Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-08-27


Arsenic is getting to be throughout the
world almost a. common as dirt We
doubt very much whether il would not be
impossible at the present day, In any
country, to convict on chemical evidence
belOreany Jury the most bungling ersenical
poisonof IL she or he had legal defeuder
who would make use, as he might, of the
argument furnished him by the almost
universal distribution Of the venomous
element throughout our most familiar
walks Of life. We have received medi.
cines ourselves from drug stores wrapped
In arsenical papers, put up in Paris-green
paper boxes, with arsenical paper caps
tied over the corks, etc. We have often
seen confectionery exposed for sale to
young children wrapped in the deadly
green paper We have oflen found young
children sucking toys painted with the
horrible stuff, and with their mouths
stained throughout with the venom. The
Paris.green paper is one of the commonest
In use for binding school.books, and we
have more than once taken such hooks
away from our own young children, which
had been given them by their teachers
Numerous deaths of children are known
TO have been thus occasioncd. No country
can be called civilized in which such sui.
cidal ignorance, such stupid Slaughter Of
the innocents, is common. One more illus
tration only 1t is very common to see a
lawyer or his clerk put into his mouth, TO
moisten the gum side OF 1t, beautiful
green paper disk with scalloped edges, to
attach to some document These things are
found in every lawyers office in the land,
and used constantly. They are seldom
made of any other than the Paris screen
paper. Can this be ignorance, or are our
lawyers all fatalists, and believe they can
only "die when their time comes"! In
commencing to write we had in our mind
10 refer TO some of the wonderful fActs de-
veloped of late in Great Britain especial
ly, Of open carts loaded with white arsenic
passing in open day through the country
in some districts, with drivers sitting on
the top of the hideous heap; such carts
being then exposed all night open to the
rain; of stronglyarsenical waters flowing
from mines and metallurgcal works into
streams of water afterwapl drank by large
populations, and so on. These are facts.
Everybody will remember the cargo of salt
and arsenic together shipped TO us from
Europe few months ago, which got a
little mixed during rough passage. This
particular mixture was discovered. The
water we ourselves drink comes from a
stream on one of whose tributaries Is a
large chemical works which so contain
mates the said tributary with arsenic that
cattle drinking it have been poisoned TO
death. These things, we say, are facts on
both sides of the Atlantic; but really,
while we wrote the first part of this article
especially, when we thought of the reck-
lessness of the public press, which has
actually recommended their rural readers,
In many cases, TO pile on the Paris green
on their potato patches with a perfect
looseness, these other things seem tritles,
and fiat and stale as they certainly are un-
profitable, and our enthusiasm and zeal
for the cause of humanity seem TO wilt
down into sort of sentimentality, which
is certainly ludicrously lame and i'm
potent, if not downright sickly.-GdS
IiOht Journal