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March 29, 1908

TYPHOID GERMS IN SPRINGS.

Dr. Cross Says Al Such Sources of

Water Should Be Filled.

"They City's Drinking Water" was the subject of Dr. Walter M. Cross's talk before the City Club at its luncheon at the Sexton hotel yesterday at noon. "The danger is in springs and wells," Dr. Cross said. "Every well in the city that receives its water from the surface should be filled up. They are dangerous as breeders of typhoid germs. These springs and wells are responsible for most of the typhoid fever that exists in our city. Only two wells in the city have water that is absolutely safe and they are artesian. All others should be condemned."

Labels: City Chemist Cross, health, hotels, organizations

February 22, 1908

AN EXPERIMENTAL CREMATORY.

Cross Believes Profits in By-Products.

The Kansas City Livestock exchange is building an experimental crematory at the stock yards for the purpose of determining if, with a large one, disposal can be made of the pen accumulations with profit. The experiment is to be made along lines recommended by Dr. W. M. Cross, city chemist, who believes that the value of the by-products from the refuse, principally ammonia, will more than reimburse the company.

Labels: animals, City Chemist Cross, stock yards

January 29, 1908

HUNT GERMS IN STREET CARS.

City Chemist Has Been Making Tests

With Culture Plates.

Are the street cars a menace to public health, and do they carry germs that are producers of disease?

With a view of determining this point the city pure food department and City Chemist Cross have been making tests with culture plates. During the rush hours on the street cars, morning and night, these culture plates have been placed in the Brooklyn, Vine, Rockhill, Troost and Indiana cars. The plates are of glass, and floating germs adhere to their surface.

The exposures show the glasses to be completely covered with atoms of variuos descriptions, but whether these are impregnated with disease germs it will take from three to five days to develop. The plates exposed in the Vine street cars showed the greatest accumulations.

Dr. W. M Cross, the chemist, says that the air is filled with disease-carrying germs which settle on the clothing and shoes of passengers and in that way are carried into cars, and if cleanliness is not maintained that the germs enter the systems of passengers and cause fevers and illness of various degrees.

Labels: City Chemist Cross, health, streetcar

January 28, 1908

THEY'LL FIGHT CONSUMPTION.

Negroes Band Together to Battle

With the White Plague.

Six hundred negroes, eager to fight the white plague, met last night at Allen chapel, Tenth and Charlotte streets, and organized a colored people's branch of the Society for the Relief and Prevention of Tuberculosis. Mayor Beardsley and Dr. R. O. Cross addressed them, explaining in part the plans of the city for a tuberculosis sanitarium.

Among the negro speakers who followed, several declared that there will be vigorous work done now to educate their own people who are living in crowded tenements as to how to fight tuberculosis. Also it was said that the negroes will contrubute their part financially to the proposed $10,000 fund to be given to the city by way of destroying the idea that it is a city charity for paupers.

The negro society's officers are Dr. J. E. Dipple, president; W. C. Houston, secretary; Professor R. W. Foster, treasurer; Rev. F. Jesse Peck, chairman of the executive committee.

Others who spoke were: Dr. E. B. Ramsey, Dr. W. L Tompkins, Dr. A. E. Walker, Dr. J. E. Perry, Nelson, Crews, and Mrs. Cora Calloway, a trained nurse.

Labels: Charlotte street, churches, City Chemist Cross, health, Mayor Beardsley, nurses, organizations, race, Tenth street

December 21, 1907

POLICE GET HIS COCAINE BOX.

Many Men Had Been Drugged and

Robbed in North End Saloon.

The police have had many complaints of men being drugged and robbed in a Greek saloon near Sixth and Bluff streets recently. It was in and near this place that thirteen men have been arrested within the last two days and sent to the workhouse on fines of from $10 to $100.

A signwriter named Sellinger, who testified against some of the men in police court, told the police that he saw a man drugged, robbed and thrown into a hack and hauled away. At another time the clerk of the Metropolitan hotel was taken into a rear room, slugged and robbed.

Yesterday afternoon detectives arrested Chris Baptista, a Mexican bartender in the saloon complained of. They went behind the bar and confiscated two suspicious bottles and a box containing a chrystalline substance.

"The bottles do not smell like whiskey," said Inspector Ryan, "and the box looks like it contains cocaine."

The two bottles and the box were delivered to Dr. Walter M. Cross, city chemist, for analysis. Baptista is being held for investigation.

Labels: Bluff street, City Chemist Cross, crime, immigrants, narcotics, North end, saloon, Sixth street, workhouse

October 11, 1907

REFUGE FOR CONSUMPTIVES.

Tuberculosis Society Officers Approve

City's Site for Building.

Dr. R. O. Cross, president and C. B. Irving, secretary of the Jackson County Society for the Prevention and Relief of Tuberculosis, accompanied the board of public works and the work house committees from the lower and upper houses of the council, to Lee's Summit yesterday afternoon, and approved the plans for the proposed sanitarium for consumptives to be built in the city.

The site of the proposed sanitarium is on the west forty acres of the 140 recently purchased by the city for the location of a work house. The ground to be used for the "white plague" sanitarium is on a slope with a southeast exposure, and has excellent natural drainage. The city contemplates erecting a permanent building for the segregation and treatment of consumptives.

Labels: City Chemist Cross, health, Kansas City council, Lee's Summit, public works, workhouse

October 8, 1907

DOGS POISONED BY WHOLESALE.

City Counselor's Neighborhood Has

Suffered from Poison Fiend.

Dr. Walter M. Cross, city chemist, yesterday found arsenic in great quantity in meat samples furnished him by the city counselor, E. C. Meservey. When Mr. Meservey went to his office yesterday morning he sent for the chemist.

"Here are some samples of meat that has been thrown around in my neighborhood. It has killed a dozen or more dogs."

The meat was tested for strychnine, but no trace of the drug was found, but in a very few minutes arsenic showed plainly. The result of the examination will be referred to the police department.

Labels: animals, City Chemist Cross, poison

September 27, 1907

WIPE OUT TUBERCULOSIS

OBJECTS OF A SOCIETY FORMED

LAST NIGHT.

Building and Endowing of a Tent

Colony and a Sanitarium

Among the Purposes

of Promoters.

Fresh Air, Fresh Milk and Fresh Eggs.

That's the motto of the Jackson County Society for the Relief and Prevention of Tuberculosis, organized last night. The leading men of the city -- doctors, ministers, priests, lawyers and officeholders -- attended the meeting and promised their assistance in putting the society in shape to do real work.

The programme of intentions outlined for the next few months is:

The building and endowing of a tent colony and a sanitarium near the city for the treatment of tuberculosis patients.

The employment of nurses to visit in the homes of consumptives and teach the people how to live properly when afflicted with the disease.

The enactment of laws by the city council to compel the reporting of all cases of tuberculosis, and to clean and disinfect all houses in which consumptives had lived or died.

The distribution of literature and the holding of public meetings to educate the people in healthy living -- fresh air, baths and wholesome food.

"Kansas City is twenty years behind Eastern cities in dealing with tuberculosis," said Dr. C. B. Irwin, one of the organizers of the society, last night. There is no fumigation, no reports of deaths from the disease, and practically no effort to check the spread of the plague. I know one house in this city from which there men have been carried out dead from consumption in the past five years. It's easy to know how the last two got it. As fast as one family moved out another moved in.

"Since in 1880 New York city began fumigating houses in which tuberculosis patient had died, began educating the people and commenced a systematic fight upon the disease, the death rate from it had fallen 50 per cent. The same is true of Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

"In the Western cities one death in every seven is from the white plague."

The directors of the society, chosen last night, are: Rev. Father W. J. Dalton, Dr. E. W. Schauffler, Judge H. L McCune, Mayor H. M. Beardsley, Frank P. Walsh, R. A. Long, Rev. Matt S. Hughes, Hugo Brecklein, Dr. St. Elmo Sauders, Congressman F. C. Ellis, Mrs. Robert Gillam, Ralph Swofford, Albert Bushnell, F. A. Faxon, George F. Damon and J. W. Frost.

The others are: Dr. R. O. Cross, president; Dr. C. B. Irwin, secretary, Albert Marty, treasurer; John T. Smith, Rev. Wallace M. Short, J. W. Frost and E. A. Krauthoff, vice presidents; chairman finance committee, Mrs. Kate E. Pierson; chairman soliciting committee, Mrs. E. T. Brigham; chairman legislative committee, J. V. C. Karnes, and publication committee, Dr. E. L. Stewart, chairman; Dr. E. L. Mathias and Clarance Dillon.

Labels: City Chemist Cross, Congressman Ellis, doctors, Father Dalton, Frank Faxon, health, ministers, nurses, organizations

September 5, 1907

WAS IT MURDER OR SUICIDE?

Indian Territory Mystery Has a Kan-

sas City End.

An Indian Territory tragedy developed a Kansas City end yesterday when Dr. Willliam Cross made out a certificate to the effect that he had found poison in a stomach which had been sent him from Kiowa, I. T.

Dr. Cross had in bottles on his shelves the stomach, brains and liver of "a female, 21 years old, married, fullblood Indian," and excepting that the extraordinary consignment had been made to him by H. P. Ward, a merchant in Kiowa, he knew nothing more.

"I suppose there has been a murder down there," said Dr. Cross. "Two weeks ago I got three bottles by express, together with a note saying that poisoning was suspected. I was asked to make an analysis for strychnine. The final instructions came yesterday, and I took the stomach of the Indian woman into my laboratory. I found it reeking with strychnine.

"My information is that four doctors had attended the woman during her illness of twenty-four hours, and that they had reported her convulsions due to natural causes. The citizens took the matter up, bottled these parts of the remains, shipped them up here and instructed that the analysis be made.

"I do not know whether it was murder or anything else, but there is plenty of strychnine in that bottle to account for one."

Labels: City Chemist Cross, murder, Native Americans, poison

August 9, 1907

WARNING AGAINST WELLS.

Health Department and City Chemist

Tell of the Danger.

A warning has been issued by the city health department against drinking well water.

"It would save a life every week in the year if the city would close up all wells and springs in the residence and business part of the city with the exception of three artesian wells," said Dr. W. M. Cross, city chemist. "There are fifty or sixty lives lost every year by reason of typhoid germs in wells. Healthy people can drink impregnated water without harm, but let those same people get a little under the weather and typhoid will get them. There is no reason for a well or a spring in a modern city. If there is doubt about the city water there are good filters, and always there is the tea kettle to boil the water in. The city should pass an ordinance to fill up the wells and to bar all springs."

Labels: City Chemist Cross, health

June 21, 1907

ADULTERATED ICE CREAM.

Samples Disclosed Gum of Tragicum

and Formaldehyde.

Of six samples of ice cream indiscriminately gathered from ice cream parlors by pure food inspectors, five disclosed adulterants when analyzed by City Chemist Cross. Three contained formaldehyde and two gum of tragicum and gelatin. Every one of these adulterations is used contrary to the pure food ordinance. The persons from whom these samples of ice cream were taken will be arrested and prosecuted in the police court.

Labels: City Chemist Cross, food, police court

April 17, 1907

STORY OF A LOST CHARM.

City Chemist Cross Receives One He

Dropped Years Ago.

Four years ago W. M. Cross, city chemist, lost from his watch chain a charm descriptive of his college fraternity. At the time he lent every effort to recover it, but of no avail and as the years sped on he forgot all about his loss. Yesterday he was seated in his laboratory when a boy about 15 years old entered and introduced himself as W. M. Cross. He said that he had a watch charm with "W. M. Cross" engraved upon it, that it was not his property and he had often desired to meet the man to whom it might possibly belong. The long lost charm was exhibited, and Dr. Cross immediately identified it as his property.

"Where did you get it, my son?" asked the doctor.

"It is a short story," replied the boy. "I am employed in a Main street haberdasher store, and a few years ago my mother married a man by the name of Cross. My initials being W. M. and having assumed the name of Cross, my stepfather gave me the charm, saying that it had been found by the man that gave it to him in a street car. Ever since I have been wearing the charm, and recently I read in the newspapers about W. M. Cross, city chemist, and I concluded that in all possibility the charm was your property. I am glad to be of some service to you by returning the jewel."

The boy refused a reward, but after much persuasion accepted a silver dollar, which he said he would keep as a momento.

Labels: City Chemist Cross, jewelry, Main street

January 19, 1907

SHAM MARASCHINO CHERRIES.

Samples That Contain Coal Tar and

Are Flavored With Peppermint.

Maraschino cherries -- Dyed with coal tar and flavored with peppermint.
Maraschino cherries -- Flavored with extract of wild cherry and dyed with nitric
amyl.
Confectioners' Paste -- Colored with coal tar.

When the man with a thirst and 15 cents stands on the outside of the bar and wants a luscious red cherry in his cocktail he will hereafter say to the mixiologist: "A little coal tar flavored with peppermint."

Again when the demure miss strays into the ice cream parlor and orders a dish of cream made tempting by a little bouquet of cherries, she will murmur to the waiter, "Those of wild cherry flavor and doctored with amyl." If she doesn't eat more than two or three of the cherries, she will not experience any disagreeable results, but if she goes over three there is every likelihood that she'll feel like summoning the doctor. Amyl will be the cause.

The inspectors of the staff of Dr. W. P. Cutler, city pure food inspector, were out yesterday selecting promiscuously bottled and canned goods from diver stores, among the lot the alleged Maraschino cherries, which were labeled as such and the confectioners' paste. Maraschino is a pure and exquisite preservent, and when added to cherries makes it tempting and sought after by high livers. It is a tasteful and soothing adjunct to mixed drinks, and large quantities of it are used. Therefore the temptation to adulterate and impose on gullible humanity.

City Chemist Cross made an analysis of the Maraschino cherries and brought forth the shams described.

"What are you going to do about it?" Dr. Cutler was asked.

"If the dealer from whose place these samples were taken has any more in stock he will have to paste on the label the word 'adulterated,' together with the names of the adulterations contained. The pure food law does not forbid the adulterating of food stuffs when the adulterant is not down right poisonous."

Labels: City Chemist Cross, Dr. W. P. Cutler, food, health, pure food commission