Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-08-01
TOxicolOgy in Novel Writing.

From the story of the physician in the
Arabian Nights" who impregnated the
leaves of book with a subtle poison.
which the unjust king absorbed through
wetting his fingers to turn the leaves,
down to the most recent story in the dime
novel series novelists have reveled in the
notion of poison which is silent but in
simultaneously fatal, at the same time
leaving no trace of its presence. The
stories of the crimes of the Borgias, of the
death dealing work of the Marquise de
Brinvillers, of the well known success
ion powders of England, of the aqua to-
fana of Italy, all rest upon this assump-
tion.
Modern science, however, with it rea-
listic icnoclasm, has interfered seriously
with the operations of this tool of the
novelist's trade. The subject of toxicol-
ogy has been closely and exhaustively
studied, the result being that science
now declares that one can not be poisoned
without the cause of death being made
certain by an autopsy, and more than
this, that the kind of poison used may
be named with almost as much certainty
rs though the chemist or analyst had
seen it administered No longer can the
novelist put his characters out of the
way with pinch of powder dissolved In
a glass of wine, nor cause them to sink
insensible from the inhalation of poison
hidden in a bouquet of flowers. The
man of science comes with his test tubes
and apparatus for analysis and makes
out so clear q case that even trial jury
can not escape the conclusions which he
draws.
A very cursory review of modern SEN
sational fiction will show that the novel
lists have learned to appreciate the limita-
tions which science has imposed on their
fancy in this respect. Instead of the fa-
miliar white powder, or anything of that
sort, the writer of fiction is now COM
PEELED to go farther afield for his poisons,
and to procure them from strange lands
and comparatively unknown countries.
He has to introduce an agent for his pur-
pose from Africa or The Indies or the in
terror of South America, where the prop
perties of the flora are comparatively I'M
known. His logic is sound. He reasons
that in default of accurate knowledge on
the subject it can not be affirmed that
some vegetable poison may not exist pos
sessing just the qualities which the exi-
gencies of his story demand; and so he
produces his poison, bestows upon it some
foreign sounding name, and endows it
with the attributes of silence, instanta-
neity and indiscoverability, and his work
is done.
With mineral poisons the writer of fic-
ton must be more cautious if he desires
to preserve the unities. The mineral
kingdom has been sothoroughly explored
that it is hardly possible, within reason,
to make the imaginary discovery of
mineral possessing the required toxic
qualities. The same minerals, roughly
speaking, are found in one quarter of the
globe as in another, and the effects of
their chemical combinations on the sys-
tenn are thoroughly well known. Ar
senic, antimony, corrosive sublimate,
PHOSPHORUS, sugar of lead, and other
mineral poisons produce the same effects
in one country as in another, and the
symptoms of this kind of poisoning are
so well known as to be unmistakable.
Who can say, though, that the researches
of the experimental chemists of the pres
ent day may not result in the discovery
of a poison which shall comply exactly
with the conditions demanded by the
novelist?
There are so many more things in heaven
and earth than were ever dreamed of by
philosophers of a quarter of a century ago,
that it is not beyond the range of posi-
bility that some toxic agent may be dis
covered which shall extinguish the vital
spark with lightning like rapidity and
yet leave no distinguishable trace of its
presence. Until that discovery is made,
however, the novelist who finds it abso-
lutely necessary to rid himself of his
characters by poison will be wise to con-
fine himself to generalities or bring upon
the scene some unknown substance the
existence and qualities of which can not
be tested by cold and unromantic science.
L San Francisco Chronicle.
Tn Ranpor Moina nslia Ellis drank a