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The Deadliest Drug

The Deadliest Drug image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
March
Year
1884
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

"I will wager one thousand dollars that it was not prussic acid," said :i medical man who had read an árdele about the death of a cat from prussio acid, mentioned in tha tir3t edition of the Press. "What ís prussic acid worth?" iv-ai nsked of the chemist at Strong, Cobb & Co.'s wholesale drug store. "We never sell it," was the response. "It is not an article of commerce. Scheuer, the Swedish chemist, who discovered chlorine, Schouer's g-reen, etc.,' was found dead iu his laboratorv, about whiclitherelingercda peculiar, pungent, smell. When one has caten a frc.sh peach and cracked the pit he will get a faint odor that resembles prussic acid. although the smell of tliis acid is slightly sweeter. It can also be found in bitter almonds." "Somo housewives, in preserving peaches, add a few pits to the oonfection by way of improving the flavor. Il may sound extravagant, out it is Derertheless a fact that the improvement of the condiment is due partly to pruasic acid. It is in such minute (juantities, however, that it is not injurious to health. Indeed, what is commonly called prussic acid is given as medicine. It is really hydrocyanic, two parts of the acid to uinetyelght parts of water. S. M. Stron jxjaucs Lua, nuni ma Lm-ut HS T ÍO Sick Wlth unoun'""' ,tfie ilnctni-" 1-7" "uuwluirec drops ot hvdroeyame acul. The sick man was himself an excellent doctor, and he advised tliat tlie dose bc increased to six drops. The attending physician did not dare do it. The sick man died, and his friends entertain a lingering belief that he would have EuRed through had the doctors followed is adrice." Prussic acid is the most doadly of all poisons, and the fumes would instantly kill the person who inhaled it. It is not known just what the symptoms attending the death are, for the victim dies too suddenly to manifest any. There appears to be a sort of suffocation and a general paralysis. Hydrocyanlc acid is sometimes taken internally with suicidal intentand death is almost instantaneous, the blood taking up the acid wonderfullv quick. It is colorless as

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News