Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1916 — No Ptomaines in Berries. [ARTICLE]

No Ptomaines in Berries.

The death of Chester Daub, a 155 ear-old boy, is ascribed ii? a report to “ptomaine poison caused by eating wild blackberries.’’ It is stated that after having indulged in wild blackberries while upon a bicycle trip to the country the lad became violently ill. His death resulted soon afterward. Ptomaine poison_is found in decomposing meat. It is a cadaveric poison. Ptomaines not vegetable alkaloids. The careless use of “ptomaine poisoning’’ in accounting for death or iljness caused by overeating or eating something unfit for consumption is frequent. Whatever the real cause of death in this case it was not ptomaine poison caused by eating wild blackberries. A tin of decomposed meat bought along the way might cause ptomaine poison, and the illness might be ascribed mistakenly to indulgence in fruit. Unripe blackberries might cause serious illness, but not ptomaine poisoning.

Wild blackberries which are ripe are as wholesome as any other fruit. At this time of the year they constitute an important factor in the food supply of thousands of families. It would be unfortunate if theie snould get abroad, among the-ignor-ant and among the poor, to whom the blackberry season is a boon, the idea that wild blackberries are pos sible conveyers if ptomaine poison. About 30 years ago some one started the report that the locusts had laid eggs on ‘he mulberries ana made them poisonous. Mulberries—not as widely found or as much used as blackberries—were avoided generally. -About the time the mulberry season was over the report got around to scientists who made, and caused to be published, the statement that the mulberry crop had not been poisoned and that the report was groundless. The cabbage snake story, which wept all over the United

States about a dozen years ago, 13 well remembered. It is said to haw originated in the mind of an inventive resident correspondent of a newspaper who conceived the idea of killing a few sticks of space by killing off a fictional family in a remote neighborhood and giving the cause of death as the cooking of a small snake which had secreted itself in a head of cabbage. The cabbage snake a distinct species, found only in cabbage heads, became the garden dragon all over the country. Ever, educated and intelligent persons ate cabbage with m’sgivings, and many families let their table supply rot in the patch. Of course, the cabbage snake had no more existence in reality than -the horsehair snake which, as every old-time plantation negro believed firmly, comes into being whereever a Lair from a horse’s mane or tail is dropped in a brook or pond.

No matter how purely fictional and how obviously untrue, in the view of the few who have knowledge of the subject, any fantasic story about a newly discovered deadly danger in some variety of food is likely to travel far and receive general credence. It should be understood that nobody has ever suffered from ptomaine poison as a result of eating blackberries, wild or cultivated, and that blackberries and blackberry cob. bier are just as healthful this year as they always have been.—Louisville Courier-Journal.