PROFESSOR BLACK ON THE RABBIT CURE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 411, 10 February 1877, Page 3

PROFESSOR BLACK ON THE RABBIT CURE.

Ke then referred to the three substances projioscj'J lor exlvrminuting the rabbits, by slopping up ail their holes but one. and tnen .lining any one of the three mixtures in the remaining hole. The first was phospuuieited hydrogen, a compound of 31 parts of phosphorous to 3 of hydrogen It was a yellowish liquid twice as! ne.ivy as water, verv mobile, and would not mix with water. Phosphorus was digsolved by bisulphide of carbon in or* der to produce this gas, f<>r this compound would disol've a good many substances not otherwise capable of being reduced to solution, such as iodine, several gums, &c. It was used as a test of milk, as when introduced it threw down the cream as a kind of grease. The pnosohurftted hydrogen then being obtained should be placed into a shallow saucer in one of the rabbit holes, after closing ail tho others, and tLeu left for 24 hours, and and in that time all the rabbits ought to be killed. The second gass that might be used is arsenetted hydrogen, the most poisonous substance kuown. Strychnine and prusinc acid are nothing to it. A single bubble of it will kill a man. It is similar to phosphuretted hydrogen in its composition, . the metal arsenic replacing the phosphorus. Both belong to the same family of substances. If arsenic is present in gas it produces a black stain on white proceinin. That stain, is metallic arsenic. Tiie lecturer then described the manufacture of arsenetted hydrogen, audits use in a similar ' manner to that of phosphuretted hydrogen. The third substance t° be used as a rabbit exterminator was sulphuretted hydrogen. One gallon of this weighs about two and a half times as much as water. It is one of the most | disagreeably smelling of gases. He must first mention, however, with re- | gard to arsenetted hydrogen that the presence of arsenic might be suspected ; wherever there was a smell of ga. lic, the smell of su ! phnretted hydrogen being that of rotten eggs. Sulphur and oxygen are closely allied to one ! another in chemistry, ju*t as phosphorus and arsenic, which belong to another family pre. The lecturer then described the manufacture of sulphuretted hydrogen from sulphuret of iron, which was composed of 56 parts of iron to 32 of sulphur, an I might be made from yellow mundic or iron pyrites, which contained double the quantities of sulphur, by burning "the former ia a close vessel, or in other ways. Sulphuretted hydrogen is perhaps the most important of all substances in the laboratory If tried on various metals it throws down precipitates of different colors. " About a hundred years ago, in, London, Paris, Vienua and other large, towns, the la'dies used the white oxicle of bisimufch as a cosmetic to improve their conplexions, but as soon as coal gas was introduced taey discarded it at or.ee, in consequence ot the strange effect produced by the sulphuretted hydrogen oh the coal gas. Profess r Blacks here illustrated the effect of sulphuretted hvdrogen in almost colorless solutions of various metals. In- the arsenic it proouced a'yeliow precipitate,--in antimony a rich orange, in lead and copper a black powder, ibe lecturer taen closed by repeating his experiments on burning sugar, with chlorate of potash, by a single drop of sulphuric "cid, and also burnt some iron wire ; : ?jd magnesium wire in oxygen gas, i iia lattor giving forth a dazzling white ilime.