Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-02-08
SCIENCE OF TOxICOLoGY.
Experts May Mix Poisons So rs to Leave
Few Traces.

Experts May Mix Poisons So rs to Leave
Few Traces.
The poison-monger's art has con-
trived to defy the progress of science
by constant improvements of it's own.
Only few weeks ago one of the ex-
perts consulted in 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 mo chemical analysis can pretend
to trace the veStiges of certain poisons
| as modified by the subsequent admins
tration of other drugs"
In other words, poisoners have learned
to cover the traces of their crime bv
taking the precaution to use more than
one drug. Arsenic and strychnine oc-
| casionally betray their presence, even
If the stomach of the victim should
have retained only the hundredth part
of grain, but the tests of the analysis
are so delicate and so far from being
| unequivocal that their reliability de-
pcnds upon conditions which adopts
have often managed to modify.
The poisoners of antiquity had, in
deed, to contend with far more seri-
| Gus difficulty, viz: the circumstance
lent substances betrays itself by their
| responsiveness Strychnine and opium
are intensely bitter, SO much so, in fact,
that in some of their powdered forms
an invisible trace can be tasted in the
air on shaking small quantity from
| one paper into another. Belladonna,
digitalis, stramonium, hemlock and
colchium are either acrid or SO nause-
GUS that deadly dose can be swallowed
only with difficulty, even by suicides.
In an admiXture with most articles of
| food vegetable poisons can generally be
| detec ted by the protest of the human
palate.
Certain mineral poisons, however,
make remarkable exception from that
rule. 1t would almost seem as if ma
ture had not thought it worth her while
| to warn our instincts against such out
of-the-way substances as sugar of lead
| or arsenious acid. Common white ars-
| enic 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 few particles of
white chalk or powdered alum, but be-
ing rather insoluble substance the
deadly drug might betray itself to the
eye
IF l should see fit to take a Short
line trip to the other world" said the
Swiss philosopher Haller, Il would no
more think of shooting myself than a
man would dream of getting himself
fired across the river from the mouth of
cannon if he could instead use a com.
modious ferry" He alludes to the ep-
thanasla of narcotic poisons and his
view would have been confirmed il he
had lived to witness the experiments
that have made prussic acid and evan
ide of potassium the favorite drugs of
suicides A single drop of the acid ap-
piled to the tongue of a full-grown rab-
bit has been known to produce instant
death, and the failure of suicidal at
tempts with drugs of that sort can be
often explained by the fact that anna
teur chemists are apt to use abspri
overdoses.
A young druggist of my acquaintance
came near getting himself into serious
trouble by accommodating friend who
pretended to need a lot of cyanide
for photographic purposes This Gus
toner intended TO take a peep through
the camera obscura of Davy's
Locker, but missed the chance by
swallowing the whole of his purchase.
quantity sufficient to kill a repiment
OF soldiers. Under the circumstances
OF the case In question it merely pro-
duced vomiting fit, and few hours
work with stomach pump put the re-
pentant sinner on his legs again.
similar case occurred a few years
ago in western Texas, where disap.
pointed railway contractor attempted
to avenge his wrongs upon the employees
Of his successor, but BETRAYED his pur.
pose by filling the whole camp with the
odor of bitter almonds.
by good luck prussic acid and its
derivatioIs lose their portentous prop
critics by few days exposure to air
and even the sunlight, but the criminal
history of the last two decades seems to
prove that criminals begin to master
the difficulties of such circumstances in
way which threatens to make discov-
cry next TO impossible
Besides, there is reason to believe
that the gypsies of the old world, like
the aborigines of our own continent,
have preserved the recipe of ugly chem
cal trade secrets. Austrian newspapers,
some fourteen years ago, reported the
trial of gypsy girl who had gratified a
caprice of jealousy by poisoning young
nan with cup of drugged coffee.
Analytical tests failed to identify the
poison, but the prisoner finally con-
tessed that she had used substance
znown to her people as ''drei," or
'dree, and prepared from the molder-
ng woods of certain trees An autopsy
proved that her victims lungs were
oerneated with strange whitish
growth resembling the ramifcation of
certain MOSES, while his stomach.
though somewhat congested, revealed
40 trace of any known poison.-San
Francisco Chronicle