Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-28


ed. stammered out:
you do not-you cannot think that
THAT what?" he asked, cycling me
closely.
THAT these people have BEEN but for
the life of me J. could not get the word
out.
"Murdered?" he queried, calmly
Po.soned!' I at last managed to ejacu-
late.
Well said Prof. Fournicr, crossing one
leg over the other and leaning back among
the cushions, I'VE shall see. 1 confess that
l have certain ideas on the subject which
l am hardly ready to formulate just yet.
This much 1 will say for your guidance;
thas do not suspect the presence of any
ordinary poison administered by any Or
binary poisoner. In fact, the case is such
that, if I find my ideas SubStantiated, l
shall consider it my duty to humanity to
take upon myself the punishment rather
than the exposure of the criminal"
From this time until our arrival al Arteuil
no conversation passed between us. Four
nier seemed wrapped in thought, and my
own mind was busy with the awful sus-
p!cion his words had suggested 1 could not
but acknowledge that the facts strongly
favored my companions apparent theory,
but the difficulty was to realize what poison
could have been used, and how any poison
could have been administered in such a vast
number of cases. 1t seemed to argue con-
spiracy of impossible dimensions. and at
this point / was f1oundering hopelcssly when
our train drew into the station.
Our coming had been duly heraldel. Sew
eral physicians were waiting on the plat
form, and, among them, saw the handsome
Intellectual face Of Toedt. He rushed for
ward to embrace US.
At the same moment, but whether by &C
cident or design 1 could not fathom, Four
ner turned to give some direction to a por-
ter and ignored the friendly greeting saw
{; queer look FnoGt's IA Int
he made no motion to renew his advance
and the Incident would have left little or no
impression on me had it not recalled to my
memory that scene in the Paris cafe
AS a matter of fact however, the pro-
1essional situation was of nature to BAN
ISL everything else from our minds The
condition was indeed frightful. Hardly
family of wealth or standing but had lost
one or moro of it's members, and. In some
instances, the entire household including
the servants, had been simply oblterated
i ne symptoms were horrible in the extreme
put you are not medical man, and to de-
scribe them in detail would not make my
story any the more comprehensive to YOU
Suffice to state that they indicated a malig-
nant decay of the mucous tissues of the
pooy' ana, worse than all, there was not
single record of cure. Night and day We
Worhed-at first with feverish enthusias SIN.
tnen with logged perseverance; while our
eHorts slowly dwindled from attempts to
save si Gown TO mere endeavors to alleviate
Great Alleviator of all human suffering
should press His cooling hand upon their
pio"s. Meanwhile, strange to relate, the
business and laboring quarters of the town
cases.
had rather imagined, at first, that Four
n!er might have observed in the symntoms
solnetnihg akin to those produced by the
ne" polsons with which had believed him
TO have been experimenting, but I soon saw
tnat this supposition was groundless The
apparently natural death of the Guinea mig
was as 1ar as ANYTHING could be from the
horrors OF these disSolutions
we had attempted no autons:es Tho
physician who, before the coming of the
pest, shared with Toedt the fashionahIe
p laf or Arteuil, had essayed one, been
.ahth Gown himself. and died. Later, one
OF the first of the visiting men had bravad
me same danger, with the same result to
hlmself and his assistants. Since then an
topsies had been abandoned
mad had several converse lions with NV
former classmate when relieved for a few
moments from my labors and I found 70
my surprise that he had not entirely welded
~ Inc C. Despair which the rest of us felt. He
had Irst believed. he said, that the best
pract1ce was to fortify against the con-
taS,on, and. with this object in view had
maze 1t a point to visit most of his patients
at 'he lline OF the outbreak of the epidemic.
ne aulnltted, however, that his efforts to
ward Off had, thus far, proved about "a m
awaiting as ours to cure
CONFESS to YOU he said, at the con-
ciusion of enc of these talks that I have
little or no hope which is not based mon
discovery of the true nature and ca,Ises
OF the disease .itself-facts which can he
gotten at only through an exhaustive au-
, ,opsy OF weil,defined case, made by
leading pathologist. That the experiment
Is dangerous, l admit; but there are MANY
reasons why such an autopsy as I suggest
need not be looked upon from the stand
point CT the non-results and perils of its
neither OF them first-class men, nor did they
reaiiAe the danger they ran. Be assured I
would attempt it myself were 1 more able
5elehtihcaliy' or less run down physically
IL should be done by comparatively new
man in the field, and by great man,
l went back to my lodgings considerably
impressed by these words. They seemed to
point definitely to Fourier as their object,
ana ! hesitated to repeat them to him.
convinced al last, however, that he was
not the man to be led blindly into the use
less and fooihardy experiments that might
attract young aspirant for fame 1 ac-
quainted MIN that evening with the SUBJ
stance of Toedt's opinions.
HIS face wore a look of grim humor when
had finished speaking
What do you think of his idea: 9" 1 uuer-
THAT it is an excellent one from his
point of VIEW rejoined my friend, imper-
turbably. bye the bye, did you bring your
pistol with You frcm Paris?"
NO. Why should havc?" I asked
can l trouble you to get two in town
the first thing in the morning and a box of
cartridges l anticiI ate that we shall need
them in our investigations"
You can, perhaps, imagine the condition
OF utter establishment into which these
words plunged me- At first 1 was even too
much dumbfounded to question him. but
when L recovered my senses sufficiently to
do So l soon discovered that he had said
all he then intended to saw on the suhiect
The next morning
l saw that his sug- ~
gestion was COM - s'r{W
piled with, for l n ll~ -
knew he was not I'LL Ill y Glh1.J
man to speak such NlLtSAs.NAfth L
words lightly. THINK SNNN w7L
That night two o. NHP MA W.
the leading practi- f[A ] 1 nSA\A
TONERS who h d |AAj SII HAN
come to Arteuii NHaE y }}1%
called upon Four ',NES-LN
nier, and ong MD VA
discussion of the /M EH
situation and pros TtM n
poets ensued-a dis TMAI 4
cussion which end lfNJ A
ed in a suggestion. VIA M
r intilnated "a
than actually made, N
to the effect h at III Mn
he should under OR~
take an autopsy lM
upon the body of VIZ
the next victim.
MY companion drew his bis --gether
Lon rod