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The Florists' Review 



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JWKB 1, 1916. 



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INSECTICIDES A DANOEK. 



Another Accidental Poisoning Case. 



At Louisville, Ky., last week a woman 

 of the class constituted by florists' best 

 patrons prepared to clear out the in- 

 sects that were troubling her plants — 

 she poured two teaspoonfuls of a stand- 

 ard nicotine extract into a quantity of 

 water in a discarded bottle that previ- 

 ously had contained mineral water. The 

 bottle and the sprayer were left on 

 the back porch until a convenient time 

 for use. 



It was the habit of the lady's father 

 to take a glass of mineral water after 

 each breakfast. Next morning he saw 

 a bottle with the familiar label sitting 

 on a shelf on the cool back porch, 

 sought a glass, poured out his customary 

 portion and drank it down. But he 

 noted a peculiar taste! Investigation 

 and the doctors followed. Great pain! 

 Lapsing consciousness! Death in four- 

 teen hours! 



These were persons of means; no re- 

 source of the medical profession was 

 neglected. 



Other Deaths From Nicotine. 



The Louisville case last week was one 

 in which diluted nicotine extract was 

 imbibed by mistake and proved fatal. 

 What, then, where the undiluted article 

 is taken? There have been several such 

 cases. 



One of the earliest was recorded in 

 The Review for July 4, 1907, as fol- 

 lows: 



"The 6-year-old son of Herman Loch- 

 man took a swallow of nicotine extract 

 Sunday afternoon and died before his 

 father could reach a physician two 

 blocks away. 



"Mr. Lochman has charge of the sec- 

 tion of the Bassett & Washburn plant 

 which is devoted to smilax, asparagus 

 and other greens. He is one of their 

 oldest and most highly valued employ- 

 ees. He has a pleasant home at Hins- 

 dale, with some roses in the garden. 

 Sunday he procured a bottle of nico- 

 tine extract from the greenhouses for 

 the purpose of spraying the rose bushes. 

 Using only part of the contents of the 

 bottle, he hid the rest under the porch. 

 The boy went under the porch after 

 a baseball which had rolled there, and 

 found the bottle. Tasting its contents, 

 he screamed and the father, who was 

 only a few feet away, took him in his 

 arms and started for the doctor's. When 

 he reached there the boy was dead. He 

 had strangled. The shock to Mr. Loch- 

 man was so great that Sunday after- 

 noon it was necessary to restrain him 

 from doing himself violence. He has a 

 wife and two daughters. 



"Keep the nicotine extract under 

 lock and key." 



Another Child Meets Death. 



During the following summer this 

 item appeared: 



"The Chicago market was shocked 

 this week by the news of the tragic 

 death of Lambert Mann, son of Mathias 

 Mann, of Zech & Mann. It was caused 

 by drinking a nicotine extract used for 

 fumigating. The accident took place 

 the evening of July 29, shortly after 

 the supper hour, when Lambert, a 

 bright little fellow of 8 years, came 

 upon a bottle that had at one time con- 

 tained root beer, but had since been 

 ■filled with the nicotine extract. Not 

 aware of the contents of the bottle, or 

 the danger that lurked therein, and 

 supposing that it was the usual bever- 

 age that he had been accustomed to 

 seeing around the house, the lad placed 

 the bottle to his lips and, without wait- 

 ing to taste or smell of the fluid, swal- 

 lowed a good portion. Crying out to his 

 mother, he fell into Mrs. Mann's arms 

 and expired before she could either lend 

 or call assistance. The same kind of an 

 accident occurred at the Bassett & 

 Washbm-n plant last year." 



Cyanide Also Is Deadly. 



Since these two early • cases there 

 have been others no less tragic. And 

 nicotine is not the only greenhouse 

 poison that holds danger for human 

 life; cyanide is as quick and as deadly. 

 One of the saddest happenings in this 

 connection is the trial now in progress 

 at Waukegan, 111., where one set of law- 

 yers is trying to prove the son of a 

 gardener administered cyanide to his 

 erstwhile sweetheart, the daughter of 

 another gardener, while a second set of 

 lawyers is trying to prove that the girl 

 took the cyanide with suicidal intent. 

 There is no direct evidence thus far 

 disclosed and the jury apparently will 

 have to decide from the circumstances 



11 



whether the young man gave the girl 

 poison from his father's stock of fumi- 

 gant or whether, for the purpose of self- 

 destruction, she took some from her 

 own father's supply. The state is try- 

 ing to prove murder, the defense, sui- 

 cide; but either side would fall could 

 it be shown the father's stock of fumi- 

 gating materials was inaccessible to any 

 but the man in charge, as it ought to be. 

 So far as the record goes, there is no 

 other case in which a charge of murder 

 has been based on the easily obtained 

 poison used in greenhouses. 



Bestraint Is Coming. 



But greenhouse insecticides soon will 

 be less easily obtainable if not more 

 carefully handled. Indeed, already it 

 is against the law in Illinois for any 

 seed store, florist or florists' supply 

 house to sell most of the standard 

 greenhouse insecticides and they lay 

 themselves liable to a fine of not less 

 than $10 or more than $150 with each 

 sale. The prohibition lies in the fact 

 that the labels on the packages of in- 

 secticide do not conform to the require- 

 ments of pharmacy law, which, in Sec- 

 tion 12, says: 



"Nothing contained in this section 

 shall apply to the * * * sale of 

 Paris green or lead arsenate, or other 

 poisonous substances or mixtures of 

 poisonous substances, in unbroken pack- 

 ages, for use in the arts or for insecti- 

 cide purposes: Provided, They bear a 

 label with the name, or names, of such 

 poisonous substances and the word 

 'poison' printed thereon in prominent 

 type and the names of at least two 

 readily obtainable antidotes with direc- 

 tions for their administration." 



Evidently the Kentucky doctors who 

 attended the gentleman who drank di- 

 luted nicotine knew of no readily ob- 

 tainable antidote, for the patient lived 

 fourteen hours. Bead the labels. How 

 many of them conform to the require- 

 ments of the Illinois lawt 



Thus far there have been no prosecu- 

 tions of seedsmen or florists under the 

 Illinois law, and hence no demand on 

 the manufacturer that labels be made to 

 conform to the law, but the Board of 

 Pharmacy is working steadily toward 

 a strict enforcement of the law. 



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SEASONABLE jur 

 Mr SUGGESTIONS 



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Hard- Wooded Plants. 



Such plants as azaleas, ericas and 

 camellias can be carried through the 

 summer either planted outdoors or in 

 pots plunged to their brims. Planted 

 out stock seems to do best. Of course, 

 there is the additional labor of repot- 

 ting in the fall, but there is far less 

 labor watering through the summer 

 and the plants take on added vigor. 

 While they will grow well in ordinary 

 loam, they succeed much better if peat 

 and leaf-mold can be added to the soil 

 and well incorporated with it. If the 

 soil is naturally heavy, use some sharp 

 sand in addition. Plant out this class 

 of stock at once and be sure to have a 

 hose connection convenient, as they need 



a good spraying once or twice daily in 

 hot weather. It is not necessary to 

 have these plants in the shade. They 

 will flower more freely if given full 

 sunshine. 



Hydrangeas. 



There still is time to take cuttings of 

 Hydrangea Otaksa and the French va- 

 rieties, but there should be no delay in 

 doing so, as propagation of plants is 

 more difficult in hot weather. Cuttings 

 taken as late as early September will 

 give plants which will produce one large 

 head each the following spring. For 

 early forcing it is much better to carry 

 the hydrangeas over summer in pots. 

 These will not produce so large plants 

 as those planted in the field, but they 



