The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1859-10-07
Poison and POiSOnfnS.

the increase in this country. The cases in
which death is thus desgnedly produced
are of frequent occurrence, and are always
startling, because the secret and mysterious
manner in which they may be perpetrated
makes it the fayorite means of those who
have the opportunity of close and familiar
intercourse with their victims Several
persons are now under arrest in different
parts of the country charged with having
poisoned husbands or wives, and as a
source Of preventing the crime, it is sug-
gested that rigid system should be adopt
ed In relation to the sale of poisons. In
England this hes already been done, and
the precautions there taken are such as to
render the sale Of deadly drugs to i'm
proper persons almost an impossibility
Still the difficulty in The way is that those
designing TO use poison for a felonious pur-
pose are generally of a class who can most
readily evade or appear to comply with all
the precautions that it is possible to adopt.
The history of the world shows that the
taking of life in this way has been accom-
plished to an awful extent, and in many
cases with impunity. Modern science,
however, though it cannot prevent the
crime, has done much for its detection, and
the chemical toxicologist, with an unerring
accuracy, will demonstrate even some
months after death, the peculiar poison 10y
which death was produced. The case OF
Stephens, now under conviction in New
York, for the poisoning of his wife, in a
case in point. The charge was not brought
nor the post mortem examination made
until year after the burial of the woman
vet the chemists extracted from the mould
ering remains large portion of the arsen-
ic which her husband had administered
with her medicine.
At recent annual meeting of the Lon
don College of Physicians, Sir Henry Hal
ford read a paper on the poisons of the
ancients, i'll which he investigated the
cause of the death OF certain celebrated
characters Of antiquity. 1t is said that
Hannibal destroyed himself by poison. bnt
the nature If the preparation is not de
scribed Modern chemistry has discovered
many subtle poisons that might be intro
duced into ring and under certain cir
cumstances, destroy .ite. One drop of
prussic acit might produce paralysis, and
if taken into the stomach, would Instantly
arrest the current of being. 1t is not like
Iy that Carthagenians We're acquainted
with prussic acid. Libya, most probably,
procuced poison sufficiently subtitle and de-
structive to accomplish the fatal purpose
of Hannibal Alexander the Great is said
to have been poisoned, but this is inconsis
tent with the detailed accounts of illness,
given by his biographer. The report is
that the poison was sent by Antphon, and
was Of so peculiar a nature that no silver
or metallic substance would contain it and
it was conveyed in the hoof of a mule.
l Another account attributes the death of
Alexander to intermittent fever; but the
most generally received is, that he died of
combined fever and intemperance. One
of the ancient historians relates an account
of poison so subtle that a Persian Prin-
cess produced the death of rival by rub
bing one side of blade of knife with
the envenomed substance, and then carving
pheasant taking care to place the part
the knife, on the plate of her too contidlng
guest, who died almost immediately. Then
the ancient Roman poisoner, Locusta, who
lived in the time of the Emperor Nero,
and whose name and memory are justly
condemned to infamy, invented poisons
that would either Kill in an hour or at
periods, varying from a day to six or
twelve months. Nay, she could produce
death by the smell of a nosegav, and many
an dramatically poisoned flower has proved
precursor of the tomb. The murders by
{o1 o
by the Borgia family in Italy, are two well
known to require recapituation and 1t
is remarkable that, in certain periods OF
the middle ages, a powder was made and
sold by professional poisoners called "ln-
heritance Powder" by the administration
of which many an heir anticipated nature
in the death of their fathers, uncles or 9th
, er relatives, to the possession OF whose
property they succeeded. The death OF
Sir John Oyerbury, in consequence of par
taking of pie poisoned by order $50 runs
history of Carr, Earl, or Duke OF Somer,
set, in the reign of James II, is also a well
attested fact. The poison so freely admin
istered by the Italians in the seventeenth
century was known by the name OF the
woman Tofano, who made and sold 1t In
: small walls. She carried on this terrible
traffic for nearly half century, and was
arrested at last, when she confessed that
she had been a direct party to the poison
ing of six hundred people.
Many of the ladies of Rome and other
persons were implicated by her, and
number were publicly executed. An In
tense excitement was produced throughout
/. Italy. Hundreds Of the suspected fled
, and several persons of distinction were
upon conviction. strangied in prison. Ih'
deadly preparation was chiefly used b.
married women who were tired of thel
!, husbands, and, at one time, the mysteriou
! decease Of several husbands caused suspic
. ion in the authorized, and it was discover
ed that many of these Infamous marrle'
, murderesses, all in high life, had torme,
an association to aid each other in thel
a dialolical and deadly work. -Four or 81
d drops of the fatal preparation CONSTITUTES
0 a dose. but the effect was not sudden, an
h therefore not suspected. The liquid wa
g as clear as water, and was exported tro'
e rtaly bv Tofano. under the the name
: the" Mamma Of ST. Nicholas. " The chen
! r. H. 1,r, fa;Ia1 tn discover its re: