WOOD ALCOHOL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1920, Page 2

WOOD ALCOHOL

TRAGIC CHRISTMAS ORGIES ALARMING DEATH* ROLL ILLICIT STILLS"iN AMERICA. The New York Times, of 28th De-~ cember contains several columns of cases of wood alcohol drinking in the States! i with terrible results on the victims. It it is not blindness, it is death in. most cases, and. tho Times states that there is a big demand for home stills, in which to make alcohol. At Pittsburgh, Pa., on 27th December, four physicians and a druggist were arrested 'by a Deputy United States Marshal, and 'held in 1500 dollars bail each, on a charge oi having violated the war-time prohibition law. The physicians, S. P. Marcus, H. W. Wuerthele, H. K. Kalet, and George Rosenthal, were charged in bills of complaint with "knowingly and unlawfully prescribing whisky" for A. E. Kummerling, a special agent of the Department of Justice. The bills stated that Kummerling was not a patient of any of the accused doctors.' Julius Finkelpearl, a. pharmacist, the other prisoner, was charged with having sold to the Federal agent a quart of whisky "for beverage purposes." Stirred to extraordinary activity by reports of death a-nd blindness spreading over the country in tho wake of amcco tions passing as whisky, and made from wcod alcohol, city and Federal authorities on 27th December combined forces to root out the illicit stills, prevent wood alcohol reaching the public in drinlcable form, and to educate drinkers to be suspicious of all liquors sold as genuine. Three deaths ,from wood alcohol drinking were reported in New York on 27th December; six deaths from a similar cause in two weeks were reported at Newark. ' • Agents of Colonel _ Daniel Porter, Supervising Revenue Agent in New York, raided the apartment of an Austrian in an Avenue A tenement, and found a five-gallon still, a large supply of "moonshine" whisky, and three barrels of sour mash. In the raid on the Avenue A tenement, the revenue agents found not wood alcohol but high-proof spirits. Some colouring' matter used in the process was seized. Tho agent's said they believed the occupant, said to be a cabinetmaker with four children, peddled the liquor to acquaintances. Colonel Porter said that "home" stills, capable of producing half a pint of liquor, were being operated in the city,, and the product sold, for 6dol. to Bdol., while the actual cost was 50 cents. As far as could be lsarned, 900 "home" stills have been sold. An investigation is being conducted into the manufacture and sale of the stills. "The Government will use every resource to stamp out this traffic," said Colonel Porter. Mr. 01© Salthe, Acting Director of the Bureau of Food and Drugs of the Health Department, instituted a specia.l survey ! of all restaurants, saloons, and places where liquor might be stored in search of. concoctions made of wood alcohol. The New York Times states : "The borough chiefs of-tho Department have been ordered to double their forces and redouble their efforts in the search. Special investigations are being made along the river front and yin foreign sections. The ' Health Department inspectors are using police powers to make their search thorough; and are going behind bars and searching establishments from cellar to' garret." j WARNS AGAINST POISON PERIL. The chemical laboratory of the United States Health Department made the following report on wood alcohol: — "Wood alcohol is a colourless liquid, and in a highly refined state has but a slight odour and no taste. The less pusified form possesses a nauseating odour. While it is .tasteless, it does, however, produce a burning sensation. "Its legitimate uses 'are as a fuel, as a solvent in burnishes, and as a denaturant, that is, an agent in making grain alcohol 1 unfit for drinking purposes.. It is also improperly used in the preparation of hair dyes and tonics, toilet water and flavouring extracts, as well as in medicinal prodiicts by some unscrupulous druggists. "Tho symptoms produced on taking wood alcohol are the following : —Nausea, vomiting,, violent headache, vertigo, coma, and blindness of varying degrees." Dr. Copeland advised that a-physician be called immediately, in a case of wood alcohol poisoning. In the meantime the stomach of the patient should be emptied with hot salt water or a small glass of lukewarm water containing mustard. Autppsics performed by Deputy Medical -Examiner Benjamin Schwartz at the morgue oil 27th December revealed that two men had died of wood alcohol poisoning. . ' , Mr. William H. Anderson, State Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, said that although the nation was shocked by the death of thirty persons from "drinking wood alcohol, it has killed an average of 200 to 300 persons every day "with an extra proportion on holidays, and it has not even been considered news." "Deplorable as this matter is, it will help ipipress upon the public," he said, "the poisonous nature of the alcohol, while the fact that the perpetrators of the latest outrage were, saloon-keepers and bartenders,. drives home anew the realisation of the unscrupulousness in the traffic in alcohol for beverage purposes." i "PLAIN MURDEa." The New York Times reports cases of this latest form of alcohol, poisoning ■ from all over the States. "Selling wood alcohol for beverage purposes is plain murder, and we will be glad to .help the State authorities prosecute "such charges in connection with these illicit sales," said Benjamin A. Matthews, Assistant United 1 States District Attorney. Dr. R. S. Copeland, Health Commis-, sioner, wired to Hartford for information concerning the persons said to liara sold the liquor in New York. His assistants said the inspection force of the Department had been doubled to, run down the source of the illicit alcohol. Symptoms of wood alcohol poisoning were made public for the benefit of the medical profession and laymen, who were urged to report all cases. The.' Commissioner requested any one with information concerning the sale of wood alcohol to make the fact known to him. ■He warned the public to avoid drinking any beverage without positive knowledge as to its source. Dr. Ward A. Holden, chairman of the sub-committee of the Committee of Public Health of the Academy of Medicine, announced a series of conferences, tit which manufacturers of wood alcohol and the committee will meet to plan, a campaign to stamp out evils connected, -with its salo. Aliens appear to predominate among those arrested for illicit alcohol trading. 'A raid in Baxter-street. N©w*York, was made i>y Detectives Fiaschetti, Batto. Trezza, Ertola, Dardis, Petruzzi, Miragla, Giordano, and Festa. They entered a store and a coffee-house nearby. They found eleven quart bottles marked "essence of whisky"- with which "whisky" was made.. Other bottles bore the labels "anethol," "ether oenanthie" and "Spanish san'ro." Fiaschetti said that the essence of whisky was used in conjunction with alcohol and water to manufacture an alleged whisky. Original bottles of Martell's three-star- brandy were found in the place, bearing Martell labels, with a

j red stamp, "made in France." Corks bearing the Martell imprint also were . found. ••. .-. ' - The detective said tho manufactured concoction was sold as Martell brandy 'at 20dol. a bottle, and cost little. Materials bought for 12dol. were used to make a. beverage which sold for lOOdol., he said. ...... Tho anethol was used to make anisette, the ether oenanthie to make brandy, and the Spanish saffre to colour the cordial known as "strega." In tho unused store the police found fouv bar rels said to have been used in making the concoction. . '. . , Costantino, the prisoner, was charged with being a suspicious person. He had a bank roll containing 6580d01. and a bank book showing deposits of 3000dol. The detectives found two watches in his pockets. Ono was of platinum, which he said he had bought the previous evening for '575d01. . ° Fiaschetti said ha believed he was on the trail of the men responsible for distributing in New England hundreds of barrels of wood alcohol, coloured to make it resemble whisky. He expected to inakeadditional arrests. The same paper announces on 27th December' three men dead from wnpd alcohol poisoning at-Hartford, four at Springfield, 14 (including women) at Chicopee, Con., where .55 had already died from illicit alcohol poisoning; nine deaths in Chicago in twenty-four hours, in all 32 deaths since Ist July;, three deaths at Memphis,' Tennessee; 20 deaths at Detroit) 111.; 14 deaths in one month at Cleveland, Ohio; 12 confined in hospital at Denver, some going blind, on 27th December. /Every department of the Government will "co-operate in this great emergency in rounding up the guilty," said Mr. Thomas J. Boynton, Federal District Attorney, on 27th December, speaking in Boston, -in. commenting on the reports from Connecticut Valley cities of approximately half a hundred deaths, due ■"' to drinking liquor with a wood alcohol base. " I have no hesitation in'saying,"he continued, " that had the wood alcohol been sold on Government property the parties responsible would be tried for murder." . . As matters stand 'it looks as if it would be a case for the State authorities, but the Federal Government will do its share in placing responsibility and preventing further distribution and manufacture of the deadly poison in the guise of whisky. Moonshiners, wood alcohol peddlers, and boot-leggers have not only cost the Federal and the Western Provincial Government of Canada hundreds of thousand of dollars, but also have taken^ their toll of lives in the Canadian NorthWest. ' ' ■ . . For three months the principal activity of the Royal North-West Mounted Police has been the pursuit of' violators of the liquor laws. The wilds of Ontario and the border country of Alberta and British Columbia have been the scene of many raids by the mounted police. . ■ -_ ' Several hundred stills have been located and smashed. In Calgary the janitor of a church was arrested, charged with operating a moonshine plant in the basement- of the church. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of illicit liquor have been seized; '-. No official estimate regarding deaths resulting from , beverages containing wood alcohol and other concoctions have been given out, but it is declared that the victims include a number of Indians in the wilds of the northern region,