FUMES OF DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

FUMES OF DEATH.

POISON WITH NO ANTIDOTE.

YOUTH'S STRANGE FATE.

RARE AND DEADLY GAS.

Deadly properties of a rare gas, expjosuro. to which proved almost immediately fatal to William Charles White'head, aged 17, an assistant ,in the laboratory of a Hatton Garden firm of chemical metallurgists, were made clear in the course of the inquest. Whitehead was overcome by tumes while cleaning out a dump in a tank containing a cyanide of silver deposit. The coroner, Dr. Waldo, said he had been given an explanation of the making of cyanide of silver, from which an acid was created. In its crude form it was popularly known as prussic acid—one of the deadliest of poisons. In the operation in which Whitehead met his death a settling tank was used This contained a deposit and it was cleaned out twice a year. It was necessary to stir up the "deposit so that all fumes of the deadly acid wero dispersed, but, unfortunately, this was not wholly done, and Whitehead was overcome. It was added bv the coroner that he had never had a case of poisoning from the fumes of cyanide of silver. Sir Bernard Spilsbury, pathologist, gave evidence that the cause of death was coma duo to poisoning from hydrocyanic acid, onp oi the deadliest pf poisons.

The.Coroner: I understand there is no.. antidSte?—A>i' Uht'idr^o"'has""^d<Dm"BeTri effective, as there has been little time in which to apply it. . It is a matter of moments ?—Yes. Dr. Spilsbury added lie had heard of cases of poisoning from the acid,"but' had not seen ono before' He knew of cases having happened in chemical laboratories. The Coroner: in the .lato war was it used at all ?—I am not sure that the French did not use it on animals. Not on Germans?: I never heard. The Coroner: I hope it never will be a success. Sir Bernard said he would not be surprised to hear that this was the first recorded case in the last one hundred years. Mr. Arthur W. Scott, metallurgical chemist, expressed tlio opinion that the liydrocyanide gas was lying in a concentrated form ill the sludge and escaped in sufficient strength to render thj lad unconscious when it was stirred. Whitehead, witness stated, would have finished his job in another five minutes. He added that the firm concerned were taking every step to see that such a case did not occur again. The jurv returned a verdict of death by misadventure.