The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1916-08-22
PTOMAINE
Does Not Exist In Berries,
Hence Poison Impossible
louisville Courier-JournaJ

gOuA bOAi ildll
The death of Chester Daub, a fifteen.
year-old boy. is ascribed in report to
ptomaine poison caused by eating |
wild blackberries." 1t is said that |
after having INDUCED in wild black
berries while upon a bicycle trip to
the country the lad became violently
i'll. His death resulted soon after
ward.
Ptomaine poison is found in decom-
posing meat. 1t is a cadaveric poison.
Ptomaines are not vegetable alkaloids.
The careless use of ptomaine poison
ing" in accounting for death or illness
caused by overeating or eating some
thing unfit for consumption is fire.
quent
Whatever the real cause of death in
this case it was not ptomaine poison
caused by eating wild blackberries. A
tin of decomposed meat bought along
the way might cause ptomaine poison,
and the illness might be ascribed mis-
takenly to indulgence in fruit. Unripe
blackberries might cause serious I'll
ness, but not ptomaine poisoning.
Wild blackberries which are ripe are
as wholesome as any other fruit. At
this time of the year they constitute
an important factor in the food supply
of thousands Of families. 1t would be
unfortunate if there should get abroad,
among the ignorant and among the
poorf to whom the blackberry season
is boon, the idea that wild blackber-
ries are possible conveyers of pto-
maine poison.
About 80 years ago some one start
ed the report that the locusts had
laid eggs on the mulberries and made
them poisonous. Mulberries--not as
widely found or as much used as black
| berries = were avoided generally.
About the time the mulberry season
was over the report got around to
scientists who made, and caused to be
published, the statement that the null
berry crop had not been poisoned and
| that the report was groundless. The
cabbage snake story, which went all
over the United States about a dozen
years ago, is well remembered. 1t is
said to have originated in the mind of
an inventive resident correspondent of
newspaper who conceived the idea
of killing a few sticks of space by
killing off a fictional family in a remote
neighborhood and giving the cause Of
death as the cooking of small snake
which had secreted itself in head of
cabbage. The cabbage snake, a dis
tinct species, found only in cabbage
heads, became the garden dragon all
over the country. Even educated and
intelligent persons ate cabbage with
misgivings, and many families let
their table supply rot in the patch. OF
course, the cabbage snake had no
more existence in reality than the
horsesair snake, which, as every old
time plantation negro believed firmly,
comes ino being whenever hair from
horses name or tail is dropped in
brook or pond.
No matter how purely fictional and
how obviously untrue, in the view of
the few who have knowledge of the
subject, any fantastic story about a
newly discovered deadly danger in
some variety of food is likely to trav,
ell far and receive general credence. II
should be understood that nobody has
ever suffered from ptomaine poison as
result of eating blackberries, wild
or cultivated, and that blackberries
and blackberry cobbler are pust as
healthful this year as they always