The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-08-12
EXPERTS IN POISONING.
THE PART CHEMISTRY HAS PLAYED
" THE HISTORY or MURDER.

called attention to the curious fact that
the prevailing types Of crime have varied
with every phase in the progress Of civil
ization. Thus piracy and infanticide have
steadily decreased since the beginning Of
our chronological era. Highway robbery,
too, has declined, while theft has consid-
erably increased, and certain stealthy
forms OF murder have thus far successfully
baffied the exorcism OF law.
The poison monger's art, for instance,
has contrived to defy the progress OF SCI
ence by constant improvements of it,
own. Only a few weeks ago one of the
experts consulted Id the 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 "no chemical analysis can pretend
to trace the vestiges Of certain poisons as
modified by the subsequent administra-
tion OF other drugs"
In Other words, prisoners have learned
70 cover the traces OF their crime by taxi
Ing the precaution to use more than one
drug. Arsenic and strychnine occasional
~ betray their presence, even II the
stomach OF the victim should have re-
tanned only the hundredth part Of a grain,
but the tests Of the analysists are 30 deli
cate and so far from being unequivocal
that their reliability depends upon condi-
tions which adopts have often managed
to modify.
The prisoners Of antiquity had, indeed,
to contend with far more serious difh-
Guilty, viz, the circumstance that the i'm
juriousness of many virulent substances
betrays itself by their responsiveness.
Strychnine and opium are intensely Bit
ter, SO much so in fact that in some of
their powdered forms an invisible trace
can be tasted in the dir on shaking small
quantity from ono paper into another.
Belladona, digitalis, stramonium, hem
look and colchicum are either acrid or so
nauseous that a deadly dose can be swal-
lowed only with difficulty, even by sui
cides. In an admixture with most arti-
Giles Of food vegetable poisons can gener-
ally be detected by the protest of the
human palate.
Certain mineral poisons, however, make
q remarkable exception from that rule. 1t
would almost seem as il nature had not
thought 1t worth her while to warn our
instinct against such out of the way
substances as sugar Of lead or arsenious
acid. Common white arsenic Is odorless
and almost tasteless, deceiving even the
vigilance OF such cautious creatures as
rats and foxes. In small doses its taste Is
as difficult to detect as that Of a few par
ticles OF white chalk or powdered alum,
but being a rather insoluble substance,
the deadly drug might betray itself to the
eye.
About 800 years ago the latter difficulty
-, kol hxyk he NV ~ a n IfaI-
ian crone, who found by experiments that
long 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 surpass the yirulence OF
hen1lock juice. Thinking her secret abb
solutely discovery proof, the old bag sold
It to numerous customers, most OF them
young wives encountered with undesira-
BILE husbands.
"Aqua toffana," as the initiated called
the fatal solution, would have baffied the
ingenuity Of the shrewdest chemical de-
teotives of that time, but before long
caused SO phenomenal a mortality OF male
adults, nearly all of them old, ugly and
married, that the theory of an accidental
coincidence became untenable, and the
secret leaked out after the arrest OF half
hundred suspected widows.
But the recipe OF the inventor, too, was
then divulged, and her successor soon
learned to observe the additional precau-
ton OF administering the "water OF di-
yorcen in minute doses. Instead OF the
naturally suspicious result of sudden
death, the effect, thus modified, was a
gradual decline Of health and vigor. The
victim would complain of languor, nau-
sea and digestive ailments closely resem-
bling the effects OF certain atmospheric
conditions incident to the climate OF
northern Europe "The sultry weather "
would be the plausible explanation, and
the apgravation Of symptoms could be as
easily attributed to cholera morbus or
congestiye chills.
Prof. Pietro Longinotti, an eminent
| iurist of the eighteenth century, states
| his reasons for the estimate that hall a
million human -beings-husbands, wives
superfluous infants or otherwise unde-
sirable relatives and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
thus discreetly removed" Medical
jurisprudence, in the meantime, had en-
| listed the aid of analytical chemistry, and
Lonpinotti suggests that, as rule,
thorough autopsy should precede coron-
er,s burial permit.
/ alt should see fit to take short line
trip to the other world" said the Swiss
philosopher Haller, " would no more
4 think Of shooting myself than a mar
would dream OF getting himself nrec
across q river from the mouth OF
cannon II he could instead use commo'
dious ferry" He alludes to the euthanasii
Of narcotic poisons, and his view woulc
have been confirmed II he had lived to wit
ness the experiments that have mad
prussic acid and cyanide OF potassium tn
favorite drugs OF suicides. single drol
Of the acid, applied to the tongue OF full
grown rabbit, has been known to pro
duce instant death, and the failure o
suicidal attempts with drugs Of that sor
can be often explained by the fact tina
amateur chemists are apt to use absur'
overdoses.
Young druggist of my acquaintanc
came near getting himself into serion
trouble by accommodating friend, VIII
pretended to need lot of cyanide 10
photographic purposes. This custome
intended to take peep through the cam
era obscura of Davy's locker, but mise