Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-09-04
POISON in ICE CREAM.
How Fatally Toxic Matter Is Developed in
That Frlgid Sweet

How Fatally Toxic Matter Is Developed in
That Frlgid Sweet
There is much food for reflection in
the suggestion made by DR.. George s.
Hull in the Medical Neus that the
modern ice cream freezer, when filled
with cream, is in reality galvanic cell
or battery. The cream, especially if
saline, or if mixed with fruits, eggs,
etc., becomes the corrosive electrolyte,
and the zinc and tin. zinc and copper,
or any other two metals of the paddles
and freezer, become the positive and
negative elements of the battery. DR..
Hull has by experiment proved that
an electrical action takes place in
freezing under such circumstances,
and, if electrical action, then of course
chemical action, resulting in the intro
duction into cream of highly poisonous
salts of copper or of zinc. The Ne,Us
contains also the reports of Drs.
Mitchell and Hyndman of Cincinnati,
and the discussion in the Cincinnati
Academy of Medicine concerning the
terrible Snook-Herr poisoning cases
that occurred near Louisville about two
months ago. Our readers may remem-
Der that some sixty wedding guests
were poisoned, the bridegroom and
several others fatally. The cause of
the poisoning still remains profound
mystery. The editor of the Medical
Ne,os throws out the suggestion that
DR.. Hulls experiments and theory
may possibly lead to an explanation Of
the strange facts. The ingenious sug-
gestion is also made by the editor
that of two persons eating cream
from the same freezer one may be
killed by the poison in the cream and
the other unframed, by reason of the
fact that the stiff and pasty cream
would not permit thorough mixture
and dissemination of the poison
throughout the whole mass except
after prolonged stirring and mixing.
DR.. HulTs theory presupposes that the
toxic matter is thrown off into the
cream when it stands over night or for
number of hours in connection with
the two metals in the freezer. The
conclusions of DR.. Hulls study are
thus summarized:
81. If we desire the smallest guam
tity of metallic poison in our ice cream
and still keep in use our modern
freezer we should see that the ingredi-
ents are pure, that the mixture is
frozen quickly and the paddle at once
removed.
'.2. The quantity of poisonous salts,
is increased by acid mixtures, espe!!
cially by the addition of eggs, corn,
starch, etc. The addition Of salt for
flayoring purposes, as made by some
manufacturers, becomes criminal, and
it is grossly careless to allow any of
the salt water from the outside to get
into the can. If, as o result of fer
mentation, ice cream should contain
tyrotoxicon then it must be acid, and,
on this account, will dissolve still more
zinc or copper.
1.-THE quantity of metal dissolved de-
ponds upon the length of time the
paddle is left in the can, or, if the can
has zinc-coated bottom and tin sides,
the length of time the cream remains
in it, or the amount of electrical action
will again vary if the can be copper,
coated with tin, and the tin be worn
off so as to expose the copper, thus
producing local currents that dissolve
the COPPER"