The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-09-10
A POISON MANIA,
AN EXTRAORDINARY EPIDEMIC
OF CRIME IN INDIA.
Huge Placards Displayed Every
where. Saying, Beware of the
Poisoners-Assassins Peddline
Death-Dealing Food,

The epidemic of poisoning which
broke out early in the year has now ex-
tended over large proportion of India,
and throughout many districts q virtual
reign of terror exists, writes a Calcutta
correspondent of the of the New York
Tribune. At more than half the rail.
road stations huge placards are dis.
played, saying, not as in America, "Be-
ware of pickpockcts," "Beware Of pois-
oners." Detailed warning is also given
to travellers against accepting the hospi-
tality of the natives, or purchasing
drinks or eatables of any kind. These
precautions are. rendered necessary by
the fact that organized bands of poison
erS have infested the railways peddling
fruit, cakes, drinks, etc., to passengers,
chiefly at the stations. Their wares are
poisoned, and scores of persons have met
death at their hands. Moreover, the in
habitants of the villages themselves have
taken up the trade, and poison those
whom they receive as guests. In these
latter cases the object appears to be
plunder, but in the formerit can only be
a'simple desire to murder, since poison
ers have no opportunity to rob the bodies
of their victims. A perfect mania for
such crimes has for some time prevailed
on nearly all routes of travel throughout
India, and in spite of the police the hol-
rible trade is still pursued.
There is also q mania for poisoning
for all sorts of purposes; for vengeance,
for plunder, for torture, for the fulfil
ment of religious VOWS. In many cases
the food exposed for sale in markets has
been poisoned wholesale. The reports
of the Government chemist, who analyses
all articles seized on suspicion of poison,
are most startling in character and give
such picture of human depravity as can
scarcely be found elsewhere. Among the
cases was curious one reported from
Satara. An army blacksmith complained
that some poison, possibly corrosive sub
Innate, was mixed with his food by his
assistant in the workshop, With the OBJ
ject of getting promotion after his death.
He did not eat any of the food, but only
suspected it Of containing poison. On
inquiry the police found that he bad
poisoned the food himself, and then falsely
kecused his fellow-workman, anda packet
of arsenious oxide was found in his pos
session. Arsenic, from its easy accessi-
bility, has always held the first place in
Indian criminal records, opium coming,
Of course, next. Last year the proper
ton was fifty per cent. arsenic and thirty
one per cent. opium. and, broadly speak
ing, the proportion is much the same for
the past ten years.
Another substance used with deadly
intent is pounded glass. which is put in
bread, cakes and rice. One case is re-
ported from Nazik, in which q woman
confessed to having pulverized lot Of
glass jewels which she had been wearing,
and to having mixed the glass with
bread, which she gave her husband to
eat. In the majority of instances during
the last ten years Of poisoning, however,
the attempt has generally proved futile,
the coarseness and grittiness of the glass
at once exciting suspicion. Evidently
the skill Of the old Venetians in this di-
rection has no parallel in India, where,
indeed, glass would only seem to be used
as the handiest article within reach, when
arsenic, opium and dhatura are not read
lily procurable. DR.. Lyon, in his ex-
haustive "Manual of Medical Jurispru-
dence fol. India, records only one fatal
case of poisoning from pounded glass in
India. This was in 1876, and death en-
sued in forty-eight hours. The oldest
of these records of DR.. Lyons's is that of
woman who swallowed quantity of
coarsely pounded glass in order to "scour
out her stomach" She came very near
securing out her soul as well, but with
prompt emetics and skilful treatment she
recovered.
A favorite medium in which to ad-
minister poisons is sweetmeat. In one
case q man approached in an entirely
friendly way police Sepoy. He gave
the Sepoy some sweetmeuts, and the lat
ter began eating them, but, finding the
material gritty, spat it out. Out of $50
grains Of this sweetmeat, there were subse-
quently extracted G10 grains of arsenious
oxide. In another instance two children
died after eating sweetmeats, calmly
given them by woman who had quar-
relied with their parents. A post-mortem
revealed the presence of 100 grains of ar
senious oxide in the stomach of one of
the children. Perhaps the most remark
able of recorded cases of this sort, how
ever. was that in which five of the in
mates of leper hospitalin in Bombay were
suffering from irritant poisoning. An
examination showed that some sweet
meats they had eaten contained arsenious
oxide to the extent of twelve grains per
ounce, and some tamarind about fifty
grains per pound, some of the fragments
of arscnious oxide in this case being as
large as small beans. Inquiry revealed
the fact that these messengers of death
had been administered in the most mat
ter-of-fact way by leper who wanted to
get another lepcr out of be way, so that
he might marry his wife; and as no plan
occurred to him of isolating his victim,
he had coolly to poison the whole group.