POISONING BY WOOD ALCOHOL.

Abstract

With the kind assistance of the profession in the United States and Canada, we have been able to report the following instances of methyl alcohol intoxication, most of them hitherto unpublished. The list of deaths and cases of blindness following the ingestion of Columbian and other forms of wood alcohol, as well as methylated Jamaica ginger, lemon extract, bay rum, cologne water, witch hazel, essence of peppermint, essence of lemon, etc., not to mention all sorts and kinds of other official, domestic and proprietary remedies into which alcohol enters, has lately grown to alarming proportions. This record of death and blindness has been made in recent years only, since the cheap, deodorized methyl alcohol [untaxed, retail price 50 cents a gallon; ethyl alcohol, taxed, retail price $2.60 a gallon] has been put on the market. Wood alcohol and methylated spirits made by the old processes subserved useful as well