Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-06-15
DANGEROUS TO HANDLE HIDES.
Warning to Those who Work In Leather
Stnres-hIood POIsonIng.

| Warning to Those Who Work In Leather
| Stores-BIood Poisoning.
The death Of Thomas Young some time
| ago, workman in a Spruce street wholesale
leather house from poison received In hand
| ling hides, has caused talk among leather
| dealers William Palen said: 81 see that
| Young thought that he had been bitten by
some insect that blrrowed in a hide differ
from that have known OF poisonous in
| sects such as the scorpion. to be found in the
hides, but never knew Of any men being bit
ten by them. Young probably raised a bun
die Of hides to his shoulder and it scratched
his neck, causing an abrasion of the skin,
through which the poison in the hide entered
his system. In my fathers tannery, over
thirty-flv years ago, | used TO see men with
their arms frightfully swollen through hnv-
ing been poisoned in handling hides. One
man employed here In Spruce street lost an
eye in this way. Physicians, in making an
autopsy. may be poisoned similarly II any
abrasion OF their skin Is exposed to the virus
Of any diseased organ of q subject they are
examining. Most OF the hides likely to be dis
eased come from the East indies, the Argen-
tine Confederation and other foreign ports.
l have never known men to DO poisoned In
handling our own American hides, which are
pretty sure TO come from stock that has been
killed"
@. b. Horton said. "There is no more dan
gerous illness that man can suffer from
than that of blood poisoning from coming in
contact with the hide OF an animal that has
died of virulent disease. II should be
poisoned in this way In the head or neck
should go home and make my will II a
man is poisoned In the hand his chance of
recovery Is good, but let him be poisoned in
the head or neck. and Il is two to one that he
dies have known of half a dozen deaths
in five years, two of them being Of men in
our own employ, from the same cause that
killed Young Hides include those Of ami
mails that have been killed and whose skins
are healthy. those of fallen cattle, or those
that have been frozen or died of starvation,
whose minute blood vessels, in the tieshy
part of the hide, coagulate and turn the skin
black, and lastly. of those of diseased cattle,
that also turn black and have patches OF hair
gone in places OF course, the ordinary
workman cannot make these distinctions, but
they can protect themselves from danger If
they would cover any abrasion of the skin at
once with court plaster wear gloves when
at work, There is no danger in handling
our native hides, because the men west don't
remove the skin from an animal that has
died of any disease
THE most dangerous hides come from coun-
tries where the workmen are very poor and
labor for few cents day Particularly
dangerous hides come from the East Indies,
Central America and Mexico When one of
our own men, Samuel Nc Williams, died some
years ago from blood poisoning, resulting
from handling hides, it was said that he died
from arsenical poisoning This was wrong,
as the amount of arsenic used in curing a
hide SO that insects can't eat it is infinitesi-
pOnlh hn fret
symptom of blood poisoning from diseased
hide that appears in the victim is a red spot |
with a hard white center, similar in appear |
ance to the sting mark of bee After few |
hours the affected part begins to swell rap |
idly, and the disease speedily affects a con- |
siderable portion of the body. Handling |
hides will continue to be most dangerous |
business until the men learn to take proper
precautions In their work New York Sun.