Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1891 — Arsenic and Ammonia [ARTICLE]

Arsenic and Ammonia

The alow absorption of many poisons changes in some more or less modified form the complexion, bnt arsenic and ammonia show their effect abont as quickly as any. The popular belief that arsenic clears the complexion has led macy silly women to kill themselves with it in small, continued doses. It produces a waxy, ivory-like appearance of the skin during a certain stage of the poisoning, but its terrible after effects have become too well known to make it of common use as 'a cosmetic. The effects of ammonia upon the complexion are directly opposite to that of arsenic. The first symptom of ammonia poisoning which appears among those who work in ammonia factories is a discoloration of the skin of the nose and forehead. This gradually extends over the face until the

complexion has a stained, blotched and unsightly appearance. With people who take ammonia into their systems in smaller doses, as with their water or food, these striking symptoms do not appear so soon. The only effect of the poison that is visible for a time is a general unwholesomeness and sallowness of the complexion. Many people are slowly absorbing ammonia poison without knowing it. The use of ammonia in the manufactures has greatly increased of late, and it is unquestionably used as an adulterant in certain food preparations. Official analyses have plainly shown its use even in such cheap articles of everyday consumption as baking pow ders. The continued absorption of ammonia in even minute quantities as an adulterant in food is injurious, not merely from its effects upon the complexion, but because it destroys the coatiDg of the stomach and causes dyspepsia and kindred evils. Professor Long, of Chicago, is authority .for the statement that if to fifty million parts of water there is one part of ammonia the water is dangerous.