PROHIBITION, DEATH ROLL DAILY MOUNTING.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19463, 9 November 1928, Page 5

PROHIBITION, DEATH ROLL DAILY MOUNTING.

— 238 TO ONE HOSPITAL IN ONE WEEK. (From "The Times" correspondent, , New York, October Bth, 1928.) Twenty deaths yesterday and to-day in New York City, and 50 cases of illness treated in the Psychopathic Ward of Bellevue Hospital are attributed in the police reports to poisonous liquor. Dr. Charles Norris, Chief Medical Examiner, has ascribed the increase in the number of deaths from this cause to an increase in the number of private stills in the slum districts, ana the growth of the habit of drinking "smoke" or raw alcohol to which has been added a' chemical or flavouring to lessen its burning effect on the throat Dr. Norris said yesterday, that practically all the liquor now sold in New York was toxic. It was "cut," that is, diluted with denatured alcohol, which is re-distilled but still contains a trace of adulterant. This liquor, however, was not responsible for the deaths from alcohol in the east side and waterfront districts where most of(the dead were picked up. Such liquor is too expensive for those who live in that part of New York. They drink instead alcohol distilled from cornmash, potatoes, fruit, and so on, which Dr. Norris said »as not poisonous in the ordinary sense of the term. An ounce or two of it had, however, an effect upon the heart equal to that of a quart of properly ««ed spirits because the toxic elements had not had time to oxidise and become inoperative. Drink of this sort was being sold for five and ten cents (2}d and sd) a glass on the east side. Two hundred and thirty-eight patients were admitted Inst week to the i alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital. Prevent poisonous substitutes reglac- , ipg pnre stimulants. Vote Continuance. • —j