Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-10-19
HEALTH AVID HAPPINESS
By DIR. LEONARD KEENE HIRsHBE re.
A. B., NJ. A., NJ D.. Johns Hopkins).

BEWARE OF WOOD ALCOHOL IN
TOILET PREPARATIONS.
If the blind lead the blind both
shall fall into the ditch.
Who is so deaf or so blind as he
That wilfully will neither hear MOI
see?
If BARRIERS, beauty doctors, hair
dressers, painters, g.aziers, furniture
polishers, printers, photographers
leather workers, wood workers, var
nishers and launderers, who persist
in using bay rum, varnish and other
forms of wood alcohol, could take
this text from st. Matthew to heart
there would be less actual blindness
in the world, and fewer shortcom-
ings in those who lead you on to
blindness.
So dangerous has the menace of
blindness from wood alcohol become
that Drs. H. H. Tyson and M. j.
Schoenberg, of New York, devoted q
lot of valuable time to investigate
man eyesight. Their researches
carry a warning to more than 2,000,-
900 workers and BARRIERS.
| Wilful ignorance is the most vicious
of all crimes. 1t threatens not only
the health, strength and endurance
of individuals, but of whole races.
The obstinate neglect by both ply
sicians and the employees sof photog-
raphers, dyers, chemists, gold and
silver platers, tin and brass workers,
and the others already named, is
e. to their ignorance of the dan
g. Of wood alcohol.
| Over 100 instances of blindness and
almost as many deaths occurred last
year from the fumes of wood alcohol,
chemically known as methyl alcohol
and Columbian spirits. The latter is
| positively as poisonous, when re-
fined, as when accompanied by the
unpleasant odor.
Since the effects of any vapors upon
the human eye are duplicated on the
dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pig s
eyes, 1t occurred to the New York
savants that the men who can but
will not learn of Columbian spirits and
wood alcohoPs deadly effects, might
be taught a dramatic lesson if these
experiments were carried out.
Gathering Evidence by Tests.
They built wooden box about
twelve inches wide, twenty inches
long and thirty inches deep. At each
end there was an opening half an
inch wide. Air passed out through
a mica valve at one end, while rub
Der tubing projected from the other
end through which air could enter
A glass slide completed the roof of
the box. A little dog, rabbit or guinea
pig was then placed in the box and
two ounces of Columbian spirits were
put upon a sponge on the box. In an
hour the box would be opened and
the animal examined. 1t was usually
drunk from the fumes.
Day by day from two to five ounces
of wood alcohol was soaked into the
sponge and the animal kept in the
box for an hour each day. Dogs were
usually dead drunk" and In a dying
condition after two or three such
days, but if kept in the air two days
they were as we'll and lively as usual
Two days more Of an hours exposure
to the fumes of the poison, after
two weeks or so of freedom, caused
the death of the dog.
Usually four such intervals of ex-
posture of an hour for two days caused
either death or blindness to rabbits,
dogs and other animals. Certainly
no one dares think that the human
animal is any more resistant to it's
fumes than the other creatures of
God.