Evening star., 1922-03-25

l
and last of all Mrs. Ralston with
| Inspector O'Connor. Altogether II
was an unwilling party.
| "I shall begin," said Kennedy, by
| going over, briefly, the facts In this
| case"
| Tersely he summarized 1t, to my
surprise laying great stress on the
proof that the couple had been as
phyxiated.
But it was no ordinary asphyxla-
ton" he continued. I'VE have to
deal in this case with a poison which
is apparently among the most subtle
known A particle of matter so
minute as to be hardly distinguish
able by the naked eye, on the point
the skin scarcely felt under any
circumstances and which would pass
quite unheeded If the attention were
otherwise engaged. and not all the
power in the world-unless one was
fully prepared-could save the life
OF the person in whose skin the pune
ture had been made
| Craig paused moment, but no one
| showed any evidence of being more
than ordinarily impressed.
This poison, find, acts on the
so-called endplates Of the muscles
paralysis. but not loss Of conscious
! ness, sensation, circulation or res
piration until the end approaches
1t seems to be one of the most power
full sedatives 1 have ever heard of.
When introduced in even a minute
quantity it produces death finally
by asphyxiation-by paralyzing the
muscles of respiration. This as
phyxia is what so puzzled the coroner.
Il will now inject a little of the
/ blood serum of the victims into a
, white mouse"
He took a mouse from the box I
| had seen. and with a needle injected
| the serum. The mouse did not even
vince. SO lightly did he touch it. but
| as we watched, its life seemed gently
out struggle. Its breath simply
seemed to stop.
Next he took the gourd I had seen
on the table and with a knife scraped
off just the minutest particle of the
black licorice-like stuff that incrusted
it. He dissolved the particle in some
/, alcohol and with a sterilized needle
| repeated his experiment on a second
mouse. The effect was precisely SINH
lar to that produced by the blood on
] the first.
1t did not seem to me that any
| one showed any emotion except pos
| sibly the slight exclamation that es-
capped Miss Marian Wainwright I
| fell to wondering whether 1t was
conscience.
! We were all intent on what Craig
! was doing, especially DR.. Mott, who
now broke in with a question::
Professor sl.t,,In Kennedy' may IL | ask s
mouse died in an apparently similar
manner to the second, what proof
Dhave you that the poison is the same
| in both cases. And II 1t Is the same
can you show that enough Of it has
been discovered in the blood Of the
In other words, want the last doubt
set aside. How do you know abso-
&utely that this poison which you dis
| covered in my Office last night in
ed the ether-how do you know that
! it asphyxiated the victims?"
! If ever Craig startled mo 1t was
by his quiet reply. 1--WE isolated it
in their blood. extracted 1t. sterilized
i it. and I've tried It on myself"
| In breathless amazement, with eyes
riveted on Craig, we listened.
| Altogether I was able to recover
j from the blood samples Of both Of the
victims of this crime six centigrams
with two centigrams of 1t as a mode
rate dose, I injected it into my right
arm SIMULTANEOUSLY. Then slowly
worked my way up to three and then
four centigrams. They did not pro-
duce any very appreciable results
other than to cause some dizziness,
slight vertigo, considerable degree
of lassitude, and an extremely pain
| full headache Of rathr unusul duration.
| But five centigrams considerably i'm
vertigo and lassitude that was most
distressing. and six centigrams, the
| whole amount which I bad recovered
! from the samples Of blood, gave me
| the fright of my life right here in
this laboratory this afternoon.
| perhaps I was not wise in giving
myself so large an injection on day
when I was overheated and below par
otherwise because of the strain l have
! been under in handling this case.
However that may be. this added CEN
| tigram produced 80 much moro on
! top of the five centigrams previously
I; taken that for a time ! had reason
| to fear that that additional centigram
&as just the amount needed to bring
my experiments to a permanent close.
| of injection the dizziness and vertigo
| had become 50 great as to make
walking seem impossible. In an
other minute the lassitude rapidly
| crept over me, and the serious dis
turbance Of my breathing made it
my arms. anything, was impera-
! tive. My lungs felt glued up. and
the muscles of my chest refused to
! work. Everything swan before my
! eyes, and 1 was soon reduced to
walking up and down the laboratory
| with halting steps, only preventing
| falling on the floor by holding fast
! to the edge of this table. It seemed
| to me that I spent hours gasping
| for breath. 1t reminded mo Of what
| / once experienced in the Cave of
! the Winds of Niagara. where water
| is more abundant in the atmosphere
! than air. My watch afterwards in
| dicated only about twenty minutes
Of extreme distress, but that twenty
minutes is one never to be forgot
| ten, and I advise you all, II you ever
| are SO foolish as to try the expert
| ment, to remain below the flve-centi-
| gram limit.
How much was administered to
| the victims, DR.. Mott, cannot say,
| but it must have been q good deal
| more than took. Six centigrams,
which I recovered from these small
| samples, are only nine-tenths Of a
! grain. Yet you see what effect it