Accused for Mixing Arsenic Into Medicine - Exculpated by Stromeyer

Accused for Mixing Arsenic Into Medicine - Exculpated by Stromeyer 

When the discovery became known, a factory owner, K. S. L. Hermann in Schone-beck, and a Medidnal Counsellor, Dr J. C. H. Roloff in Magdeburg, contacted Professor Stromeyer. Dr Roloff had made a pharmacy inspection some years earlier and confiscated zinc oxide, as it seemed to contain arsenic. From an add solution of the oxide, hydrogen sulfide in fact predpitated a yellow sulfide, identified as arsenic sulfide. The zinc oxide had been manufactured at Hermann s fadory from a Silesian calamine ore. The two gentlemen now sent to Professor Stromeyer both zinc oxide, prepared from the ore from Silesia, and the yellow sulfide with supposed content of arsenic. Stromeyer could rapidly state that the yellow substance was not the sulfide of arsenic but a sulfide of the metal he himself had discovered. 

He also made the same investigation of the zinc oxide from Schonebeck as he had originally made with the carbonate from Salzgitter, and got the same result. Hermann was very satisfied. His tarnished reputation as a supplier of medical zinc oxide containing arsenic could be restored. Also Professor Stromeyer was satisfied. Through the contact with Hermann and his ore supplier, he got a large supply of material for further investigation of the new metal and its properties. 

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