The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-05-08
SECRETS OF THE POISONER
ColOrless, Tagteless Liquid with Which
Roman Wives Slew Their Spouses.
The Modern Science ofTOxicolOgy New So Well
Understood that One Who Knows How Can
Easily Kill and Hide the Crime.


provements of it's own. Only q few weeks
ago one of the experts consulted inthe trial
of the New York student accused OF causing
the death of his wife quoted the opinion OF
several eminent specialists. to the effect
that mo chemical analysis can pretend to
trace the v~estiRes of certain poisons as
modified by the subsequent administration
of other drugs"
In other words, PRISONERS have learned to
cover the traces of their crime by taking
the precaution to use more than one drug.
Arsenic ard strychnine occasionally betray
their presence, even if the stomach of the
victim should have retained only the hun
dredth part of a grain. but the tests OF the
analysts are so delicate and so far from be-
ing unequivocal that their reliability de-
ponds upon conditions which adopts have
often managed to modify.
The PRISONERS of antiquity had. indeed,
to contend with q far more serious diff
Guilty, viz, the circumstance that the in
~juriousness OF many virulent substances
betrays itself by their responsiveness.
~Strychnine and opium are intensely bitter,
30 much SO. in fact. that In some of their
powdered forms an invisible trace can be
tasted in the air on shaking q small guam
tlty from one paper into another: Bella,
donna, digItalls. stramonlum, hemlock and
colchicum sre either scrid or 50 nanseons
that q deadly dose can be swallowed only
with difficulty, even By suicides. In an ad-
mixture with most articles Of food vege-
table poisons can generally be detected by
the protest of the human palate.
Certain mineral p~oisons. however. make
q remarkable exception from that rule. It
would almost seem as If nature had not
thought it werth her while TO warn our
instincts against such out-Of-tbe-way sub
stances as sugar of lead or arsenious acid.
Common white arsenic is odorless aud al
most tasteless, deceiving even the vigil
lance Of such cautious creatures as rats and
foxes. In small doses its taste 10 as difficult
ehalk or powdered alum. but being a
rather lnsoluble substance the deadly drug
might betray itself to the eye.
DEADLY AQUA
About three hundred years ago the latter
difficulty was obviated by the discovery of
an Italian crone. who found by expert
ments that lon~g-continued boiling will
communicate the properties of arsenic to
soft water. The fluid thus obtained is
colorless as well as tasteless and odorless.
yet withal potent enough to surpsss the
viTulence of hemlock juice. Thinking her
secret absolutely discovery proof, the old
bag sold 1t to numerous customers. most
of them young wives encountered with
undesirable husbands. Aqua toffana,p as
the initiated called the fatal solution.
would have baffied the ingenuity of the
s~hrewdest chemical detectives of that time,
but before long caused so phenomenal q
mortality of male adults, nearly all of them
old. ugly and married. that the theory of
An accidental coincidence became unteDa-
bic, and the secret leaked out after the ar
roaf of half a hnndraH anGnaara6 ryinnUa
But the recipe of the inventor. too. was
then divulged, and her successor soon
learned to observe the additional precau-
tion of administering the water of di-
naturally suspicious result OF q sudden
death the effect, thus modified. was q grad
nal decline of health and vIgor. The vic
tin would complain of -languor, nausea
and digestive ailments, closely resem bling
the effects Of certain atmospheric oondi-
tions incident to the climate of northern
Europe. The sultry weather" would be
tho plausible explanation, and the agra
vatlon of symptoms could be as easily at
tributed to cholera morbus or %congestive
chills. Prof. Pietro Longlnotti, an eminent
jurist of the eighteenth century, states his
reasons for the estimate that half a million
human Observation-Disclosures. wives. super-
fuous infants or otherwise undesirable
relatives and acquaIntances-were thus
discreetly removed Medical jurls-
prudence, in the meantime, had enlisted
the aid of analytical chemistry, and Lon
RinottI suggests that. as a rule. q thorough
autopsy should precede q corOners burial
permit
NO NEED o # DIVORCES.
The facility of divorces might seem to
have modihed the necessity of such pre-
cautions, still there is no doubt that the
secret adoption of Longinotti's plan would
lead to surprising revelations in certain
e~verpopulated districts of the Eastern con-
tinent. and perhaps. also. of the new world,
IL sold a. ginger and q~uinine.
'If / should see nc to take q short-line
trip to the other world" said the Swiss
philosopher Haller. IL would no more think
dream of getting himself fired across q
river from the mouth OF q cannon if he
could instead use q commodious ferry"
he alludes TO the euthanasia or narcotic
polsons. and his view would have been
confirmed if he had lived to witness the
experiments that have made prussic acid
aud cyanide of potassium the favorite
drugs of suicides. A single drop of the
acid. applied to the tongue OF q full
grown rabbit. has been known TO
produce instant death. and the failure OF
suicidal ttempts with drugs of that sort
can be often explained by the fact that am
ateur chemists are apt to use absurd OVER
doses. A young druggist of my acQuaint-
nh1o eaA w. AtNo
trouble by accommodating a friend who
pretended to need n lot of cyanide for pho
~tographic purposes. This customer intend
ed to take ~ peep through the camera OBJ
scura of Davy's locker, but missed his
chance by swallowing the whole of his
purchase, q quantity sufficient to kill q
regiment of soldiers. Under the circum-
stances of the cese IN question nc merely
produced aNomItlng mt. and a rev hours
work with q stomsch-pump put the repent
ant sinner on his legs again.
A similar case occurred q few years ago
IN western Texas, where q disappointed
railway contractor attempted to svenge
his wrongs upon the employees of his sue
pessor. but betrayed his purpose by filling
the whole camp with the odor of bitter al
mondA
BY good luck prussic acid and its deriva-
tions lose their pOrtentous properties by q
few days exposure to air and even TO sun
light. but the criminal history of the las,
two decades seems TO prove that criminals
begin TO master the difficulties OF such cir
cumstances In q way which threatens tC
make discovery mex to impossible.
Besides, there is reason TO believe that
the ~ psles of the old world, like the
aborlgines of our own continent, ave pre-.
served the recipe of ugly chemical trade
secrets. Austrian newspapers. some four
Rypsy girl who had gratitied a caprice o.
jealousy by poisoning a young man with q
cup OF dragged coffee. Analytical test:
failed to identify the poison, but the pris-
oner finally confessed that she had used Q
substance known to her people as "drei.'
OF "dree." and prepared from the mOlder
ing wood of certain trees. An autopsy
proved that her victims lungs were per
meated with q strange whltish growth re
-. L., d - ma ~ n affln "a narfufn vn1aaa.