“Essential oil of bitter almonds is largely prepared for the use of perfumers, confectioners, and cooks, who generally use 
what is called the essence of almonds, or asolution of 3ij- of the oil in 3vj. of alcohol; this is also the most convenient form for 
its pharmaceutical employment. One hundred weight of the bitter almond cake remaining in the press after the separation of 
the fixed oil, is put into the still with about four hundred gallons of water, this proportion being necessary to prevent the for- 
mation of a mucilaginous magma, from which the volatile oil will not pass, and which often, if brought to boil, rises up into the 
head and worm of the still. The produce of oil is liable to much variation, a cwt. of cake yielding from one ounce to two ounces 
and three-quarters by weight. It often deposits a considerable portion of white crystallized matter, which is apparently a dis- 
tinct vegetable compound. The oil appears to be composed of hydrocyanic acid in union with volatile oil. This was proved by 
Mr. Henncl, of Apothecaries’ Hall, who by digesting red oxide of mercury in it, obtained cyanuret of mercury, from which pure 
hydrocyanic acid was as usual procured by distilling it with muriatic acid.” Brande. 
Poisonous Effects. The noxious influence of the oil of bitter almonds has been long known, even 
as early as the time of Dioscorides, for he mentions that it was then employed for killing wolves ; but until 
Bohm, a German chemist, ascertained the fact, it was not known that its poisonous properties depended 
upon the presence of hydrocyanic acid. The fact, however, that this oil does contain prussic acid is 
easily proved both by tests and also by Hennel’s process already described. The bitter almond, given 
in substance, is exceedingly poisonous, and the distilled water causes an action resembling that of laurel 
water, producing vertigo, headache, dimness of sight, vomiting, and occasionally epilepsy. 
Sir B. Brodie gives the following account of the effect of the essential oil of bitter almonds upon himself. 
“ While engaged in these last experiments, I dipped the blunt end of a probe into the essential oil, and applied it to my 
tongue, meaning to taste it, and having no suspicion that so small a quantity could produce any of its specific effects on the 
nervous system ; but scarcely had I applied it, when I experienced a very remarkable and unpleasant sensation, which I referred 
chiefly to the epigastric region, but the exact nature of which I cannot describe, because I know nothing precisely similar to it. 
At the same time there was a sense of weakness in my limbs, as if I had not the command of my muscles, and I thought that I 
was about to fall. However, these sensations were momentary, and I experienced no inconvenience whatever afterwards. 
In the fifty-seventh volume of the London Medical and Physical Journal, there is an interesting case 
of poisoning with bitter almonds, recorded by Mr. Kennedy. The person, a stout labourer, appeared to 
have eaten a great quantity of bitter almonds, which were subsequently found in the stomach. He was 
seen to drop down while standing near a wall ; soon after which the surgeon, who was sent for, found him 
quite insensible, with the pulse imperceptible, and the breath exhaling the odour of bitter almonds ; and 
death very shortly took place. Coullon has noticed many other instances where alarming symptoms were 
produced by this poison, but were dissipated by the supervention of vomiting. Several other fatal cases 
are also on record, and more will probably occur, since this oil, a composition containing prussic acid, 
is sold too freely by druggists under the name of peach nut oil. Indeed, Christison mentions a fatal 
case which occurred in London, where the patient, intending to compound a nostrum for worms, got 
by mistake from the druggist’s peach-nut, instead of, as he wanted, beech-nut oil. Metzdorf also men- 
tions a case, in which 3ij of this oil were swallowed by a hypochondriacal gentleman forty-eight years of 
age. A few minutes after, his servant, whom he sent for, found him lying in bed with his features spas- 
modically contracted, his eyes fixed, staring, and turned upwards, and his chest heaving convulsively and 
hurriedly. A Physician, who entered the room twenty minutes after the draught had been taken, found him 
quite insensible, the pupils immoveable, the breathing stertorous and slow, the pulse feeble and only thirty 
in a minute, and the breath exhaling strongly the odour of bitter almonds. Death ensued ten minutes 
afterwards. — Journ. Compldmentaire, & c. xvii. 366. Christison. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — Almonds are demulcent, and the expressed oil is sometimes 
converted into an emulsion, by triturating it with mucilage and sugar, and gradually adding distilled water ; 
the diffusion is, however, not very perfect, but a combination more complete and permanent is effected, by 
adding a few drops either of liquor ammonise, of liquor potassse, or a few grains of the subcarbonate of 
potass, to the oil, swimming on the water, and without* the mucilage. A more elegant emulsion is produced 
by the confection of almonds, which forms a useful yehicle for tincture of squills or of opium ; and is ad- 
vantageously administered for tickling coughs, and likewise for common drink, where the mucous membrane 
