Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1886-01-28
CHLORIDE OF ZINC.
A Deadly Poison Employed in the Canned
Goods Trade-The Probable Parent of
Kidnay

agement, anu mas received its present
set back not from sensational Journal
ism, but because the Gamers in their
mad greed for gain left the well-known
and safe method of sealing their cans
with rosin for the use of one of the
most deadly poisins known to science.
Chloride of zinc is poison almost as
deadly as arsenic. When you consider
how heavy zinc is you can consider
how little is necessary to destroy a
human body. Why the Gamers should
abandon the safe process of sealing
with rosin and adopt dangerous one
OF mingling poison with food it is in
terestlng to inquire, and brief history
OF the business will show how this has
taken place.
1t requires some skill to solder with
rosin tlux. 1t requires none to solder
with zinc; the solder will stick to the
tin in any body's hands. Skilled work
men could be done away with and
boys employed, and when wages enter
so largely into the question of cost as
1t does in canned goods, this was an
important item that could not be
looked. Again, cheaper tin could be
used. Still further it was found that
cans could be made by machinery, as
the solder was sure to stick, and the
handmade can and safety became al
most thing of the past. 1t is not to
be supposed that those in the business
would knowingly use dangerous
poison around the food. We will give
them the credit of ignorantly intro
ducing, from the roofing trade, pro-
cess that they thought would cheaper
their cost of packing and of being in
ignorance of the dangers of chloride
OF zinc. Having become an article of
universal use with the Gamers, they
all dread to abandon it, for fear some
one will stick to it and uDdersell them,
this idea of having the goods cheap be-
ing the mania of the trade.
The first fatal case of poisoning by
chloride of zinc occurred under the
care of II. Lethcby, nj. d.. lecturer on
chemistry of the medical school of the
London hospital. 1t was a child of
Is months old. The child got hold of
a bottle of Burnetts disinfectant fluid,
which had been brought into a room
to disinfect for lever. The child died
in collapse in ten hours. On post
mortem examination the membrane of
the lips, mouth, and throat were
obaque and corroded as if by caustic,
as also the stomach, and the kidneys
were found congested.
Woodman & Sidy give reference to
some thirty cases of poisoning by
chloride of zinc, and in the post NOR
TENS of those that died the kidneys
were found congested. In tho KOlyer
case, which is now in the courts, there
was albumen III the urine for two
months, and other members of the
family, also poisoned by canned goods
at the same time, had the same symp-
toms. Stille, in his materia medica,
says that chloride of zinc in the
smallest of doses acts on the kid
neys.
An interesting experiment was tried
at well-known canning establishment.
The veteran foreman, who has had
thirty years experience as Gamer,
took an empty can, and with small
marking brush carefully wiped the
brush on the edge of the pot till the
brush was only moist, and lightly
touched the edge of the tin, holding
the cap down firmly with his hand all
the while; then he took a heavy heated
soldering iron and placed it on the top
of the can and then went round with
the solder Taking three minutes by
the watch to solder on the cap, at this
rate he could only solder on two hum
dred caps day, instead of six thou
sand, which workman has to do to
make his wages and yet when the can
was opened after all this care several
drops of chloride of zinc were found
on the inside of the can. This expert
ment had been repeated over and
over by others, and it is an utter