Zinc Phosphide: The Killer Gas
Antique pharmacy bottle.
Red ‘POISON’ label
Indicating to the pharmacist that it must be stored separately from other substances in the cabinet for toxic substances, the famous ‘poison cabinet’.
It comes from the former cellar-laboratory of a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not been moved from the shelves since the late 1950s. The cellar had served as a medical analysis laboratory and a laboratory for the pharmacy’s compounded preparations from 1900 until around 1950.
Date: Circa 1890–1910: Belle Epoque
EMPTY
Description
Zinc Phosphide: The Killer Gas
Antique pharmacy bottle
Red ‘POISON’ label
The labels are entirely handwritten in black ink on bright orange paper, the colour mandated by French regulations in the 19th century to immediately identify poisonous substances.
This indicated to the pharmacist that it must be stored separately from other substances in the cabinet for toxic substances, the famous ‘poison cabinet’.
This bottle contained zinc phosphide
During the Belle Époque, this substance was prescribed as a powerful brain tonic for neurasthenia and exhaustion, but also as an ingredient in aphrodisiac pills to treat erectile dysfunction.
In reality, zinc phosphide is a formidable poison.
Upon contact with stomach acid, it decomposes and releases phosphine gas, a highly toxic gas that blocks cellular respiration.
In the event of an overdose, poisoning led to lightning-fast heart and lung failure within hours.
Due to its extreme dangerousness, the difficulty of dosing it without accident and its lethal effectiveness, it was frequently diverted in the nineteenth century by criminals for poisonings, as well as for suicides, before being permanently banned from human medicine.
In the twentieth century, it will be used as a rat poison...
Date: Circa 1890–1910: Belle Epoque
Height of the bottle: 7cm with stopper
EMPTY
