Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-05-01
ANIMALS AND POISON.
Some Species Are Immune to the
Most Deadly Drugs.
MYSTERY OF THE HEDGEHOG.
This BristIy Little Creature Can Make
a Meal of Arsenic or Opium and
Wash 1t Down With a Draft of
Prussc Acid Without Discomfort.

Prussic Acid Without Discomfort.
Poison is surely one of the most
weird of natures bizarre contrivances.
A tiny speck of an innocent looking
means instant death If that powder
happens to be the deadly drug aconi-
tine. A moments Whit of unseen va
por, and If that vapor rises from pure
prussic acid all human aid Is too late.
The strangest fact about that curious
group of bodies called poisons is that
sometimes they are not poisons. OF
course every one knows that when
kept under control by the skillful hand
of the physician poisons are most val
liable medicines. But few persons are
aware of the still more curious fact
that poisons when taken by certain an
imals even in large quantities are quite
harmless.
Yet, strange as it may seem, this Is
perfectly true. Take, for instance, the
hedgehog. This bristly little animal is
absolutely poison proof. 1t can eat
without discomfort as much opium as
a hardened Chinese can smoke in a
fortnight and can wash a meal down
with as much prussic acid as would
kill a regiment of soldiers 1t Is ca
pable of swallowing arsenic with just
as much relish as 1t eats cockroaches
1t is quite immune to the venom of the
10 fhA ba1n
has little need to fear the approach of
such a reptile. 1t has even been stated
that it can swallow corrosive subli-
mate, and yet this is a virulent poison
which human beings must handle with
caution, for even solution of it exter-
nally applied has been known to cause
death.
Cyanide of potassium is another
deadly substance of which the hedge
hog need have no fear Sand yet the
merest trace of the poison is sufficient
to cause full grown man to foam at
the mouth and lose the power of his
limbs. Truly the hedgehog is strange
freak, and yet not so inexpllcable as
the poisons by which he refuses to be
poisoned.
Man Is said to resemble the monkey
in more ways than one; but, whatever
characteristics they may have in COM
mon, the ape differs from the human
being in this respect-he can take with
impunity as much strychnine as would
kill two men Instantly. The monkey,
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brate animals. Another phenomenon
the rat. The number of rat poisons
sold by druggists is legion, but there IS
one poison which never enters into
their mposltion-namely, digitalin,
the active principle of the foxglove.
One-half grain of this poisonous prin-
ciple suffices to kill man within three
quarters of an hour, but the rat abso-
lutely refuses to let it kill him.
When it is discovered that human
being has swallowed oXalic acid, the
first thing the doctor does is to give his
unfortunate patient good dose of
chalk, technically known as calcium
carbonate. Strange to relate, chickens
are not poisoned by oxalic acid, for the
simple reason that their intestines con-
tain the antidote In the form of guam
titles of calcium, which combine with
the poison and render it quite barn.
less. 1t is interesting, however, to
mention that IL oxalic acid is injected
into the blood of a fowl it would be
poisoned. 1t is only when given by the
mouth that the acid comes in contact
with the antidote. However, as chick
ems are not provided with hypodermic
syringes, they are not likely to run any
danger.
If China were inhabited by pigeons
instead of by people who speak pigeon
English a costly war and no end of
controversy might have been averted,
for pigeons are not demoralized by
opium You cannot put a pigeon to
sleep with the "drowsy giant" simply
because there is something in the birds
interior which resists the narcotic in
fiuence of the morphine to which
opium owes its activity.
There is little to connect the Russian
peasant with a goat-unless it is beard
yet nevertheless both have one trait
in common-neither is harmed by hem
lock. 1t was the Juice of the hemlock,
so we have been told until we are tired
of hearing it, that killed Socrates. Ever
since then it has been on the poison list
as far as civilized beings are concern
ed; but, all the same, roots of hemlock
are eaten as food by the Russian peas
; ants-and by goats.
In one respect the peasant of the
Austrian Tyrol resembles the hedge
hog because he can take in one dose
as much arsenic as would kill several
, Americans. This is not because the
peasant is provided with any special
! means of combating the effects of the
!. drug, but because he habituates HIM
self to it. The Tyrolean finds that ar
senic increases his power of endurance.
He commences by taking an eighth
part Of a grain for dose, which is
rradnallu incraased until he can take