The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1918-03-07
VOID ALCOHOL POISONING.

The following press dispatch came
from Muskogee, Okla. on January %:
Seven persons are dead, two others
are expected to die, and nearly a score
are i'll as a result of an eggnog party on
Sunday at Francis Okla, at which
denatured alcohol was used by mistake,
according to word reaching here today.
Four persons were reported dead yes
terday and threG more died during the
night"
The first case of wood alcohol poison
Ing ever saw was a Montana rancher,
who drank UP his supply of whisky and
then turned to wood alcohol. On
Wednesday he had fine jag. On
Thursday he began vomiting On Sat
urday he noticed the sky was getting
dark. About noon he caught a horse
and rode to the ranch of his nearest
ne1ghbor. three miles away. BY night
consult DR.. Casey Wood. but his trip
did him no good. DR.. Wood was com
PEELED to tell him that his sight was
permanently lost.
In 1904 DR.. Wood reported his cases
of wood alcohol poisoning and gathered
together reports of 275 cases found in
medical literature.
Drs. Gettler and st. George tell physi-
.lans in the Journal of the American
Medical association that there is GER
tain to be a great increase In the num-
Der of cases of wood alcohol poisoning
as result of the prohibition wave
sweeping ever the country. When the
Russian government prohibited the
manufacture, sale and use of vodka
lot OF Russians tried to get the GUS
tomary kick by substituting wood alco-
hol. Many of them died and many
others became blind. On September s,
1917, the manufacture of distilled beyer-
ages ceased in the United States. Some
people are beginning to find it hard to
get whisky, rum, sin. and brandy. Six
months from now the difficulty will
be greater.
The number Of dry states increases
year by year. A lot of chronic "soaks'
Will be up against it. Some Of them will
try wood alcohol. What we need is
not articles in medical Journals but
articles III all the. newspapers, maya
zines, and almanacs telling the people
that the man who drinks wood alcohol
will go blind or die.
The whisky merchant and the saloon
Keeper must be taught somehow that
wood alcohol is a violent poison IL
the whisky contains only a moderate
percentage of wood alcohol the regular
drinker will notice that his stomach is
little hit off. that his sight is poor:
eventually he will go blind If the mix
be a nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains,
great weakness and blindness.
The treatment of acute wood alcohol
poisoning is washing out of the stom-
ach, repeated many times during a day
or more Salt solution should be en-
5ected into the veins. The patient must
be kept warm. In spite of all that can
be done, if the amount of wood alcohol
swallowed is large death will ensue.
Some alcoholic products now contain
q good deal of wood alcohol. In spite
of the fact that denatured alcohol is
advertised to be unfit to drink some
persons will drink it. Denatured alco-
hol contains high percentage of wood
alcohol. Occasionally some very thirsty
man will try a drink of some product
containing alcohol. Fer instance, physi-
clans know of men drinking essence of
peppermint, Jamaica ginger, lemon ex-
tract and cologne. In many of these
some wood alcohol is used