VEGETABLE POISONS. 191 



and this should be followed by a large teaspoonful of mustard, to 

 give a reasonable chance of success. 



Angustura pseudo ferruginijea, — A false species of Angustura 

 has entered into the shops of many druggists, and has occasioned 

 considerable mischief. Some years ago, I unfortunately destroyed 

 a very favourite dog by giving him, as a tonic remedy, this spu- 

 rious article, which had been furnished me by my druggist, as the 

 genuine Angustura bark. This deleterious article, although it is 

 decided by Humboldt to be nowise related to the Angustura tribe, 

 has yet been very generally diffused, and used as a substitute for 

 the true bark^^, 



Prussia acid. — In its highly concentrated state, this acid (which, 

 it is fortunate, is extremely difficult to obtain, and still more so to 

 preserve) is so active, that one, or, at the most, two drops applied 

 within the eye, nose, or on the tongue, are sufficient to destroy 

 life in a minute or two. It is to the presence of this acid that 

 many vegetable substances, particularly all bitter kernels, owe 

 their deleterious properties. The lauro cerasus, or cherry laurel, 

 used in cooking, for the kernel-like flavour it gives under distilla- 

 tion, yields a water that proves poisonous to dogs. The essential 

 oils of the cherry laurel, and of bitter almonds, are both so 

 strongly impregnated with prussic acid, that a very few drops 

 given to the largest dog prove immediately fatal^^. An extract 



*2 L. A. Planch, a French apothecary, has accurately described the article 

 in a memoir, entitled Notice Chimique sur les Angusturas des Commerce. 



*^ It is not unfrequently a subject of inquiry, how it may be possible to de- 

 stroy a dog with least pain to himself, and least shock to the feelings of his 

 owner. Although shooting and hanging are not, in themselves, painful 

 deaths, yet the violence necessarily committed is revolting to one's feelings. 

 It is both selfish and imprudent to familiarize the minds of servants to these 

 acts. Whenever, therefore, cases arise (and many such do occur) where it 

 would be infinitely more humane to destroy an animal than to prolong a mi- 

 serable existence, and when the more usual modes are objected to on account 

 of the violence and force necessary, either of these essential oils dropped on 

 the tongue, or a very small ball made from the extract, will extinguish life 

 almost instantaneously, and without pain. 



