455THE EMPLOYMENT OF LEAD COMPOUNDS IN POTTERY.

THE LANCET.

LONDON: SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1901.

The Employment of Lead Com-pounds in Pottery.

THE raison d’etre in regard to the employment of rawlead compounds in the art of glazing pottery has vanished.To our mind Professor THORPE’S latest communication to

the Government on this subject is perfectly conclusive

and completely justifies this seemingly startling state-

ment. It would be rash, however, to suppose that the vexed

question has ended with the results of Professor THORPE’S

exceedingly interesting experiments. Obviously there is no

justice in depriving the potter of the essential materials of

his art unless he can be compensated with another materialwhich is equally effective and equally workable. He must

have straw wherewith to make his bricks. Fortunately thismaterial has been found in the shape of fritted lead-

although not all fritted lead is innocuous ; and this latter pointis perhaps the most important feature in Professor THORPE’S

report which was published last week and presented to theGovernment.

As is well known, in fritted lead the raw lead (red lead,white lead, or litharge) is fused or fluxed with silica or

other material, a definite compound, silicate or boro-silicateof lead, being formed in accordance with the relative propor-tion of the materials employed. " Fritts" " may thus be

obtained which may be either soluble or nearly insoluble inacids. The "fritt" insoluble in acids is comparativelyinnocuous, but " fritts may be produced which must be

rejected as being little less poisonous or soluble than rawlead itself. Any legislation, therefore, to be effectual in

preventing lead-poisoning must ensure in the first place thatall the lead used in the processes shall be fritted and in the

second place that the lead in addition to being merely frittedshall be so fluxed as to produce a "fritt" which is practicallyinsoluble in dilute acids. Professor THORPE’S experimentsin the Government Laboratory have made the issue perfectlyclear. The members of the trade admit that fritted lead

can be substituted for raw lead without prejudicing the

industry. Professor THORPE has shown, however, that notall "fritts" are insoluble in acids, and therefore that notall "fritts" are innocuous, while, still more important, hehas brought to light the conditions-the facts as to

chemical composition which are accessible to manufacturers-determining the solubility of the lead in "fritts."

Moreover, these conditions admit of a wide margin as

to the proportion of ingredients, for the amount

of lead oxide may vary from 15 to 55 per cent.

or more without any necessary increase in the solu-

bility of the lead. The compulsory adoption of "fritts" "

of a standard formula would thus appear to offer a satis-

factory solution of the question, and to this intent two

special rules were proposed by the Home Office in

1899-(1) that lead shall be fritted ; and (2) that the

lead shall be properly apportioned with the other

materials in the " fritt so as to secure a "fritt" prac-tically insoluble in acids and comparatively without pre-

judice to health. The latter rule necessarily involves the

adoption of a standard of insolubility, and a maximum of2 per cent. of soluble lead was suggested as a criterion ofsafety upon which glazes might be judged.

After nearly a year’s consideration the pottery manu-facturers proposed an amplification of Rule 1 by the

addition of the words with some silicious substance ’

after the word "fritted," but this would cast a vague-ness of meaning upon the requirements and, as Pro-

fessor THORPE points out, would allow of raw lead beingused with a minimum or even a merely nominal quantity ofsilica when a " fritt " would be obtained wholly soluble as.

regards lead and scarcely distinguishable from fused litharge.But while the principle of Rule 1 is accepted by themanufacturers they object in toto to Rule 2 which requiresthat the "fritt" produced must be practically insoluble inacids and that it must conform to a standard of insolubility.This objection is logically absurd. The danger of raw lead,as the manufacturers admit, is its high solubility and the

object of fritting is to reduce this solubility to a negligiblequantity. It is surely, then, essential that fritting should be

placed on a scientific basis, that the ingredients shouldbe properly apportioned in order to attain the highest degreeof insolubility possible, and finally that a test should be

adopted whereby the insolubility and innocence of the

"fritt" " can be determined and placed under control. The

complaint of English manufacturers is that they are beingasked to accept conditions never before employed by anypotters in the world." They would be much more correct in

saying "never before enforced upon any potters in the

world," for, as Professor THORPE pertinently points out, thestandard is reached without the slightest difficulty in largeworks abroad, and whether it has been attained by voluntaryeffort or by the pressure of general regulations does not

affect the question of practicability. Evidence is beingdaily gathered that the proportion of highly soluble glazesand "fritts" is becoming smaller as the manufacturers gaingreater experience in compounding them. ,

The truth is that the anti-progressive habit of the averageBritish manufacturer is hard to break. We are con-

vinced that if only a fair trial with an ordinaryamount of patience and intelligence be given to the

recommendations so aptly drawn up by Professor THORPEneither the art nor the industry will in any way be

injured, but rather their position and dignity will be raisedby removing one of the most terrible stigmas on industrialconditions in modern times. One important omission

appears to have been made in this otherwise excellent

contribution to the subject-and that is the possibility of leadbeing dispensed with altogether. In a previous report pre-sented to the Government in 1899 on this subject ProfessorTHORPE, with whom Dr. THOMAS OLIVER was associated, wasenthusiastic over the advantages of leadless glazes, express-ing "no doubt whatever that leadless glazes of sufficient

brilliancy, covering power, and durability, and adapted to allkinds of table, domestic, and sanitary ware, are now within

456 BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE : PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

the reach of the manufacturer." " The inference is that

Professor THORPE’s added experience has led him to the

conclusion that lead cannot be emitted without disadvantageeither to the industry or to the art.

The Presidential Address to theMembers of the British Pharma-

ceutical Conference.THE British Pharmaceutical Conference met recently at

Dublin when the Presidential Address, given by Mr.GEORGE CLARIDGE DRUCE, F.L.S., proved to be of con-

siderable interest to medical men. The President took a

somewhat gloomy view of the present condition of British

pharmacists, and he stated amongst other things that duringthe last 40 years the average amount which could be

obtained in payment for the goodwill of their busi-

nesses had on the whole diminished to the extent of

50 per cent. Pharmacists had therefore several distinct

grievances, some of which would be extremely hard

to overcome, and he strongly urged members of the

conference to unite in facing the difficulties which beset

them. No one who is acquainted with life in a countrytown can doubt that during .the last half century the

position of a dispensing chemist has by no means im-

proved, and that as a body they have cause for complaint.Forty years ago in a country town there is no doubtthat as a rule the dispensing chemist and, perhaps, thebookseller occupied the most prominent positions amongstthe tradesmen. The dispensing chemist was, as a rule,better educated than his fellow-townsmen, and so from

the first had the advantages which are given by a sound

preliminary training ; the bookseller was more often a self-educated man, but his constant contact with books and with

book-buyers, and the use of his own library, usually made himone of the most interesting men in the town. No one can

deny that of late years other tradespeople have to a verygreat extent taken away the predominant position occupiedby the dispensing chemist and the bookseller. This has been

greatly due to the general spread of education and somewhat,unfortunately, to the increased and increasing power of

money apart from culture.Mr. DRUCE gave a résumé of the progress made during

the last century in those sciences which are of the

greatest interest to the dispensing chemist. He

sketched briefly the discoveries which have been made

in regard to photography, and pointed out that the sale

of photographic materials was a branch of business well

within the scope of pharmacists, because it deals

with the sale of materials where scientific knowledgeand accuracy of manipulation should be possessed by the

purveyor. A brief review was given of some of the chiefdiscoveries which have been made in pure chemistry, and anumber of interesting facts were brought together in regardto the commercial use now made of the by-products of

manufactures which had previously been wasted, but whichof late years have been more and more utilised. A consider-

able part of the address was taken up with a review of

the progress made in biology, in botany, and in bacterio-logy ; but the most interesting part of the discourse was

that dealing with matters more intimately connected withthe trade of pharmacy. Mr. DRUCE pointed out with

some emphasis the fact that from a commercial pointof view dispensing chemists are, taken as a body,in a much less satisfactory state than was the case duringthe earlier and middle parts of the last century. He

regretted that at the present time there was a falling off in theinterest in science which had been shown by pharmacists 20 or30 years ago, a state of things made evident by the diminutionin the number of those who now meet at the conference.

This apathy he ascribed in no small part to the loss of

income from which the members of the trade are suffering.In regard to the state of the trade at the early part of thelast century Mr. DRUCE thought that it was difficult

to form a clear idea as to the position occupiedby the chemist and druggist, but that the trade was

a many-sided one was not open to doubt. But surelythe conditions under which medicine, surgery, and

pharmacy were practised during the first half of

the last century in London are not mysterious. A greatdeal of the work fell to the apothecary, and this

was the case not only in the City of London but also

in the poorer parts of the town and amongst the well-

to-do and leisured classes who lived in Soho, in St. James’s,and in Mayfair. The physician saw and prescribed for

the patients and the active treatment which he ordered wascarried out as a rule by the apothecary-in many cases

rather a subservient individual who, in the treatment of

the upper classes, confined his attention strictly to carryingout the instructions given to him by the physician eitherby word of mouth or in writing. In those days bleeding waspart, and no small part, of the work of an apothecary. It

was his function also to cup patients, to supply leeches,to call for the physician’s prescription, and, finally, to make

up and to deliver the medicine. Many of the apothecarieshad open shops and sold other articles of merchandise

besides drugs. Of the successors to these apothecaries somebecame general practitioners as we now know them and

some dispensing chemists. The majority of dispensingchemists at the present time doubtless confine their atten-tion to making up prescriptions as ordered and to sellingdrugs and various other articles more or less intimatelyconnected with pharmacy ; though it cannot be denied thathere and there may be found gentlemen who add con-

siderable medical and surgical duties to their day’s work.It is an unfortunate fact that not only such charlatans asthe man PURDUE, referred to on page 501, prescribe forand treat the public medically : many respectable dis-

pensing chemists have large counter practices, as we

understand they are called. This, in the interests of every-body, should not be.

Mr. DRUCE said that after the inauguration of an exami-nation by the Pharmaceutical Society an Act of Parliamentwas passed which gave to the society power to examine andalso made the examinations compulsory. As the result of

this he believed that the examinations became too purelyscientific and that the more practical part of pharmacy wasless insisted upon than it should have been. A certain scorn

of knowledge of business routine and an undue cultivation ofthe scientific side of the subject have, therefore, graduallygrown up. It is now seriously suggested that the best method

457

to educate a pharmacist would be to send him to college toattend a certain number of compulsory lectures on biology andbotany, and then to allow him to pick up a sufficient know-

ledge of practical pharmacy without any more systematicteaching. Mr. DRUCE thought that this suggestion, if carried

out, would have a disastrous result, for a man so educated

would be unable to compete with a person brought up ix

regular business routine in the way in which the draper’sapprentice is trained, and in the general struggle for

existence the more highly-educated pharmacist would beunable to hold his own. Mr. DRUCE, in enumerating thecauses which prevent pharmacists from the profitable carry-ing on of their businesses, did not omit to mention the

position arising out of the fact that it is legal for a companyof persons possessing no pharmaceutical knowledge to carryon the business of pharmaceutical chemists. He pointedout that when the legislature cilled the Pharmaceutical

Society into being "and insisted that every chemist before

commencing business should be qualified " it "out-GilbertedGILBERT by allowing seven people-not one of them

qualified-to open a chemist’s business and to call themselveschemists." " Undoubtedly there is room for reform here.

The Case of Concealment of Infants’Bodies at Birmingham.

AMOXG other cases dealt with at the assizes recently heldin Birmingham was one of great importance from a medico-

legal and sanitary point of view, affording as it does anotherillustration of the defects of our registration system so faras it affects the deaths of infants occurring shortly afterbirth and the burial of their bodies and of those of still-

born infants. EMMA KNOWLES, aged 32 years, who

was described as an undertaker, pleaded guilty beforeMr. Justice PHILLIMORE to committing a nuisance byneglecting to bury the bodies of certain infants entrustedto her for that purpose in May last. The case created

a great sensation at the time in Birmingham and

all over the kingdom, being known as "the Birming-ham Scandal." In consequence of complaints having beenmade of an offensive smell arising from the prisoner’s resi-dence the police were informed and the officers on searching the cellar found no fewer than 31 bodies of newly-born Iinfants. Dr. J. F. CRAIG, surgeon to the police, was called inand examined the bodies, most of which were in a very de-

composed state. One was that of a deceased infant, but most, Iif not all, of the others were those of still-births, though it was impossible to give a definite opinion in consequenceof their advanced state of decomposition. No supposition offoul play was entertained, and the prisoner’s excuse was thatshe, being a widow in very poor circumstances, had taken the

money she had received to bury the bodies to buy bread forher starving children. She had since May last given upthe undertaking business. The learned judge observedthat the case had its serious aspects. It was contraryto public decency and dangerous to public health to

treat bodies in this way, and such a practice would

facilitate foul play. Having regard, however, to her povertyand other circumstances he would not send her to prison,but would merely bind her upon her own recognisance tocome up for judgment when called upon. He trusted that

the fact of the conviction would deter other undertakers

from doing anything of the kind.Much credit is due to the Birmingham coroner for the full

and searching manner in which the inquest was conductedby him. It was stated at, the time in a local paper which

dealt severely with the police and mildly with the prisonerthat it was a common practice for undertakers to be

asked to take charge in their premises of dead bodies

awaiting burial. We cannot believe that any respectableundertaker would take upon himself so unpleasant anddangerous a duty in these days, when the providing of

public mortuaries is imposed upon all sanitary authorities.Moreover, mortuaries open to the public are to be found

in all cemeteries. Such a scandal as that to which

we refer ought to be impossible. A glance at the

course pursued by those who observe the decencies of

life and fulfil the requirements of the law may help tofind a remedy. In all cases of infants dying soon after

birth both the birth and death are registered and a

burial certificate is given. In the case of still-births there

is no registration required, but the body is given to an

undertaker with a medical certificate of still-birth and it is

buried in the unconsecrated portion of the cemetery. The

18th section of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1874,imposes a penalty of £10 upon anyone who buries, or pro-cures to be buried, the body of a deceased infant as that ofa still-birth, and it is probable that such irregularitiesare less frequent than they used to be. But so longas there is a sliding scale of fees for the burial of

deceased infants and of still-births so long will there be

an inducement to fraud. The difference in the two

cases varies from half a crown upwards-a very serious con-sideration to persons who are poor and especially to

those who live from hand to mouth. Again, the sum

of half a crown is surely more than is required to pay forthe ground occupied by the body of a newly-born infant,whether deceased or stillborn. Is it hopeless to ask the

Government to bring in legislation requiring the registrationof still-births ? ’? Possibly it would not be wise to proposethat undertaking of burials in this country should be by theGovernment as it is in France and elsewhere on the

continent. In any case, we may reasonably suggest thatall burial boards and others having control over church-

yards and burial-grounds should afford every facility for the

reception of the bodies of infants awaiting burial, that the

sliding scale should be abolished, and that the burial fee

should be reduced to the smallest proportion.

Annotations.

FACTORY LEGISLATION AND LAUNDRIES.

" Ne quid nimis."

IT is curious that there should be so many difficulties in

) respect to factory legislation affecting laundries. Consider-

1 ing that laundresses wash precisely those articles which areworn nearest to the skin it would be but natural to antici-

pate that such an occupation should be subjected to’ specially strict surveillance. We have demonstrated that, in) the absence of such control, linen, after it has been washed,b may be contaminated by unhealthy surroundings and brought

G 3