The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-03

Not Whisky Only, but Various House
 hold Preparations as We'll AduItera-
 ted with wood AIcohOI-BIindness
 or Death Caused by It-warnIng by
 Doctors.
 Long before the recent deaths caused by aduIterated whiskey in the stBy- xer's farm district in this city the medical profession realized the dangers hat threatened the public from the ubstitution of wood alcohol for grain alcohoI. One grave peril lies in the fact that wood alcohol is sometimes lsed instead of grain alcohol in vari- bus household preparations. 2
 The use of wood in the manufacture Rnd aduIteration of potable spirits is fuf1iciently alarming, but thiAis by no neans the extent of it's use as an adul- erant. Not only have preparations intended for use in the arts, as var 1ishes, or for external use, as witch lazel, been made with wood alcohol as tn ingredient, but even medicinal or layoring agents, such as essence of Ja- naica ginger lemon, peppermint, Sc, intended for internal use have been found to contain it.
 Eye specialists of this country and of Europe agree in ascribing many cases pf total or partial blindness to wood al- eohol, which had unknowingly been aken in the form of liquors, medicinal, Hax n xternolly in the form of witch hazel and bay rum and as liniments and for tlcohol rubs.
 Wood alcohol is known to the chem st as carbinol and methyI, more popu- arly known under the name of pyrolig- heous spirit, pyroxylic spirit, wood al- kohol and wood naphtha. It occurs as Pne of the ingredients of crude wood Finegar, the fluid product of the de- tructive distillation of wood.
 Purified wood alcohol is thin, color ess fluid, greatly resembling grain al- fohoI in taste and smell, but obtained rom wood vinegar. Unpurified, it has
 rank and offensive odor and flavor. It is only within the past seven or tight years that cheap, deodorized yood alcohol has been placed on the market, and it is only during the same period that the alarming record of leath and blindness resulting from it's Fse has been made.
 Before that time the unpurified pro- uct possessed so offensive an odor |nd taste that even the most inveterate
 runkard was unable to stomach it. he purified wood alcohol is known un-
 Ter various names, and owing to the sact of it's close similarity in taste and sr1ell to grain alcohol, and to it's com 4arative cheapness wood alcohol un- axed retails at fifty cents a gallon,
 rain alcohol taxed retails at $2.60--it very largely substituted for grain all ohoi
 destroys none of the poisonous proper ies of wood alcohol, and, while differ ng little in appearance, taste and mell from grain alcohol. 1t is under, ertain conditions deadly poison.
 Poisoning by wood alcohol manifests
 self in two forms-that of acute pois- ming and that of chronic poisoning. According to researches by physiolo-
 lists, Joffroy and Servereaux, Birch Iirschf1eld, Holden Hunt, Pohl and thers, the symptoms of the acute form Ire in general similar to those observed cases of poisoning bN grain alcohol, ! xcepting that the action of wood all ohol is produced more slowly and the uration of the intoxication is more rolonged. The coma caused by wood Icohol continues for a very much lon
 CT time than does that caused by rain alcohol.
 The investigations of Butler and Wood have demonstrated that, in nany Instances no marked poisonous Aymptonls are noticed until twenty bur hours, or longer, after the last
 lumber of doses, usually small drinks,
 ad been taken. Indeed, it may be set < own as a rule that except in persons 8hibiting an idiosyncracy against
 ood alcohol or unless a large dose of he poison be drunk within a few ours. not only may the severe. abdom-. hal symptoms and the collapse of the eart and nervous system be post E oned, but even the fatal termination as in some instances been delayed for # everal days.
 # Although physiological experiments
 ould seem to show that the consump- z on of wood alcohol in large quantities as a similar effect on animal life to < bat of grain alcohol when taken in ex- } fss, yet it is gathered from the obser- 5N Rtions of doctors of those suffering om the acute form of wood alcohol [ bisoning that wood alcohol is un- [ pubtedly, in every respect and how
 yer taken, far more dangerous to man a ban grain alcohol.
 < Chronic or sub-acute poisoning by Z cod alcohol. that is the taking of nall quantities at short intervals,
 roduces a form of cumulative action, ], epending probably on the retention .i ithin the body of wood alcohol or of < nne of its decomposition products. $ Pahl made the important discovery
 lat wood alcohol differs markedly i om grain alcohol in that it is but par {, 2aIly oxidized in the body and that it's
 Administration leads to the formation 5ithin the body of 8 markedly poison 2 sls acid, fornic acid, which Is thrown
 ht of the system very slowly, strik- illustration of the fact that within
 e body one poison may be converted to another which is far more power z +.
 Dr. Frank Butler, of Montreal, and r. Casey Wood, of Chicago, both of