Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1913 — Arsenic Kill Chickens? Depends on Their Class [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Arsenic Kill Chickens? Depends on Their Class

PITTSBURGH, Pa.—" How long will a chicken live after taking arsenic?” ‘‘That depends on the chicken. A game chick might live eight hours and another might live but one.” This information was given in criminal court the other day by Prof. F. T. Ascbman, state chemist, and professor of chemistry in the University of Pittsburgh in the case of Harry Easterday of Clairton, who charged his landlady, Mrs. Margaret Burke, with malicious mischief. Several of Harry’s chickens died recently and near them he found a piece of bread —the last food they ever ate. Professor Aschman analyz-

ed this bread and found arsenic in it When Assistant District Attorney John B. Douglas asked the question the drug shark hesitated. “Well, it depends in the first place on where the chicken pecked this piece of break. There” —pointing to a spot—“is where the arsenic was dense. The chicken may have pecked in the middle of It or it may have pecked around the edges. Consequently it might have lived an hour or it might have lived eight hours, according to the amount of poison it took.” The witness also said that from biological, veterinary and therapeutical points of view his answer might be qualified, as there was some considerable difference between most chickens and the genus homo. In response to the question of what symptoms the poisoned chicken would show, Professor Aschman again said it depended on the chicken. Mrs. Burke was found not guilty of poisoning the chickens and the prosecutor was ordered to pay the costs.