The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-04-23
MYSTERIOUS POlSONS.
The True Stories About Them Are More
Wonderful Than the False Ones.

| NOt long ago daily newspaper con-
tanned paragraph dated New London.
Conn. which told how a farmer and
his wife were oyarpowered by the
noXious fumes Of stick of poison
alder which had been THROWN into the
| kitchen stove, and how physician
had hard struggle to save their lives.
A reporter showed it to a well+kpown
scientist who has made the study of
! toxicology a specially and asked him
whether there could possibly be any
truth in it. Here is what the pros
fessOr said:
Young man, take out your note
book. sit down and listen. and I will
tell you something about a subject that
the public knows less about than any
other subject in the world That
story isn't true, and nothing like it
ever was or ever will be true. 1t is Of
exactly the same character as the fol-
lowing myths which am going to re-
late to you. ,~~
"0n the Island of Java grows the
bohun upas tree, which owes is noto-
riety to Foersch, a surgeon IN the en-
plOy Of the Dutch East India company,
who nearly Il hundred years ago, JQ:d
some wonderful stories about II. lie
related how the carnations Of this
tree killed oil animals that approached
it; how the birds that t1oW too near 1t
fell dead; how criminals that were con-
demned to death we're allowed to col
lect leaves from the tree, and that only
two out Of twenty ever returnedi how
it grew in valley, with no tree OF
plant within ten miles Of it, all being
a barren waste, streWn with human
and other bones. 1t was beautiful
story and the world believed it.
Scientists discovered in 1910 that the
upas was very poisonous tree, whose
effects were similar to those of poison
ivy.
Next is the manchineei, a poison
Gus evergreen tree which grows in the
West India Islands. This tree was
said TO be even more deadly than the
upas, and it was generally supposed
that a drop of its juice falling upon the
skin had the same effect as the appIi-
cation of a red-hot iron. The milky
Juice Of this tree is undoubtedly high
ly poisonous, but such stories as the
above are highly exaggerated. This
poison, like our poison sumach, affects
some persons more seriously than
others. IT IS said that the smoke from
manchineel wood produces temporary
blindness. This is true in a measure,
though it does not affect every one
In the same way. Berthold Seemann.
the botanist, was blind for few days
after he had gathered some Of the
leaves of the tree on the coast Of
Florida, and some OF the crew were
blind for nearly a week from having
made a fire Of The wood.
"Dramatists as rule do not know
the first thing about poisons. Nathaniel
Lee in his tragedy OF Alexander,
makes one of his characters administer
a poison to the conqueror Of the world,
which,
Mixed with lis wine, a single crop gives
death
And sends him bowling to the shades below.
After swallowing this terrible mix
ture Alexander goes through the latter
! part of the fourth and most Of the
| fifth act, kills man, makes fine
speech. raves wildly, RECEIVERS his
senses, and after a fine dying address,
goes 6tf. Now there isn't poison in
! the world which can produce such an
! effect There is a poison little known
| to the playwrights, which has much
more wonderful effect than this, but
very few people know anything about
it. After it is swallowed the person
walks about for a time varying from
half an hour to two hours. then his
| skin, and even the whites Of his eyes.
j Nf CT %
color. He may feel perfectly well,
when suddenly acute pain will set in.
and in a few moments he dies. This
effect is produced by nitro bepzine.
Then there is Philip Massinger,
who in the play, The Duke of Milan,
shows that he doesn't know the first
thing about toXicology, One of the
characters Scatters a poisonous powder
over a flower which is afterward given
to a female. Some of the powder
falls on her hand. and when her lover
salutes the tips of her fingers he dies.
Pure aconitine itself the most power
ful of all known vegetable poisons,
would hardly produce that effect.
The most powerful and deadly
poison in the world and at the same
time the oldest one known to man
kind is prussic acid. TO illustrate il
antiquity: An Psychologist has rea'
on an Egyptian papyrus preserved a
the Louvre; Pronounce not tile name
Of j. A. 6. under the penalty Of the
peach The only poison which can b'
distilled from the peach is prussia
acid. so that it must have been known
to the Egyptian. A knight in th'
reign Of Tiberius, accused of higl
treason, swallowed poison and fel
n g., N