The Sun. — 1863-11-12 (London, England)

POST.—If the author of the grim tragedy, the last act of which came to a close on Monday night, had not been a man skilled in poison—specially educated, so to speak, in a department of science which he turned to such devilish account—many individuals, conscious of being the objects of some outstanding feud, might well resolve to live exclusively on eggs. The subtle power at a poisoner's command of inflicting sudden and silent death was perhaps never more forcibly illustrated than by the murderer Hunt on Saturday night. The conditions under which the wife and two children succumbed to poison without the circumstance being discovered until the cab door was thrown open, its destination being reached, are so extraordinary—would have seemed, had they not actually occurred, so improbable—that the author of a sensational novel, drawing on his imagination for the results, would hardly have escaped the imputation of transcending the probable to a wholly unwarrantable degree ; nay further, we argue that if the wretched murderer-suicide had given himself up to the police at once—as soon as the hue and cry was raised—denying his cognisance of the deed, and throwing the accusation on his wife, the probability of such averment would have been strong that whatever the coroner's jury might have done, the judge's jury would never have convicted on the strength of such evidence as has been hitherto adduced. That, when the man Hunt got out of the cab opposite Furnival's-inn, his wife and children were alive, and that, subsequent to his departure, the fatal dose of prussic acid was adminstered by Mrs. Hunt, would have been an hypothesis so plausible that it must have commended itself to a jury if backed by Hunt's own asseverations. This view of the case will become the more evident if we pass cursorily in review some of the specialities of prussic acid. Quite true it is that real, absolute, undiluted prussic acid is so dire a poison that a mere drop of it let fall, not to say upon the tongue, but into the eyite,t e s da strong animal—a dog, for instance—wit su denness of a lightning stroke or a cannon-ball; but this sort of prussic acid we apprehend must have been out of the question. In the first place, it cannot be bought ; it must be prepared by the person using it, and when prepared must be kept sun. rounded by ice, or it rapidly decomposes. If the murderer bought his prussic acid, it could not have had more than five per cent. strength, and most probably only three per cent. It is indeed competent to assume that Hunt—acquainted with chemistry as he was—manufactured prussic acid intermediate in strength between that of absolute acid and the but even this assumpdtiiolunt,eiflaiqduoipdtedof, btynenoshmoepasn; s removes the difficulties which beset the caee. Whatevertheorginal strength, it would seem to have been diluted by mixture with beer; and for that reason it is with the hypothesis of dilute prussic acid that we have to concern ourselves. Now, the progress of symptoms—dilute prussic acid being swallowed in a tetchy poisonous dose—is somewhat as follows :—For the first three keeonds, or about, no effect will be perceptible; the patient, noticing a strong taste of bitter almonds, will becote:, has been swallowed, no more. With the fourth as— e4s hat boil!; en't rit!ou,-, material