Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1915-08-25
PERSONS
ARE POISONED
EATING BREAD
City Chemist Doubts, Eats and
Later Is Seized With
Nausea.

Fifteen women and children OH
| Garside street are Ill, and show
symptoms of poisoning after eating
bread now being analysed by City
Chemist Herbert B. Baldwin to de-
tect traces OF. roach powder.
Eight of them were poisoned by
eating the bread as an experiment,
after one family and two children of
another had been taken ILL., The eight
told Health officer Craster they had
eaten the bread ito make sure 1t was
the cause of the trouble"
! Mr.. Baldwin, asked by the Board of
Health to analyze the bread, de-
| clared he did not believe bread could
be poisonous, and to show he had the
courage of his convictions he ate Il
mouthful of it, An hour later he was
seized with nausea.
This was on Friday Today Mr..
Baldwin admitted he was still i'll,
but maintained his indisposition
does not result from eating the
bread and that the ill-effects he suf-
fered Friday were temporary.
DIR. Richard n. Connolly, city bac-
| teriologist, hrs also been conducting
an analysis of the bread
DR.. Connolly fed the bread to
guinea pigs last Thursday, and they
suffered no Ill results. At noon to-
| day he stated that his analysis was
| completed and had not discovered
any bacteria. The search for traces of
roach powder, he stated, was in Mr..
1 Baldwin's field as city chemist. and
| no attempts had been made to detect
! that poison at the biological labora-
| tory.
Poisoned a Week Ago.
The Garside street women and
children were poisoned a week ago
yesterday. Their plight came to the
attention of the Board of Health
when Inspector Antonio Panzera.. who
patrols Garside street regularly,
passed No. 1O5 that morning and saw
crowd gathered about the entrance
Questions brought out that a woman
and six children inside we're i'll from
eating bread. Inspector Panzera en-
tered and found Mrs. Antonio De
Grace, aged twenty-five years, and
her two infant children, writhing in
agony. Four other children in the
two family house were similarly Ill.
The inspector took samples of the
bread and hurried to the Board of
Health. DIR. Ludorico Mancusi-
Ungaro was called to attend the suf-
ferers.
Then the Board of Health learned
of other victims Mrs. Rose. Mari
nelli, aged twenty-seven, of 95 Gar
side street, and her three children,
and Mrs. Marie Dellesandro, aged
forty, of 112k Garside street, and her
three children had partaken of the
bread, and we're ILL., DIR. Mancusi-
Ungaro is attending all the cases.
None were at any time in an extreme
ly critical condition and all are now
recovering.
Mr.. Baldwin said today he suspects
the bread contained roach powder
used mistakenly for baking powder,
and cited three instances In which
this mistake had been made in other
cases in his experience. This morn
ing Health officer Charles V. Craster
and Inspector Panzera investigated
the premises and the bakery in which
Mrs. De Grace purchased the twenty
pounds of -four with which the bread
was mixed and in which, after she
had mixed the dough in her own
home, the bread was baked.
DIR. Craster said this afternoon he
had discovered nothing amiss on the
premises or in the bakery He had
found no insect powder In the house,
he added, and gave the opinion that
"this is very mysterious case"
Mr.. Baldwin did not believe today
that any blame attached to the baker.
Had the trouble been with the -four
itself, he said, complaints would have
been heard from other sources by this
time.
Mr.. BaIdwin's Experiences.
Mr.. Baldwin explained his roach
powder theory to the Evening Star
as follows:
aA -.-.5 ...o.... .,.o.n 49, Z ,.aoaa a -
analysis In case In which several
persons became Ill, and one man, who
had eaten the most, died, after eating
pancakes. The people were sure the
milk used was to blame. The analysis
I made would show nothing. When
the man died I had the stomach
analyzed and found In 1t a little
ordinary white sand, which 1 saved.
"A month later detectives going
through the house again found a can
of baking powder beside a can of
roach powder. found the same kind
of sand in the insect powder as had
been in the mans stomach. 1t
turned out that a green servant girl
had mixed the pancakes with insect
powder.
There was a similar occurrence in
New Brunswick about a month after
ward and another in Camden several
years later. These three came to my
mind when the bread was brought
me, and to satisfy myself I tasted 1t.
] thought | detected the same taste
rs had in the other instance, when
I took some of the roach powder to
nnd out its effect. But | could not
be sure. The illness that came on me
an hour afterward was about the
same feeling as I had after eating the
roach powder
Fire Causes Slight Damage