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

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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$(7) The firm of Bostock and Co. is now in liquidation, and an action foi' damages has been commenced by the Official Liquidators, on behalf of the creditors of that company, against the firm of Nicholson and Sons. Having regard to the terms of our reference, and also to the fact that the transac- tions between tliese firms are about to come before a court of law, we have not sought by pursuing inquiry into this matter to apportion between these two firms, or between individuals, the responsibility for the acts of omission or commission which have entailed serious sickness and loss of life to so many of your Majesty's subjects. (8) So far as the Commission has at present learned, the proportion of glucose and invert sugar used in the production of the beers which were associated with the epidemic, was as a general rule no greater than those Avhich are used in many other English breweries. And mischief appears to have been caused by some beers in which Bostock products constituted onh a portion of the total brewing sugars used in their preparation. (9) The amount of arsenic present in beers brewed with arsenical Bostock sugars must have varied widely at different breweries and in different kinds of beer. Not only did the proportion of these sugars used in different brews vary greatly, but there is further material difference due to the stage at which the sugar was introduced into the beer. The evidence goes to show that in the process of brewing a portion of the arsenic contained in a,rsenical' brewing sugar added before fermentation will be removed by the action of yeast, and possibly also in other ways; whereas, if arsenical sugars are intro- duced as priming, after the beer has left the fermenting vessels, the whole of the arsenic present in the priming solution will apparently remain in the beer. (10) The quantities of arsenic reported to the Commission as having-^ 1)een found in specimens of beer brewed with Bostock sugar has l^een, in exceptional cases, as high as about 1| grains per gallon, and in one sample no less than 3 grains per gallon have l)een detected. As a rule, however, the proportion of arsenic in beers presumably associated with the production of the epidemic has been estimated at a lower figure, e.g., 1 to ^ to :| of a grain per gallon, or less. Conclusion as to the exact amount of arsenic present in the inculpated beers is rendered difficult by the fact that different analysts have employed different methods which in some instances have produced very divergent results when applied to samples of the same beer. We propose to make further inquiry into the relative value of different f[uantitative tests for arsenic in beer, as to the most trustworthy methods to recover all the arsenic present in a given sample of beer, and as to the possible existence of arsenic in beer in some combination with organic matter in which it might escape determination by certain of the tests commonly employed. (11) It has been stated to us by one witness. Dr. Tunnicliffe, that he has detected a relatively considerable quantity of selenium in a sample of Nicholson acid—not, however, coming from Bostock's—in a sample of Bostock glucose, and in a sample of beer which had been manufactured with Bostock brewing sugars. This circumstance, ta,kcn along with the sugges- tion which he obtained from the toxic effect of selenium upon lower animals, led Dr. Tunnicliffe to infer that poisoning by selenium as well as by arsenic might have been an important factor in the epidemic. We have, however, received no confirmatory evidence that selenium has been present in Nicholson's acid as supplied to Messrs. Bostock in an} quantity approaching that determined by Dr. Tunnicliffe. We have received no confirmatory evidence of the detection of selenium in samples of Bostock brewing sugars, or of Bostock-brewed beer; on the contrary, the absence of selenium from these substances has apparentl}^ l)een proved in a considerable number of instances. On this subject we have evidence that since this suggestion by Dr. Tunnicliffe, search has been made for selenium in many samples of l^eer and brewing ingredients which had no relation with Bostock sugars, but in no case has selenium been found. 5237. J\$