose The samples which I have seen of glucose used in the three latter processes were much clearer than for the two first, being an almost transparent colourless fluid. It is thus evident that arsenic present in the sulphuric acid used would contaminate the resulting sugars, and it is the practice for glucose manufacturers to use either sulphuric acid guaranteed free from arsenic, or acid manufactured from native Sicilian sulphur only. It would appear desirable that m the future the only sulphuric acid used in the preparation of food stuffs should be that manufactured from native Sicilian sulphur, as it is obvious that a mistake m the labelling or delivery of a carboy from a works manufacturing pyrites acid might have very serious results, and accidents of this kind can be best guarded acrainst by prohibiting the use of any pyrites acid for such purposes. The manufacture of sulphuric Arsenic ii charcoal Hlters. Acid from^ Sicilian bip' stone shoifl4 lie used for food pnrpOB*
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