The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-04-16
MYSTERIOUS POISONS.
T,e Truo Stories About Them More
Wonderful Than Fiction.
xntrxxeting Descriptions of the Poisonous
Trees and Plants of the Indian ISL
ands-Strange Effects of Nj
trobenzine.

Not long since daily newspaper con-
aained paragraph dated New London,
Conn, which told how farmer and his
wife were overpowered by the noSious
fumes of a stick Of poison alder which
had been thrown into the kitchen stove,
Sand how physician had hard strug-
gle to save their lives A New York
Sun reporter showed it to q well-known
scientist, who has made the study Of
stoxicology speciality, and asked him
whether there could possibly be any
truth in it. Here is what the professor
says:
"Young man, take out your note
book, sit down and listen, and will
tell you something about subject that
s. lEhc public knows less about than any
other in the world. That story isn't
true, and nothing like it ever was true,
or ever will be true. 1t is of exactly the
same character as the following myths
(which am going to relate to you.
.'On the island of Java grows the bo-
hun upas tree, which owes its notoriety
TO Foersch, a surgeon in the employ Of
Ehe Dutch East India Company, who,
NEARLY hundred years ago, told some
wonderful stories about it. He related
how the emanations Of this tree killed
all animals that approached it; how the
birds that flew too near fell dead; how
criminals that were condemned to
death were allowed to collect leaves
from the tree, and that only two out Of
twenty ever returned; how 1t grew in a
r~alley, with no tree or plant within ten
miles of it, all being barren waste,
Strewn with human and other bones.
1t was a beautiful story, and the world
believed it. Scientists discovered in
N1Sl0 that the upas was a very poisonous
tree, whose effects were similar to those
cd poison ivy.
-tNext is the manchineel, poisonous
evergreen tree which grows in the
aYest India islands. This tree was said
to be even more deadly than the upas,
and it was generally supposed that
drop of its juice falling upon the skin
had the same effect as the application
Of red-hot iron. The milky juice Of
E.his tree is undoubtedly highly poison
Gus, but such stories as the above are
highly exaggerated. This poison, like
sour poison sumac, affects some persons
that the smoke from burning manchineel
wood produces temporary blindness.
This is true in . measure, though it
docs not effect every one in the same
way. Berthold seemann, tho botanist,
was blind for few days after he had
gathered some Of tho leaves of the
tree on the coast Of Florida, and some
s4of the crew were blind for nearly q
week from having made . fire of the
wood.
-Dramatists, Is rule. do not know
the first thing AhoxA poisons. Nathaniel
Lee, in his tEsesAy of Alexander.
lsmakes one of his ohasaetBss administer
: a poison to tho conQueror o4 the world,
which,
"hIixed with his wine, single dpop gives death,
and sends him bowling 10 the shades below.
"And swallowing this terrible mix
s4tnre, Alexander goes through the latter
part of the fourth end most of the fifth
sact, kills man, nAhss Z fine speech,
aEaves wildly, reeovors his senses, and,
after fine dying address, goes
off Now, there isn't poison in
T.tfhe world which can produce such an
~iefiect There is poison, little known
Tfto playwrights, which has much moro
wonderful effect than this, but very
few people know anything about It.
After it is swallowed the person walks
about for time varying from half an
hour to two hours, then his skin, and
even the whites of his eyes, become Of
- strange purplish, ivid color. He
xmay feel perfectly we'll, when suddenly
acute pain will set in, and in a few mo-
7znents he dies. This effect is produced
&Iy nitrobenzine.
''Ihen there is Philip Massinger, who,
An his play, The Duke Of Milan, shows
-ashnt he doesn't know the first thing
tiers scatters a poisonous powder over a
tAower, which is afterwsrd given to q
demale. Some Of the powder falls ON
!fner hand, and when her lover salutes
Efhe tips of her fingers he dies. Pure
aconitine itself, the most powerful Of
an known vegetable poisons. would
hardly produce that effect.
1.-The most powerful and deadly poison
in the world and at the same time the
oldest one known to mankind, Is prussio
acid To illustrate its antiquity: An
Egyptologist has read on an Egyptian
5papyrus preserved at the Louvre, PRO
-nOmce not the name Of ]. A. o. under
-sfhe penalty Of the peach The only
poison which can be distilled from the
peach is prussic acid, so that 1t must
Ghave been known to the Egyptian. A
knignt in the reign Of Tiberius, accused
~@6 high treason, swallowed poison and
.feM dead at the feet Of the senators.
Mo poison but prussic acid, and that
only IN concentrated state, would have
Zhad this effect. The prussic acid that
IN sold in drug stores is only diluted
ssstr,ff, containing a small percentage Of
sfhc real acid. Pure prussic acid is made
+aonly in chemical laboratories, and is so