In June, 1928, about thirty persons attending a convention dinner at a leading hotel in Utica, N. Y., became acutely ill several hours following the meal. Dr. Hollingworth, city veterinarian, was asked to investigate the source of the trouble, which was considered to be food spoilage. No such cause could be discovered. In passing through the hotel pantries he detected the characteristic odor of prussic acid in a silver polish powder, used there as in many other hotels. It was later determined that this so-called silver-dip powder contained sodium cyanide to the extent of 20.54 per cent. Similar trouble was traced to the same product in a leading Syracuse hotel. The matter came to the attention of the New York State Health Department early in 1929, and two articles of warning appeared in the department's weekly Health News, Jan. 28, and July 22, 1929.1
While visiting a large hotel