216 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENT WITH STRYCHNIA. 



AN interesting experiment, illustrative of the poisonous effects of 

 strychnia, was recently made by Professor Agassiz, at Cambridge. 

 The subject was a large black bear, about eighteen months old. The 

 animal was taken when young, and had been kept in captivity for a 

 considerable period. Professor Agassiz being desirous of killing it for 

 the purpose of dissection, about three grains of strychnia were ad- 

 ministered in a biscuit. The poison, although extremely bitter, was 

 readily swallowed. At the expiration of ten minutes, no effect hav- 

 ing been produced, a second dose of about the same quantity was also 

 inclosed in a biscuit and offered. The cunning animal broke open 

 and swallowed the biscuit, but rejected the poison. The first portion, 

 however, had proved efficacious, and in exactly fifteen minutes from 

 the time when first administered, the animal was seized with terrible 

 convulsions, and soon died. The whole time which elapsed between 

 the taking of the poison and the death of the animal did not exceed 

 twenty-five minutes. In order to alleviate its sufferings and hasten 

 death, a quantity of hydrocyanic acid was poured upon the nose and 

 mouth of the bear. It did not, however, produce any sensible effect, 

 and was not apparently taken into the system, as the animal at the 

 time was nearly dead. But the subsequent effects of the poison were 

 most remarkable. Although the bear, at the time of death, was in 

 perfect health and strength, twenty-four hours had not elapsed before 

 the body was in an advanced stage of decomposition. Indeed the ap- 

 pearances indicated that the animal had been dead nearly two months. 

 The interior of the body, when opened about twenty hours after 

 death, still retained its warmth in a considerable degree, while an 

 offensive gas issued from every pore. The blood had not coagulated, 

 the spinal marrow and nerves were in a semi-fluid state, and the flesh 

 had assumed a leaden-gray color. The hair of the hide readily came 

 out, on being slightly pulled. No smell of the hydrocyanic acid 

 could be perceived. 



The origin of this singular and speedy decomposition is not fully 

 known, though it is supposed to be due to the agency of the hydro- 

 cyanic acid. A chemical examination of the muscle, brain, nerves, 

 liver, and kidneys is now going on at the Cambridge laboratory, under 

 the direction of Prof. Horsford. One singular fact connected with the 

 spontaneous decomposition of these parts is, that they all yielded or 

 disengaged hydrosulphuric acid gas, with the exception of the liver, 

 which did not. Editors. 



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ON THE COMPOSITION OF STEARIC AND MARGARIC ACIDS. 



THE composition usually assigned to these acids makes them two 

 different oxides of the radical, analogous to the arrangement in hypo- 

 sulphuric acid and sulphuric acids. The acids are supposed to be anhy- 

 drous. Recent experiments have shown that the atomic weight of 

 the two acids is the same. Seven analyses of stearic acid, derived 

 from different sources, gave results strikingly concordant, and afford- 



