Swarfega is strong stuff...
My first job was in a studio that was part of a small print firm in EC1 way back in the 70's. In 1976 (one of the hottest summers on record), staff began to notice a foul smell coming from the (only) toilet. For a short time it was blamed on the boss as he had a reputation for creative toilet smells. This particular smell though not only lingered, it got steadily worse. Gallons of various cleaning products were dropped down the lav to get rid of the smell, but to no avail. And as the temperature increased so did the foul aroma. Eventually, a specialist drain cleaning company came in and nuked the toilet, again without effect.
After two weeks it's origin was finally discovered when one of the printer's went to the sink to wash his hands. Printing ink needs more than just soap and water to remove it so about a gallon sized tub of swarfega lived under the sink that the print guys reached into to use to scrub up with. The tub was running low so he pulled it out from under the sink and found that a mouse had got into the tub and couldn't get out. It slowly sank into the thick gel and drowned/suffocated. As the weeks went by it began to liquify in the swarfega and as the contents of the tub got used up, what was left of a rotting mouse and the liquid it made were exposed to the summer heat. All that was left was it's head, tail and skeleton - the swarfega ate the rest.
(Ripley isis spelt backwards is sisi, Sat 4 Feb 2012, 23:45, Reply)