Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-06
Indian PoIsoners.

FROM the LONDON Times
The report of the analyst to the Bombay
government on the cases of criminal poi
soning during the past year is made the
text by the Times of India for some inter
esting observations or the methods of In
dian poisoners. Arsenic is the agent most
commonly employed, for It is the cheapest
and most easily obtained of deadly drugs;
opium comes next; and then, much lower
down in the scale, stryohnis and pounded
glass. The arsenic cases are typical of the
people among whom they occur. In q
Scinde district stranger went into a shop
one day and entered into friendly conver-
sstion with q man he met there. On part
ing, by way of thanking him, tine stranger
presented him with some sweets for distri-
button among his friends. The result was
that five men and q boy were poisoned,
and the obliging stranger has never been
heard of since. In Bslgsum q boy return
ing from school w&s given some sugar,
| which he shared with his siste. and snoth-
er child; all three were soon found to be
| suffering from an irritsnt poison. In all
| the reports children figure as victims In
| the arsenic cases. The poison is usually
given In sweetmests, and generally by q
''strsnge woman" whom they meet In the
| street and who disappears. This strange
| woman" Is found in page after page of sue
cessive analysts reports for the past TWEEN
| ty years, and under much the same circum-
| stances.
The Indian professional poisoner 10 rare
ly caught and usually is not even suspect
| ed. In a large proportion of cases the
crimes appear to be wholly without mo-
| tive, and In many the poisoner appears to
make NO difficulty about poisoning whole
family to make aure of an individual.
| Accident is the main cause of discovery In
\ the reported casea, for In remote villages Q
person dies and the body is burned bsfore
tho suspicion of foul play gets abroad
Death is nearly always sudden In India,
and the last rites follow 30 quickly that
this kind of crime can be committed with
| q very large amount Of impunity. Tt is
generally known in India that traces of
arsenical poisoning disappear when body
Is burned; but this Is not always the case.
At Ssttsra body vas duly burned, sud
among the ashes of the pyrs some one
who had grudge against the relatives of
the deceased secretly introduced arsenic
and then caused an accusation Of poison
ing to be made against some of the rela-
tives. The latter insisted on having the
ashes analysed. but the analyst, while
| nud1pg the arsenic, declared the charge
fraudulent, for arsenic volatilizes at q very
| moderate heat and leaves no trace behind
Another characteristic feature of the In
dian poisoner IL reckfessness. In Dhar
war q woman whe had q grudge against an
old paramour entered liquor shop and of
fered him some drink. He was about to
drink 1t when Q dispute arose about the
price, and the seller took up the cup and
poured the liquor back into the vessel
from which he had taken it. A white sed-
imsnt was found adhering to the bottom
of the cup, which turned out to be whits
arsenic that the woman had introduced
into the cup. In another instance Q wo-
man, at the suggestion of her psramour,
gave her husband arsenic in food. He was
violently Ill, but recovered, and rsvenged
himself on his faithless wife and her lover
by administering to both . severe thrash.
ing with stick. Pounded glass is going
out of use because Ii is not always fatal,
and more deadly poisons are very cheap
and can be obtained easily by any one.
As rule IL Is administered by women to
their husbands; they take of their glass
bangles, reduce them to powder by pound
ing, and then mix this with various arti
cles of food.