Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/584

 and two cases have been tried in England where death arose from hydrocyanic acid, and the prisoners were charged with administering it, but were found not guilty. These cases will be noticed presently.

Of the Hydrocyanic Acid.

I.—Of its Chemical History and Tests.

This singular substance was discovered some time ago by Scheele; but Gay-Lussac was the first who obtained it in a state of purity. It is familiarly known to chemists under two forms,—as a pure acid, and diluted with water.

The pure acid is liquid, limpid, and colourless. It has an acrid, pungent taste, and a very peculiar odour, which, when diffused through the air, has a very distant resemblance to that of bitter almonds, but is accompanied with a peculiar impression of acridity on the nostrils and back of the throat. It is an error, however, to suppose, as is very generally done, that the odour is the same with that of the almond. It boils at 80°; freezes at 5°; and is very inflammable. I have kept it unchanged for a fortnight in ice-cold water; but at ordinary temperatures it decomposes spontaneously, and becomes brown, sometimes in an hour, and commonly within twelve hours. On this account it is extremely improbable that a case will ever happen, in which the medical jurist will have to examine it in its concentrated form.

When united with water it forms the acid discovered by Scheele, and now kept in the druggist's shop. In this state it has the same appearance, taste, and smell as the pure acid; but it is less volatile, does not burn, and may be preserved long without change, if excluded from the light. In consequence of its volatility, however, it becomes weak, unless kept with great care; many samples of it also undergo decomposition, and deposit brown flakes, if not excluded from the light; and hence the acid of the shops is very variable in point of strength. The acid prepared by decomposing the solution of the ferrocyanate of potass by sulphuric acid may be kept for years, even exposed to diffuse light, without being decomposed at all. A French physician made some experiments not long ago on the uncertainty of the strength of the medicinal acid; and he found that he could swallow a whole ounce of one sample, and a drachm of a stronger sample, without sustaining any injury; but on trying some which had been recently prepared by Vauquelin, he was immediately taken ill, as will be related presently, and narrowly escaped with his life. —The acid of commerce differs much in strength, according to the process by which it has been prepared, and independently of decomposition by keeping. The medicinal acid long used in this country is intended to be an imitation of that of Vauquelin, which contains 3·3 per cent.; but the London College of Physicians, in adopting it in their last Pharmacopœia, improperly altered the strength to 2 per