§ 262. The very short interval that may thus intervene between the taking of a dose of prussic acid and loss of consciousness, may be utilised by the sufferer in doing various acts, and thus this interval becomes of immense medico-legal importance. The question is simply this:--What can be done by a person in full possession of his faculties in ten seconds? I have found from experiment that, after drinking a liquid from a bottle, the bottle may be corked, the individual can get into bed, and arrange the bedclothes in a suitable manner; he may also throw the bottle away, or out of the window; and, indeed, with practice, in that short time a number of rapid and complicated acts may be performed. This is borne out both by experiments on animals and by recorded cases. In Mr. Nunneley’s numerous experiments on dogs, one of the animals, after taking poison, “went down three or four steps of the stairs, saw that the door at the bottom was closed, and came back again.” A second went down, came up, and went again down the steps of a long winding staircase, and a third retained sufficient vigour to jump over another dog, and then leap across the top of a staircase. In a remarkable case related by Dr. Guy,[246] in which a young man, after drinking more wine than usual, was seized by a sudden impulse to take prussic acid, and drank about 2 drachms, producing symptoms which, had it not been for prompt treatment, would, in all probability, have ended fatally--the interval is again noteworthy. After taking the poison in bed, he rose, walked round the foot of a chest of drawers, standing within a few yards of the bedside, placed the stopper firmly in the bottle, and then walked back to bed with the intention of getting into it; but here a giddiness seized him, and he sat down on the edge, and became insensible. [246] _Forensic Medicine_, 4th ed., p. 615. A case related by Taylor is still stronger. A woman, after swallowing a fatal dose of essence of almonds, went to a well in the yard, drew water, and drank a considerable quantity. She then ascended two flights of stairs and called her child, again descended a flight of stairs, fell on her bed, and died within half an hour from the taking of the poison. Nevertheless, these cases and similar ones are exceptional, and only show what is possible, not what is usual, the rule being that after fatal doses no voluntary act of significance--save, it may be, a cry for assistance--is performed.[247] [247] Dr. J. Autal, a Hungarian chemist, states that cobalt nitrate is an efficacious antidote to poisoning by either HCN or KCN. The brief interval between the taking of a fatal dose and death can, however, be rarely utilised.--_Lancet_, Jan. 16, 1894.