The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-10-17
THE POWER OF CHEMISTRY.
A Professors Fate-The Terrible Destru,
tlHenesa Intent In samA Che emicaIn

A Professors Fate-The Terrible Destruc.
tiveness Latent In some Chemicals.
A most unfortunate accident which
has occurred at Prague recalls in many
Of its details and circumstances the
quaint traditions that were once preva-
lent with regard to the medieval al
chemists, Professor Fischer, OF the
Prague gymnasium, a young man only
twenty-five years Of age, and of the
highest eminence in his profession -
that of chemistry-has come to an un-
timely end, under the most melancholy
circumstances. No one needs to be told
that cyanide of potassium, drug large
ly used in photography, is q poison Of
the most deadly character. Its active
ingredient is prussic acid. Prussic acid
in its pure, or--as chemists would term
it-"a anhydrous form, is q substance
too dangerous to be kept, or even manu-
factured. If glass capsule containing
a wineglassful of pure prussic acid were
broken in the pit Of theater, those
among the audience who were nearest
the doors might perhaps escape, but the
great majority would be killed on the
spot The prussic acid ordinarily sold,
and occasionally used for killing dogs
and cats, contains about O drop of the
pure acid to quarter of pint OF water.
Pure prussic acid no chemist dare keep.
He might as we'll compress ton of dy-
Mantle into q single cartridge-suppos-
ing such package to be possible-and
then leave the deadly parcel lying loose
upon his table.
Cyanide of potassium is not, like prus-
sic acid, volatile. It is white powder,
rather resembling -four or chalk. It is,
however, SO poisonous that mere
pinch of it, sprinkled over an open
wound or sore, will cause almost instan-
taneous death that fragment, almost
imperceptible to the eye, will, il swal-
lowed, prove equally fatal, and that its
mere smell has before now produced
immediate death. 1t was, it seems, the
ambition of Professor Fischer to discover
some means of rendering cyanide of
potassium harmless. We can do this
with gunpowder-although the analogy
is not strictly exact, the means employed
with gunpowder being mechanical, while
those for which Professor Fischer sought
were chemical. We know what happens
if light is applied to keg of gunpow-
der. If, however, we mix the powder
with four or five times it's bulk OF saw
dust, torch may be held to it with i'm
punity. The mechanical resistance of
the sawdust makes it impossible for the
explosion to at once spread to the whole
mass, and the consequence is that a sort
of splutter ensues, like that OF q squib
or blue light. Professor Fischer's idea
was that if cyanide OF potassium we're
thoroughly mixed with sal ammoniac, it
would be as harmless as gunpowder
mixed with sawdust, but would still re-
main equally available for all those pur-
poses of photography for which it is at
present absolutely indispensable.
In the course of his researches, Mr..
Fischer made mixture, of which in his
own mind he felt assured that it would
meet the conditions of his problem. He
compounded the cyanide with some
other substance, and then-turning to
his laboratory assistant-said
"Science has now 30 far advanced as
to be even able to render harmless so
dangerous an agent as cyanide of potas.
sum-"
With these words he tasted the mix.
ture, and was almost in an instant seized
with the most violent and excruciating
agonies. He at once implored his assist.
ant to send for medical aid. Cyanogen,
however--whether as prussic acid OF
as cyanide of potassium-kills almost
instantaneously. In few seconds Pro.
fessor Fischer was beyond help. We
are told that there is possible reason to
suppose that deliberate suicide had
been planned and carried out, under the
mask of experiment. On the contrary,
there is every reason to believe that the
professor had met the fate which befell
only too many of the early chemists and
their predecessors, the alchemists.
We know, now, what will happen to
any..experimentalist if he dips blotting.
paper in nitric acid, washes it, dries it,
and then incautiously treads upon it.
What happened to the man who is be.
lieved-for his record persisted with him
to have first discovered illuminate OF
| silver, is matter of scientific record.
That he was engaged in researches upon
the Eliminates of the higher metals, was
we'll known. How it precisely came
about that he disappeared as he did will
remain matter of conjecture. There
came one day puff, slight shock, and
a smart noise as if some one had infater
paper bag, and then burst it between
his hands. OF the professor himself, Of
his laboratory, of his apparatus and OF
much else within the radius of some
yards, not vestige or trace was left.
So it used to be with the alchemists
the heritors of the hidden wisdom OF
Bohme, and R>ger Bacon and Albertus
Magnus. They were always blowing
themselves up, or asphyxiating them
selves with some noxious vapor. For o
man who knows nothing, or next to
nothing, Of chemistry, it is a very dan.
gerous game indeed to mix together 9
couple of Substance OF which he knows
nothing, and then bray them in a NOR.
tar. Common sulphur is harmless stuff
enough, so is charcoal, 80 is nitre but
| let an ignorant man mix the three and
apply a light to them, and the result
will much astonish him.
Apart from the sad fact that young
man with bright and indeed brilliant
future before him should be thus sud
denly cut of, the death of Professor
Fischer has another moral. Chemistry
whatever Mr.. Lowe may have to Say
IN praise OF civil engineering-is the
science of the world and of the future.
The bridge which takes the engineer
years upon years to construct, the
chemist can, in as many sixtieths of {
second, reduce to atoms.
| Chemistry has given us the balloon
it has put into our hands gunpowder
nitro-glycerine, dynamite, and, above
all, illuminate of gold-an explosive 81
terrible that if an ounce of it be left il
a stoppered bottle. Its grains falling
i than ralxrnI Al Ia