Science: Lewisite

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At Elnora, Ind., nocturnal yeggs fiddled at the combination of the vault in the Citizens' Bank. From inside the vault came a faint tinkle of breaking glass. The yeggs gagged, struggled for breath, staggered out of doors, undetected but quite through with safecracking for that night. Next morning, the bank officials beamed with delight at the evidence of foiled foul play and the efficiency of a fragile flask of Lewisite* they had had installed in the vault by a Chicago firm. Other bankers hastened to ask questions, order flasks of Lewisite for their own protection. Other yeggs scowled at the thought of having to add to their equipment—jimmy, "soup" (nitroglycerin), oxyacetylene blowtorch — a gas mask of exceedingly high impenetrability.