HYDROCYANIC ACID. 
§ 260.] 
209 
potassic cyanide. The further statistical details may be gathered from 
the following tables :— 
DEATHS IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE FIVE YEARS ENDING 
DECEMBER 1916 FROM PRUSSIC ACID AND POTASSIC CYANIDE. 
Prussic Acid (Accident 
or Negligence). 
Males . . . . 11 
Females .... 2 
Total 13 
Prussic Acid (Suicide). 
Males.106 
Females.6 
Total 112 
Cyanide of Potassium (Accident 
or Negligence). 
Males . . . 14 
Females .... 7 
Total 21 
Potassium Cyanide (Suicide). 
Males.109 
Females.12 
Total 121 
To these figures must be added 1 case of murder by prussic acid. 
In order to ascertain the proportion in which the various forms of 
commercial cyanides cause death, and also the proportion of accidental, 
suicidal, and criminal deaths from the same cause, Falck collated 
twelve years of statistics from medical literature, with the following 
result:— 
In 51 cases of cyanide poisoning, 29 were caused by potassic cyanide, 
9 by hydric cyanide, 5 by oil of bitter almonds, 3 by peach stones (these 
3 were children, and are classed as “ domestic,” that is, taking the 
kernels as a food), 3 by bitter almonds (1 of the 3 suicidal and followed 
by death, the other 2 “ domestic ”), 1 by tartaric acid and potassic 
cyanide (a suicidal case, an apothecary), and 1 by ferro-cyanide of 
potassium and tartaric acid. Of the 43 cases first mentioned, 21 were 
suicidal, 7 criminal, 8 domestic; and 7 medicinal; the 43 patients were 
24 men, 14 children, and 5 women. 
The cyanides are very rarely used for the purpose of murder : a 
poison which has a strong smell and a perceptible taste, and which 
also kills with a rapidity only equalled by deadly bullet or knife wounds, 
betrays its presence with too many circumstances of a tragic character 
to find favour in the dark and secret schemes of those who desire to 
take life by poison. In 793 poisoning cases of a criminal character in 
France, 4 only were by the cyanides. 
Hydric and potassic cyanides were once the favourite means of 
self-destruction employed by suicidal photographers, chemists, scientific 
medical men, and others in positions where such means are always 
at hand ; but, of late years, the popular knowledge of poisons has 
increased, and self-poisoning by the cyanides scarcely belongs to a 
14 
