The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-03-08
SOME BORGIAS ANCIENT AND MODERN


Just at present high society in
St Petersburg is torn to pieces over
the trial of Count Patrick O'Brien
de Lassy and Dr. Pantchenko, charg-
ed specifically with the poisoning OF
Baron Vassili Buturlin, from whose
death Count de Lassy expected TO
profit financially The doctor, who
was the tool of de Lassy-hypno-
tized by him, he claims-inOculated
his victim with the germs of dipthe-
ria and while prescribing for him
daily watched him slowly sinking to
death.
If this were his only murder the
world would speedily forget the
adroit infamy of Pantchenko, but
after having been charged with the
killing the baron the doctor made
a confession which places him high
among the human monsters of whom
| history makes record. During the
| present trial the doctor repeated the
confession he made year ago and
then suddenly, to the surprise of all,
| retracted it and denied ever having
poisoned Buturlin. Notwithstand-
! ing the doctors retraction the public
| true. and that the confession was
made to bolster up his statement
that he is under the hypT otto spell
of Count de Lacy.
For years this professional muir
derer was in league with Death.
Other physicians might be engaged
in healing the body; his task was
to inoCulate it with the germs Of
disease. Did a husband wish to be
relieved o. a wife who had become
burdensOme or a wife want to be
free to carry on intrigues, or a scape-
grace son to step little closer to
his patrimonial Inheritance the Off
ces of DR.. PantchenkO, we are told,
were sought.
Il have killed scores-men of
high standing as well as Others" he
says. Yes, | have poisoned them
as butchers wife poisons flies"
When Poisoning Was an Art.
For something comparable to this
Russian case we must go back to
the 18th and 18th centuries in Eu-
rope when poisoning was virtually
a recognized art. In the days of
imperial Rome murder by poison
was one of the most common of
crimes, and several centuries later
Lucretia Borgia and her school
although this is cOntrOverted-are
said to have revived this method
of getting rid of Objectionable per-
sons.
In the 18th century in Italy
person was poisoned with as little
ado as that with which people shake
hands today. Ladies kept poison
bottles on their dressers, the same
as they keep cologne water now,
and used them on others without
conjunction. Poisoned rings were
worn, and handshake might prove
fatal. Sometimes deadly powders
were spread over the leaves of books
and the man or woman unpolite
enough to moisten the fingers in
turning the leaves might easily take
enough poison into the mouth to
cause sickness or death. Even bou-
Duets of flowers, sent by lovers" to
mistresses of whom they wished to
be rid, or by husbands to their wives,
were sprinkled with poison dust
Toward the middle of the century
a society OF young married women
vas Enearthed in Rome whose mem
beTs INDUCED in the practice of pois-
oning the husband of whom they
had grown weary. They were ac-
fustcaed TO meet at the home of a
7orceresa, Ia Spera, who furnished
tncE WITH ''seeping potions" for the
undesirable husbands. The society
wGs broken UP when La Spara and
four men bers Of the poison organi-
~aticn were hanged and 80 other
women were publicly whipped
through the streets of the ancient
capital Of the Caesars.
4 Poisoned 900 Persons.
But the poisoning in other cir
cles continued. A woman named
Tofana succeeded La Spara, the
sorceress, as a manufacturer and
distributor of poison. 1t was OBJ
tanned, it is said, by poisoning a pig
with arsenic and collecting the Sc
rum which later dripped from the
body. This was prepared in vary
ing degrees Of strength, so that it
was capable of producing death at
any interval desired-from a week
to six months. The poison was sold
under the title of Mamma of st.
Nicholas of Barri," this tite being
suggested by popular belief that
from the tomb of st. Nicholas of Bar
RI there dropped an oil which mirac-
ulously cured all physical maIadics.
evidently Tofana sold q good deal
Of this mama" because to her fs
attributed the deaths of more than
600 persons.
But the longest lane has a turn.
and Tofana's infamous career was
finally brought to a tragic ending.
knowing that she was suspected of
wholesale poisoning she took refuge
IN convent at NanIas SnIdiars