Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-31


selected-used only in those for which
it is eminently an appropriate remedy
much injury is likely to result sooner
or later. People must disabuse them
selves of the idea, which is so COM
mon, that arsenic in minute doses is
always a tonic which can safely be
taken whenever something of the sort
is needed. There never was a greater
mistake made, nor one likely to work a
| injury. Take at random a hundred
people who need a tonic, and it is safe
to say that by scarcely one out OF that
number can arsenic, even in small doses,
be borne without near or remote injury.
| This fact, which can not be disputed,
shows that this powerful poison is safe
| only in the hands of a thorough physi-
clan. and no one, under any condition,
should ever take it except when duly
prescribed. As for the external use of
arsenic, it is used much less now than
| formerly. At one time it was often
employed as a caustic in destructive
skin affections, such as cancer, slough
ing ulcers, ETC. When applied as a
paste, certain portions of the skin, the
liberated as. well as some of the
healthy. are destroyed. After being on
from three to five days, the part COW
cred by the arsenic appears as though
small pieces had been hacked out of
it, but between the small openings are
little points of healthy skin which have
remained unaffected. The arsenical
paste is the application in common use
by medical charlatans who pretend to
have an infallible cure. Considering
the peculiar wound which it leaves
after being applied to a cancer, the
pretension that the disease has been
''drawn out by the roots" is easy for
the ignorant to believe.
A discussion of arsenic would scarcely
be complete without an allusion to its
extensive use in trades. On this SUBJ
ject correspondent to the Druggists
Circular has recently commented. He
stated that some few months ago he
examined for large firm of household
furnishers, as well as for numerous
private individuals, number of sam
pies of the fashionable limitation In
dian muslins' and cretonnes. More
than one hundred samples were exam
ined, and twenty-three per cent. of
these were found to contain arsenic in
appreciable quantities. The colors in
which arsenic were principally present.
were the terra-cotta reds and the green
ish browns. AS a result of experiments
it was concluded that under ordinary
circumstances there was no danger of
arsenic poisoning from these goods.
But, SAYS the writer referred to, in
two cases samples of these materials
were brought to me by medical men, in
which well marked symptoms of arsen-
ical poisoning were ascribed to their
use. In one case, some six or eight
work girls employed in making up
some of this material were all taken
i'll with the same symptoms of arsenical
poisoning. Of course, N such cases
the material, when pressed with hot
irons, is heated far beyond blood heat,
and minute particles are detached and
float in the air of the work-room. That
the arsenic is held very loosely by the
fabric was evidenced by dipping some
of the fabric in water; plenty of the
arsenic was at once taken up by the
water. It would seem at first as if
this might be due to arsenic having
been used as a preservative for the
size or starch present as ''stiffening;"
but then these muslins have no stiffen-
ing. l found my infant playing, lately,
with small glazed cardboard box of
green color that had once contained
chocolate, and that had been OBJ
tanned from one of the automatic
supply boxes. After the manner of in
fants, he was occasionally sucking this.
Out Of curiosity l tested it, and found
that the surface paper" measuring
five inches by one and three-fourths,
contained one tenth of a grain of white
arsenic. In all these cases the guam
tity of arsenic found is small, and it
may be, under ordinary circumstances,
quite harmless; but in all cases its
presence is quite unnecessary. Other
coloring materials could equally well
be used in which there is no possible
noxious ingredient. Omitting articles
in which its occurrence has been purely
accidental, arsenic has been found of
late years to be present in some
samples of muslins, cretonnes, wall
papers, playing cards, the glaze of
some enameled stew pans, the paper of
last are usually the furs prepared by
amateurs. So that we may picture an
infant placed by an unfortunate con-
currence or circumstances in a room
covered with arsenical paper, having
its cot draped with muslin or cretonnes,
fed on food prepared in a glazed
saucepan, itself covered by a rug and
playing with some fancy box of sweets
or toys, all of these containing a
minute but unnecessary amount of ar
senic. One has no wish to be an alarm
ist, or in any way to harass trade, and
it must be freely acknowledged that
cases of any i'll results whatever being
traced to the use of these articles are
very rare. None the less, seeing how
unnecessary they are, and how each
year arsenic seems to be finding its way
into new quarters, it seems advisable
to stop its further progress. This can
only be done by prohibiting by law, as