The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-27
NOT MANY DEADLY POlSONS.
There Are Only Hundred and Sixty
 Quickly Fatal Drugs.

From the New York Press.
 ''There are only about 160 deadly poisons known to science" said an expert in poison lore the other day. "Of these 160 quickly fatal drugs one-third are aka loids, and more than a score are compli- cated animal and vegetable poisons not yet fully classified. Nearly half of the total number of known poisons are chem ical rarities-not things that ever get into the coroners' reports Of these 16O kinds of poison 19 per cent act directly on the brain or on the spinal cord, either by bringing on uneonsciousness or by stim- ulating the mind to such an extent that delirium follows; 5h per cent affect the respiration, and only a little more than per cent the heart primarily. Nearly 40 per cent are irrtant posons, and the rest have a mixed action on the human body Arsenic, for example, produces al- most the same symptoms as Asiatic chol- era; phosphorus produces faundice, and stryehnine's effects resemble a case of lockjaw. All these symptoms, of course, are those that precede death when fatal dose has been taken
 "A good many of these posons are dan gerous to manufacture. Mercuric me thde for instance, brings madness to those who work too long at making it. A gas rises from it that is not immedi. ately fatal, but which causes temporary insanity. which may, of course, become permanent.
 Potassium bichromate is another dan gerous chemical, and one that is used in large quantities commercially The work men who breathe in the dust that rises from the manufacture of this deadly poi son finally lose their noses For that req son those who work over this chemical have their faces protected by respirators. Even then the dust is so fine and insidi- ous that they do not escape entirely, and many suffer from painful affections of the skin. The horses that work about the factory where this potassic biehromate is made on a large scale are mostly lame. The dust gets into their hoofs and causes sores. Cyanide of potassium looks so much like sugar that the workmen in the fac tories where 1t is made keep their mouths bandaged to help them resist the tempta- tion to eat some of it. A pinch of this poison is fatal instantly, as every one knows. It Is used in the separation of gold from the other metals with which it is found in the earth, and thousands of tons of this particularly deadly poison are employed for that purpose every year all over the world.
 Some of these poisons have been known for ages. Prussic acid, then called the poison of the peach was used by the Egyptians before the pyramids were built. They were the first to distill the poison from peach pits. Corrosive sublmate was one of the favorite posons of Charles TX of France. He offered a large prize for any one who would find antidote for it. A physician came to him one day to claim the reward. The King sent for his cook, who had burned the meat that day, and made him take a fatal dose of corrosive subllmate. The antidote was administer ed immediately. but the cook died, not withstandng. The King had the doctor taken out and hanged, so his spirit follow- ed the cooks in less than quarter of an hour"