The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-07-15
CATIONS
NURSE
By ELIZABETH WEED

/ When ] was Ill the medical depart
ment Of the British army III India and
! stationed at Hon2kong | was sent to
! an interior station To- see "A young Off.
! Ger. Lieutenant CaXtuu, who was i'll.
I found the lieutenant III the house of a
/ widow with Il very pretty daughter.
! He WAS III bed internationally, for at
times he was quite able TO he up and
/ about. When lie WIS confined 10 his
| room The youn" woman had the care
/ of him.
/ The thought entered MY head that
! perhaps raEtOn was SOiering Ill order
/ tn remain in close proximity to the girl,
| bun | WaS soon convinced that he was
/ really i'll. His symptoms not being fa-
! miliar to me. I did not know what TO 10
! for him except to give him a stimulat-
/ iug drug-Quiuiue- to help him to throw
/ off what was troubling him. But he
! did not improve, and | was puzzled
J what next to do.
/ | had some experience with Indian
/ poison cases, though not much, and if
I Caxton had not been in the care of q
B SlIl " no lttIitNi nun W III SuIh tSil'tSI
/ ness that | could not doubt she was in
, love with him would have believed
/ that for some reason or other she was
/ poisoning him.
. Talking one day with the widow, l
/ learned that they were not family
| Indigenous to India, but had come
! from Java 1t then flashed upon me
! that | had heard that Il Javanese girl
/ who loves man viii either have him
| or kill him. This gave me a cIew to
| CaXton's case.
From that time forward | watched
! his nurses every movement. | also
| told Caxton OF my belief that his nurse
was in love with him. He confessed
! that he had begun TO suspect as much
himself aud that he had occasionally
| treated her with more consideration
/ than he should have done. | asked
him if he had noticed that he was bet
! ter Mt such times. and he said that,
come 70 think of it, he thought he had.
From this ! Surmised that when he
( gave her hope she lcsSened or discon-
tinued her poison doses
My problem was to discover If she
was really poisoning him and if so in
what way In most such cases the
drug is administered in the food. /
succeeded in getting samples of the
food the patient was taking at times
when he was in low condition and
analyzed them. hut could not find the
slightest trace of anything that should
not have been there Eastern races
are famous for their methods of poi
soning. and | had durin" my service
in India gathered some Information
| Regarding them. therefore kept my
ieTs.s sf,e5s ssxis.s slls.saerill
| SOME other MA shg vvstiisf9 fssIx f6li s
nurse was working on him. If She was
doing so at all. of which was by no
means sure.
| suggested to him to get out of the
house but he said there was no hos
pital for him to go to and he was re
celving much better nursing than he
would in his quarters |. saw that it
would not he easy to make a change,
| and the only other way for me to Go
was to solve the puzzle of his illness.
\ common way of administering poi
son in countries where it is much used
is by means of n finger ring. y person
wearing one will clasp the hand of an
other, and minute point pricking the
skin will inject n poison. | noticed
|, that Cations nurse wore ring on her
finger and suspected that she gave
him doses in that way | pretended 10
admire the ring and asked her 10 let
me examine it. She handed ii to me
without hesitation. and l looked ii
over very carefully. No, poison was
not administered in that way. The
ring was perfectly plain gold and if
there had been any injecting apparatus.
however minute. would have discoy-
cred it.
Another Indian method of inficting
poison is through the air. 1t is often
breathed and sometimes inhaled from
| q perfume. There are persons in IN
dia who have taken Il deadly poison in
! minute doses gradually increasing
them till the poison takers have become
immune to harm and so saturated with
the drug that their very breath is dead
ly to others. | Shuddcred at the idea
of CaXtOnS nurse being one of these
But after Contriving to get SO near her
for Il few minutes that | could take
her breath | felt no unusual sensation
from it whatever. SO | gave up this
cew.
Seeing Il plant III CaXtonS room.
told his nurse In take 1t out since the
perfume of flowers is considered harm
ful To the sick. She oheyed, and after
that | did not see it in the room again
till one morning | went in to see CaN-
ton before his nurse had fixed his room
for the day. Then ! saw the plant
and asked him how it came IN he
there, contrary to my instructions. He
informed nae that his nurse was accuS-
toned to bring il n his room before
leaving him for the night and takin9
it away the first thing in the morning.
at once pOunccl upon this as af-
fordinG u solution Of the puzzle. had
heard Of she poison plant of India
and how one need only to iuhale its
perfume to he. affected hy it. Picking
flower from il, | took II away VIII
me and put myself sufficiently uNs@s+'
its influence to convince me that il
was being used upon Caxtou.
at once. Informed him Of the fact.
and he WAS glad 10 return 10 his quar-
ters, where. rs soon as the deleteriouS
effects of what he had been subjected
to passed off. he recovered.
. But we never let the girl know that
we had discovered her method of pro
cedure.