Chapter XXVII: Phosphorus and Lucifer Matches

However useful phosphorus has been to man, its manipulation has been a constant source of danger. As there are two forms of phosphorus, so there are two kinds of matches: the _safety_, which-only ignite on the box, and the ordinary _strike-anywhere_. Safety matches are made from red or amorphous phosphorus, and the ordinary matches from white or yellow. Oldbury, near Birmingham, is the seat of the manufacture of yellow phosphorus. Although white phosphorus is a dangerous substance, there have been very few cases of ill-health among the men who make it, owing very largely to the fact that in its production from bone, very few people are employed, and the processes of manufacture are such that the workmen are not brought directly into contact with the dangerous substance. Sixty tons of the phosphorus annually manufactured in Oldbury are consumed in lucifer match works in Britain.

The death of a lucifer matchmaker in London five years ago, and the announcement in the daily press of the contemporaneous occurrence of a large number of cases of ill-health in a Metropolitan match works, aroused an amount of feeling, and created such an adverse public opinion in regard to this industry in England, that the Home Secretary, Sir Matthew White Ridley, appointed a Commission, composed of Professor T. E. Thorpe, Dr George Cunningham, and myself, to undertake an inquiry into certain important questions which had arisen with regard to the effect of work in lucifer match factories on the health of the workpeople.

The questions which at the time engaged the attention of the Home Office were:--

(1) The nature and extent of the dangers attending the use of yellow and white phosphorus.

(2) The means whereby these can be lessened.

(3) The practicability of discontinuing the use of yellow and white phosphorus.

Many match works, both at home and abroad, were visited by the members of the Commission, whose views and opinions upon these questions are embodied in a Report[80] that describes the methods of manufacture, and the legislative measures adopted in most of the countries in Europe to abolish or diminish the ill-effects of the industry upon the health of the workpeople.

The principal malady of the lucifer matchmaker is a localised inflammatory affection of the jawbone, followed by suppuration and death of the bone, constituting what is known as phosphorus necrosis--“phossy jaw,” as it is sometimes called in this country, and _mal chimique_ in France. Other diseased conditions are also met with, but these and the subject of phosphorus necrosis generally will be dealt with further on.

Commercial phosphorus is made from bone-ash by treating it with sulphuric acid, filtering and evaporating the product, heating this with charcoal, and afterwards distilling it. The substance known as white or yellow phosphorus was discovered as far back as 1669, by Brandt of Hamburg, and is, when pure, colourless and transparent, but when exposed to the light it becomes yellowish. During absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere it becomes phosphorescent. The greenish-white light thus evolved can at once be checked by such essential oils as turpentine and eucalyptus. The glow of phosphorus is an indication that oxidation is taking place, and that both phosphorous and phosphoric oxides are being formed, ozone being probably present at the same time. White phosphorus is extremely inflammable: it ignites at a temperature of 34° C., and forms with a plentiful supply of air phosphoric oxide P_{4}O_{10}, but if the supply of air is limited, phosphorous oxide is formed P_{4}O_{6}. It is with a paste made from white phosphorus that the ordinary strike-anywhere matches are headed.

Red or amorphous phosphorus, from which safety matches are made, has been known only since 1845. It was discovered by Schröter of Vienna, and is obtained by exposing ordinary phosphorus for some time in a closed vessel to a temperature of about 250° C. Red or amorphous phosphorus differs from yellow both physically and in other respects. It can be handled, for example, with impunity, and does not take fire when rubbed on any rough surface. It is non-volatile, and since it is not acted upon by the digestive juices of the alimentary canal it is non-poisonous. As much as an ounce of amorphous phosphorus has been given to animals without any bad effects, while one to three grains of the ordinary metalloid have caused death. In order to ignite red phosphorus, it has to be rubbed upon a surface that contains substances rich in oxygen. The heads of safety matches are composed of potassium chlorate and chromate, and other compounds that contain large quantities of oxygen, while the red phosphorus is present in the brownish-red layer that has been pasted on the side of the matchbox. It is significant of the habits of our countrymen that while sixty tons of white phosphorus are converted into the ordinary strike-anywhere matches every year in Britain, only three and a half tons of red phosphorus are required to satisfy the public demand for safety-matches.

White phosphorus is volatile at ordinary temperatures, and its vapour when pure is said by Schonbein to be odourless; the odour that is perceived is a mixture of ozone and phosphorous oxide. On analysing the fumes given off by phosphorus eight-tenths are found to consist of oxides of phosphorus.

Professor Thorpe found that when decayed human teeth were exposed to the fumes of phosphorus for twelve hours they lost 0.37 per cent. of their weight, and that carious teeth when crushed and exposed to a dilute solution of phosphoric acid (1 per cent.) lost 8.9 per cent. of their original weight. When, therefore, the fume of phosphorus co-operates with the saliva of the mouth, it must clearly exercise a solvent action upon the teeth. In the air of the dipping room of a match factory, Thorpe found O.02 milligrammes of phosphorus per 100 litres of air, while the same quantity of air of the boxing-room contained O.12 milligrammes of phosphorus. On analysing the water in which twenty-two of the workpeople had washed their hands, after working a certain number of hours in the factory, 37.3 milligrammes of phosphorus were found, or an equivalent of 4.2 milligrammes of phosphorus per person for each ten hours’ work.

The lucifer match industry of Great Britain and Ireland gave employment during 1898 to 4270 persons, of whom 1166 were males and 3104 females; about 1700 of these were working in phosphorus processes. Of persons under eighteen years of age there were 466 males and 1077 females. The match works were distributed as follows: in England and Wales 17, Scotland 2, and in Ireland 5, making a total of 24. Dr Whitelegge sends me the following information regarding the number of lucifer match works in January 1901--

Number in which yellow phosphorus is being used 15
Number in which the use of yellow phosphorus has
been discontinued 3
Number not yet working 1
Number closed during past twelve months (one temporarily) 5
--
Total 24

The Chief Inspector of Factories, in his Annual Report for 1899, p. 318, states that the total cases of industrial phosphorus poisoning in this country within the last twenty years, of which there is a definite record, number 102. Before 1898 there were 92 cases of phosphorus necrosis, 6 in 1896, and 4 in 1899. Three other cases were reported in 1899, and are included in the return, but they did not reach the stage of necrosis. It has been urged with reason that such doubtful cases, when notified, should be placed on a “suspended” list, and judgment deferred until the diagnosis is quite clear. Of the 102 cases 19 terminated fatally. Dr Whitelegge informs me that three cases of phosphorus poisoning were reported during 1900; this brings the total number up to 105 in twenty-one years.

The ordinary lucifer match is dipped in a paste composed of glue, phosphorus, chlorate of potass, powdered glass, sometimes magnesia or lime, and coloured by a magenta dye. On an average there is 5 per cent. of phosphorus present in the paste, but sometimes it is double this amount. The paste or composition, when about to be used, is spread upon an iron slab kept at a moderate temperature. Into this paste the dipper, always a male in this country, quickly plunges the tips of prepared wooden splints that are projecting at a uniform level from a frame, and at once hands them over to a fellow-workman, who removes them to the drying chambers, which are ventilated by means of fans to renew the air, and to hasten the drying of the matches. At the distal end of the slab upon which the dipper heads the lucifers, there is, or ought to be, a fan towards which, when in operation, the fumes of the phosphorus as they rise from the paste can be seen travelling away from the face of the worker. Since the introduction of fans on the far side of the slab, the occupation of dipping in match works has become much less dangerous.

The boxing of matches, when done by hand, is attended by considerable risk to health, especially if the workroom is badly ventilated. In addition to the phosphorus fumes which pervade the boxing-room, the atmosphere is from time to time rendered more unhealthy by dense clouds of smoke given off by the matches that are frequently catching fire.

It was Lorinser of Vienna who first drew the attention of the medical profession to phosphorus necrosis, or disease of the jawbone, in lucifer matchmakers. This was in 1845, or about eleven years after the establishment of the match industry in Austria. Between the years 1839–1845 he had examined nine cases of phosphorus necrosis. Shortly after Lorinser had published his cases, Sir Samuel Wilks in our own country reported the occurrence of disease of the jawbone in a matchmaker, attended by suppuration, and followed by exfoliation of the bone. Since then in every country where ordinary lucifer matches have been made, the use of phosphorus has been followed by such an amount of ill-health and suffering on the part of matchmakers, that almost all the preventive measures which industrial science and legislation could suggest, short of total prohibition, have had a trial without rendering the industry completely safe. More than twenty years ago Denmark interdicted the use of white phosphorus, and the importation of ordinary strike-anywhere matches. France, several years after having made the manufacture of matches a Government monopoly, and having been obliged to pay large sums of money as compensation to the diseased matchmakers of Pantin-Aubervilliers, has commenced to manufacture matches from a harmless sesquisulphide of phosphorus; matches which, while possessing all the freedom from poison claimed for _safeties_, have the property of striking anywhere. Belgium has not only insisted upon the reduction of phosphorus in the paste to 8 per cent., but with the view of stimulating the manufacture of a satisfactory non-poisonous strike-anywhere match, has offered a prize of 50,000 francs (£2000). Holland[81] insists upon 5 per cent. of phosphorus in the paste, and allows no young person under sixteen years of age, and no woman to work in a match factory where yellow phosphorus is used. In Norway 28 cases of phosphorus necrosis occurred in fourteen years out of a total number of 600 workers. The match industry of Sweden gives employment to about one-twentieth of the artizan population. In the twenty-seven match factories of that country, 5500 persons find employment, males and females about equally. Although a large proportion of Swedish matches are safeties, yet as a matter of fact 80 per cent. of the matches produced are made from ordinary phosphorus. There is a large home consumption of strike-anywhere matches in Sweden. As a consequence of their manufacture, phosphorus necrosis is not unknown in that country, and on more than one occasion the question of the total prohibition of ordinary phosphorus has been discussed in the Rigsdag. Were such a thing to become law the match industry of Sweden, in the absence of an international agreement, would be seriously crippled. During the year 1891 there were 19 cases of phosphorus necrosis reported from thirteen factories. The Commission appointed by the Swedish Parliament to consider the prohibition of ordinary phosphorus did not feel justified in recommending such a sweeping change, believing that in better ventilation of the workrooms, repeated medical examination of the workers, and scrupulous attention to details in the various processes, the manufacture of matches could be robbed of much that had hitherto caused it to be regarded as a dangerous industry. Of the ninety match factories in Germany about thirty make ordinary lucifers. Several cases of phosphorus necrosis have occurred, but since the introduction of stringent regulations in 1884, requiring special ventilation, medical examination of the workers, personal cleanliness and separation of the workrooms, the amount of sickness has, within the last few years, materially diminished. In Austria-Hungary there are upwards of ninety match works. It is an important industry in Bohemia, Galicia, and Hungary. The matches chiefly find their way into Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, and Turkey. In eighteen years 140 cases of phosphorus necrosis were reported to the Factory Inspectors; as many as 47 cases of phosphorus necrosis having occurred in the year 1888. This unhappy circumstance is to be explained by the fact that the manufacture of lucifers at this time was extensively but secretly carried on as a home industry. Experience has shown that this clandestine practice is always extremely dangerous. Fortunately the authorities have practically succeeded in abolishing this home industry. The regulations in Austria-Hungary resemble those of Germany. Switzerland in 1879 introduced a Bill for the prohibition of the use of yellow phosphorus, and two years afterwards it became law. Instead of abolishing phosphorus necrosis, however, the disease became not only more prevalent, but of a severer type, owing to the manufacture of matches as a home industry. As the interference of the Government defeated the object it had in view, viz., safe-guarding the health of the workers, the Act of 1879 was in a sense repealed. Whilst in Switzerland the importation and manufacture of matches made with yellow phosphorus is forbidden, the manufacture of lucifers is under the control of each canton, the Federal Council holding itself responsible for the conditions that are requisite for the health and safety of the workers, and also of the public.

_Phosphorus Necrosis._--It is difficult to say what is the actual cause of necrosis of the jawbone in lucifer matchmakers. As to whether it is a primary lesion or one secondary to a general or constitutional form of poisoning, medical opinion is still divided. Most writers attribute the disease of the bone to the fumes of phosphorus, _i.e._ to the oxides of phosphorus, acting upon the decayed teeth of the workpeople. The fumes are supposed to penetrate a carious tooth and induce a periostitis or inflammation of the covering of the bone. The gum becomes swollen and painful. To such an extent has this been regarded as the explanation of the cause of necrosis that two of the large match works in this country had at their own expense appointed dentists to examine and keep in good order the teeth of the workpeople. Subsequently the Home Office, as a result of the opinions expressed at an Arbitration with the Match Manufacturers, decided to accept periodical examination of the teeth of the workpeople by a qualified dentist as a substitute for medical inspection. While regarding decayed teeth as a necessary preliminary to inflammation of the dental socket, Roussel holds that it is phosphoric acid that is the destructive agent. Gubler and Lailler,[82] on the other hand, maintain that they have met with phosphorus necrosis in the inferior jaw of a matchmaker whose teeth were perfectly sound, and that if phosphoric acid were the destructive agent the teeth ought to become softened and translucent. Gubler holds, but on what grounds we do not know, that it is phosphorus itself that penetrates into the soft tissues and destroys the nutrition of the covering of the bone. Under all circumstances “phossy jaw” is a painful affection, especially in the early stages, and although naturally it might be expected to occur with greater readiness in workpeople who are ill-nourished, scrofulous, or tubercular, yet I have seen it in male and female matchmakers who were physically strong and otherwise perfectly healthy. This circumstance, therefore, is rather in favour of phosphorus necrosis being in the first instance a local affection and primary. Once suppuration occurs, the painful tooth removed, and the pus thereby allowed to escape, pain is subsequently not a marked feature in the case. As the periosteum is usually separated, the affected portion of bone lying underneath dies and is exfoliated. A piece of bone varying from half-an-inch to three inches is thus thrown off. The process of separation of the bone by ulceration is extremely slow. It may extend over months or years if the bone is not surgically treated, and all this time there is a constant oozing of pus into the mouth of the patient, some of which must be swallowed along with the food, thereby undermining the health and causing anæmia or cachexia, or during sleep it may trickle down the throat into the respiratory passages and set up an unhealthy inflammation of the lining membrane, or it indirectly prepares the way for tubercular disease of the lungs. Either jaw may become necrosed. If anything, the inferior maxilla is more frequently affected than the superior. When the upper jaw is diseased there is a tendency for the inflammation to extend to the base of the skull and to induce a septic inflammation of the membranes of the brain, which is invariably fatal. In France both Dr Magitot of Paris and Dr Arnaud of Marseilles described a constitutional condition or cachexia in matchmakers to which they gave the name of _phosphorisme_, of which pallor, dyspepsia, albuminuria, and a tendency to bronchitis are the prominent features. Arnaud, with whom I had the opportunity of discussing this subject in Marseilles, found that as many as 28 per cent. of lucifer matchmakers, especially young women under eighteen years of age, suffered from bronchitis, but he did not think that matchmaking _per se_ was a cause of tubercular lung disease, nor was it his experience that pregnant female matchmakers aborted more frequently than their sisters engaged in other occupations. Phosphorisme does not occur to any extent in English matchmakers. In visiting the match factories of Belgium, particularly of Grammont, where I met Dr Brocoorens, who from his large experience of industrial phosphorus poisoning had been invited to give evidence before the French Commission, my attention was drawn to the interesting fact that men who had been dippers and who had suffered from necrosis of the jawbone and recovered, exhibited an unnatural tendency to spontaneous fracture of their long bones, especially the femur. During twenty-five years in Grammont alone, which is not a large town, with six match factories giving employment to 1100 people, Dr Brocoorens treated 30 cases of fracture of the long bones, caused by muscular effort, in dippers who had previously suffered from necrosis of the jaw. This circumstance would rather suggest that in addition to the local disease of the maxillæ caused by phosphorus, there was also induced a wider spread morbid state, which was capable of showing itself long after recovery from the primary lesion. Spontaneous fracture of the long bones of matchmakers is not unknown in England. Dr Garman of Bow, medical officer to Messrs Bryant & May, informs me that he knows of nine cases in which the long bones of the arm and leg of matchmakers have become broken without any injury being received, and Dr Dearden of Manchester relates[83] the case of two dippers, “each of whom has had separately and at different times both thigh bones broken in a ridiculously simple fashion.” Dr Kocher of Berne had experience of a matchmaker who broke his thigh bone five times. These facts indicate that the osseous tissues of the body are in some way or other influenced either by phosphorus itself or its compounds, whereby they become unable to withstand external violence. Dearden is of opinion that the bones of match dippers contain an excess of phosphoric acid, which combines with the pre-existing neutral phosphate of lime to form a slightly acid salt. In this circumstance may possibly be found an explanation of the _fragilitas ossium_ of lucifer matchmakers.

A brief notice of some experiments performed by Wegner may not be out of place here. He believes that phosphorus has a specific action upon bones, especially those of young animals. Wegner found that the administration of very minute doses of yellow phosphorus, ¹⁄₁₀ to ⅕ mgrm., for several weeks to young rabbits was followed by characteristic changes in the growth of the long bones, owing to the phosphorus acting as an irritant or stimulant to the bone-forming cells. Where loose cancellous bone was being formed from cartilage, phosphorus caused the deposition of a layer of dense bone, and if the drug was pushed a little longer, the soft, cancellous bone, formed before the phosphorus treatment was begun, became gradually absorbed. In this way the central or medullary cavity of the bone became enlarged, so that in the case of the long bones this cavity extended into the epiphyses or ends of the shafts. In other instances the newly-formed bone which had developed under the influence of the phosphorus, and also that which grows normally from the periosteum, became denser, so that in fowls Wegner found the medullary cavity obliterated by the deposition of hard bone. When lime salts were withheld from the food of the animals treated by phosphorus, the activity of the bone-forming cells continued, but no lime was deposited, and so there was produced a condition of bone such as is found in rickets. Kassowitz by similar means produced appearances closely resembling the soft and yielding bones that are met with in rickety children. Wegner, by exposing the bared tibia of an animal to the influence of phosphorus fumes, induced periosteal irritation and the deposit of new layers of bone.

Although it takes a long time for the sequestrum of a diseased jawbone to be thrown off in a person the subject of phosphorus necrosis, yet once it is expelled and the wound closed, the patient generally feels well enough to return to work in a match factory, and is placed in a department wherein he runs no further risk. Despite the tediousness and the unpleasantness of the malady, most of the patients recover. Dr Garman of Bow, treating his cases by the expectant method and allowing the sequestrum to be naturally separated, found that 83 per cent. of his cases recovered; Kocher of Berne prefers to remove by means of a surgical operation the affected portion of bone, and 83.7 per cent. of his cases recovered; while Kuiper of Jena, treating his patients on similar lines to Kocher, had 89 per cent. of recoveries.

This account of the diseases of bones of matchmakers allows us now to return to the original question, viz., the cause of phosphorus necrosis. Fume is generally regarded as the cause, but it is probably only an incident. In the pus that keeps oozing away from the necrosing jaw of an affected matchmaker, I have found numerous pus-forming micro-organisms, viz., putrefactive bacilli, streptococci and staphylococci pyogenes, and as Professor Stockman of Glasgow detected in addition in the pus a few tubercle bacilli, he is disposed to regard the “phossy jaw” of lucifer matchmakers as a true tubercular process. In several of the specimens of pus taken from the diseased jawbone of matchmakers sent to me by Dr Garman of Bow, I could find no trace of tubercle bacilli, although these were carefully searched for. The presence of the bacilli of tubercle in Professor Stockman’s specimens, which by the way I have had the privilege of examining and confirming, is an extremely interesting fact, and it certainly creates a bias in favour of the lesion being tubercular. On the other hand, the human mouth under all circumstances contains large numbers of micro-organisms, some of which are capable of becoming extremely virulent under altered conditions, and there is no reason why some of these might not find their way through a carious tooth to its socket in the jawbone or to the periosteum, where phosphorus fumes had previously gained entrance and set up irritation. In these tissues thus prepared microbes would find a suitable nidus for their multiplication. As the same remark applies to tubercle bacilli, it is clear that the final answer has not yet been given to the pathological problem of phosphorus necrosis. There is something in the causation of phosphorus necrosis that is still unknown to us, some peculiar action of phosphorus on the human subject that is not yet fully explained.[84] It is an extremely difficult thing to produce phosphorus necrosis in animals, either by exposing them to the fumes of phosphorus itself, or to clouds of smoke from burning matches.

In many instances where “phossy jaw” has occurred, the workpeople were at the time following their occupation, and had done so for many years. Acute phosphorus poisoning, practically speaking, does not occur in matchmakers. The poisoning is always chronic. Phosphorus necrosis was not recognised in Vienna until the industry had been established seven or eight years. The malady might have existed, and of course not been diagnosed. Most of the patients with “phossy jaw” whom I have seen had worked from seven to fifteen years at the trade, but the disease has been known to occur within twelve months after entering a match factory. Dr Garman has kept a register of all the cases of phosphorus necrosis that have occurred in Messrs Bryant & May’s for the last twenty years. During this period there have occurred 51 cases--31 females and 20 males. The upper jaw was affected fifteen times, and the lower sixteen, in the women: while in the men the numbers were eleven and nine. The severer type of the malady formed 70 per cent. of the cases in females, while in males, who as dippers are more exposed to the fresh fumes of phosphorus, it formed 85 per cent. Of these 51 cases of phosphorus necrosis nine ended fatally; 83 per cent. recovered and returned to work. On examining the register as to the ages at death, I find that these were nineteen, twenty-three, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-seven, twenty-seven, nineteen, twenty-two, and twenty-two years. Clearly, therefore, it is not necessary to have a very lengthened exposure to the fumes in order that a fatal result may follow. Co-existing pulmonary consumption was present in two of the patients, and doubtless contributed to the fatal ending. In Great Britain less than 1 per cent. of matchmakers suffer from phosphorus necrosis: in Switzerland it used to be 1.6 to 3, and in France formerly 2 to 3 per cent. Phosphorus necrosis, it is well to remember, does not always develop during the time an individual is following his employment in a match work; it has been known to occur two years after leaving the factory. The early age at which Garman’s patients died suggests that the vital resistance to the malady at this period is less than in later years.

_Prevention of Phosphorus Necrosis._--Since the manufacture of lucifer matches is capable of inducing in the workpeople necrosis of the jawbone, which in the early stages is admittedly a painful affection, but fortunately one not often followed by any marked deformity, it is apparent that to the public must be given by the manufacturers some satisfactory assurance, if the use of yellow phosphorus is to be continued, that the industry which at present is harmful shall be converted into one that is free from danger. Is this event possible? Experience of match works, both at home and abroad, shows that where the industry is conducted on the best hygienic lines possible, phosphorus necrosis is practically unknown. This, so far as it goes, is satisfactory. It cannot be said, however, that the employment of white or yellow phosphorus can under all circumstances be rendered absolutely free from danger. The education of the working classes to use only safety matches would of itself very largely diminish the danger by reducing the demand for ordinary strike-anywhere matches. Dipping of the wooden splints in cold composition instead of hot would, as in the case of vestas, in the manufacture of which “phossy jaw” does not occur, also tend to diminish the ill-health of the workers. It has been demonstrated that certain essential oils are capable of checking the oxidation of phosphorus, which is one of the possible causes of phosphorus necrosis. It has, therefore, been recommended to circulate the vapour of turpentine through the dipping and boxing rooms. In some American factories the workpeople wear suspended round their necks small vessels containing turpentine. Of all hygienic measures full and free ventilation is the best. Years ago the scourge of matchmakers in Belgium was “phossy jaw,” but shortly after the introduction of hygienic measures and the reduction of phosphorus to 8 per cent. in the paste, there was observed a very notable declension in the number of cases of necrosis, and in our own country the removal of phosphorus fume by powerful aspiration from the dipping slab, frequent renewal of the air of the drying chamber, and ventilation of each of the benches at which the boxing is done by women by hand, have exercised an undoubted influence in preventing phosphorus necrosis. Periodical examination of the teeth of matchmakers by a dentist, with the necessary local treatment, including temporary suspension from work on the detection of disease in the early stages, will be beneficial. It is one of the requirements of the Home Office that this dental examination shall be periodically made. Whether of itself it is sufficient to permanently obviate the necessity for a medical examination of the workers by a doctor in addition remains yet to be seen. Since the frequent firing of matches is a cause of pollution of the atmosphere of the boxing-room, and filling of the matchboxes by hand brings the worker into direct contact with dried phosphorus paste, it is advisable to discontinue the practice of cutting wooden matches once they have been headed, and to substitute machinery for all hand labour, which, as in the case of the Diamond Match Company, Liverpool, dips, dries, and boxes the matches in large and well-ventilated rooms, and has thereby practically made lucifer matchmaking a harmless industry. It is absolutely necessary that personal cleanliness should be attended to, and that there should be adequate provision of washing appliances with hot and cold water, plenty of soap and towels, that overalls should be worn, frequent change of occupation from one department in the factory to another, and that no food should be allowed into the workroom.

Can any substitute be found for yellow phosphorus, capable of producing a non-poisonous match that will strike anywhere, and yet conform to the same conditions as ordinary phosphorus? France has, within the last three years, ceased to manufacture matches from yellow phosphorus. In that country the manufacture of matches is a State monopoly. A short while ago the Government felt itself obliged to change the method of manufacture, partly on humanitarian grounds, but very largely owing to the numberless claims for compensation by the workpeople upon the Minister of Finance. In the match works at Pantin-Aubervilliers, there were, in 1894, 32 cases of phosphorus poisoning, 125 in 1895, and in 1896 the number rose to 223, or one-third the effective force of the factory. Many of these must have been of a mild nature, and probably some of them were cases of imposition, for when analysed carefully it would appear that between 1888 and 1896 there were eight cases of deforming necrosis, 12 of necrosis requiring surgical treatment, 21 probable cases of phosphorus necrosis, and 18 of phosphorisme, making a total of 59. At this time the match paste, in addition to lead, contained often as much as from 20 to 30 per cent. of phosphorus. From the 1st January to 31st December 1896, the State paid 400,000 francs as allowances to sick-workers, men and women, employed at Pantin-Aubervilliers, or an average of 650 francs per head employed. It was in consequence of this experience that in order to encourage research, which would lead to the manufacture of a non-poisonous match, the State granted financial help. After many experiments--such, _e.g._, as the matches of M. Ponteau, made from acetate of amyl, during the manufacture of which a splitting headache, a feeling of cerebral fulness, and a throbbing of the head were complained of by the workers, a circumstance that led to their manufacture being abandoned; also the lucifers of M. Miram, which met with a similar fate, since they contained lead, and therefore one poison was simply being substituted for another,--the French Government at present believes that in the substance known as sesquisulphide of phosphorus it has found an answer to the question raised at the head of this paragraph.

The toxicity of the sesquisulphide of phosphorus is small. Messrs Sevène and Cahen gave repeated doses of 3 centigrammes (⅖ grain) of the substance daily to guinea-pigs without these animals appearing to suffer, although the ingestion of 3 milligrammes (¹⁄₂₅ grain) of white phosphorus caused rapid death. The dose of 3 centigrammes (⅖ grain) to a guinea-pig would correspond to 3.5 grammes (54 grains) for a human adult, that is to say, to the amount of sesquisulphide of phosphorus present in 6000 matches. For these and other reasons based upon experience, the French inventors maintain that sesquisulphide of phosphorus matches are harmless. The following is the composition of the paste employed:--

Sesquisulphide of phosphorus 6
Chlorate of potass 24
Zinc white 6
Red ocre 6
Powdered glass 6
Glue 18
Water 34[85]

The sesquisulphide is almost inodorous as a powder, and is non-poisonous. When matches are headed with a paste made from it, they are capable of striking anywhere. The only impurity which the sesquisulphide can contain is some red or amorphous phosphorus. At first manufacturing chemists expressed doubtful opinions as to the keeping properties of the matches, also as to their capability of being transported across the seas, and of remaining good in all climates. Two years’ experience of the manufacture of matches from sesquisulphide of phosphorus has demonstrated such fears to have been groundless. Dr Courtois-Suffit, the Medical Inspector of the Match Works at Pantin-Aubervilliers, says that “since substituting sesquisulphide for yellow phosphorus, not only have the workpeople been more healthy, but that there has been no complaint on the part of the consumers.” No match is superior to the lucifer made from yellow phosphorus. French matches have never been regarded as equal to those of English manufacture. France is not an exporting country. While, therefore, the introduction of what is called a _sans phosphore_ match in France has answered satisfactorily, it does not follow that the manufacture of this particular kind of lucifer is the best for all countries, and especially for such a large exporting country as Britain.

In Italy the same subject has received the attention of scientists. M. Bertarelli,[86] in a lecture at the University of Turin, demonstrated the properties of a non-poisonous match made by Dr G. Graveri of Villanova-Sollaro, the principal ingredient of which is persulphocyanic acid, a substance obtained from the residue of gas-works, of a yellow colour, crystalline, soluble in alcohol, ether, and boiling water, decomposing at a temperature of 220° C., and giving rise to sulphide of carbon, ammonia, and sulphur. This is made into a paste with sulphur and antimony trisulphate. The matches ignite when rubbed briskly upon a rough surface, and no cyanogen is evolved. Bertarelli states that he has given to dogs for several days 3 to 4 grammes (46 to 60 grains) of the paste used for heading the matches, and beyond slight vomiting he has not noticed any accident, whilst 0.7 grammes (11 grains) of ordinary phosphorus paste caused death. It is claimed for his matches that they cost less to produce than ordinary matches, they ignite noiselessly, and develop no odorous gases, that they are non-hygroscopic and non-poisonous. The only drawback is stated to be the escape of hydrochloric acid fume during their manufacture, but this can be overcome by efficient ventilation.

Great Britain is not only a consumer but a large exporter of lucifer matches, and it is this circumstance that raises a difficulty in regard to the total abolition of the use of yellow phosphorus in this country. If other matchmaking and large exporting countries, such as Belgium, Sweden, the United States, and Japan, could come to some satisfactory terms of international agreement with Britain not to manufacture lucifer matches from yellow phosphorus, the question would be settled, if not permanently, at least for a time. It would be useless for Britain with her free trade to abolish yellow phosphorus, thereby crippling her own matchmaking industry, and at the same time allow matches made from the poisonous phosphorus to be imported from other countries wherein Government supervision is perhaps less strict than in ours. Such a course would only transfer phosphorus necrosis from our own to other countries. English methods of manufacture, like national customs, die hard. It is pleasing to observe, however, that the objection on the part of British match manufacturers to the use of substitutes for yellow phosphorus is gradually disappearing. Messrs Bryant & May no longer use yellow phosphorus. Mr Gilbert Bartholomew, the Managing Director of the firm, in answer to some queries I addressed him (1901), informs me that “we are well satisfied with our long trial of the new composition. There has not been, and there cannot be, from the nature of the composition, any sickness among the workpeople. We have not used an ounce of yellow or poisonous phosphorus for nearly ten months.... We do not think there is an increased demand for safety matches; the great demand is for strike-anywhere.” It is gratifying to know that some of the smaller firms of lucifer matchmakers have also undertaken to produce ordinary strike-anywhere matches from a non-poisonous substance. How far these non-poisonous substances are quite free from danger and as sources of irritation, remains to be seen, for conjunctivitis, œdema of eyelids, and eczema have been noticed in the workers.[87]

_Treatment of Phosphorus Necrosis._--It is unnecessary to enter into this at any length. Such preventive measures as a medical and dental examination of the workpeople before entering the factory, and from time to time afterwards, combined with suspension when necessary, personal cleanliness, and the use of terebinth gargles, wearing of overalls, and a change of employment in the factory, also thorough ventilation of the workrooms and of the dipping tables by reliable artificial means, will, if carefully carried out, do a very great deal to make and keep the workpeople healthy.

Once phosphorus necrosis has developed, it may either be treated by antiseptic mouth-washes, maintenance of the general health by good nourishing food, and a life spent in the open air, thus allowing time for exfoliation of the necrosed bone to take place naturally, a process which, as we have seen, may extend over many months; or it may be treated surgically by removal of the piece of diseased bone. Each method has its advocates, but the results are practically the same, viz., upwards of 80 per cent. of recoveries.

THOMAS OLIVER.