Once Upon A Time, Cincinnati’s Official Chemist Uncovered Some Unsavory Secrets

The Cincinnati Board of Health was mightily confused in 1915. The board clerk handed president George Fackler a request to approve the purchase of something called “Dimethylparaphenylenediamine.”John O’Neil, clerk of the board, mumbled a shaky attempt at pronunciation. Fackler, a bona fide medical doctor, asked the clerk what that unpronounceable something was. Health Officer John Landis, who was also a physician, and board members Dr. Gustav Zinke and Dr. Samuel Allen confessed ignorance. William Breed, a stockbroker, pointed to the only other layman on the board, A. Clifford Shinkle, president of the Covington & Cincinnati Bridge Company, and said, “If you fellows don’t know, how do you expect Mr. Shinkle and me to know?”The board summoned the person who requested the mystery item, and a rather perturbed gentleman, wearing a stained laboratory smock and obviously distracted from his test tubes, appeared in the boardroom. According to the Cincinnati Post [6 April 1915]:“Chief Chemist…