The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-06-30
THE SHOE DYE BLUES WITH VARIATION

III One authority according to a clipping sent in by a reader asserts that shoe dye poisoning nearly scares everybody to death but never mas any serious consequences. a wore them to a dance immediately afterward. He suffered nitrobenzine poisoning with lataI outcome. The case was reported with eignt others which ended in recovery, by Dr C. w. Muehlenberg, Wisconsin state toxicOlogist Shoe dyes containing nitrobenzene are nnsaie | to apply to shoes the feet Shoes so oyeo | should never be worn within z4 hours ai'oi | the dyeing. | The same "authority' who asserts the pois- | oning is never serious informs the public that | when shoes dyed are worn too soon !Delore l the leather has dried out) the heat of the feet
 volatilizes the dye and it is absorbed into the | blood through the skin of the feet. Ihis IS as I logical as the inference that the poisoning IS | never serious. Why voatiliZe or vaporize the 1 poison if the skin is to absorb it?
 | There is scientific or experimental evl- | dence to support the assumption that the aye or rather the solvent used in the dye (nitroben- | zeie or in Europe anin) Is absorbed through
 the skin. There is such evidence that nitro | benzene or anilin is absorbed when the vol
 atilized or vaporiZed liquid IS lnhaIcd' apsoroe" | through the lungs.
 1 An athletic girl aged 16 dyed her suede shoes black and soon became dizzy and turned blue 1 (cyanotic) and began vomiting. She c0mplaineu | of chils and headache and she was put to ped. Next morning she felt much better. but within | an hour after dressing the sumptoms recurred, and she remained nauseated and cyanotic | (blue) all day. After that she did not wear the | dyed shoes and had no further trouble
 Nitrobenzene costs about half SIS much as anilin and is more commonly used as the soi- vent in shoe dyes in this country.
 At the time Muehenberg reported the nine | cases he found records O. 47 other cases In | medical literature. He noted only one shoe aye | at that time bearing the label warning | against wearing the shoes before the dye has
 dried "A hours having them dyed on the | feet. Nitrobenzene has a less agreeable odor than anilin.
 | Painters using anilin nitrobenzene prepa-
 rations likely to suffer from the poisoning | if they accidentally spill some on their cloth l ing, and fail to remove the clothing promptly. | Especially when the work is indoors or in a | plant where the ventilation is poor. The cloth | ing serves as sponge and the warmth or the | body yaporizes the liquid so that the victim | Is constantly breathing an atmosphere more or | less mpregnated '.
 | Nitrobenzene or anilin poisoning is strikingly | like poisoning by acetanilide phenacetn and
 other coaltar dervatives used in medicine as | the painkiller or sense deadener in scores of | nostrums purporting to be sood remedies Tor
 colds" grippe. neuralgia, headache. shopping | fatigue, worry depression and other common | complaints. The cyanoss (blueness of lips. | nails and sometimes the entire body) 50 char | acteristic of these poisonngs is due to grave | interference with the oxygen carrying function | of the red blood corpuscles. Whenever We en- | counter marked cyanosis, with faintness nausea 1 and great weakness in presumably healthy such poisoning inquire into the medicine the victim s in the habit of using.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Grinding the Teeth
 Must take exception to your statement that grinding of the teeth of children in sleep Is not caused by worms our son, several dOc- tors laughed at the idea, but finally q friend | said to give him Ca humbug "wOrm" mcd- | cine) and later he passed several worms. C. S.) Answer--I did not say children who grind 1 their teeth have not worms. They're just as | likely to have 'em are children who do not I grind their teeth Likewise children who have worms are as likely to have lem as are children | who do not grind their teeth. Likewise chill | dren who have worms as likely to grind | their teeth as children who have none. A considerable number of children have worms at one time or another, and in only rare in- stances do the worms cause any trouble. Ger tainIy there are "sure signs of the presence | of the common round worms in the intestinal tract. The alleged worm medicine" you men, ton is ridiculous concoction--a more laxa-
 tive. without particular influence on the para
 sites. Diathcrmy
 To your knowledge is the diathcrmy method ever used in the treatment of laryngcal tubcr- culosls? (K. M.)
 Answer-surgical diathermy. variously called endothermy, electro-surgery, radio knife" IS used in all fields now, especially where dry wound is desirable, as in brain surgery. goitcr operations lung Surgery, cancer operations.