The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-07-25
M|URDERERS' ENEMY.
CHEMISTS GIVE TESTIMONY IN
POISONING CASES.
The Analytical Chemist Is the Witness
Most Feared by Prisoners Who Have
Go Face the Charge of Murder by
Poison. q

That prisoner who has to face a
charge of murder by poison has no
witness against him who is so much to
be dreaded as the analytical chemist.
In many cases the life or death of the
prisoner has depended upon a simple
experiment in the laboratory of the
chemist. One method of tracing poi
son is to transform the suspected de-
posits into crystals and submit them
to the powerful scrutiny of the micro
scope. But that test is successful only
where comparatively large doses of
poison have been given. In another
form Of test the grave issue depends
upon the color of a fragment of cop
perfoil or the hues of a liquid in a
diminutive crystal globe. When ar
death the copperfoil experiment is
tried. If the result is a dead black de-
post the case looks equally black for
the prisoner. Strychnine, when admin
istered in a most minute form, is de-
tected by a subtle process of chemical
concentration by mean of which the
suspected fluids are reduced to a single
drop, which is placed in a tiny glass
globe. Into this is then dropped a
minute particle of potash-bichromate.
If strychnine is present the result is
a display of changing colors-blue,
purple, red and lastly, a rich mauve
tint. These colors are pretty to look
at, but they may NEAR death for the
suspected criminal. When opium is
suspected to be the cause of death the
fluids are chemically cleansed, and
then reduced to a drop or two. Nitric
acid is first applied and if morphia is
present it is revealed by the drops
changing to a lovely carmine hue
!. Then, if sulpho-molybdic acid is ap
i. piled the drops change first to a bril-
liant magenta color and then to a SKI
: blue. In spite of all the care ant
knowledge devoted to chemical analy
sis in criminal cases mistakes some
times are made. On one occasion
famous analyst-Professor Tyler-wa
. nearly the unconscious cause of send
ing an innocent a to the gallows
The professor, after careful expert
= ments, declared that arsenic had beel
the cause of the death with which tn
= prisoner was charged. The prosecutio
n proved that the prisoner was the onl
man who possibly &C lid have admin
istered the poison. The mar pleade
his innocence in the most frank an
n pitiable way, but the evidence wa
against him. He was sentenced t
: death, and the day Of his executio
o was approaching when Professor Ty
Ter received a letter from the condemn
ed one seL,lng forth his side Of the cas-
in such a forcible manner that the Pre-
u fessor was induced to reconsider hi
y analysis and make another examine
ton. He found, to his amazement, thu
the arsenic which he had discoVere
Q had been placed in the fluids by hin
self in the ordinary course of h
analysis. He at once confessed b
- blunder and the condemned man WE
d saved from the gallows. The d~iffcultit
of a chemical analysis may be imagil
ed when it is realized that of some pc
sons it requires only an infinitesimt
" amount to produce death. One-tenth
a a grain of aconite will kill a powerf1
man, and of strychnine half a graz
is enough to send a man out OF tn
It, world.-New York Press.