Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-10-23

1t is all about poisoning-so delicate,
ly, deftly done that Paris, near which
the crime occurred, has been profoundly
agitated. The poisoner, Moreau, has
created greater sensation in France
than the anniversary of Sedan, the death
of Guizot, or the king of Bavaria's visit
to the boulevards. "The Moreau af.
fair has been the chief topic for weeks
in all the newspapers, in the editorial
columns as we'll as in the police reports.
The corridors of the assizes hall in Paris,
where the examination of the poisoner
was held, we're crammed with eager
crowds. There was much excitement
and no little CONSERVATION in the highest
medical circles of the French capital for
a time, for science seemed for once baf.
fled or in doubt in the presence of the
poisoner's art. But let us look at the
story.
Moreau, an herba's dweltat st. Den
mis-, the old cathedral town close by Par.
is. One day his wife died very sudden
ly was speedily buried, and Moreau
married again, in what the neighbors
thought rather indecent haste No ply
sician succeeded in defining the nature
of the malady from which the herbalist's
wife died. Some persons who attended
the sick woman mysteriously reported
that the disease was terrible, and its
causes should be looked into but there
was no post mortem examination. Ten
months after the first wife's demise. the
second wife was taken i'll, and lived but
short time. Before her death, however.
she gave voice to the suspicion that her
husband was poisoning her. But the at
tendent physician failed to discover any
trace of poison, and it was not until a
| month after the seconds wife's death
that the herbalist was arrested, and the
bodies of the two women, which had
been buried in Saint Dennis cemetery.
exhumed and submitted to careful ex-
animation.
Both bodies were in remarkable state
of preservation, and this fact encouraged
the skillful physicians who had under
taken the autopsy to believe that the wo-
men had been poisoned with sulphate of
copper, since experiments proved that
animals poisoned with that substance did
not decay in the earth. Grains of the
sulphate were found in the liyers and
stomachs of both victims. But they
were found only after careful series of
elaborate experiments, made by men
eminentin medical science. Many times
the examiners were convinced that they
had been mistaken, but they persevered.
They discovered that there was copper
In the livers of the two victims by burn
ing those organs. Blush traces in the
caicined remains betrayed the presence
of the lookedfor metal. The doctors
next set themselves to determine wheth-
er or not the copper found was sufficient
in quantity to produce death. To this
end they examined fourteen other bodies,
and in each discovered the metal, but in
such infnitesimal quantities that it was
evidently normal compound. They
therefore decided that the two wives had
been poisoned, and that the poison had
been administered by Moreau, since it
was proved that he alone had given them
the medicines prescribed during their fa-
tai illness.
The physicians then went into court to
testify. But they were confrontd with
the defense that the soil of Saint Dennis
cemetery is saturated with copper, and
that the metal found in the bodies of
the victims was inftrated from the sur
rounding earth. This the doctors dis.
proved, as they had not even found the
caskets inclosing the bodies at all decay
ed. Then the defense brought forward
a copper saucepan, claiming that Mo-
reau might have unwittingly destroyed
his wives by preparing their food and
drink in that during their sickness. 1t
was also shown that Moreau was not
known to have ever purchased sulphate
OF copper, or to have any in his posses
sion. But the jury convicted him on
the evidence of the physicians, and the
court sentenced him to death. The |
to the crimes, of which he |
protests that he is innocent, seems to
have been the gaining of small fortune
which his second wife possessed,
The moral of "The Moreau Affair"
according to the Paris editors-who
thoroughly believe the sentence of death
iust-is that physician may very read.
lily be deceived as to the nature of the |
malady eonfided to his care, and that it
is bis duty to pay the strictest attention
to the patients description of his own
symptoms, and none whatever to the
theories of the well people who surround
the sick one. They reprehend, in strong
terms, the negligence or want of knowl-