New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-07-11
4 MYSTERIOUS POISON.

The sudden. violent and in two cases fatal
illness of several members of well-known
Philadelphia family AT their country house IN
New-Jcrscy is supposed 10 have resulted from
their having eaten some article OF food in
which vircnt poison had been mysterlously
developed. Nobody is AT present even su'-
pccted by any one of the sufferers of having
intentionally done the mischief, and careless
ness is the worst accusation that Is likely ~
be made II may in fact. he exceedingly Diff
cult and perhaps impossible to prove negll-
gcncc on the part of the person who prepared
the food or was responsible for the condition
of the utensils used for the purpose. Circum-
stances seem 10 justify the assumption that a
custard was the particular article which CON
tanned the poisonous substance. inasmuch aS
all who ate Of IT,. and no Others were affected.
Experience likewise bears ont this suppostion
to some extent for in similar cases heretofore
il has been pretty concluSiycly established that
an article of food of which milk or cream was
principal ingredient was the agent of evil.
Moreover. it has repeatedly happened that the
nocuous dish had been subjected to a freezing
process, as a part of it's preparation for the
table. Thus icc-crcam has been popularity and
perhaps Justly denounced a. the cause of most
of these strange occurrences. In this case the
suspected custard had been in a freezer for
some time before it was eaten which suggests
the familiar inference.
The number of such casualties reported every
year is considerable. II is not certain that II
is increasing, for the field OF news, or what
passes for news is more and more diligently
IL, 81 nd p.ht do al a
this fact into account are likely to be errone-
Gus. But on the other hand, so long as the
cause remains obscure, these poisoning cases
may naturally be expected 70 become more
numerous with the increase of population and
the much greater relative increase in the con-
sumption Of certain varieties of food. For
example. it is not improbable, TO use a stats
teal phrase, that ten times as much icc-crcam
per capita was consumed in the United States
last year as was consumed twenty years ago.
Certainly the cause does remain obscure, per
haps not altogether To the credit of the med
zeal profession in general and guardians of the
public health in particular There have been
to be sure many dispositions on the subject
in court and elsewhere having the appearance
of learning or at least of assurance and it
may be that few eminent analysts have now
and then succeeded in isOlating a highly sus-
piclous germ and getting it under microscope.
But if so. they have not succeeded in showing
TO the world in any practical manner where it
came from, how it got there, the conditions Of
its development, the nature of its operations
and the method Of exte:minatng it.
With this subject just now rendered especial
~ interesting by distressing occurrence, med
ical science might proiiiably concern itself
We have no doubt that the unhappy consc-
quences Of impru1cnce in eating and drinking
are often falsely attributed to mysterious
cause, and that physical sensations of a start
ling character are frequently converted into
newspaper sensations without reason. But
that virulcnt poison is occasionally developed
obscurcly in articles Of food with serious and
even fatal results is undsputcd, and definite
progress in knowledge Of the cause and cure
ought to be made.