Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1896-05-06
3DIsONED BY MONEY.
Soiled Banknotes Disseminate Con
s tagious Diseases.
Affliction That Visits All
J. Treasury Employees.

Treasury Employees.
ssDo not te,.euc lid and dirty bank
bilLif yor can avoid Il" That is the
a5ace of one of the most eminent
PHYSICIANS and psychologists in this
city Experiments, he continued,
asiow that such notes frequently con-
tain millions of living bacteria of va
ri6gs kinds, and in that way spread
disease and death.
New notes. according to this spe-
ciaIist, are almost equally dangerous,
buethe peril that turks in them arises
ffcntanother cause-namely, the ar
sensc and other poisonous substances
usssl in their manufacture. A cor
RESPONDENT Of o medical journal re-
Gently wrote "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
their trouble:
Very few who spend any consider
aIls time in counting money escape
thesores 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
woHssn take the greatest care of them
selves in their work, but sooner or
late they are afflicted with these
sorss
The direct cause of the sores is, as
has beea said, the arsenic employed in
the manafacture OF the note. If the
skin is in the ieast abraded and the
arsenic gets under the flesh, o sore
viii appear the next morning. The
habit Of putting the hand to the facs
and head becomes the medium of COM
munScating the arsenic poisoning to
thsss portions of the body.
See here" said the superintend-
ent stopping by the side of a young
woman and picking up glass with o
sponge in it, "this sponge is wet, and
is need to moisten the fingers while
counting money. You see how black
it Is That Is q form Of arsenic,
EseFg morning q new piece Of sponge
is placed on the desk Of each em-
IUllSs. g s.s ll.e da4 is4sysss.
| it is as black as this one I have
known half a dozen cases where women
have been compelled to resign their
positions. There are three women
who were here six years before they
were afflicted with the sores. Finally
shey had to quit work as the disease
appsared. In each case the attending
physician said> >tnsS--.heir 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 common
agent for the spread of disease, such
as diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles
and others of an infectious character.
twill not do to infer that hard
money is entirely safe. The danger
of contracting disease through coin is
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 with
choice collection of bacilli, and when
put in circulation becomes disease
disseminator. The habit of holding
money between the lips or tho teeth
is very often in its results another
peril. Street-car passengers-women
particularly-are addicted to this
practice. They give the coin to the
conductor in payment OF their fare.
Down it goes into his pockets, where
it distributes lis germs among the
coins to which it is added. The next
step in many cases is another visit to
the mouth of some one who contracts
disease the source of which Is never
known.
It has been demonstrated that the
washings from silver and copper coins
contain as many, in some instances
more, microbes of o dangerous charac-
ter than were found in the washings
of old and filthy banknotes.
A Mystery Of The Rail.
ttA ,o,, l,;I1o5 an N roilroo1 povnr