A UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 148, 23 June 1906, Page 14

A UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE.

Among antidotes for poisons charcoal is not usually included, though it has been recommended aa an absorbent for the gases generated by fermentation in cases of deranged digestion, and it has the advantage of being absolutely innocuous. A Fienchman; Henri de Parville, now makes the startling statement in the Annales Poiitique et Literaires, that it is practically a universal antidote. Probably he would except corrosives such as phosphorous, vitrol, or carbolic acid, which are not poisons in the strict sense of the word. Japanese physician)*, he says, declare it is impossible for internal poisoning to result in death if the victim swallow a quantity of charcoal as soon as the first gaatro-intestimU disturbance is felt. Dr. Theurery, a French druggist who lived about the year 1835, asserted that charcoal would counteract the poison of i strychnine. No one believed him, and, to prove that he knew what he was talking about, he swallowed a dose of strychnine and then swallowed a quantity of charcoal. The result bore out hia assertion. He was not even made sick by it. This antidote muat be taken when the first symptoms of poiaon are felt, and the dopes must be large. Henri de Parville contends that it would be well to test its powers ip all ca«es of the nature of ptomaine poisoning. It must be taken in suspension in water (put into water and atirred while it is taken) so that it shall not settle. There is nothing to be feared, even -if a creat deal of the powder is used. l3»e a soup-spoon and take it at 'ntervals of : ten minutes. This is important if true, I and ifl worth investigating..