In the Sherlock Holmes story, The Case of the Illustrious Client, a former paramour seeks revenge on the dastardly Baron Adelbert Gruner by splashing the Baron鈥檚 face with sulphuric acid, which at the time was commonly known as vitriol.聽聽The effect was accurately described by Conan Doyle, which is not surprising, given that the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories was a physician: 鈥淭he vitriol was eating into it everywhere and dripping from the ears and the chin. One eye was already white and glazed. The other was red and inflamed. The features which I had admired a few minutes before were now like some beautiful painting over which the artist has passed a wet and foul sponge. They were blurred, discoloured, inhuman, terrible.鈥澛犅燬uch vitriolic attacks are terrible indeed.
Credit for the discovery of sulphuric acid is usually attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan, an Arabian alchemist of the eight century.聽聽Our term 鈥済ibberish鈥� supposedly derives from his English name Geber, in reference to the alchemists鈥� use of secret codes that to others were incomprehensible, or 鈥済ibberish.鈥澛犅燘ut it seems Jabir鈥檚 experiments with hydrated sulfate salts of iron and copper were recorded well enough for him to be credited with the discovery of vitriol.聽聽The term 鈥渉ydrated鈥� refers to the inclusion of water in the crystal structure of these substances.聽聽Hydrated iron sulphate or copper sulphate decompose on heating to yield sulphur trioxide and water, which then combine to yield sulphuric acid, or vitriol.聽聽Vitreus is the Latin word for glass, and since crystals of sulphate salts have a glass-like appearance, 鈥渙il of vitriol鈥� became a reasonable name for the acid that was derived from the heat treatment of these salts.聽聽Indeed, copper sulphate still has the common name blue vitriol, iron sulphate is green vitriol and cobalt sulphate is red vitriol.
Sulphuric acid is an extremely corrosive substance and can cause permanent disfigurement when splashed on the skin.聽聽Unfortunately such vitriolic attacks are not limited to fictional detective stories, they happen in real life.聽聽An attack by extremists on girls on their way to school in Afghanistan is a recent horrific example.聽聽Believing that girls would be polluted by education, they carried out an attack leaving some of the students scarred for life, both figuratively and literally.聽聽Used in this way, sulphuric acid is a terrible chemical weapon.聽聽But it is also the most important industrial chemical in the world, without which the steel, fertilizer and plastics industries would be crippled.聽聽There are no safe or dangerous chemicals, there are only safe and dangerous ways to use chemicals.
