Word: cyanogen
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...spring of 1910, when Halley's comet last blazed through the skies, some people were so afraid of the poisonous cyanogen vapors said to be in its tail that they barricaded themselves in their houses, sealing the windows and doors. As they cowered, they gulped down comet pills or sniffed on comet inhalers. Braver sorts wearing comet-shaped diamond hatpins or toting comet-knobbed walking canes flocked to rooftop parties at the old Waldorf-Astoria. In advertisements, bars of soap and cans of coffee were depicted flying through space, feathery tails in their wake. Comet mania was at fever pitch...
Indeed, superstition about comets has persisted into the 20th century. As Halley's came into view in 1910, some residents of Chicago prepared themselves for death by cyanogen-gas poisoning when, as it was widely predicted, the earth passed through the comet's tail. As recently as 1970, Vietnamese peasants quaked at the sight of the "Sky Broom," the unexpectedly vivid passage of Bennett's comet...
...with water. Creatures that have ammonia instead of water in their tissues, would digest food by ammonolysis, i.e., by combining it with ammonia. Instead of oxydizing food to liberate energy as earth's animals do, Jovian animals would combine it with nitrogen, and the final product would be cyanogen (CN)2, a gas that is violently poisonous to life on earth. "Jovian animals," says Astronomer Firsoff, "could breathe nitrogen and drink liquid ammonia. Whether they do remains to be seen...
Last week one Melbourne newspaper excitedly reported that the invading mouse army was only 25 miles from the city. This turned out to be what Australians call a "furphy" (phony), but Melbournians were still scared. Victoria's government urged Mallee farmers to an all-out campaign with cyanogen and strychnine. At Ouyen, Mrs. Bert Holland planned a more direct appeal through prayer. An hour before church time she went to her wardrobe to get her Sunday clothes. Mrs. Holland found that the mice of Mallee had eaten them...
Normally present in veins is a white chemical called indigo, which unites with the oxygen in fresh blood and turns blue.* Usually indigo flows with the blood stream to various organs, surrenders its oxygen and turns white again. But when fresh blood reaches tissues bloated with cyanogen, the indigo gets stalled and cannot give up its oxygen. Between the cyanogen and the indigo blue cells are unable to receive any nourishment, and thus, Drs. Davis and Schmitz suggested, the process of tumor development begins. How this vicious circle could be broken they did not venture...