Final report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink. Pt. 1, Final report.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink. Pt. 1, Final report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Appa. 30, p. 290. 30, p. 288. Messrs. Newlands and Ling) which he describes in detail. (Appendix 23), and which he had found to give accurate results. 95. These reports on malting anthracite deserve attention from brewers and maltsters and also from colliery proprietors and managers. They afford a considerable collection of comparable data regarding representative specimens, which should prove valuable for reference in connection with future chemical examinations of anthracites for arsenic ; while the indications which have been obtained by these investigations afford useful guidance on various matters which require attention in the selection of anthracite for malting purposes. 96. In particular they show the great importance as regards arsenic of thoroughly and systematically removing all “impurities” from anthra- cite used in malting. The amount of arsenic found in the large number of different samples of “clean” anthracite was relatively small—in almost all cases it was below 10 parts per million (‘07 grain per pound)— whereas many of the “ impurities ” associated with the anthracite con- tained comparatively large quantities of arsenic. The impurities in question comprised not only yellow pyrites, or “brasses,” which are generally known to be liable to contain much arsenic, but also certain samples of impure coal consisting largely of shale, and well-marked bands of black, granular, impure coal, which show little or no “brassy” pyrites. As a rule satisfactory removal of the above impurities, where present, is effected readily enough if suitable appliances are used and proper supervision is exercised at the colliery In certain circumstances, however—for example, where black granular bands are distributed intermittently throughout the thickness of a seam of anthracite—the matter is one of greater difficulty and requires the exercise of a corre- sponding amount of care. 97. Gas cokes have been found in many instances to contain large quantities of arsenic. Thus the proportions of arsenic determined by Dr. McGowan in samples of coke taken this year from three gas works in Yorkshire, each of which used formerly to supply maltsters, were respectively 125, 144 and 200 parts per million (0-9, 1:0 and 1-4 grains per pound). Brewers and maltsters as a whole appear to have found little difficulty in abandoning the use of gas coke in 1901, and having regard to the quantities of arsenic found in certain specimens, and to the arsenical contamination of malt which has resulted from the use of gas coke, we are of opinion that this fuel should not be used by maltsters unless in connection with special methods of treatment to which we refer below, and then only after careful selection of the coke. 98. We have received a number of analyses of oven cokes. Some have contained only small proportions of arsenic, such as those ordinarily met with in clean anthracite; while in others arsenic has been present in considerable quantity, ¢g., between 30 and 50 parts per million (0°2 and 0°35 grains per pound). The extent to which oven coke may contain arsenic is determined mainly by the nature of the coking coal from which it is derived and by the amount of care taken, by washing or otherwise, to free the coal from pyrites and other impurities before it is put into the coking oven. The fact of the fuel being oven coke is not in itself a, sufficient guarantee of its purity as regards arsenic; the selection by the maltster of satis- factory oven coke will depend upon sufficient information being obtained as to its origin and manufacture, and upon the exercise of the control afforded by frequent analysis of samples. 99. Mr. Ling and others have laid stress upon the importance of determining not only the “total” arsenic contained in samples of malting fuel, but also the proportion of “volatile” arsenic. which escapes when the fuel is burnt under laboratory conditions, and. the proportion of ‘“ fixed” arsenic which remains behind in the ash. Methods by which “fixed” and ‘‘volatile” arsenic may be estimated