Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-08-30
poisonIng an a Flne Art.

London Examiner.l
During the course of the trial Of
Palmer, now, as nearly as may be,
twenty years ago, DR.. Taylor, the
well known writer on medical juris-
prudence, expressed his belief that
secret poisoning was far more COM
mon than was supposed, and that
it was indeed prevalent to an alarm
ing degree. There is too much
reason to fear that the statement
was not at all exaggerated.
"The secrets Of the grave" DR..
Taylor says, "are only known to
those who are practicing medical
jurisprudence, In the course of
the last thirty years at least fifteen
cases of the exhumation Of dead
bodies have been referred to me.
On some of these inquests had been
held, but no inspections were made.
Verdicts of death from cholera and
natural causes had been returned,
and at intervals of from one month
to twenty-five months the bodies
have been disinterred, and it has
been then proved that the deceased
had died from poison. In some of
| these cases the deaths were sudden
and in others slow; in the latter the
symptoms during life were mistaken
| for those of disease, medical certif-
Gates of the cause of death were
given without sufficient inquiry,
and thus it is that crime passes un-
detected, and several lives may be
destroyed in succession before q
criminal is arrested. There is q
popular notion, in accordance with
the ancient statute, that sudden
deaths only require an investiga-
ton by the coroner; but this is an
error. A large proportion of sud
den deaths take place from we'll
known natural causes easily elected
by proper medical inquiry, and
they strictly demand no judicia
proceedings. On the other hand,
in all cases Of chronic poisoning
the form which secret murder has
of late years assumed, the patient
. has fingered on with intermitting
. symptoms, and death has taker
: place only after an illness of some
weeks duration. There is no pro
! vision for the detection of SucE
cases. Their discovery appears tC
be matter Of accident"
|. These measured words seem 81
horrible that at first one can hardly
! believe them true. 1t is natura
: and, to a certain extent, a com
mendable tendency Of most people
to believe in the goodness of hu
man nature, and when we are tolC
that secret poisoning goes on in al
absolutely wholesale manner we ar
disposed to think that the worlC
cannot possibly be SO wicked, an(
that the statement is one of thos
{ exaggerations into which scientifi
men are apt to be unconsciousl
! betrayed by oyer-attention to thei
l own especial subject, 1t is proba
BILE, however, that men such as DR.
Taylor, medical men, and lawyers
to whom the moral nature Of mel
presents itself as a phenomenon t
! ! be studied in exactly the same wa
! as any other, have a more accurat
= = knowledge of the wickedness tina
| really goes on in the world thai
! our first impulse would allow us Il
= credit them with.
When the year before last W
were threatened with an outbreaI
: Of cholera one of the most eminen
physicians at present practicing i
: London, observed grayely that h
i seriously hoped it was not going t
be so, for that during an outbrea
Of cholera, when sudden deaths ar
q taken very much as o matter 0
n