The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-02-12
4 CRUSADE IN MARYLAND
People Aroused by the Wood Al
coheI Revelations.
D-EE Trade Ready to Cooperate An
the Reform-Cases of BlindneSs
Caused by Using Adu1terated Gin
ger and Peppermint 1> In:oxicants.
Tiae Investigations of DIR. Woods.

BALTIMORE. Feb 12-Dr- Herbert Har-
Ian and his colleagues, who have been
Investigating the effects of wood alcohol
used to adulterate Jamaica ginger. are
| receiving much credit from their fellow
| physicians for their persistent effort TO
| fix the blame where it may lie. The opin-
/ ion among the doctors is that the publ
| cation Of the result Of Dr. Harlan's en-
/ quiry viii be Of very great service IN
| warning men against the danger Of using
! as q beverage certain mixtures.
| As has been set forth on many occa-
! sions. Maryland is without an adequate
/ law restricting the sale of poisons and
providing for the sale of pure drugs. Il is
said that the pharmacists and physicians
/ OF the State will 20 before the next Leg
/ islature and ask for the passage of a
measure which will by reason OF its heavy
penalties, insure the manufacture and sale
/ of unauthorized drugs.
No little interest is manifested in the
/ coming suits and prosecutions by those
| who have suffered from the use of adul-
! terated preparations Druggists and man
! ufacturing chemists throughout the city
/ claim 10 know VINO the alleged offenders
/ are, and they say il viii result in great
good to the trade in general if the Illicit
/ business is broken up. As one leading
manufacturer put it:
The evil done by these firms reflects
upon us all To stop them in substitute
/ ing wood alcohol for the pure in the man
/ ufacture Of Jamaica ginger would be to
/ open the war on all drug authorizations,
/ and 80 Per cent of the uade Will rejoice
l TO see the fSilt opened
One Of the very first oculists to bring
! this matter to the notice Of the profession
( was Or. Hiram Woods, according to
medical book recently published. but he
! had noticed a case some months before he
made his observations public. DR.. Woods
said.
III vas in March, 1897. that I saw my
! first case Of the peculiar blindness which
/ follows IN some instances from Jamaica
ginger Gebauch- Between that date and
! September, 1888 1 noticed five more, and
wrote an article on them Previous TO the
I publication al my article Dr. \ c. Thorn
I son. OF Philadelphia. had written about a
! case which he had observed Dr. Edward
Stieren, Of Pi,tsburg had also reported a
I case, and / have received personal letters
{ from a physician in Arkansas and one in
Idaho stating that they had seen one or
] =
/ ger During the war with Spain I was
! told of case where three n,en were made
drunk by the cheap Jamaica ginger. Two
of them died and one went blind. Dr.. Fa-
/ zeubecker, Of Swanton. Garrett county,
sent me the notes last fall of another case
/ he had observed in which the man first
went blind and "!lsn died. So far as I can
! ind these cases, with those mentioned BY
/ Dr. Harlan, are all that have been noted
/ by oculists.
There are distinct forms of blindness
! brought On by excessive use Of alcohol,
{ nicotine and quinine- These forms are
Well known Blindness from alcohol
/ drinking comes to the man who is an ha-
biJual drunkard and not to the man VINO
! goes on an occasional spTee-exCept in rare
{ instances Dr.. ThOmSOn's case Was that OF
I z sailor who came ashore from a cruise and
/ wa drunk for two days On the Jamaica
+ ginger II that time he drank about d
quar- and a half of the stuff in the form
! OF IOddy. Wien ne began 70 get sober he
had all the symptoms OF the day after an
ordinary whisky drunk but On the evening
/ Of that day he found that his sight vas be
I coming dim. The day after that he was al
most entirely blind. and on the fifth day
( he was absolutely sightless. a condition
which continued for seven days. when he
began TO see a little but never recovered
| his full powers Of vision This case is a
!
mine showed Interesting variations Of
my six three are now totally blind ard
three have 4 very limited vision
The first was dTedger from the East
ern Shore, the second was from Virginia.
ard the third from Cecil county. the
fourth from Howard county. the fifth from
! the Eastern Shore. and the sixth from Gar
! rett county. In each Instance the poison
| which destroyed the eyesight was taken
/ into the system either as essence OF ia
naaica ginger or peppermint. or as some
/ .soft drink. nut all Of them had taken more
/ or lass Of the ginger and some drank 18Th
ing else
/ that before the sight either disappeared
/ forever or returned permanently there
/ were moments Of transient $ Eht. Such
/ was the experience Of one who came to
( me and when I examined him in the office
he could not tell The difference between
night and day. I sent him around TO Or
Harlan and when he got there he CCuli
distinguish the chair in which he vas 8 II
! 10 sit but he aftCrward became blind
( again
When these people told me that they
! had gone blind after debauch ia
/ maica ginger I began to look around Cor
! the reason. | knew that the ginger Itself
would not cause the blindness and also
/ knew that the disaste: was not caused b.
/ ordinary alcohol for IN that ease the
/ blindness would have conc Ca gradually.
About he time that / was first mestiuS
. with this form of blindness several cases
/ were reported in which loss OF sight was
! caused in the same way. with the same
/ symptoms. after Il drunk on wood alcO-
( hoI. so I came to the conclusion that it
/ must be wood alcohol that was at the
/ bottom of the eases which I Was investi-
| eating
IN only one OF the six instances was
the Jamaica ginger made by : firm OF such
reputation that / could be reasC uabIy sure
it was free of the wood alcohol I went
/ 10 one Of the firms which is concerned in
{ the exposure, and asked for the fer
Z muI4 for their Jamaica ginger IL was
I given TO me. and contained the item 'a'co-
hOI | asked if wood alcohol we're meant.
! but that was strenu0uSly denied
| I learned from the Garrett county and
Howard county victims where they bought
the stuff which had wrecked their lives
One Of them promised TO get me sample
[ but has never answered beyond that
! while the stoTekeePer would not sell 10 a
man who was sent by the other 20 make
'hn purchase for him. because il was
--- was connected with