The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-02
Medical Notes.


ger to health 1t often happens that am
other is incurred which was not fore
seen. Not many years ago, for example
sanitarians raised the alarm thai articles
preserved in tin became contaminated
with poisonous lead salts from contact
with the solder or impure tin plate and
glass was suggested as a Clearly and
harmless substitute. The public was
duly Mortified at this startling informa-
ton that they were being thus pc soned,
| slowly but surely, and looked not on the
canned tomato when 1t was red in the
! tin ingenious glassware, jars and bot
ties, were at once invented and great
stress was laid upon the innocuous char
acter Of preserves put up in such con-
tanners. Now the reaction has come,
and glass, though not poisonous, is said
| to be more harmful than tin cans.
One of the most horrible methods Of
/ poisoning, or rather XII ling a person, by
secret, yet violent means, is that OF m X
! ing powdered glass with the food The
! gullet, stomach, and intestines are cut
and racerated by the sharp-edged splint-
/ ers of glass, causing intense agony and
severe Inflammation of the tissues and
possibly penetrating the walls and per-
haps perforating them. In a lesser de-
gree that is what happens in glass con-
! tanners. Take a glass milk jar, for ex-
/ ample; nine out of ten of these have
/ Clipped rims, a piece OF gJass having
been broken off in opening the jar with
! a fork or skeWer pushed through the I'D,
/ the rim of the mouth being used as a
/ fulcrum. The chip of g ass thus forced
! off may and often does fall into the milk
and is drank with it or ca en- in articles
of food in which it is used 1t NAV be
! eaten with the morning oatmeal, or in
the bread or biscuit, and sometimes may
! cause serious trouble. A person, in APP
| parently good health, may be suddenly
affected with intense pain in the stom-
/ ach or bowels which cannot be attributed
! to any known cause; a diarrhoea follows,
with bloody stools, suggesting dySentery,
! and If the glass is voided the symptoms
! gradually subside with more or less lin
! gering soreness and pain. In adults
! there is usually little if any serious re-
! suit, but in bottle-fed infants the condi-
lions are such that splinttrs of glass are
more dangerous since the child does not
eat solid food sufficient in bulk to en-
Velop the glass and render 1t harmless
| in its passage, so that death may result
| from no apparent disease. In such cases
even the doctor may ascribe death to an
attack of cholera infantum or some SINH
lar disease of infancy, being often ignor-
ant that the baby died from too much
bottle-glass.
Nor is the glass splinter the only dan
! ger in glass milk jars. The paper lid
! is often handled by milkmen who are
not overscrupulous as to dirt on their
! hands and experiment has shown that
! these lids are excellent germ farms, while
they also allow the filtration Of air,
! whether pure or impure, through them,
/ thus communicating the milk in the jar.
! That this Is true is proven by the fact
I that milk In containers aO1rC T1uPh
more quickly than that transported and
! kept in tin, there being another reason
/ for this in the fact that glass milk Jars
! cannot be so thoroughly cleansed as tin
! because they cannot be steamed or rinsed
with boiling water without breaking.
In preserve jars there is another dan
! ger from the method of fastening the lid.
The top is usually ground to make
! tight joint and in screwing on the metal
or glass ring or pressing down the spring,
If such a fastener is used, there IS dan
! ger of chipping off particles of glass
which fall into the preserve. In jelly,
which is often of itself a vile deception,
| the tin cover is forced tightly on and
requires much force to get it off again,
! a knife being often used to pry it up so
that the glass is most always splintered.
Mustard in glass beer mugs and the Ike
IS subject to like condemnation as wen
as food put up in fancy glass containers
| which are usually more or less nicked.
80
Even the glass dish In which food Is
thought to look SO tempting Is not with
out it's dangers from nicking by spoons
and the like, this applying to butter
/ dishes as well as preserve and fruit
| dishes. There is yet another danger in
! glassware aside from nicking. In the
process of making pressed glassware bub-
! bles Of air often form, which are fiat
! tened out against the sides of the mold,
] leaving a circular flaw with a very thin
surface wall which is easily broken INTO
a mass of thin flakes with Tazor-iflie
edges. These may be broken with d
spoon and mixed with the food or they
may be broken during washing, thus
causing serious wounds to the one who
wipes Them particles Of glass penetrating
and remaining in the flesh. The latter
Is true also of nicked glass, but not 70
such a degree.
In the glass salt cellar and pepper bot
tie and vinegar cruet there is danger that
! particles of glass may be sprinkled or
poured onto food at the table, being
Clipped off by the action of screwing On
the perforated top or in putting in the
glass stopper. There Is also danger
from glass cooking utensils, inasmuch
as splinters may be Clipped off and mix
ed with food in the process Of max
ing it.
Even in the medicine gi,en to
cure our ills we may be injured
by glass whether the medicine
be liquid, pill or powder Class
mortars and pestles, and other glassware
are to be found in use in every drug store,
and If one examines the mortar ard
| pestle it will be found tNat the glass has
lost It's smooth and transparent texture
and has the appearance of groun1 glass
owing to the mutual action of the pestle
! and mortar upon each other The glass
thus ground off Of necessity makes
| part of the substance ground in the NOR
tar and more glass may be added by
carelessly allowing the pestle to strike
/ the edge of the mortar, splnters ch piping
off and falling into the mass IN the MOI
tar The bottle in which the medicine
is placed may also have flaws, previous
! " mentioned, and cases are recorded
| where salve put in a glass ointment jar
became mixed with Clipped glass and
caused serious injury to surfaces to
which it has been applied.
To suggest a remedy is difficult. Care
! in the handling Of preserve Jars and IN
removing the covers is manifestly posi-
I BILE for all. AS for milk bottles, health
boards and sanitarians are in favor Of
return to the oId-fashioned tin can and
! doubtless they will soon take the place
! Of glass jars, especially as the p1illfman
| favors the can, since the bottles are
more expensive in first. cost and subject
to breakage There is no need, however,
of nicking the edges in opening them if
care ia taken to pull up instead Of T-y-