HYDROCYANIC ACID. 
§ 268.] 
215 
This is borne out both by experiments on animals and by recorded 
cases. 
In Mr Nunneley’s numerous experiments on dogs, one of the 
animals, after taking poison, “ went down three or four steps of the 
stairs, saw that the door at the bottom was closed, and came back again.” 
A second went down, came up, and went again down the steps of a long 
winding staircase, and a third retained sufficient vigour to jump over 
another dog, and then leap across the top of a staircase. 
In a remarkable case related by Dr Guy, 1 in which a young man, 
after drinking more wine than usual, was seized by a sudden impulse to 
take prussic acid, and drank about 2 drachms, producing symptoms 
which, had it not been for prompt treatment, would, in all probability, 
have ended fatally—the interval is again noteworthy. After taking 
the poison in bed, he rose, walked round a chest of drawers, 
standing within a few yards of the bedside, placed the stopper firmly 
in the bottle, and then walked back to bed with the intention of getting 
into it; but here a giddiness seized him, and he sat down on the edge 
and became insensible. 
A case related by Taylor is still stranger. A woman, after swallowing 
a fatal dose of essence of almonds, went to a well in the yard, drew 
water, and drank a considerable quantity. She then ascended two 
flights of stairs and called her child, again descended a flight of stairs, 
fell on her bed, and died within half an hour from the taking of the 
poison. 
Nevertheless, these cases and similar ones are exceptional, and only 
show what is possible, not what is usual, the rule being that after fatal 
doses no voluntary act of significance—save, it may be, a cry for assist¬ 
ance—is performed. 2 
Symptoms of poisoning by prussic acid produced from eating sub¬ 
stances containing the cyanide glucosides may occur, and death result 
hours after the ingestion of such substances, as illustrated by the 
following interesting cases described by Dr A. Robertson and A. J. 
Wynne. 3 
In March 1905 a steamer brought to Rotterdam a cargo of “ kratok ” 
beans ( Phaseolus lunalus) for the purpose of feeding cattle. A workman 
(Baris) employed in unloading took some of the beans and gave some 
to a family named Van Oostende, on Sunday, March 11, 12.30. Baris ate 
some of the beans which had been boiled ; in the evening he felt unwell, 
became faint, had convulsions, and died about eleven hours after the meal. 
The Van Oostende family, six in number, four children and two adults, 
1 Forensic Medicine , 4th ed., p. 615. 
2 Dr J. Autal, a Hungarian chemist, states that cobalt nitrate is an efficacious 
antidote to poisoning by either HCN or KCN. The brief interval between the taking 
of a fatal dose and death can, however, rarely be utilised.— Lancet, Jan, 16, 1894, 
3 Zeit. f. anal . Chemie, 1905, 
