272 
ALLEGED  POISONING  BY  OIL  OF  BITTER  ALMONDS. 
ter  with  the  boy.  The  medical  man,  on  leaving  the  house  after 
attending  to  the  cook,  met  the  boy  out  with  his  master  in  the 
carriage.  In  the  course  of  the  evening  the  lad  was  taken  ill, 
and  the  doctor  was  again  sent  for.  He  found  the  deceased  in- 
sensible, almost  pulseless,  and  his  teeth  so  tightly  closed  that  he 
had  great  difficulty  in  getting  a  piece  of  cork  between  them. 
Brandy  was  administered  freely,  but  without  success.  He  was 
carried  up  stairs  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  died 
at  a  quarter  past  eleven.  At  the  inquest  the  medical  man 
stated,  "  that  he  had  no  doubt  the  deceased  died  from  the  effects  of 
having  taken  oil  of  almonds.  If  the  boy  had  taken  a  larger 
quantity  his  stomach  would  have  rejected  it  at  once,  and  it  might 
not  then  have  got  into  his  system.  He  should  say  the  deceased 
and  the  cook  must  have  taken  a  teaspoonful  each."  In  the  last 
words  spoken  by  the  boy  he  denied  having  swallowed  any. 
In  a  note  to  the  report  our  contemporary  says — "We  have 
been  informed  that  the  poison  was  not  genuine  oil  of  almonds, 
but  a  factitious  oil,"  and  it  must  be  quite  clear  to  any  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  subject  that  the  poison  was  not  essential  oil 
of  bitter  almonds.  Everybody  knows  that  the  poison  in  this 
oil  is  prussic  acid ;  and  we  believe  we  may  state  with  truth  that 
there  is  not  a  case  on  record  in  which  the  symptoms  of  poison- 
ing by  prussic  acid  have  been  delayed  for  the  length  of  time 
which  elapsed  in  this  case,  All  the  circumstances  lead  to  the 
suspicion  that  the  poison  taken  was  nitrohenzole,  the  dangerous 
properties  of  which  body  are  not  sufficiently  known.  It  may 
be,  indeed,  that  this  more  dangerous  poison  was  sold  in  inno- 
cence as  oil  of  bitter  almonds  not  containing  prussic  acid. 
The  case  of  this  boy  bears  a  considerable  resemblance — so  far, 
we  ought  to  say,  as  we  can  gather  from  the  report  of  the  in- 
quest— to  the  case  of  a  lad  who  died  from  the  effects  of  a  few 
drops  of  nitrobenzole  which  he  took  by  accident  at  a  chemical 
manufactory.  In  that  case  four  or  five  hours  elapsed  before 
the  fatal  symptoms  came  on,  and  the  duration  of  the  symptoms 
was  about  the  same  in  each  case. 
In  the  interest  of  science  we  must  hope  that  this  case  will 
receive  further  elucidation,  both  from  the  druggist  who  sold  the 
poison  and  the  medical  man  who  attended  the  deceased. — Chem. 
News,  (Lond.),  May  26,  1865. 
