Gazette Of The United States

FROM THE CONNECTICUT JOURNAL.

Mess. PRINTERS,

By inserting the following observations in your useful Journal, you will oblige one of your old customers, and do an essential service to the public.

NOTWITHSTANDING the many and frequent cautions given the public, with respect to the dangerous nature of copper; I have rarely observed any precautions given concerning the poisonous nature of lead, which is to be avoided more cautiously, as its poison though perhaps slower in its effects, may yet prove as fatal, or even more certainly so than that from the copper.

Lead enters various compositions, and forms many of the utensils in common use ; and in this country the health of its inhabitants is much more exposed from the deleterious quality of the lead, than from that of copper.

A small quantity of lead received into the habit, is capable of producing spasms and convulsions, tremors and palsies, it interrupts the excretions, retards circulation, and injures the nerves.

So virulent is the poison of this metal, that it is said that where the ore is washed and smelted, it proves fatal to dogs, cats, and fowls, which are kept near the works—every kind of beast feeding upon the grass over which the steam of the melting ore passes, live but a short time.—The workmen and those who dig the ore, are short lived, and most commonly die paralytic—those who work the oxyd or calx of this mineral are so subject to the colic, that the disease is known by the name of the painter's colic.

The potter also who is familiar with the preparations of lead in his glazings, rarely fails of carrying visible marks of it in his countenance, and of the complaints of its deleterious effects.

Only three grains of lead to the gallon of new rum which a regiment of soldiers made free use of, produced a most terrible complaint of the colic, of which a greater part were down at the same time.*

Some by a practice of sitting with their feet on sheet lead, which was laid before the fire, have been affected with the palsy in the legs.

Preparations of lead in oil, and other solutions of lead applied to large surfaces denudated, or even to so small a part as the nipples, when excoriated, have been known to produce acute pains at the stomach, colic, loss of appetite, flatulence and depression in the nurse, and in the child put to suck, (without proper precaution) violent gripes, and even convulsions ; but more frequently are these effects produced, by the use of the sugar or salt of lead, for the cure of thrush or sore mouths in infants.

Many have experienced pernicious effects from only working on oil cloths made with drying oil, prepared with lead. And I have repeatedly known fatal effects produced by lodging in a confined room, newly painted with leaden pigments.

Printers have sometimes become paralytic by handling their types, which consist of a portion of lead.

The vintners or wine sellers, in order to render their harsh wines vendible have recourse to a horrid diabolical practice, and frequently soften and sweeten them with some preparation of lead; so strong is their passion for gain, that they are lost to all the feelings of humanity, and prepare a fatal poison, of which there can be no mistrust in those who are to endure the fatal effects.

If the observations on the nature of lead upon the human constitution are well founded, (which I believe cannot be confuted as they depend on facts ;) —then it concerns every individual to take the caution, as all perhaps are more or less conversant with some or other of the saturnine preparations, many of them unthought of and never suspected. I write unto you nurses, that while you are consulting the preservation of your little charges, you may not be the means of their destruction.

In the diversion and amusement of your little innocents, you may not introduce a fatal poison into their habits, by putting some painted poisonous toy into their hands, which have some lead or other poisonous paint upon them and only covered with a slight varnish, which is soon rubbed and washed off in their mouths, and so much poison introduced into their habits, as to become a source of a long train of evils if not eventually fatal.

I write unto you honest retailers, to be attentive and ever jealous of your pewter measures, many of which have a great share of lead in their composition, and if acid liquors are permitted to remain any time in them they will be strongly impregnated with the poisonous salts of this mineral, and rendered extremely dangerous to those who drink the liquors.

I write unto you cooks, that you be careful of your pewter vessels or copper tinned therewith, that you do not suffer your sharp or poignant sauces to be prepared or stand in those vessels.

I write unto you pie and pastry makers that you not only disuse pewter but that you be aware of your common coarser earthen, whose glazing is of lead and easily corroded.

I write unto you painters, that ye be cautious of the poison, on the use of which your subsistence so much depends, that you abstain from that too common practice (from a mistaken idea) of taking by way of antidote, a double allowance of spirituous liquors; for one devil is not cast out by another, else is Satan's kingdom divided.

Therefore be admonished while working your lead to use spirits sparingly if at all, and instead of your usual nips, take half a gill of sweet oil, which will be found a great preservative to health.

Now I write unto you limners, and those who use the pewter paints, that ye may take the above precautions, and in particular that while you are studying your devices, you do not hold your pencil in your mouths, nor as it is too customary to clean it with your mouths.

I write unto you who have devoted yourselves martyrs to Sir Richard, that ye may look well to it, that old Saturn by an untimely stroke of his sharp scythe, does not rob Sir Richard of his sacrifice.

To you bacchanalians, that the god you serve may not be dishonored, nor robbed of the glory which would be shortly due to him were it not for the interposition of this rapacious mineral.

Lastly, I write unto you vintners, wine sellers, who make use of this poison to disguise the acid of your wine, that you may consider the justice of your damnation, how inevitable! how aggravated! for it swiftly comes from that Hand, which is termed the avenger of blood, and lingereth not.

ANTI-SATURNUS.

* It has been observed that the colic has been less frequent in this country since the introduction of earthen instead of pewter plates; but perhaps the introduction of iron tea kettles, instead of the copper, lined with pewter, may be considered as salutary a change in this respect.