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modification—that of ventilating the purifiers by drawing air
through them—was found on trial to be so dangerous in consequence
of the explosive nature of the gaseous mixtures formed,
and the new stinks evolved were so atrocious, that after trial,
fortunately in another parish, they were obliged to be abandoned.
Eventually the nuisance was kept within more
manageable limits, and the Company having failed in other
more favourably situated and better furnished works than
those at King's Cross to get rid of the nuisance, there being
moreover an absence of indubitable evidence that the disgusting
odour of the lime is injurious to health, and the Company
being under heavy penalties to keep down the sulphur impurity,
which they can only do by the use of lime, I have not
felt it my duty to recommend any steps to be taken against
the late Imperial and now Gas Light and Coke Company.
The evil results arising from the enforced use of the lime
process of purification have directed the attention of chemists
to the alleged ill effects arising from sulphur impurity in gas,
and to an entire review of our knowledge on the question. I
have myself made a large number of observations and experiments
which throw, 1 believe, considerable light on the
subject, and others have by their experiments added greatly
within the last few months to our knowledge of the subject.
The sulphur impurity of gas is either the same substance,
bisulphide of carbon, which we are in the habit of burning
for the production of a beneficial disinfectant, sulphurous
acid ; or a class of bodies of a similar constitution. It is produced
during disinfection in quantities enormously greater
than can ever be the case when gas is burnt. Yet none of
the destructive effects arising from the supposed production
of oil of vitriol has ever been observed during an experience
of ten years. Experimentally I find that not more than
five per cent. of the sulphur impurity in gas, as determined
by the prescribed apparatus, is converted into sulphuric acid,
even when the gas is burnt under the conditions most favourable
for its production, and that most of the sulphuric acid
so produced is at the moment of generation neutralised and
rendered harmless by the small quantity of ammonia always
present in the gas and in the air. Moreover, the undoubtedly
unpleasant effects felt in a gas-lighted room—such as stuffiness
and irritation—may all readily be acoounted for by other
conditions resulting from the burning of gas ; and further no
perceptible difference as to discomfort is felt in rooms lighted