PROFESSOR BLACK on the RABBIT CURE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 412, 15 February 1877, Page 3

PROFESSOR BLACK on the RABBIT CURE.

He then referred to the three substances proposed for exterminating the rabbits, by stopping up all their holes but one, and then placing any one cf the three mixtures in the remaining hole. The first was phosphuretied hydrogen, a compouud of 31 parts of phosphorous to 3 of hydrogen. It was a yellowish liquid twice as heavy as water, very mobile, and would not mix with water. Phosphorus was dissolved by bisulphide of carbon in order to produce thiß gas, for this compound would disolve a good many substances not otherwise capal 1 -. of being reduced to solution, such as iodine, several gums, &t\ It was used as a test of milk, a 8 when iirriduced it threw down the cream as a kind of grease* The phosphuretted hydrogen then being obtained should be placed into a shallow saucer in one of the rabbit hole*, after closiug all the others, and then left for 2i hours, and and in that time all the rabbits ought to bo killed. Tiie second gass that might be used is arsenetled hydrogen,

tile, most poisgh.nii3_fil4bsstr.ilee knowii.' Strychnine arid prus?ie acid &rd nothing to it.' A single bubble o{ it will kill a man. It i§ similar to p-'ios-phuretted hydrogen iii ]U (.•o?ri;>o=>>f son. the inetal arsepic, replacing the phosphorus: .. Both , Belong £c IHs. same family. bf substances;. If arsenic is present in ga ; 3 it pfddiices a' black stain .on. white procehnii.. That i>tai?j is : The lecturer then described the manufacture 6'f arsenetted hydrogen, and its iise in a similar manner to that of phoapbtiretted hydrogen. The third substance to be used as a rabbit exterminator was sulphuretted , hydrbgeii. One gallon of this weighs about two and a half times as much as water. It. is.one of the most disagreeably smelling, of ga3es. .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 .gailic, the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen being that of rotten eggs. Sulphur an 4..957gen a're closely allied to-one another'in chemistry; ju'nt. as phosphorus and arsenic, which belong to another family are. The lecture?, then described the manufacture cf sulphuretted hydrogen from sulphuret of iron, which was composed of 56 parts' of iron to 32 of sulphur, and miight be made from yellow mundic or iron pyrites; which contained double the quantities of sulphur, by burning the former in' 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, Yie:ma and other large towns, the ladies used the white oxide of.bisimuth as a cosmetic to improve their complexions, but as soon as coal gas was introduced tleey discarded it at once, in conse-i quence ©f the strange effect produced by the sulphuretted hydrogen on the eoal gas. Profess, r* Black here illustrated the effect of sulphuretted hydrogen in almost colorless solutions of various metals. In the arsenic it produced a yellow precipitate, in antimony a rich orange, in lead and copper a black powder. The lecturer then closed by repeating his experiments on burning sugar, with chlorate of potash, by a single drop of sulphuric acid, and also burnt some iron wire and magnesium wire in oxygen gas, the latter giving forth a dazzling white flame.