Bisbee daily review., 1907-05-23
BsBEE MORNING. ga 1so
ANIMALS AND POISON.
Some Species Are Immune to the
 Most Deadly Drugs.
MYSTERY OF THE HEDGEHOG.
This Firstly Little Creature Can Make Meal of Arsenic or Opium and Wash 1t Down With a Draft of Prussie Acid Without Discomfort.


 Poison is surely one of the most weird of natures bizarre contriyanees. 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 whiff of unseen va DOT, and if that yapor 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 uable 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. It can eat without discomfort as much opium as a hardened Chinese can smoke in T fortnight and can wash a meal down with as much prussic acid as would kill regiment of soldiers. It is ca pablo of swallowing arsenic with just as much relish as it eats cockroaches. It is quite immune to the venom of the snake, though the prickiy hedgehog has little need to fear the approach of such a reptile. It 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 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 inyerte- 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 omposition-namely, digitalin, the active principle of the foxglove. One-haK 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 d human being has swallowed oxalic acid, the first thing the doctor does is to give his unfortunate patient a 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 quan- titles of calcium, which combine with the poison and render it quite barm- less. It is interesting, however. to mention that if Oxalic acid is injected into the blood of q fowl it would be poisoned. It 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 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 it's 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. It 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 hemIock 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 @ grain for a dose, which is gradually increased until he can take without any i'll effect five or more grains at time
 Experts have not been able to make up their minds why these people be. come tolerant to the drug. The most plausible theory put forward up to the present is that an antitoxin is formed by the administration of the poison which immunizes the subject, just as calf lymph immunizes us against smallpox Baltimore Sun.