OCR Text |
Show SUICIDE BY AMMONIA. Th. T.rrll)!. Ar I ! Not ITer... Itn I . Xo poison brina death with more niaddenintr aony than ammonia, but that fact dues not seem to discourage i.ie su'.c'Ou. Tho man Harrowitz, who duliberately swallowed a fatal (lose of the drug in New York recently, is 01 !y one of the many w ho have (one tho ammonia route to death in spite of tne excruLialiu;,' pain. lr. lilyth has re-corded re-corded thirty cases of ammonia poison-iujr poison-iujr in the amall London district of which he is the health ollicer; l'rofessor Mitchell mentions twenty-two cs and four have occurred during tho short time Dr. Jenkins has been connected con-nected with the coronir's office in New York. Cases of slow poisoning from ammonia am-monia are of constant occurrence among men who work iu its manufacture, manufac-ture, or e en in decomposing substances w hich give it off in considerable quantities. quan-tities. Ammonia, slowly and from day to day taken into tha eystem, causes the complexion to lose its freshness, and the skin of men who get heavily impregnated im-pregnated with it has a disagreeably blotched aud discolored appearance. Taken into the stomach from day to day in even the smallest quantities used to adulterate food, such as bakine powder, pow-der, it not only in jures tho complexion, but attacks the lining of the stomach, and is the source of much general ill health. The recant rapid increase in tha use of ammonia for various purposes, and the consequent increase iu its manufacture, have made it one of tha most easily obtained poisons and, although everyhody is fami.iar with It in some form, there ia a surprising amount of ignorance of its dangerous qualities. Its use as an aldulterant in any food preparation ia simply a crime, and as a crime should bo punished. |