The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-12

Will, WHICH tOlu HOW % farmer 0nd his
wife were ovcrpowercd by the noxious
fumes of u stick of poison alder which
had been thrown into tho kitchen stove,
and how u physician had hnrd struo-
gle to save their lives A New York
Sun reporter showed it to o wel-kuown
scientist, who has made tho study of
toxicology speciality, and nslscd him
whether there could possibly be any
truth In it, Hero Is what tho professor
says:
Young man, take out your noto
book, sit down anu listen. and will
tell you something about subject that
the public knows less about than any
other In the world That story isn't
true, and nothing like it ever was true,
on ever will be truo. tbs of exactly tho
same character as tho following myths
which an going to rotate to you
"On the island of Java grows the boz
hun upns tree, which owes It's notoriety
to Focrsc!l, o surgeon in tho employ Of
the Dutch East India Company, who,
nearly hundred years ago, told some
wonderful stories about it. uo rotated
how the c,nanations of this troo killed
all animals thut approached 1t; how the
birds that Iow too near fell doad how
criminals that were condemned TO
death were allowed TO collect leaves
from tho tree, and that only two out of
twenty ever returned; how it grow In o
valley, with no tree or plant within ten
miles of 1t, NIL being barren waste,
strcvn with human and other bones.
1t waa Il beautiful story, and the world
believed it Scientists discovered In
1910 that tho upas was very poisonous
tree, whose ctfccto were similar to those
OF poison ivy.
Next Is the manchinccl, poisonous
evergreen tree which grows in the
West India islands. This treo was said
to be oven more deadly than tho upus,
end it was generally supposed that o
drop OF It's juice falling upon the skin
bad the same effect Us the application
of L re(l-hot iron. The milky Juice of
this tree Is undoubtedly highly poison
gus, but such stories as tho above arc
highly exaggerated This poison, like
our poison sumac, affects some persona
moro seriously than others It Is sold
that the smoke from burning manchincel
wood produces temporary blindness
This Is true In q measure, though u
does not effect every ono In the sa1no
NoS III etiOl'i pCCill1All, Cllt
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 crow were blind for nearly o
week from having made fro of tho
wood.
"Dramatists, as q rule, do not know
the first thing about poisons- Nathaniel
Leo IN his tragedy of Alexander,
makes one of his characters administer
n poison to tho conqueror of tho world,
which,
''IiXed with his vino, single drop gives death,
And sends him bowling to tho shades below.
"And swallowing this terrible mix
trrc, Alexander goes through the latter
part OF the fourth and most of the fifth
act, kills q man, makes n hno speech,
raves wildly, RECEIVERS his senses, and,
otter fine dying address, goes
off. Now, there isn't q poison in
the world which can produce such an
effect There is n poison, little known
to playwrights which has much moro
wonderful effect than this, but very
few peoplc know anything about it.
After it Is swallowed the person walks
about for a tiinc varying from half an
hour to two hours, then his skin, and
even the whites Of his eyes, become Of
e strange purplish, livid color. He
may feel perfectly we'll, when suddenly
acute pain will set iii, and in few mo
ments he dies. This effect is produced
by nitrobenzinc.
"Thcn there is Philip Messenger, who,
In his play, Tho Duke of Milan shows
that he doesn't know the first thing
oil a., - ~.
tcrs scatters poisonous powder over q
flower, which is aftcrward given to o
female Some Of the powder falls on
her hand, and when her lover salutos
the tips of her fingers he dies Pure
aconitino itself, the most powerful of
oil known vegetable polsons, would
hardly produce that effect
"Thc most powerful and deadly poison
III the world and at the same time tho
oldest ono known to mankind, Is prussia
acid To illustrate it's antiquity: An
Psychologist has read on an Egyptian
| papyrus preserved at the Louvre, PRO
nounce not the name of J. a. o. under
| the penalty of tho peach Tho only
| poison which can be distilled from tho
| peach Is prussia acid, so that it must
have been known to the Egyptian. a
knight in the reign of Tibcrius. accused
of high treason, swallowed poison and
fell dead at the feet Of tho senators.
No poison but prussic acid. and that
only III n concentrated state, would hnvo
had this effect The prussic acid that
Is sold in drug stores IS only diluted
stuff, containing q snail percentage OF
the real acid Pure prussic ncid is made
only in chemical laboratories, and is so