Important: Safety Warning
This page gives first-aid or emergency advice that predates modern medicine and can make an emergency worse. Do not follow it. In any medical emergency, call emergency services and follow current first-aid guidance.
In addition, this page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › Medical Receipts › Antidotes for Prussic Acid
Antidotes for Prussic Acid
Small quantities of ammonia water diluted with 10 or 12 parts of water; also the fumes inhaled. The joint administration of carbonate of potash and sulphate of iron. This has been lately very strongly recommended.
Cold affusion should be adopted in all cases, and is almost of itself a certain cure, if employed before the convulsive stage is over; and it is often successful even during the stage of insensibility and paralysis. Artificial respiration should also be attempted. Unfortunately, the poisonous action of prussic acid is SO rapid that life is usually extinct before antidotes can be applied. (See No. 5913.)