The Portland daily press., 1872-04-03
THE PRESS
Domestic POisOns.
THE ARNOLD FAMILY.

THE ARNOLD FAMlL1' ..
The Baltimore american says: The recent
no;sonino of the Arnold family at Burkittsville
suggests some reflections upon the perls to
which we are exposed in the commonest ex-
perences of everyday life. Death may be
lurking in handful of -four, cup of tea, or
even glass of water. The stove that warns
our chamber may suddenly become the gem
orator OF noxious gases, the inhalation OF
which by the unconscious sleeper may pro-
duce fatal asphyxia. How much OF disease
and premature decay and death Is produced
by poisons, the existence OF which were new
er suspected, eternity alone will disclose.
The poison that is accidentally or carelessly
mingled with our daily food destroys more
lives than all the malice of the poisoner. As
the habits of living become more luxurious
the danger increases. We know not by what
processes the essences and extracts which fla
vor the food we eat are prepared, or what
carelessness may have transferred poisonous
mixture to the rectified liquid. H3E
Formerly the want of tidiness in the cook
that permitted the oxidation of copper kettles
was the chief peril against which family of
simple habits hadto guard, but to thishas been
superadded hundred other sources of dam
ger, each of which must be carefully watched.
In some portions of the country the glazing
OF earthenware is imperfectly understood,
and we have known many cases of poisoning
to result therefrom. In one of the central
counties of Pennsylvania, some twenty years
ago, more than two hundred persons were
poisoned, many of them fatally, by the I'M
skillfulness of potter, who thought he un-
derstood the art of making earthern jars for
apple butter, but did not
The preserving of fruit in Theoretically seal
ed cans has vastly increased the number of
cases of doDestic poisoning. The acids con-
tanned in the fruit form chemical compounds
with the metallic substances used in making
or sealing the cans, and occasionally deadly
poisons are produced by these combinations.
Very probably the decomposition of the vege-
table substance itself sometimes develops
poisonous gases without the aid of glazed Jars
or metallic cans. We have heard of poisoned
-four that, when baked into bread, instead of
being ''the staff of life," became the destroy
er OF life. Investigation showed that the lead,
or zinc, which had been used to fasten the
gudgeon of the milestone on which it had
been ground was rubbed off at every revolu-
ton, and that each barrel of -four contained
a certain percentage of the powdered metal.
There are but few persons who have not
tasted tea that had decidedly coppery flavor.
We are not sufficiently familiar with the pro-
cess by which tea is prepared for shipping to
know whether this metallic taste belongs to
the article itself, or whether it is derived from
the vessel in which it is prepared for the ia
BILE. 1t occurs to us that when guest de-
tects this flavor i'll his cup of tea he had bet
ter make his apology to his host and drink no
more. Should he be at home when the dis
agreeable substance, tasting like the sulphate
OF iron, impinges on his palate, the teapot
should be forthwith emptied and rigid in
vestigation instituted, first in the kitchen and
then at the grocer's.
The Burkittsville poisoning case, to which
we have alluded, is particularly mysterious.
A happy family, living in quiet country vii
lage, in which probably not grain of any
kind of poison was ever kept for sale, lex.
cept laudanum) is suddenly stricken down
with an indescribable stupor, from which the
mother never wakes, and the children are
not yet fully resuscitated. They sit down to
their frugal meal in robust health; they rise
from the table only to reel in bewildering
delirium, and sink helpless to the floor, where
they remain for eighteen hours. When
nelghbor enters the house, he finds the moth
er moribund, four of the children uncon-
scious, and ne of them partially revived.
As yet the hildren seem not to have suffi-
GENTLY recove I'd to give any ineligible ac-
count OF whG. TRANSFERRED Immediately before
they were takei sick. The mother was bur-
led without any post norton examination
having been made. While we appreciate the
delicacy that shrinks from this investigation.
yet there are instances in which affection
should yield something to the common good.
Every one is interested in knowing what
subtle poison it was that brought suffering.
death, and sorrow to that stricken household.
The same causes may produce the same re-
suits In hundred other homes, and it is
right that the world should know what thew
are. to the end that they may be guarded
against. ---.-.-