The Portland daily press., 1884-12-25
Poison in Candy.
I've Toms of Deadly Sweets Dulnpe
INTO a Garbage scOw.

/
1 A medical friend of DIR. Cyrus Edison called
upon him short time ago with little boy
whose mouth was badly liberated. Dr.. Edison
was told that the cause of the ulcera tion was a
mystery for some time, but that the boy bad
been detected one day eating piece of hiehly
colored candy. The candy was taken from
| him and examined. 1t was found that the
coloring was produced by poisonous substances
| The next day a woman came to DIR. Edison
with pale, sickly-looking boy about years
of age The woman said that the boy had
bsen growing weaker every day for a long
time. She tried all the remedies she could
think of, but none of them seemed to have any
effect. 1t occurred to her, finally, that per-
haps the boy ate too much candy, and noticed
that he always seemed worse after eating q
sort of marsh malow drop, which he frequent
| ly bought. The woman produced a sample oil
| it. 1t was about an inch square and half an
inch thick, and had light green tint DIR.
| Edson picked it up, and was surprised to find
| it as light a feather He tested the color
| ing, and discovered that it was caused by a
l mixture of chrome green and Prussan blue.
The bows mouth was badly liberated.
DIR. Edson at once determined to take some
e,os to prevent the sale of impure candy. He
had a long consultation with Superintendent
Day Cf the sanitary bureau in regard to it, DIR.
Day su sggested that list of poisonous coloring
substances should be prepared and sent to each
one of thes candy manufacturers. DIR. Edison
concluded to do this, but first to thoroughly
examine ev,ery establishment where candy is
manufactured.
Ab0t three weeks ago be began this work
in company with Officer Edward J. Kennedy
of the sanitary SO uad. The Doctor had pre-
pared list OF evely candy manufacturer in
| ~ aoi+ nd hani had
toward Harlem. The first thing that sur
prised him was the acl ivity apparent in every
one of the factories. They were ali crowded
with workmen, who seem ed to have more than
they could attend to. CNandy of every hue
under the sun and of every shape imaginable
oyerhowed from baskets, be- Sxes and barrels
and was tramped under foot Girls and boys
were working like steam engines packing the
candy into fancy boxes. The L Doctor learned
that all this hurry and hustle was y caused by
the approaching holidays, and til at tons of
candy were being shipped every day to all
parts of the country.
A few OF the factories made spec Ialty of
sugared toys, and in one or two of these places
the beasts owed their colors to chrome gAreen,
red lead, and burnt umber, while tokens OF
love. such as hearts stuck all over with gre an
leaves, we're colored with chrome green. These
were smeared with vermillion, representing
blood supposed to have been shed by an arrow
covered with burnt umber. In every place
where poisonous substances were iouHu inc
proprietor was ordered to lay aside every piece
of colored candy in readiness for removal.
DIR. Edison visited in all sixty-four places, in
thirteen of which he found that all the colored
candies were unfit to eat. He gave list of
these places to Officer Kennedy, and ordered
him to begin removing the candies at once.
| For the most part the manufacturers deliv-
| cred up their impure stock without any trou-
BILE. Some complained bitterly, but in only
one instance did the owner refuse to give up
his stock. This was dealer, who said that
DIR. Edison had ordered him to destroy the can
dy, and he intended to do SO.
In all, between 5000 and 1900 pounds of
candy were destroyed the first day.
DR.. Edson says that the principal coloring
matter used in the impure candies were
chrome green. chrome yellow, red Lead burnt
umber, Prussian blue, rose aniline, which con-
tains arsenic, and vermilion, which contains
bi-sulphate of mercury The doctor said that
| the poisonous substances could be removed II
the manufacturers went to the expense of do
ing SO, but as the oblect of using these articles
for oolcrng purposes instead of pure vegetable