AN INSIDIOUS DANGER

Evening Star, Issue 22443, 14 September 1936, Page 12

AN INSIDIOUS DANGER

UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE Eucalyptus is in almost every household (says the Wellington ‘ Post ’), and has very usefuj purposes, but few people seem to realise the danger that lurks in its employment in large doses, “ F.W.W.” had an unpleasant experience a few days ago, as a sequel to which ho sends us the following:—

“A small bottle of colourless liquid ■recently came into my possession, which I understood (or misunderstood) to be ammoniated quinine. Feeling what seemed to be the premonitory symptoms of an oncoming cold, I decided to take a protective dose of the ‘ quinine.’ Pouring about a teaspoonful of it into a tumbler, I drank it off. Immediately I became aware that what I had taken was really eucalyptus. However, having never had experience in using it in greater_ quantity than' a few drops soaked into loafsugar, I apprehended no serious consequences, and went about my work. “ Within half an hour it haceme evident that I had done something really dangerous. Gradually I felt myself become dazed. To all intents and purposes I became drunk, or at any rate temporarily poisoned. _ Luckily, a kindly comrade appeared just then and relieved me from my duty, which was that of taking shorthand notes, and I got away to our transcribing office. In doing so I walked unsteadily, and anybody who saw me must have formed an uncharitable conclusion as to my sobriety. My brain was quite numbed, and I could do nothing but throw myself upon a couch that was handy. There I remained in a stupor for upwards of two hours. By that time the fumes of the drug began to affect mo less and less, but it was five or six hours before I was quite myself again. The principal disability from which 1 suffered was the paralysis of brainpower already mentioned, but for a considerable time the skin of my hands, arms, and body was distinctly cold. “ One resolution that , I formed in consequence of this startling experience was that 1 would inform as many of my friends as possible of what had happened, in order to _ put them on guard against the ordinarily camouflaged drug. To my surprise, the first man to whom I mentioned the matter told me that when a lad of 16 he also had taken a similar dose by mistake, and bad been ill for two or three days in consequence. Hardly had I left mm when 1 met another old friend, formerly one of the most prominent men in the Public Service of the Dominion, who said that over 30 years ago he was alone at his home and took a strongish dose of, eucalyptus, which seemed to go at once to his heart. Anyhow, ho was seriously prostrated, and believed that lie would nave died. As he is a man who is not given to the use of exaggerated words, I am sure that he meant it literally and not in the way our lady friends talk of dying for ’ something. Luckily, he happened to know where be could get brandy in the house, and after he had taken a strong dose he was gradually restored. Within a few hours I compared notes with another friend, a lady, who recalled the fact that in her girlhood she also had suffered from the taking of an overdose of eucalyptus, three instances of the danger, wruun a lew hours, among less than 20 people whom I baa met in that time! . , “ On the other hand, people who had not had the experience seemed amazed to find that there was such a danger in the use of the seemingly innocent liquid. It is oil this account that, on the recommendation of friends, I am writing this note to the ‘ Post in order to warn others of the danger involved in the use of a liquid that most people trust, but which it is obvious needs to bo taken with discretion.”