VEGETABLE POISONS. 247 



spherical air, when confined in a closed matrass, 

 has a very powerful effect upon animals; which 

 he illustrates by the following experiments. 



" First. The bill of a bird being applied to the 

 orifice of the matrass, the animal died in an 

 instant. Second. The mouth of a young rabbit 

 twenty-five days old applied to the orifice of the 

 same matrass which was corked after each exper- 

 iment, the little animal died in less than half a 

 second, with the mouth open, and discharging 

 a great quantity of saliva. Third. A cat, six 

 months old, being applied in a similar manner to 

 the orifice of the same matrass, made some effort 

 to withdraw itself; but in two seconds, it died 

 with the same symptoms as in the second exper- 

 iment. Fourth. An old but healthy spaniel was 

 applied to the orifice of the matrass, so that the 

 nostrils only were exposed to the vapour; it made 

 several efforts to escape from its painful situation 

 but in six minutes fell down and died in the 

 manner already described. Fifth. A much 

 stronger dog which had not eaten for twelve hours 

 being submitted to the same experiment, died in 

 a similar manner in less than six seconds. 



From these five experiments, Mr. Robart 

 observes, " we may conclude that a matrass of 

 the capacity of two litres full ofprussic acid gas, 

 mixed with atmospheric air, is sufficient to demon- 

 strate the deleterious nature of that gas; and 

 that its injurious quality is not sensibly modified 

 by admixture with atmospherical air." 



