The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1893-01-14
SCIENCE OF TOxiCoLoGY.
Experts May Mix Poisons So as to Leav,
Fvw Traces

| O'GNSE VT tONiSOCO1ys
Experts May Mix Poisons So as 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-
4 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 by
taking the precaution to use more than
one drug. Arsenic and strychnine oc-
casionally betray their presence, even
II the stomach of the victim should
have retained only the hundredth part
j OF a grain, but the tests Of the analysis
are so delicate and so far from being
unequivocal that their reliability de-
pends upon conditions which adopts
have often managed to modify
1 The poisoners of antiquity had, in
deed, to contend with far more seri-
GUS difficulty, viz. the circumstance
that the injuriousness of many viru-
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
4 an invisible trace can be tasted in the
air on shaking small quantity from
Il one paper into another. Belladonna,
u dlgltalis, stramonium, hemlocl1 and
Icolchium are either acrid or so nause-
ous that deadly dose can be swallowed
Ionly with diff guilty, even by suicides.
Il In an admixture with most articles of
food vegetable poisons can generally be
sEdetec ted by the protest Of the human
8 palate.
i Certatn mineral poisons, however,
make a remarkable exception from that
Ernle. 1t would almost seem as if ma
fture had not thought itworth her while
to warn our instincts against such out
iof-tl1e-way substances as sugar of lead
or arsenious acid. Common white ars-
Ienic is odorless and almost tasteless,
4deceiving even the vigilance of such
Icautious creatures as rats and foxes
In small doses its taste is as difficult to
detect rs that of few particles of
white chalk or powdered alum, but be-
ing rather insoluble substance the
deadly drug might betray itself to the
i eye
eff l should see fit to take short
lime trip to the other world" said the
4 Swiss philosopher Haller, II would no
more think of shooting myself than a
man would dream of getting himself
fired across the river from the mouth of
a cannon if he could instead use a com
modious ferry" He alludes to the eu-
thanasia of narcotic poisons, and his
view would have been confirmed if he
had lived to witness the experiments
that have made prussic acid and cyan
lde 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 absurd
overdoses.
| Ayoung 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
tomer- intended to take peep through
the camera obscura of DAVIS
Locker, but missed the, chance by
swallowing the whole of his purchase,
a quantity sufficient to kill regiment
OF soldiers. Under the circumstances
OF the case in question it merely pro-
duced a vomiting fit, and few hours
work with stomach pump put the re-
pentant sinner on his legs again.
A similar. case occurred few years
ago in western Texas, where a disap-
pointed railway contractor attempted
to avcngc his wrongs upon the employees
OF his successor, but betrayed his pur.
pose by filing the whole camp with the
odor of bitter almonds.
BY good luck prussic acid and it's
derivations 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
ical trade secrets. Austrian newspapers,
some fourteen years ago, reported the
trial of gypsy girl who had gratified a
caprice of jealousy by poisoning a young
man with cup of drugged coffee.
Analytical tests failed to identify the
poison, but the prisoner finally con-
fessed that she had used substance
known to her people as 'drei," or
'dree, and prepared from the molder-
ing woods of certain trees An autopsy
proved that her victims lungs were
permeated with a strange whitish
growth resem bling the ramitication of
certain mosses,- while his stomach,
though somewhat congestcd, revealed
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