346 
MISCELLANY. 
Tobacco, a remedy for Jlrsenic ,» communicated to the Editor by Rev. 
Ralph Emerson.— -About the year 1820, Miss Sophia Eastman of Holies, 
N. H. (now connected with the orphan asylum in Troy, N. Y.) fell into 
the mistake so often committed, of eating a portion of arsenic which had 
been prepared for the destruction of rats. Painful symptoms soon led to 
inquiry; and her mistake was discovered. An elderly lady who was 
present, advised that she should be made to vomit as speedily as possible, 
and as she had always felt a perfect loathing for tobacco in every shape, 
it was supposed that this would at once effect the purpose. A pipe was 
used, but without producing any nausea. She next chewed a large por- 
tion of strong tobacco, and swallowed the juice, and that without even a 
sensation of disgust. A strong decoction was then made with hot water 
of which she drank perhaps half a pint. Still there was neither nausea 
or dizziness, nor did it operate at all either as an emetic or a cathartic. 
The painful sensations at her stomach, however, subsided, and she began 
to feel well. On the arrival of physicians, an emetic of blue vitriol was 
administered, which operated moderately once. One or two days after, 
there was a discharge of a dark green color, approaching to black. No 
ill consequences followed. 
Another case occurred in the same place, a few years subsequent, in 
which arsenic was taken through mistake, by a sick person, and she em- 
ployed tobacco with the like success. She, too, had always loathed the 
article, but now chewed it and swallowed the saliva, without producing 
sickness at the stomach. No emetic was administered in this case, nor 
any other remedy. Happy will it be for our race, should this insidious 
poison, now the slow death of so many, be employed only as an antagonist 
to those other deadly poisons, for which it may have been provided by 
the Creator, as a sure and speedy remedy. 
The above facts I lately received from Dr. Eastman, of Holies, the 
father of Sophia, and from her sister, at whose house Sophia committed 
the mistake. Yours truly, 
Ralph Emerson. 
Andover, Mass. May 26, 1836. 
American Journal of Science and Art. 
Sulphate of Baryta in Calomel. — M. Moritz, of Strasburg, has pub- 
lished the fact, that in a quantity of protochloride of mercury, manufac- 
tured in Paris, and obtained by him from that place, he discovered an ad- 
mixture of sulphate of baryta. The article was exceedingly beautiful, 
and free from corrosive sublimate. Submitted to the action of heat, it 
only became volatilized in part. The experiment was repeated in a tube 
closed at one extremity. The quantity used was a gramme, which left as 
a residue, a white impalpable powder, unaffected by heat, insoluble in 
water and the mineral acids, and which was recognised to be the above 
salt. Its weight was five decigrammes. Journal de Pharmacie. 
