Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-09-27
DEADLY POISONS.
PRECAUTIONS TAKEN IN HAND
LING THE SAME.

PruSsic Acid Produces Instant Death-lts Ori.
gin is in Rottlng Animal Tissues-Acids. in
Their Pure State. are Gaseous. not Liquid.
but are Easily Held in Aqueous Solution
The Effects Of Nitric Acid From Fire Set by a
Bursted Carboy Cyanide of Potassium.
Pretty to the Sight and Agreeable to the
Taste. Almost as Deadly as Prussic Acid
MercuriaI Poisons pne-Arsenical Poi.
sons.
Unquestionably, the most wonder.
full thing about manufactures where
poisons are handled is the mastery
which has been gained over them.
There are poisons the mere smell of
which produces death. The most
subtle of these poisons-by far the
most deadly substance known to man,
in facts hydrocyanic acid, the prus-
sic acid OF commerce. One Whit of
this in its full strength causes death,
not in half an hour, or ir a few min
utes, but literally at the instant. The
victim inhales the subtle CASTOR
pure prussic acid is gas-and his life
ceases before the breath can be ex-
PEELED from the lungs-quicker than
he could drop his hand from his side.
So devilishly destructive to life is this
thing that one smell from o bottle
containing p parts of water and 1S
parts of the acid is just as deadly, for
all practical purposes, as from a bottle
OF the pure acid, and the ordinary
preparation Of commerce-9S parts
water and only two per cent. acids
SO dangerous that no one is allowed to
buy it unless the best OF reasons for
its use can be advanced.
Not many persons are aware of the
fact, but this awful substance comes
primarily from the most repulsive
sources, since it is found in rotting an
imal tissues, the outcome OF dreadful
corruption. In practice the makers
oi prussic acid produce it from yellow
prussiate of potash; but the latter is
made from the horns of cattle and the
hoofs and hides and hair of horses,
These, properly treated, yield variety
OF cyanogen compounds, so-called,
prussic blue, pigment of value, being
among the number. Personal con.
tact with this poison would mean
death so certainly that devices for
carrying on every operation Of its
manufacture, completely shielded by
retorts and tubes, have been perfected,
and before il was sold so cheaply as
now many photographers who used it
in their business made the acid for
themselves in little toy.like appara.
tus. Diluted, by the way, this poison
has an extremely pleasant smell-not
unlike peach blossoms. 1t exists, too,
in peach pits. Its discoverer was
killed instantly from incautiously
smelling of the diluted acid.
There is something else about poi.
s0nous substances that few not versed
in chemistry know; it is that most
pure acids are gaseous, and not liquid.
Nearly all are soluble in water, though,
and after being diluted and purified
are conducted through tubes to tight
vessels partly filed with water, where
it and the acid combine to form the
acid Of commerce. You never saw
pure ammonia, for instance; it is in
visible-a gas of such strength that
one full respiration would destroy life.
The ammonia which you buy is most
ly water and the fumes arising from it
are produced by the releasing of the
gas, which disengages itself whenever
opened to the air. Ammonia, like
prussic acid, is manufactured in air
tight recep,acles, and therefore the
workmen are not in special danger un.
less there is leakage or something
bursts. Deaths from this class OF poi.
son are, therefore, rare. Nearly all
the more recent of these accidents
have been caused by the bursting OF
carboys OF nitric acid. Deaths oc.
CURED in none of these cases while
the acid was being made, but after it
had been put up for shipment.
Free nitric acid is so deadly, to tell
the truth, that were it not for its ten.
dency to set fire to whatever wood
substance with which it comes in con-
tact, no one would venture near a
burst carboy. Such an accident oc.
CURED in an American chemical works
last year. Through the careleesnees
OF a workman in the shipping depart
ment a carboy was broken. All the
men in the department departed with
out ceremony and for little space no
one approached the acid. 1t spread
out upon the floor and over a lot OF
sawdust, and soon it was observed that
the sawdust was smoldering. It was
then seen that unless something was
done the entire works would be
burned, no: only causing immense
money loss. but throwing hundreds OF
men out of work. Four men, en-
ployed in the acid department., volun-
teered to put out the fire, and were al
lowed to make the attempt, in which
they succeeded easily and speedily.
Moreover, they came out of the room
apparently unaffected by the noxious
fumes, one or two returning to their
work, and the others, whose time it