The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-24
POISONED MONEY.
Soiled Banknotes Disseminate Con-
tagious Diseases.
The Affliction That Visits All
Treasury Employees.

'Do not take an old and dirty bank
bill If You can avoid il" That is the
advice Of one Of the most eminent
physicians and bactoriologists in this
city Experiments, he continued,
show that such notes frequently con-
Mn millions OF living baoteria Of va
Nous kinds, and in that way spread
disease and death.
New notes, according to this spo-
oialist, are almost equally dangerous,
but the peril that turks in them crises
from another cause-namely, the ar
senie and other poisonous substances
used in their manufacture. A cor
respondent OF a medical journal re-
Gently wrOto'that many of the women
employed in counting banknotes IN
the treasury at Washington looked i'll
and had sores upon their hands and
heads" The superintendent of the
treasury gave the following account Of
beir trouble:
VERY few who spend any consider
able time in counting money escape
the sores. They generally appear first
on their hands, but frequently they
break out on the head, and sometimes
the eyes are affected. We can do
nothing to prevent this. All of the
women take the greatest care of them
selves in their work, but sooner or
later they are afflicted with these
sores.
The direct cause of the sores is, as
has been said, the arsenic employed in
the manufacture of the note. If the
skin is in the least abraded and the
Aarsenic gets under the flesh, a sore
will appear the next morning. The
habit of putting the hand to the face
and head becomes the medium of com
municating the arsenic poisoning to
these portions of the body.
''See here, said the superintend-
rent, stopping by the side of young
oman and picking up glass with a
2nge in it, "this sponge is wet, and
sed to moisten the fingers while
nting money. You see how black
b That Is a form of arsenic.
y morning new piece of sponge
ed on the desk of each en-
but before the day is over
black as this one. l have
- half dozen cases where women
been compelled to resign their
lions. There are three women
we're here six years before they
Il afflicted with the sores. Finally
hey had to quit work as the disease
appeared. In each case the attending
{ physician said that their blood was
poisoned with arsenic.
The dangers in old bills are not due
to the coloring matter used in print
ing. But the old money is a common
agent for the spread Of disease, such
as diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles
and others Of an infectious character.
1t will not do to infer that hard
z money is entirely safe. The danger
of contracting disease through coin il
quite as great as it is in the case Of
notes. Many mothers frequently give
coins as playthings to their children
who are recovering from disease
That money is very often loaded will
a choice collection of bacilli, and whel
nut in circulation becomes diseas,
disseminator. The habit of holding
money between the lips or the teetl
is very often in its results anothe
peril. Street car passengers womei
particularly-are addicted to thi
practice. They give the coin to til
conductor in payment Of their fare
Down it goes into his pockets, wher
it distributes its germs among thu
coins to which it is added. The mex
step in many cases is another visit t.
the mouth of some one who contract
a disease the source of which is neve
known,
It has been demonstrated that til
washings from silver and copper coin
contain as many, in some instance
more, microbes of dangerous charaC
ter than we're found in the washing
OF old and filthy banknotea