250 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[July, 
Poisons and their Antidotes. 
ET OUR FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 
[Even with the greatest carefulness, accidental poison¬ 
ing will often occur. Children are much inclined to try- 
bottles and parcels, before they are able to read the labels. 
Nearly every poison has its antidote, which will prove 
effective if used at once; loss of life often results from 
a delay of but a minute or two. A recent case of acciden¬ 
tal poisoning, under our own observation, where a 
knowledge of chemistry, applied on the instant, averted 
much suffering, if not death itself, suggested the prepara¬ 
tion of an article on this subject for the American Agri- 
culturist, which should place against each poison some 
remedy available in almost every household, and Dr. M. R. 
Veddcr, of Flushing, N. Y., has kindly prepared the fol¬ 
lowing, and we have revised and arranged it with much 
care. "Let it be carefully preserved where it can always 
be instantly referred to. 
Arsenie. 
Fly Powder, (“ Co¬ 
balt.” 
King's 'Yellow. 
Scheele’s Green. 
Ratsbane, 
Note well the closing remarks.] 
Stir 2 tablcspoonfuls of ground 
Mustard in a quart of 
lukewarm water, and 
drink until copious vomiting is 
produced, tickling tlio throat 
with the finger or a feather. 
After vomiting, give large quan¬ 
tities of Calcined Magnesia. 
1 
LEAD POISONS. 
Sugar of Lead. 
Wlilte Lead. 
ILitliarge. 
First, Mustard to vomit, as 
above, and doses of Epsom 
Salts, say a teaspoonful to 
a tablespoonful, according to 
the age of the patient, every 
half-hour for two hours. 
MERCURIAL POISONS. 
Corrosive Subli¬ 
mate, or (Bed-Bug 
Poison.) 
White Precipitate 
Red Precipitate. 
Vermilion. 
White of Eggs— or Milk, 
or Wheat Flour—beaten up.— 
Administer all that can be got 
down in ten minutes, and then 
give mustard emetic as above. 
COPPER POISONS. 
Blue Vitriol. 
Verdigris. 
Food or Piekles 
Cooked in Copper 
or Brass Vessels.. 
White of Eggs, or Milk 
taken very freely for ten min¬ 
utes, to be followed with an 
emetic of Mustard as abovo. 
IRON POISONS. 
Copperas, or 
Green Vitriol. 
. 
Cooking Soda, a teaspoon- 
ful to a tablespoonful, or more 
—according to age of patient, 
etc. — followed by plenty of 
Gum-Arabic water, or Flaxseed 
tea or Slippery-Elm tea. 
ANTIMONY. 
Tartar Emetic. 
Powdered N at gal Is, a 
teaspoonful or more in water; 
or tea of Oak bark or Peruvian 
bark. Give promptly. 
SILVER. 
Lunar Caustic. 
Table Salt, 2 teaspoonfuls 
or more, in a pint of water. 
ZINC. 
White Vitriol. 
J 
Warm water to relieve 
vomiting; and 1 to 2 teaspoon- 
fuls of Baking Soda,follow- 
ed by Milk or White of Eggs. 
PHosrnor.us. 
Matches. 
Rat Extermina¬ 
tor. 
Mustard and Warm Wa¬ 
ter to cause vomiting; then 
large draughts of water con- 
.tabling Calcined Magne¬ 
sia, 2 tablespoonfuls to a pint, 
followed with Flaxseed 
tea, or Slippery-Elm tea. 
ACIDS. 
Aectlc Acid. 
Citric Acid. 
Muriatic Acid. 
Tartaric Acid. 
Baking Soda, ©rSalcra- 
tus, Lime, or Magnesia, 
(a teaspoonful to a tablespoon- 
' ful) dissolved in water and 
used freely. Powdered lime 
mortar from ceiling wiH do. 
„__ , ,, j Magnesia or White 
Oxalic Acid. . .. , . 
[Chalk or Liinc stirred in 
Nitric Acid. j wa t eri drank freely and quickly. 
Sulphuric Acid, 
tOil of Vitriol.) 
Drink much water quickly, and 
follow immediately with large 
doses ol Magnesia, or Pow¬ 
dered White Chalk or Lime; 
or if these are not at hand, use 
Soda, or dissolved Soap. Fol¬ 
low with plenty of Flaxseed or 
Slippery-Elm tea.* 
Prussic Acid. 1 Teaspoonful of Hartshorn, 
Gil of Bitter Al- j (aqua ammonia), in a pint of 
rnonds. (water. Drink the whole at 
I.aurcl Water. J ° nCe ‘ 
alkalies. ] Dllnk freely of Vinegar in 
Pcarlash. j water, followed with Gum-Ara- 
Salts of Tartar, r bic dissolved in water, or Slip- 
_ _ pery-Elm tea, or Flaxseed tea. 
Soap I.ye. J 
Ammonia. 
Hartshorn. 
Potash. 
Much Soda. 
1 
Drink freely of Vinegar in 
water, or Lemon Juice, or Cit¬ 
ric, or Tartaric Acid mixed 
with water. Sweet Oil, Castor 
Oil, Linseed Oil, or Cream, is 
also good, and should follow 
the other remedies above 
named—a tablespoonful first, 
and then a teaspoonful ail hour 
for three hours. 
ALCOHOL. 
Any Spirituous 
ILiquor. 
Two tablespoonfuls of Mus¬ 
tard in a quart of warm wa¬ 
ter. Drink till patient vomits 
freely, using a finger, or feather. 
VOLATILE OILS. 
Crcasote. 
Carbolic Acid. 
Oil of Tar. 
Oil of Turpentine. 
Oil of Tobacco. 
Fusel-Oil. 
White of Eggs, or Milk, 
'in quantity, followed quickly 
by a Mustard emetic. 
MISCELLANEOUS. , 
Frosla. Air* and artificial 
Charcoal Fumes. respiration. 
Street Gas. J 
) Starch, or Wheat Flour beat 
Iodine. [up in water. Vomit with mus- 
j tard and warm water. 
Saltpetre. 
Nitrate of Soda. 
Mustard Emetic, follow¬ 
ed with Oil as for Ammonia. 
VEGETABLE TOISONS. 
Strychnine. 
Nux-vomica. 
Opium. 
Laudanum. 
Paregorie. 
Morphine. 
Stramonium, (or 
Emetic of Mustard and 
warm water, ns above; drink 
till patient vomits freely.— 
Tickle the throat with finger or 
a feather; or give a teaspoon- 
ful of powdered alum; or five 
Thorn Apple, or Stink 
Weed). 
Belladonna, (or 
Deadly Night Shade.) 
Croton Oil. 
Foxglove. 
Squirting Cucum¬ 
ber. 
Aconite,(Monkshood) 
Hemlock. 
Hyoscyatnus or 
‘ Henbane. 
grains of tartar emetic ; or 20 
grains (half a thimbleful.) of 
white vitriol, dissolved in half 
a tumbler of warm water, every 
ton minutes, till vomiting is 
produced. If the patient is 
drowsy, give the strongest 
cold coffee, or slap smartly on 
the back, and walk, or uso elec¬ 
tricity to keep him awake. 
Arnica. 
[Vinegar and water. 
Mushrooms. 
) Emetic of Mustard and 
[warm water, until vomiting is 
( produced; then frequent small 
J doses of Epsom Salts. 
Poisonous Fish. 
[Emetic of Mustard and 
f warm water,tickling the throat. 
HITES, ETC. 
Serpents. 
Insects. 
Iflacl Bog. 
Poisoned wounds 
from Head Ani¬ 
mals. 
Tie a String ttglitly a- 
bove the Wound; some 
one having no sores, broken 
skin, or exposed nerves in the 
mouth, suck out the blood, and 
wash with hot water, so as to 
make it bleed as much as pos¬ 
sible; then wash with harts¬ 
horn, and burn out with a large 
red-hot wire or pointed Lunar 
Caustic ; after this remove the 
string, & poultice with flaxseed. 
We have endeavored to give those antidotes which are 
most likely to be at hand in every family, and can be 
readily administered by any one, but in all cases of poi¬ 
soning, send for the family physician at once. It may be 
necessary to use the stomach-pump. The after treat¬ 
ment, to prevent or subdue inflammation, should be fol¬ 
lowed out with great care. 
In poisoning by Arsenic, the hydrated peroxide of iron 
is an invaluable antidote, but as a physician would be re¬ 
quired to administer this antidote, we have omitted it. 
* ['Ve have taken the liberty to change the usual directions 
for “Oil of Vitriol,” which say, “ use as little water or other 
liquids as possible.” We should drink water very freely at 
once, to dilute the acid as much as possible. The heat pro¬ 
duced by uniting sulphuric acid with water, will occur in any 
case, by the natural fluids in the stomach. No more heat 
will be produced by the large quantity of water, but the 
heat will be so diffused in the larger amount as to destroy 
its effects.—O. J.] 
Trapping 1 else Csorctallo.— Mr. Wm, B. 
Ransom, of St. Joseph, Mich, was so successful in trap¬ 
ping the enreulio that he made his method known, and 
the local paper at once issued an Extra which was sent 
abroad in order to allow a trial of the plan the present 
season. The method is to level the soil around each 
tree and make it perfectly smooth for a distance of 214 
feet from the trunk, leaving no place in which a curculio 
can hide. Pieces of bark, shingle, or other material, that 
will serve as a shelter for the insect, are laid upon the 
ground close to the tree. The curculio will conceal itself 
under these and is caught and destroyed. The chips 
are turned over every day, and the insects killed. Dr. 
Hull, of Alton, Ill., of “ curculio-catchcr ” fame, visited 
Mr. Ransom and spent several days in examining his 
operation. He gives an account of his observations in 
the Prairie Farmer. Though at first inclined to think 
Mr. Ransom’s traps a complete success. Dr. H. found 
that, as the -weather became warmer, fewer insects were 
caught under them, and upon examining the trees, 
enough curculios were found upon them to destroy the 
crop of fruit. It appears that this plan is not likely to 
supersede that of jarring the trees and catching the in¬ 
sects upon sheets or upon a “ curculio-catcher,” and how 
far it may prove an auxiliary has yet to be determined. 
At all events, Mr. Ransom deserves great credit for the 
promptness with which he made known a method which 
promised to be useful to fruit-growers. 
Horse Papers for Farmers.—Ho. 6. 
“ A good master is half the horse.” It is of 
no use to raise good colts if they are not to be 
so treated as to become, and to remain, good 
horses. The domesticated horse is a highly ar¬ 
tificial production. By taking advantage of cer¬ 
tain natural tendencies in the race, man lias 
(during long centuries) so changed the original 
form and character of the animal as to produce 
large size, great beauty, docility, strength, en¬ 
durance, economical assimilation of food, and 
ability and willingness to perform severe labor. 
The same power that built up must be em¬ 
ployed to maintain. A herd of the best tlior- 
ough-breds turned loose in an uninhabited coun¬ 
try, would, in a few generations, lose size, shape, 
strength, docility, and nearly all valuable qual¬ 
ities. The rapidity of the degeneration would 
depend on the abundance of the natural food, 
the constancy of its supply, and the vigor of the 
climate. There is a constant antagonism be- 
tween the natural tendency to deteriorate under 
neglect, and the tendency to improve under arti¬ 
ficial management. In proportion as we fol¬ 
low the practice that long experience has shown 
to conduce to improvement, shall we increase— 
or at least continue—the more valuable quali¬ 
ties. In proportion as we allow nature to have 
unguided sway, shall we permit these to be lost. 
Simple abundance of food at all seasons will be 
very much in our favor, but this is, by no means, 
all that is necessary. We must see to it that the 
abundant food is administered with regularity; 
that it is the right kind of food ; that pure drink¬ 
ing water be regularly supplied; that the atmos¬ 
phere in which the horse lives is wholesome; 
that he be not subjected to too great exposure 
to the inclemency of the weather; and that he 
have sufficient and regular exercise. Young 
colts, during their second, third, and fourth 
summers, cannot be better provided for than by 
being placed on dry pasture, where the grass is 
