The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-05-28
ANIMALS AND POISON.
Some Species Are Immune to the
Most Deadly Drugs.
MYSTERY OF THE HEDGEHOG.
This Bristly Little Creature Can Make
Meal of Arsenic or Opium and
Wash II Down With a Draft of
Prussie Acid Without Discomfort.

Wash II Down With a Draft of
Prussic Acid Without Discomfort.
Poison is surely one of the most
weird of natures bizarre contrivances
A tiny speck of an innocent looking
! white powder on the tip of the tongue
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 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
snake, though the priekly hedgehog
has little need to fear the approach of
such reptile. 1t has even been stated
that it can swallow corrosive subli-
mate, and yet this is virulent poison
which human beings must handle with
caution, for even a 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, and yet the
merest trace of the poison is sufficient
to cause a full grown man to foam at
the mouth and lose the power of his
limbs Truly the hedgehog is a strange
freak, and yet not SO inexplicable 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,
curiously enough, shares the immunity
to strychnine poisoning with inverte-
brate animals. Another phenomenon is
the rat The number of rat poisons
sold by druggists is legion, but there is
one poison which never enters into
their composition-na 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 a 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 harm
less. 1t is interesting, however. to
mention that If oxalic acid Is injected
into the blood of a fowl 1t 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, costly war and no end of
controversy might have been ayerted.
for pigeons are not demoralized by
opium You cannot put 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
peasapt with a goat-unless II Is beard