Durham E-Theses The analytical chemist in nineteenth century English social history Campbell, W. A. How to cite: Campbell, W. A. (1971) The analytical chemist in nineteenth century English social history, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9525/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk THE ANALYTICAL CHEMIST IN NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH SOCIAL HISTORY Thasis presented for the degree of Master of Letters in the University of Durhan W. A. CAMPBELL, M. Sc. ,F. R. I. C. Newcastle upon Tyne July 197I The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 1 Acknowledgments. It is a pleasure to record thanks to those who have helped in this study, particularly to Dr. D.M. Knight, Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, for sustained interest, advice, and supervision; and to Professor N.N. Greenwood, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, in whose department and with whose encouragement the work was carried out. The staffs of the University Libraries of Durham and Newcastle have sought out and obtained material of obscure origin. The keepers and librarians of the following libraries received the writer with helpful courtesy: the Chemical Society, the Science Library at South Kensington, the Royal Institution, the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, the Guildhall, the Bishopsgate Institute (all in London) and the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The typescript was painstakingly prepared by Mrs. Mary Dalgliesh. ii Abstract Laws regulating the sale of poisons and the purity of foods and medicinals imply the existence of methods for detecting offences, and of persons qualified to employ them. The 1804 Stamp Duty Act named 453 proprietary medicines, many of extreme complexity . Synthetic drugs tended to diminish the polypharmacy of earlier days, and the rise of the health salt trade brought further simplification, but analysis was still made difficult by the practice of substitution. Advertising of nostrums was assiduously developed by Holloway and Beecham. Chemical analysis had its roots in mining for metals. The blowpipe enabled metals to be detected in complex environments. Group analysis devefc.ped from the work of Klaproth, Thomson, Rose and Fresenius. The systematic use of H^S is due to Berthollet and Gay-Lussac. Analysis of animal and vegetable products was slower to develop: significant stages were destructive distillation, solvent extraction, element tests, melting points, characteristic group reactions, and instrumentation. Positive identification was difficult to achieve. Chemical evidence in poisoning trials was given usually by medical men: the consequent forensic disasters (Palmer case, 1856, Smethurst case 1859) brought chemical analysis into disrepute. Landmarks in chemical toxicology were Marsh's test for arsenic (1836) and the Stas-Otto method for extracting poisons from stomach contents (1852). Examples of social problems in the chemical detection of poisons were the easy confusion of oxalic acid with Epsom salt, and the prevalence of opium-containing soothing syrups for infants. Apothecaries, druggists and pharmacists concerned themselves with the adulteration of drugs. General chemical analysis was undertaken by such 'practical' chemists as F. Accum. Pharmacists acquired the right to be called chemists: chemistry was often made to appear as a frivolous science. The 1863Alkali Act and the 1860 Food Act paved the way for the professional analyst. The Society of Public Analysts was founded in 1874 and the [Royal] Institute of Chemistry in 1877. The adulteration of food is not treated inithis study. Contents. Chapter I. p. I The Capabilities and Limitations of Chemical Analysis before 1800. Chemical theory out of step with practice. Effect of unsystematic nomenclature. Origins of chemical testing in metalliferous mining. Minerals and mineral waters . Conceptual difficulties in organic analysis. Application of chemical knowledge to medicinal preparations . Polypharmacy and over- prescribing. Reasons for popularity of non-professional medicine. Eighteenth century food and drink. Scientific crazes. Electricity, magnetism, mesmerism. Sensation hunting, not conducive to scientific enquiry. Chapter II. J». \o Popular and Proprietary Medicines . 1804 Stamp Duty Act. Some old established panaceas. Tarwater. Ward's drops. Wesley's essays in medicine. Succedanea. Verum and non-verum drugs . Laudanum and other opium preparations. Venice Treacle and Mithridate. Mineral waters and health salts. Effervescing granules and Eno's Fruit Salts. James Morison. Thomas Holloway- Advertising and sales methods. Synthetic drugs. Evasion of Stamp Duty. Appendix to 1804 Act. J.A. Paris's "exposures" of nostrums. V Chapter III. The Developing Techniques of Chemical Identification. Ingredients of popular medicines. Detection of metals. Reagents and group analysis . The blowpipe, origins , literature, methods and ancillary apparatus. Destructive distillation of organic material. Stills and furnaces. Water extraction. Combustion methods for carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. Other methods for nitrogen. Recognition of vegetable structures . Use of microscope. Detection of elements . Melting points. Colour reactions . Polarimetry. Spectra. Flame colourations . Organic solvents . Apparatus for extraction and filtration. Early (1830) chemical examination of a proprietary medicine . Chapter IV. The Chemical Detection of Poisons. Folklore and superstition about poisoning. The Overbury case. Chemical evidence accepted in the Blandy case, 1752. State of toxicology in 1800. Orfila. Christison. Smith. Poison statistics. Contrast between chemistry of mineral and vegetable poisons. Poor standing of chemical evidence. A.S. Taylor. W. Herapath. Chemistry of alkaloids. Colour tests. Stas-Otto separation of poisons from tissues. Carbolic acid and ammonia. Non-routine nature of toxicological analysis. Arsenic, Marsh, Reinsch and Gutzeit tests . Accidental poisoning. Green wallpaper. Marie Lefarge case. Arsenic in beer. vi Opium. Soothing mixtures for children. Detection of morphine and meconic acid. Prussic Acid. in sales. Prussian blue test. Strychnine. Vermin killers . Popularity in suicide attempts . Palmer Case. Oxalic Acid. Accidental confusion with Epsom salt. Simple tests . Poison our Colours in confectionary. Lead pigments. Arsenic pigments. Mercury and copper. Tables showing tests and reagents. Schedule of poisons in Pharmacy Act (1868). Chapter V. The Emergence of the Professional Analyst. Practical tradition in English chemistry. Projectors. Peter Shaw, Robert Dossie and Bishop Watson. Accum as analyst. Richard Phillips and mineral analysis. Thomas Richardson. Pharmaceutical Society and Chemical Society. Backgrounds of famous industrial chemists . Self-help. Dilettantism.. Laughing gas frolics. Chemists in cartoons . Alkali Act 1863. Adulteration of Food Act 1860. Analytical Sanitary Committee. Appointment of Public Analysts. Poor salaries. Discrepant results between analysts. Attacks on Chemical Society. Position of Government Laboratory. Society of Public Analysts. [Royal] Institute of Chemistry. Recognition of Institute diplomas . Literature References Bibliography. f>.lli Relevant Publications. 1 CHAPTER I THE CAPABILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF CHEMICAL ANALYSIS BEFORE 1800. 2 This study concerns the emerging and changing role of the chemical analyst in English public life during the nineteenth century. The function of the analyst impinges on the life of the ordinary citizen at a number of points, particularly in guaranteeing the quality of the goods that he buys, defending him from the worst excesses of quackery and protecting him from poisoning. In the course of this activity, the law has frequently been changed and new social habits have been formed. It is therefore necessary to begin by examining the social life of England at the end of the eighteenth century as it is reflected in contemporary attitudes to health and disease, popular medicine, food and drink, and to relate this to the resources and limitations of analytical chemistry at that time. It is difficult to write about the last decades of the eighteenth century without obsessive use of the word revolution. In foreign affairs, in policies at home, in agriculture, commerce, and industry, as well as in science, the rate of change was increasing beyond the capacity of the corporate mind to assimilate it, so that at one point practice lagged behind theory, at another new skills outpaced the understanding of those who used them. Chemical analysis was at this time in the former class, for the sweeping changes in chemical theory did not influence in any noticeable degree the practice of the laboratory.