Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-25
While Texas Detectives Ex-
uIt, Other People DenounCe
Drug as Means Of Stopping
Lying
BY EDNA KINGSBURY
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.)
Copyright, 1927

Copyright, 1921
NEW YORK, April 22.-They fed
a pinch of grayish stuff to a man
down in Texas the other day after a
murder. They fed another pinch of
it to some one at Trinity college
after the seventh or eighth mys-
terius fire. And if the results are
anything like what the rooters for
this new powder say they are
Then Diogenes can bust his Ian
tern and open a drug store, while
the rest of us rend our garments
and howl. For society is going to
be revolutionized and the last lin
gering flicker of joy will be ruth
lessly quenched in an already far too
sombre world.
In a woodland the word is
"scopalamine'' - they're going to
abolish lying.
A lot of people aren't for this
newest prohibition. A lot of people
say they can't stop lying to save
their lives.
Even while the Texas detectives
eXult, other people denounce scopa-
lamine as a truth-detector. Scien-
lists who specialize in new kinds of
criminals may think well of scopa-
famine but other scientists who spe-
cialize in specia look on it with sus-
picion. Experiment with scopala-
mine if you must-such, for ex-
ample, is the attitude of DR.. A. A.
Brill, the famous New York psyche
analyist-but don't experiment with
it in any case where guilt or inno-
cence is involved. The stuff is not
reliable.
Two Tests Made
To which warning, certain of the
latter day criminologists reply by
going right on with their expert
ments. Two scopalamine tests, to
prove guilt or innocence, have been
made within a week of each other.
In each case the suspect was ex-
onerated.
1t all began with Smith, a negro,
charged with murder by the police
Of Dallas, Texas. He stayed in jail
six months and then asked that the
drug be administered. For a week
they fed Smith on scopalamine. The
only result of cross examination was
to make him reiterate his innocence
Smith challenged his accusers to I'M
dergo the same test. They refused.
Smith was released.
SSpOna q m inc ic
tends to break down the inhibitions."
explained Everett D. Martin, of New
York, who as psychologist, author
of 1.-The Behavior of the Crowd" and
chairman of the board of moving
picture censure, ought to know all
about it; man under the influence
of scopalamine would be apt to pro
fess crime.
1T is tyroid action and it is so
dangerous to use that if it is not
administered carefully it will knock
the patient out. But why use SEQ
palamine when alcohol has a similar
effect?"
DR.. Brill described its use in Grim
inology as absurd.
Like Laughing Gas
con being accused Of a crime,
you are dosed with this drug and
then questioned" said DR.. Brill, "you
not only may fail to admit the truth
but you mey confess yourself guilty
of crimes which you never commit
ted.
I'm this respect the action of SEQ
palamine is like that, in some cases.
of laughing gas. Patients have ac-
cused dentists Of beating them and
have really believed that the den
fists beat them, when it was only a
laughing gas hallucination.
Still, all in all, the idea of drop
ping of grain scopalamine into the
turbid depths of a lie and having it
turn the lie instantly into a clear
and liquid truth-this is intriguing.
So intriguing that the idea was put
up to the New York district attor-
ney's office. Assistant District At
torney Winter Russell said with
twinkle in his eye that he had never
heard of this drug being tried on
prisoners here and he didn't think
the New York criminal courts would
lay in a supply of scopalamine this
season.
It's Possibilities
The homicide bureau, to whom the
idea was next offered, remarked as
one man: whats scopalamine, any
way?" And that was that.
But, oh! If only the Dallas idea
works out. If only by slipping
bit of scopaIamine into fathers cof-
fee and asking sharply: "Well, where