Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1889 — The Human Breath a Poison [ARTICLE]

The Human Breath a Poison

The Paris correspondent of the Medical Press and Circular reports that the last meeting of the Academie dts Sciences, Prof. Brown-Sequard referred to some experiment hp had conducted, with a review to determine what, if an 7, were the toxic effects of the human breath. In condensing the watery vauor coming from the human lungs, he obtained a poisonous liquid capable of producing almost immediate death. This poison is an alkaloid (organic), and not a microbe or a series of microbes, as might have been imagined He injected this liquid under the skin of a rabbit, and the effect was speedily mortal. The animal died without convulsions; the heart and large vessels were engorgedwith reddish blood contrary co what is observed after ordinary death, when the qualify of blood is modt rate and of a dark color. In conclusion, this eminent physiologist taid that it was folly proved that respired air contained a volatile toxic principle far more dangerous than of its constituants, and that the human breath, as well as that of animals; contains a high ly poisonous agent