Reminds me of something from chemistry class but I can"t remember exactly what it was (this was several decades ago now), I think it was sometimes used for etching glass, but if it got into your body -- I'm not sure if getting it just on your skin was necessarily a lethal hazard -- it would leech the calcium from your bones and was considered an especially nasty way to go. Our prof was helping her father in law clean out his garage and he had a bunch of it in a container, bought in the 60's or 70's for a glass etching kit, and was like "Okay I'm getting rid of this, but have you got any other hobbies you've been meaning to get around to that I should know about?".
Sorry I believe it was copper etching maybe, probably not glass. Been a while...