Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1861-05-03
OUR HEALTH COLUMN OR MEDICAL AND
ANTI-MEDICAL.
POISONING FROM DECOMPOSITION.

be only the effects OF poisoning. Ii man
has small pox, humps, measles, scrofula,
consumption, dysentery, cholera, plague,
typhus, yellow, scarlet, or any other fever,
he has been poisoned. Some are poisoned
by the food they eat; others by the water
they drink; but more by the air they
breathe. have spoken of the Importance
of pure air in another place. wish here
to say word respecting the danger and
disastrous consequences which may and do
arise from the decomposition of few SIM
pie vegetables in our dwellings.
A striking and melancholy illustration
of the doctrine now under consideration is
found in case which happened few
years since in one of our country towns.
LOOK WELL TO Your CELLAR.-A ply
stefan was called to see a patient who APP
peared to be Frustrated with fever of no
ordinary malignancy. He failed not to
bring into requisition every remedy which
the case seemed to indicate. And with
the utmost solicitude and care did he ex-
ert himself to stay the ravages of the dis
ease; but all in vain.
The physician who spent his life to
lengthen out the lives of others, Ga fact
not half appreciated by the community
was in pain to show the cause of such
terrible calamity; and there was no dis
ease in the neighborhood that resembled
it, and being q man of common sense, he
naturally suspected that there was some
hidden mandatory of death about the
premises; but on making inquiry. was
told that all was right; and for time the
case remained mystery. Soon, however,
one and another were stricken down, pro-
ducing the most alarming apprehensions
and threatening the destruction of the en-
tire household. The medical gentleman
now determined to search the premises
from top to bottom, as for deadly viper,
and with candle in hand, commenced in
the cellar, (the most suspicious spot,) and
there he soon found, slowed away in some
dark corner, q few rotten potatoes! On
removing these, and ventilating the house,
the survivors escaped the jaws of death.
BE NOT DECEIVED. dismissing
this subject, I would remark that in all
cases of epidemics, no matter what the
disease, nor what the pestiferous agent, it
becomes doubly important that every dwell
ling should Ike kept as pure as possible,
for with an infected air without and a
poisoned air within, we can hardly expect
to escape destruction.
ALWAYS NEEDFUL.-But let none sup
pose that because it is general time of
health, no caution in this respect is need
full. A greater error could not we'll exist.
What is it not just as bad to rush madly
into the jaws of death at time of great
salubrity, as to become victim of some
terrible pestilence?
VEGETABLE WORSE THAN ANIMAL Poison.
What signs and suferings what tears
and groans, what agony and death, might
have been prevented, if in the case above,
the physician had early pointed out the
enemy and his warning had been fully
needed. But had he thus fully exposed
the pestilential agent such is the tendency
to indifference and incredulity, that, ten
chances to one, if he had not been forgot
ten in two hours, or his warning voice
considered more as the offspring of super
stition than the fruits of scientific inves-
tigation, and sincere regard for the well
fare of his fellow men. What say you,
readers, will you ever drive from your
dwelling a single rotten potatoe in consc-
quence of this hint? If not, remember
still, that | tell you one thing, that you
have more to fear from peck of vcgeta-
bles in state of decomposition in an i'll
ventilated apartment, than from the rot
ten carcase Of the largest elephant on the
face Of the earth.
The subject of poisons being full of in
terest, demands much more perfect ex-
animation than the limits of this work
will admit. The eye poisons some the
hand poisons others but the palate and
the pocket poisons more than all. One
man assumes the right to poison himself
and others. And another is licensed to