A similar case of benzene poisoning occurred in a naphthalamine works through inspecting an extracting vessel which had contained benzene and naphthalamine and had to be cleaned. The vessel had been empty for twenty-two hours and had been washed and ventilated, but through a leaking pipe benzene had dropped down into it. The workman engaged was rendered unconscious inside the retort, but was rescued by an engineer equipped with a breathing helmet. Others who without such apparatus tried to effect a rescue were overcome, and one who had entered the retort succumbed.[1] Benzene poisoning has often occurred in the cleaning of tanks, &c., for the transport and storage of the substance. The following examples are taken from the Reports of the Union of Chemical Industry. A worker during the pause for breakfast had, unknown to his employer, cleaned out an empty truck for crude benzol. Later he was with difficulty removed unconscious through the manhole and could not be resuscitated. Only a short time previously a similar occurrence had taken place in the same factory. Two further fatal cases were reported in 1908 in the cleaning out of railway tank waggons. The tank had previously been thoroughly sprayed with water. The partition plates which are required in such tanks increase the difficulty of cleaning from the manhole. After the foreman had tested the air by putting his head inside and considered it free from danger, a man entered to clean out the deposit; another man on watch outside had evidently gone in for rescue purposes. Resuscitation in both cases failed. A worker died and several were affected in the cleaning out of a benzol storage tank in a tar distillery. The tank had had air blown through it several weeks before, and had been thoroughly cleaned by steam and water. Also in the inspection the greatest care was taken in only permitting work for short spells. This shows that, notwithstanding great care, the last traces of benzol cannot be entirely removed and that quite small quantities are sufficient to cause severe and even fatal poisoning. Workers should only clean out tanks, therefore, when properly equipped with helmets. In the German factory inspectors’ reports for 1902 a case of intoxication is described in a man who was engaged painting the inside of an iron reservoir with an asphalt paint dissolved in benzol. Of special interest is a fatal case from inhalation of benzol fumes in a rubber factory. Rubber dissolved in benzol was being rubbed into the cloth on a spreading machine in the usual way. The cloth then passes under the cleaning doctor along the long heated plate to the end rolls. Of the three men employed at the process one was found to be unconscious and could not be brought round again. The cases described[2] of poisoning with impure benzol in a pneumatic tyre factory in Upsala are, perhaps, analogous. Here nine young women had severe symptoms, four of whom died.