THE DISEASE OF THE MONEY COUNTERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1156, 25 March 1884, Page 3

THE DISEASE OF THE MONEY COUNTERS.

A Washington correspondent, visiting the Treasury Department, noticed that many of the women employed in counting bank notes looked ill, and had sores upon their hands or heads. The superintendent gave the following account of the trouble :—“ Very few,” he said, “ who spend any considerable time in counting money escape the sores. They generally appear first on their hands, but frequently they break out on the head, and sometimes the eyes are affected. We can do nothing to prevent this. All of the ladies take the greatest care of themselves in their work, but sooner or later they are afflicted with sores, The direct cause of the sores is the arsenic employed in the manufacture of the money. If the skin is the least abraded, and the arsenic gets under the flesh, a sore will appear next morning. The habit that everyone has of putting the hand to the head and face is the way the arsenicpoisoning is carried to these portions of the body.” “ See hero,” said one of Jthe officials, stopping by the side of a

young lady, and picking up a glass vessel containing a sponge, “ this sponge is wet, and is used to moisten the fingers while counting the money. You see how black it is. That’s arsenic. Every morning a new piece of sponge is placed on the desk of each employe, j but before the day is over it is as black as this, I have known half a dozen cases where ladies have been compelled to resign their positions. there are three ladies who were here six years before they were afflicted with sores. About three months ago they were so visited by them that they had to quit work. They have been away ever since, and the physician’s certificate in each case says that their blood is poisoned with arsenic,”—London Medical Record.