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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78589 ***
+
+
+
+
+                                 PART I
+                     POISONS IN MYSTERY AND ROMANCE
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  NATIVES OF THE FRENCH SUDAN, SOUTH OF THE NIGER, PREPARING THEIR ARROW
+    POISON AND DIPPING THEIR WEAPONS.
+
+  (_From a drawing by A. Forestier._)
+
+  Reproduced by kind permission of the proprietors of the _Illustrated
+    London News_.
+
+  [_Frontispiece._
+]
+
+
+
+
+                            POISON MYSTERIES
+                                   IN
+                       HISTORY, ROMANCE AND CRIME
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                        C. J. S. THOMPSON, M.B.E.
+
+ Author of “The History and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy,” etc., etc.
+
+
+                            _POPULAR EDITION_
+
+
+                                 LONDON:
+                       THE SCIENTIFIC PRESS, LTD.
+                       28 & 29 SOUTHAMPTON STREET
+                              STRAND, W.C.2
+                                  1925
+
+
+                        _First Published, 1923_
+                        _Popular Edition, 1925_
+
+
+                                   TO
+
+                        SIR WILLIAM H. WILLCOX,
+              K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G., M.D., F.R.C.P. Lond.
+                As a slight appreciation of the eminent
+                      services he has rendered to
+                             Toxicology and
+                               Medicine.
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+
+                                 PART I
+                     POISONS IN HISTORY AND ROMANCE
+ CHAP.                                                              PAGE
+     I POISONS USED BY ANCIENT AND PRIMITIVE RACES                    15
+           Poisoned Weapons—Poisons employed by Primitive
+           Peoples—Malay, African and Indian native Poisons—The
+           Upas Poison—Ordeal Poisons.
+
+    II POISONS USED BY THE EGYPTIANS, GREEKS, ROMANS, HEBREWS,
+         CHINESE, PERSIANS, AND HINDUS IN ANCIENT TIMES               26
+           A Babylonian Poison Goddess—Poisons in Mythology—Poisons
+           in Ancient Egypt—The State Poison of the Greeks—The
+           Death of Socrates.
+
+   III ANTIDOTES TO POISON IN ANCIENT TIMES                           40
+           Poison Laws in Ancient Times—Antidotes and
+           Alexipharmica—Theriaca and its History.
+
+    IV PREVENTIVE METHODS AND SUBSTANCES USED AGAINST POISONS         49
+           Terra Sigillata—How it was Tested—Toad Stones—Unicorn’s
+           Horn—Rhinoceros Horn and Assay Cups—Bezoar Stones.
+
+     V SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH POISONOUS PLANTS                  63
+           Mandrake—Aconite—Hellebore—Opium—Henbane.
+
+    VI THE POISON LORE OF TOADS AND SPIDERS                           84
+           Poison extracted from the Toad—How an Italian Doctor
+           proved his knowledge of Medicine—A Mysterious Chinese
+           Poison prepared from Toads—Venomous Spiders—A Romany
+           Poison.
+
+   VII SOME CLASSICAL POISONS AND THEIR HISTORIES                     88
+           Arsenic—Mercury—Antimony.
+
+  VIII ROYAL AND HISTORIC POISONERS                                  101
+           King John and Maud FitzWalter—The Abbot of Westminster
+           poisoned—The murder of Sir Thomas Overbury—The Earl of
+           Leicester and his Victims—Mysterious death of the son of
+           Peter the Great—The Gaekwar of Baroda tried for attempt
+           to poison Colonel Phayre.
+
+    IX POISONS TRIED ON HUMAN BEINGS                                 109
+           Vivisection of Criminals—Poisons and Antidotes
+           administered to Criminals—Brassavola and Fallopius—A
+           Charlatan’s Challenge at Oxford—English Experimenters.
+
+     X THE SLOW AND TIME POISONS OF MEDIÆVAL TIMES                   113
+           Early Records of “Slow” Poisons—Attempt to poison Queen
+           Elizabeth—Death of Macchiavelli—Death of Elisabetta
+           Sirani.
+
+    XI THE ITALIAN SCHOOL OF POISONERS                               120
+           The Venetian Poisoners—A Professional Poisoner’s
+           Fees—The Poisoners of Rome—Toffana—La Spara.
+
+   XII THE MYSTERY OF THE BORGIAS                                    128
+           History of the Family—Pope Alexander
+           VI—Cesare—Lucrezia—Preparing the Poison—Death of
+           Alexander—Death of Cesare—The Borgia Poison.
+
+  XIII POISON MYSTERIES IN EARLY SCOTTISH HISTORY                    142
+           Earl of Moray—The Duke of Albany and Margaret
+           Drummond—Jean Douglas and James V—Mysterious death of
+           the Earl of Atholl—The death of Robert Stewart, Earl of
+           Orkney—The Earl of Dunbar and Secretary Cecil.
+
+   XIV HISTORIC POISON CASES IN FRANCE                               145
+           Francis II and Mary Queen of Scots—Catharine de’
+           Medici—Mysterious death of Gabrielle D’Astrées—Death of
+           the Duchess of Orléans—Glaser and Exali—The Mania for
+           Poisoning in France—The Marquise de Brinvilliers and her
+           Crimes—Sainte-Croix—_Chambre de Poisons_—Le Vigoreux, La
+           Voisin and Le Sage—Maréchal de Luxembourg, Duchesse de
+           Bouillon and Comtesse de Soissons tried—Attempted
+           Poisoning of Louis XVIII—Poisons employed in France in
+           the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.
+
+    XV THE MYSTERY OF AMY ROBSART’S DEATH                            164
+
+   XVI A POISON MYSTERY OF THE XVIITH CENTURY                        171
+           The strange case of Sir Euseby Andrew.
+
+  XVII A MYSTERY OF THE AUSTRIAN COURT IN THE XVIITH CENTURY         178
+           Leopold, Emperor of Austria and Giuseppe Francesco
+           Borri.
+
+ XVIII POISON PLOTS                                                  186
+           Dread of Wholesale Poisoning—The Poisoning of the Bishop
+           of Rochester’s Guests—The Act of Henry VIII making
+           poisoning equivalent to High Treason—Poisoners to be
+           boiled alive—Poison Plot at Malta—Attempted Wholesale
+           Poisoning at Lima—Plot to poison Ministers of
+           State—Austrian Army Poison Plot—Plot to Poison the
+           Commissioner of Police.
+
+   XIX CURIOUS METHODS EMPLOYED BY SECRET POISONERS                  198
+           Poisoned Food and Wine—Women Poisoners—The Poisoned
+           Goblet—Poisoned Shirts—Poisoned Robes—Poison in
+           Boot-Blacking—Poison Rings—Poison by Injection—Poison in
+           a Wooden Leg—Poisoned Torch—Poisoned Candle—Poisoned
+           Flowers—Poisoned Bed.
+
+    XX LOVE-PHILTRES AND POISONS                                     211
+           _Pocula Amatoria_ of the Greeks and Romans—Ovid on the
+           Love-Philtre—Mysterious Substances employed—Love-Philtre
+           used by Eastern Nations—Belief in Love-Philtres at the
+           Present Day—Love-Philtres used by African native Tribes.
+
+   XXI POISONS IN FOOD                                               216
+           Poison in Beer—Poison in Food—Poison in Honey—Poison in
+           Cocoa and Chocolate.
+
+  XXII POISONS USED IN WARFARE                                       223
+           Poison Gas—Poison and Disease Organisms dropped by
+           Aircraft.
+
+ XXIII CRIMINAL POISONING WITH BACTERIA                              230
+           A Petrograd Poison Mystery—Criminal use of Diphtheria,
+           Typhoid and Cholera Organisms.
+
+  XXIV POISON HABITS                                                 238
+           Opium—Morphine—Chloroform—Ether—Chlorodyne—Cocaine.
+
+   XXV HASHISH AND HASHISH-EATERS                                    248
+           Ganja and Bhang—Use in Antiquity—Hashish and its
+           Effects.
+
+  XXVI POISONS IN FICTION                                            254
+
+
+                                 PART II
+                            POISON MYSTERIES
+
+     I THE MYSTERY OF LAWFORD HALL—THE CURIOUS CASE OF ELIZABETH
+         FENNING                                                     265
+
+    II THE CASE OF MADAME LAFARGE                                    273
+
+   III THE CASE OF MADELINE SMITH                                    279
+
+    IV THE BRAVO MYSTERY                                             282
+
+     V THE RUGELEY MYSTERY                                           287
+
+    VI THE CASE OF DR. PRITCHARD                                     293
+
+   VII THE CASE OF DR. LAMSON                                        298
+
+  VIII THE PIMLICO MYSTERY                                           303
+
+    IX THE MAYBRICK CASE                                             308
+
+     X THE LAMBETH POISON MYSTERIES                                  314
+
+    XI SOME POISON MYSTERIES IN FRANCE                               318
+
+   XII THE HORSFORD CASE                                             325
+
+  XIII AMERICAN POISON MYSTERIES                                     329
+
+   XIV THE SOUTHWARK POISON MYSTERY                                  337
+
+    XV SOME IRISH POISON MYSTERIES                                   345
+
+   XVI THE DEVEREUX CASE                                             347
+
+  XVII THE CRIPPEN CASE                                              350
+
+ XVIII THE MYSTERY OF THE SEDDONS                                    362
+
+   XIX THE DALKEITH COFFEE POISON CASE                               369
+
+    XX THE AGRA POISONING MYSTERY                                    372
+
+   XXI A CORNISH POISON MYSTERY                                      381
+
+  XXII THE ARMSTRONG CASE                                            385
+
+ XXIII SOME POISON ASPECTS OF THE ILFORD MURDER CASE                 401
+
+
+
+
+                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ Natives of the French Sudan, south of the Niger,
+   preparing their Arrow Poison and dipping their Weapons _Frontispiece_
+                                                            TO FACE PAGE
+ Drinking Cup of Unicorn’s Horn (XVIIth Century)                      58
+
+ Assay Cups of Rhinoceros Horn used to detect Poison in
+   Wine (XVIth Century)                                               58
+
+ Bezoar Stones                                                        60
+
+ A Bottle with Representation of St. Nicholas of Bari
+   used for Aqua Toffana                                      _page_ 123
+
+ Pope Alexander VI                                                   128
+
+ Cesare Borgia                                                       132
+
+ Lucrezia Borgia                                                     138
+
+ “A Cup of Wine with Cesare Borgia”                                  140
+
+ Marguerite D’Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers                       156
+
+ Bottle of Meat Juice and a Bottle containing Meat Juice
+   and Water exhibited in the Maybrick Case                          312
+
+ Stethoscope and Pocket Medicine Case carried by Neill
+   Cream                                                             316
+
+
+
+
+                                 PART I
+                     POISONS IN HISTORY AND ROMANCE
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+              POISONS USED BY ANCIENT AND PRIMITIVE RACES
+
+
+Poisons, those silent weapons capable of destroying life mysteriously,
+secretly and without violence, have ever had a peculiar fascination for
+mankind. They have played so large a part in history at various periods,
+in romance as well as in crime, that the subject is one which claims the
+attention of every student of human nature.
+
+A poison may be generally described as any substance which, in a small
+quantity, when introduced into or absorbed by a living organism,
+destroys life by rapid action. In another sense a substance may be
+termed a poison that has a cumulative effect if administered for a
+length of time so that it ends fatally. Substances of this description
+were called venim, venyn, venum or bane in the Middle Ages, and also
+termed “slow poisons.”
+
+It is probable that many substances which had the effect of destroying
+life were observed and used by primitive man from a period of remote
+antiquity. When injured in a tribal battle, by perhaps a flint
+arrow-head or stone axe, he no doubt sought for something to revenge
+himself on his enemy. In his search for curative substances he also
+found noxious ones, which produced unpleasant effects when applied to
+the point of a weapon destined to enter the internal economy of an
+opponent. He doubtless observed that the arrow-head and spear on which
+the blood of former victims had dried caused wounds which often proved
+fatal, owing to the action of what we now term septic poisons. This may
+have led him to experiment with the juices of plants till he discovered
+something of a more deadly character. The observations of primitive man
+as to the poisonous effects of plants on animal life is evident from
+some of the names which he gave to them in early times. Instances of
+these are perpetuated in cowbane (the water hemlock), which often has a
+fatal effect on cattle; sowbane, so called, says Parkinson in his
+Herbal, as it was observed to kill swine; wolf’s bane, leopard’s bane,
+henbane, and many others which might be mentioned, showing that
+primitive man must have observed the evil effects on the animal whose
+name he associated with them.
+
+In primeval times both the poisonous and medicinal properties of plants
+appear to have been first discovered and kept secret by the most
+observant and intelligent members of pastoral and nomadic tribes. The
+possessor of such secrets wielded an immense power over his fellows and
+often combined the office of medicine-man and priest. He reserved to
+himself as much as possible the knowledge which he had acquired of
+plants and their uses, and particularly those which would produce
+stupor, delirium and death, for by these means he was enabled to exert a
+greater influence over others.
+
+The study, therefore, of the poisons employed by primitive races for
+destroying life in animals and man is one of considerable interest.
+Arrow-heads and spear-heads, worked with depressions, probably for
+holding poisons, have been found in cave remains of the palæolithic
+period in France. Laigneau is of the opinion that these weapons were
+first used to destroy large animals, such as the bison and reindeer, and
+were probably also used in tribal warfare.
+
+Τοξιχόν, the Greek word used to denote poison, takes its origin from a
+word signifying a bow, which probably symbolized a poison-tipped arrow,
+a custom still practised by savage tribes in various parts of the world.
+It seems but a natural sequence that man should have turned to his own
+account the knowledge he acquired of the effects of the substances which
+proved deadly when introduced into the body by either external or
+internal means, as in them he found a more secure and secret weapon by
+means of which he could rid himself of the objects of his jealousy,
+hatred or revenge.
+
+The Greek toxican, from which the word toxicology is derived, is
+believed to have been used for the poisonous substance into which the
+arrow-heads were dipped.
+
+Poisoned arrows are mentioned by several of the early writers, including
+Homer, Horace and Ovid. The latter tells how the blood of vipers was
+used to poison weapons, and there was a general belief that disease and
+death were caused by poisoned arrows shot by an offended deity, as
+instanced in the mythical story of Apollo, whose darts were supposed to
+smite man with pestilence.
+
+The Scythians are known to have used poisons and mixed the venom they
+employed with human blood. Certain tribes of the Caucasus are said to
+have employed viper-venom mixed with decomposed human blood serum.
+Aristotle and Strabo state that the Celts were accustomed to poison
+their arrows and weapons, while Pliny and Celsus refer to the practice
+among the Gauls. As late as the seventh century poisoned arrows were
+used by the Dacians and the Dalmatians on the shores of the Danube, and
+among the Goths it seems to have been a common custom. Almost every
+savage tribe and people throughout the world have been found to have
+their own particular poison for this purpose, and there is little doubt
+that this method of making the wound caused by the weapons more deadly,
+has been practised from a period of remote antiquity.
+
+Although most of the substances employed and the methods of preparation
+are now known to us, there are others about which little or no
+information can be obtained. The secret of the poison used by many
+barbaric tribes is still most jealously guarded and is only known to
+certain chiefs and their families, or the medicine-men of the tribe, who
+pass on the knowledge to their successors. The substances used for
+lethal purposes are both of animal and vegetable origin, and include
+poisonous insects and fish, snake venoms and poisonous plants, which are
+used alone or mixed together. These substances are not equally
+effective, as the active principle by age tends to decompose, but if the
+poison be freshly prepared, as it often is, it generally proves fatal.
+Lewin, however, states that he found an arrow poison used by the Bushmen
+in Australia still active after remaining for ninety years in a Berlin
+museum.
+
+The poisons used by the various tribes of Bushmen of Africa vary
+according to the district in which they live. Livingstone states, that
+those who inhabited the Kalahari district used the entrails of a small
+caterpillar for poisoning their spears and arrows. When drawn over a
+sore, this insect, which is known to the natives as “Nga,” causes the
+most excruciating agony, and those wounded by arrows smeared with this
+poison die slowly in a condition of violent delirium.
+
+Baines says the Bushmen squeeze the grub gradually between the
+forefinger and thumb, when a colourless fluid exudes which is smeared
+over the arrow-head, forming an imperceptible coating. Modern
+investigators who have studied the properties of this curious poison
+state, that its action strongly resembles some of the snake venoms and
+that it will retain its properties for an indefinite time. Livingstone
+also mentions a curious fact that the natives consider that the best
+antidote to the poison is to swallow the grub.
+
+A very powerful poison employed by other tribes of Bushmen for their
+arrow- and spear-heads is said by Burchell to be prepared from
+_Amaryllis disticha_, various species of Euphorbium and Acocanthera,
+alone or mixed with snake venom, and a species of black spider or beetle
+poison.
+
+The Bushmen or “Bosjermans” of the South African district called
+“Kalahari” use the juice of the leaf beetle, or the _Diamphidia
+simplex_. Lewin, who examined the insect, found in its body besides
+inert fatty acids, a toxalbumin which causes paralysis and finally
+death. Boehm, after examination, states that the poison from the larva
+also belongs to the toxalbumins. The poison grubs are of a pale flesh
+colour, similar to the silkworm and are about three-quarters of an inch
+in length. When a wound is made by an arrow poisoned with this exudation
+the most intolerable agony is caused, which proves fatal.
+
+The Somali prepare a very deadly poison from various species of
+Acocanthera which they call Waba, Wabayo or Ouabaio, to which they
+sometimes add snake venom.
+
+The Ovambos of South-West Africa employ a species of Adenium as an arrow
+poison, while the seeds of the strophanthus (_Strophanthus hispidus_ or
+_kombé_) are largely used by the tribes who inhabit the districts near
+the Congo and the Zambezi.
+
+The arrow poison of the Pygmies of Central Africa, in which the red ant
+forms an ingredient, is described by Stanley, and is so very deadly that
+a single arrow has been known to kill an elephant.
+
+According to a recent writer on Malay poisons,[1] native poisoners
+frequently use narcotic plants to stupefy their victims as a preliminary
+to robbing them. They also employ sand, powdered glass, quicklime and
+other powders to disconcert their pursuers. Some of them claim to be
+able to know a method of causing loss of voice lasting seven or eight
+days, by the administration of certain poisons by the mouth.
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  _Malay Poisons and Charm Cures_, John D. Gimlette, M.R.C.S. 1923.
+
+Gimlette asserts that two or three clinical cases have occurred in
+Kelantan in which it was alleged that the witnesses in court could not
+give evidence for this reason.
+
+Malay cunning is proverbial, but it is not generally known that the
+natives are accustomed to use poison in the same manner as employed in
+ancient times, namely by mixing it with honey which is sometimes smeared
+on the under surface of a knife. The poisoner then shares a meal with
+his enemy and divides a water-melon in half with the poisoned blade, but
+is careful to eat only the upper and harmless portion as his share of
+the fruit. This method is said to be common in Tregganu, where potassium
+cyanide is employed for the purpose.
+
+The Malays are said to have a knowledge of slow poisons which they call
+“time poisons,” by means of which they can give a single dose of poison
+and time the death of the victim within three, six, or even twelve
+months, according to the dose and the particular combination used.
+Native experts, however, say that the idea of this “time-poison” is
+unfounded, but they know that the effect of certain deadly poisons is
+greatly accelerated or delayed if certain fruits or vegetables, such as
+water-melon or cucumbers happen to be eaten soon after the ingestion of
+the poison.
+
+Some of the Malays believe that poisoned food can be recognized by the
+shadow of the right hand and fingers not being cast on eating rice.
+Others believe that a stirring rod of ivory will become darkened if
+poison has been put into the food, and in Perak a spoon made of the beak
+of a horn-bill[2] is said to turn black if touched by anything of a
+poisonous nature.
+
+Footnote 2:
+
+  For the use of horns as antidotes or indicators of poison, see page
+  55.
+
+The Malays use many different vegetable poisons for their blow-pipe
+darts, some of which are extremely powerful, but curiously enough some
+are poisonous to certain animals and not to others, and many of the
+poisons which destroy human life may be eaten with impunity by
+graminivorous animals. Thus, opium does not poison pigeons, tobacco and
+hemlock do not injure goats, and henbane can be eaten by rabbits. The
+Malay jungle natives have special markings on their blow-pipe darts, by
+means of which they differentiate their various poisons. That of the
+upas-tree is specially marked to distinguish it from the others.
+
+The sap of the upas-tree (_Antiaris toxicaria_), the active principle of
+which is called Antiarin, is used as a poison for their darts by the
+natives throughout the Eastern Archipelago, including Java and Borneo.
+It is extremely powerful and will sometimes cause death in thirty
+minutes after a wound is received. It is often mixed with the venom of
+snakes, scorpions or centipedes and occasionally with arsenic.
+
+The upas-tree sap is collected in primitive vessels fashioned from palm
+leaves, which are then suspended a few feet above the fire. The boiling
+process is somewhat protracted and during the whole time the sap is
+continually stirred. During this operation the liquid is transformed
+into a thick viscid mass and in this condition it is withdrawn from the
+fire. When cold the sap is a solid, hard, yet brittle substance, so
+before it is set, the leaf is rolled up with its soft contents, the two
+ends tied with rattan and the poison thus kept till it is required.
+
+The darts, which are projected by the natives with blow-pipes, consist
+of strips of palmwood from 20 to 30 cm. in length; they are pointed at
+one end and a quantity of poison is then removed from its palm-leaf
+receptacle and ground up until it is of the consistency of flour. It is
+then mixed with water and stirred up until it becomes a thin paste,
+which is smeared upon the points of the darts. The process of
+preparation takes place before a fire, and when completed they are
+placed with their points towards the fire until the upas sap has dried
+into the wood. In the case of the darts that are required for larger
+game, the point of the weapon is split open and a thin metal wedge or
+plate is inserted and the whole point is then smeared over with the
+poison. The opposite end of the dart comprises a small conical butt made
+of the soft pith of the sago palm. The darts are carried in small bamboo
+quivers, which are fixed into the loin-cloth of the native, the points
+being protected by a piece of animal skin.
+
+North American Indians employ a poison called “Caramari,” which they
+prepare from the roots of a plant found along the sea coast. It is
+prepared by being burnt in earthen pipkins and to the residue is added a
+species of spider, hairy worms, bats’ wings, the head and tail of a fish
+called “Teborino,” toads and mancanillas. These substances are set over
+a fire and heated in pots till they come to the consistency of a paste.
+
+The Choco Indians of Colombia, South America, use a poison which they
+extract from a tree frog which they hold on a stick near a fire, when
+the heat causes the glands of the skin to secrete the poisonous fluid.
+
+The Jivaro Indians of the Amazon use a vegetable poison called “jambi”
+for their arrows, which is said to be made from a species of vine which
+grows in great profusion throughout the Upper Amazon zone. The process
+for extracting the poison as described by Up de Graff[3] is simple.
+
+Footnote 3:
+
+  _Head Hunters of the Amazon_, F. W. Up de Graff. 1922.
+
+
+“The vine is cut into sections a foot in length, and the thin, hard
+outer crust of bark is carefully removed by scraping. The main bark,
+white when first exposed to the air, turns brown in just the same way as
+an apple. This inner bark is scraped into fine shavings by means of
+shells and flints, and these are placed in a colander which rests upon a
+pot in which water is boiling. The water is poured over the contents of
+the colander repeatedly, until the constant action on it has drawn out
+the alkaloid, when the lifeless shavings are thrown away and the residue
+is boiled down until it resembles, both in consistency, colour and
+smell, plain chocolate. While still warm, it is poured into a bamboo
+receptacle and when cool it becomes semi-solidified.”
+
+
+The head of the arrow is dipped in the “jambi” and dried in the sun or
+before the fire.
+
+These arrows have a swift and painless effect on animals and birds of
+the forest, and after a wound from the poisoned dart projected from a
+blow-gun, so long as the skin is broken at any point, they are killed
+within about two minutes. Experiments carried out on domestic animals
+have proved that the poison acts painlessly, the effect being much the
+same as an overdose of morphine, but despite its proved deadliness
+“jambi” is never used by the Head Hunters in warfare.
+
+One of the most curious preparations in use among the North American
+Indians is the so-called “Black Poison,” the effects of which are well
+known around the lakes of the Winnipeg basin and in the Swan River
+district. Some time after administration it changes the colour of the
+skin from brownish yellow or copper colour to a sooty black and at the
+same time causes hair to grow on unusual parts, such as the cheek bones.
+Its first effects are sickness, headache, and pain in the back and
+limbs. Afterwards, ulceration and sores break out in various parts of
+the body, chiefly over the joints and more particularly the knuckles.
+When prepared, the poison is said to be a brown snuff-like powder with a
+slight and rather sickening smell. A small quantity administered in food
+appears to be sufficient to produce these effects. It is said to be
+partly composed of _Rhus toxicodendron_ mixed with a dried acrid matter
+secreted by the glands in the skin of a species of toad.
+
+The Indian tribes indigenous to California have a curious method of
+using certain plants to stupefy or poison fish. One of the most
+effective is “soap root” (_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_). Besides providing
+a substitute for soap the crushed pulp is dropped into the water,
+generally into a small pool or stream, and then stirred. The fish are
+stupefied by the poison, float to the surface and are captured either by
+hand or in a basket. Another plant employed for this purpose is known as
+“blue-curls,” or vinegar weed (_Trichostemma lancerlatum_).
+
+Other tribes of Indians in South America use curare, which they extract
+from a certain species of strychnos and other plants, which were first
+brought to England by Sir Walter Ralegh in 1595. Although a deadly
+poison when introduced into a wound or injected under the skin, curare
+is practically harmless when swallowed; indeed Humbolt states the
+Indians lick it off their fingers and use it as a stomachic tonic.
+
+The Ainos of Japan are said to have used a preparation made from aconite
+and tobacco, while the natives of the New Hebrides are stated to smear
+their arrows with damp earth containing the tetanus bacillus which
+infects the person wounded by them.
+
+Besides the use of poisons for offensive purposes, the institution of
+trial by ordeal still exists among barbaric tribes to-day, especially in
+Africa. The substances employed vary with the locality inhabited by the
+tribe. Muavi, which is used by several tribes in Western Africa, is
+prepared by scraping the bark of a poisonous tree, known only to the
+witch-doctors. A decoction of the scrapings is made with water and the
+resulting draught, which is of a highly poisonous nature, is
+administered to the suspected person. The action of muavi is generally
+rapid; vomiting is quickly caused, followed by convulsions and death.
+When both the accuser and the accused are seized with vomiting the
+natives declare that the draught has been badly prepared, and should the
+result not prove fatal to either party the test is repeated. When the
+guilt of one of the parties has been established by death, his property
+is at once confiscated and his wife and children are killed. So great is
+the belief of the natives in the infallibility of the Muavi test that
+they never hesitate to submit themselves to the trial and are said
+frequently to volunteer to go through the ordeal in order to prove their
+innocence.
+
+The Balantes and other tribes who inhabit the West Coast of Africa
+employ Sassy bark (_Erythroplæum Guineense_) for their trial by ordeal.
+They prepare the poison by mixing the finely scraped or powdered bark
+with powdered glass, together with the dried and powdered viscera of the
+victims of the preceding trial. When required for use the mixture is
+made into a paste with water, about two spoonsful being administered for
+a dose.
+
+It is customary for the chief of another tribe to preside at the ordeal
+trial, whose duty it is to see that it is properly carried out. Each
+person who undergoes the trial has to pay him a fee in cash or in kind,
+the latter being in the form of rice, chickens or goats. The preparer of
+the poison and his assistants also receive an honorarium. When one of
+the Balantes is accused of a crime or witchcraft he must undergo the
+trial, as after once being suspected he is no longer protected by the
+ties of blood and friendship, and a father may even denounce his son or
+a husband his wife.
+
+Other West African tribes use the Calabar bean, commonly called the
+Ordeal bean, which contains a powerful poisonous principle called
+Physostigmine, a drug which is of great value to ophthalmic surgeons
+to-day in the treatment of the eyes. It is so powerful that a fiftieth
+part of a grain is considered a poisonous dose. It was customary at one
+time, in Old Calabar and at the mouth of the Niger, where the plant
+grows, to destroy it whenever found, a few only being preserved to
+supply seeds for judicial purposes, and of these seeds the store was
+kept in the custody of the native chief. Now it is preserved and the
+beans exported to Europe on account of the value of their active
+principle in medicine.
+
+Witchcraft plays an important part in the daily life of most African
+natives and to witchcraft they attribute every ill that befalls them.
+One kind is practised secretly by evil-doers and the other by the
+witch-doctors with the view of destroying the effects of the evil-doers.
+The witch-doctors or medicine-men are undoubtedly the most powerful
+individuals in their tribes; they hold the lives of all in their hands,
+and are daily employed to satisfy the passions of their neighbours.
+According to native ideas, death or sickness never occurs through
+natural causes, but is always the result of somebody’s act. Whenever
+anyone is accused of having practised witchcraft or of having committed
+any other crime, the Calabar bean or the trial by ordeal is used to
+decide the case, except when the accuser is a witch-doctor, when both
+the accuser and the accused have to submit to the test.
+
+Roscoe in his book, _The Soul of Central Africa_, alludes to a
+mysterious poison prepared by the medicine-men of Ankole. It is a tribal
+custom that should the king feel ill, or through age find his strength
+failing him, it is his duty to end his life by taking a dose of poison.
+The ingredients for the fatal draught are always kept at hand by the
+royal medicine-man, who stores them in a crocodile’s egg. “It must have
+been a strong poison,” says the explorer, “for it took effect rapidly,
+ending the king’s life in a few moments. I could not, however, discover
+the ingredients; the man absolutely refused to divulge the secret. The
+king thus experienced no lengthened illness, but passed away in a few
+minutes after swallowing the fatal potion and his body was at once
+prepared for the ceremony.”
+
+Thus to primitive and barbaric people in various parts of the world we
+owe much of our knowledge of the properties of many powerful vegetable
+poisons.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+  POISONS USED BY THE EGYPTIANS, GREEKS, ROMANS, HEBREWS, CHINESE AND
+                        HINDUS IN ANCIENT TIMES
+
+
+Many mysterious poisons are referred to in the legends and sagas that
+have come down to us from the dim ages of the past.
+
+The earliest deity associated with poisons is Gula, whose name was
+revered by the Sumerians about 4500 B.C. She was known as “The Mistress
+of Charms and Spells,” the “Terrible Goddess,” “Controller of noxious
+poisons,” and was the deified form of the sorceress. Medical schools at
+Borsippa and Sirpurra were under her protection. She is described on a
+cuneiform tablet, said to have been written about 1400 B.C., as:—
+
+       “Gula, the woman, the mighty one, the prince of all women.
+       His seed with a poison not curable
+       Without issue; in his body may she place
+       All the days of his life,
+       Blood and pus like water may he pour forth.”
+
+Ages ago a mysterious country in the far North was supposed to be ruled
+and dominated by sorcerers and kindred beings, all of whom were said to
+be children of the Sun. Here dwelt Æëtes, Perses, Hecate, Medea and
+Circe. To Hecate is ascribed the foundation of sorcery and the discovery
+of poisonous plants. Her knowledge of magic and spells was supposed to
+be unequalled. She transmitted her power to Medea, whose wonderful
+exploits are described in early Greek mythology, and who by her magic
+arts subdued the dragon that guarded the golden fleece and assisted
+Jason to perform his famous deeds. Hecate’s garden is described by the
+poets as being enclosed in lofty walls with thrice-folding doors of
+ebony, which were guarded by terrible forms, and only those who bore the
+leavened rod of expiation and the concealed conciliatory offering could
+enter. Towering above was the temple of the dread sorceress, where the
+ghastly sacrifices were offered and all kinds of horrible spells worked.
+
+According to tradition, after Medea’s adventures with Jason she returned
+with him to Thessaly, and on their arrival they found Æson, the father
+of Jason, and Pelias, his uncle, who had usurped the throne, both old
+and decrepit. Medea was requested to exert her magical powers to make
+the old man young again, an operation which she is said to have speedily
+performed by infusing the juice of certain potent plants into his veins,
+and thus foreshadowing a recent operation for rejuvenating the old by
+means of injecting the solution of a certain gland.
+
+Medea became the wife of Ægeus, king of Athens, whose son, Theseus, had
+been brought up in exile and who resolved to return to Athens to claim
+his rights. Medea, hearing of this, and for some reason greatly
+resenting it, prepared a poisoned goblet and gave it to Ægeus at an
+entertainment which he gave to Theseus, with the intent that he should
+hand it to his son. At the critical moment the king cast his eyes on the
+sword of Theseus, recognizing it as the weapon which he had given to his
+son when a child, directing that it should be brought by him when a man
+as a token of the mystery of his birth. The king at once threw the
+goblet from him and embraced his son, and as tradition has it, Medea
+fled from Athens in a chariot drawn by dragons.
+
+Circe’s charms were more seductive and romantic. She is said to have
+been endowed with exquisite beauty, which she employed to allure
+travellers to her territory. On their landing she entreated and enticed
+them to drink from her enchanted cup, but no sooner was the draught
+swallowed than the unfortunate stranger was turned into a hog and driven
+by the magician to her sty, where he still retained the consciousness of
+what he had been and lived to repent his folly.
+
+These mythological stories tend to show that some knowledge of poisonous
+substances existed at a very remote period.
+
+In ancient Egypt a certain crude scientific knowledge probably existed
+from a period of great antiquity, and some of the earliest deities,
+especially the god Thoth, are associated with the genesis of science,
+arts and magic. Thoth is reputed to have been the author of six divine
+works dealing with these subjects. He was identified by the Greeks with
+Hermes Trismegistos, or the “Thrice Great,” to whom they attributed the
+foundation of the science of chemistry. Menes, the earliest Egyptian
+king of whom we have record, was said to have studied the properties of
+plants, and other Egyptian rulers cultivated the art of medicine,
+probably through the priests, who were the chief practitioners in the
+art of healing in those early times. They apparently gathered knowledge
+of certain poisonous bodies, both vegetable and mineral. They were
+learned in the art of alchemy and initiated votaries into its mysteries
+in their schools of science. The secrets taught were forbidden to be
+revealed under penalty of death, and therefore, probably, many of the
+discoveries they made were lost, but there is sufficient evidence to
+prove that they were conversant with crude arsenic, opium, mandrake,
+lead and other poisonous substances. This knowledge was probably handed
+down by oral tradition as part of the priestcraft for centuries before
+it was committed to writing.
+
+The earliest known record of the actual preparation of a substance of a
+lethal nature is mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus, now in the Louvre, in
+which the following sentence, as translated by Duteuil, occurs:
+“Pronounce not the name of I.A.O. under the penalty of the peach.”
+
+The Egyptians were probably the first to practise distillation, and from
+the stones of certain fruits they apparently discovered that they could
+extract a powerful poison which we now know as prussic acid.
+
+The Hebrews in ancient times were also acquainted with the use of
+poisonous substances. Arsenic was known to them as “Sam,” aconite as
+“Boschka,” and they are said to have known of the poisonous properties
+of ergot which they called “Son.”
+
+Coming to times of early culture in Greece, the knowledge of poisons had
+made a considerable advance. The Greeks knew of arsenic in the form of
+realgar and orpiment, antimony, mercury, gold, silver, copper and lead,
+and they probably had a knowledge of their poisonous properties, as they
+recommend hot oil as an antidote in a case of poisoning and mention
+other means to promote vomiting and prevent a poison being absorbed into
+the system.
+
+Of the vegetable poisons known and used by the Greeks hemlock appears to
+have been chiefly employed. They looked upon suicide under certain
+conditions as a noble act, and sanctioned the use of the poison cup by
+those who desired to terminate their existence on earth. They also
+employed poison as a means of execution. The State Poison was chiefly
+composed of a species of hemlock called cicuta, the seeds of which were
+pounded in a mortar as the first step in preparation. Several of the
+early historians, including Plato, describe the action of the plant
+used, but its identification has long been a matter of dispute. From all
+accounts the poison draught does not appear to have been either very
+powerful or rapid in its action, as a second dose was often found to be
+necessary before death ensued.
+
+At the death of Phocion it is recorded that “having drunk all the
+hemlock juice, the quantity was found insufficient and the executioner
+refused to prepare more unless he was paid twelve drachmas.” When Seneca
+also wished to end his life, a friend and physician, at his request,
+procured for him some of the Athenian State Poison, but when he took it
+the effect was inadequate.
+
+The circumstances attending the death of Socrates, which happened in the
+year 402 B.C., are thus recounted by Plato:
+
+
+“When the fatal cup was brought he asked what it was necessary for him
+to do. ‘Nothing more,’ replied the servant of the judges, ‘than as soon
+as you have drunk of the draught, to walk about until you find your legs
+become weary and afterwards lie down upon your bed.’
+
+“He took the cup without any emotion or change in his countenance and,
+looking at him in a steady and assured manner,
+
+“‘Well!’ said he, ‘what say you of this drink?’
+
+“‘May a libation be made out of it?’
+
+“Upon being told that there was only enough for one dose, ‘At least,’
+said he, ‘we may pray to the gods as is our duty and implore them to
+make our exit from this world and our last stage happy, which is what I
+most ardently beg of them.’
+
+“Having spoken these words he remained silent for some time and then
+drank off the whole draught.
+
+“After reproving his friends for indulging in loud lamentations, he
+continued to walk about as he had been directed until he found his legs
+grow weary. Then he lay down upon his back and the person who had
+administered the poison went up to him and examined for a little time
+his feet and legs, and then squeezing his foot strongly, asked whether
+he felt him? Socrates replied that he did not. He then did the same to
+his legs, and proceeding upwards in this way, showed us that he was cold
+and stiff, and he afterwards approached him and said to us that when the
+effect of the poison reached the heart Socrates would depart. And now
+the lower parts of his body were cold, when he uncovered himself and
+said, which were his last words, ‘Crito, we owe Æsculapius a cock. Pay
+the debt and do not forget it.’
+
+“‘It shall be done,’ replied Crito. ‘But consider whether you have
+anything else to say.’
+
+“Socrates answered in the negative, but was in a short time convulsed.
+The man then uncovered him; his eyes were fixed and when Crito observed
+this he closed his eyelids and his mouth.”
+
+
+The poison which is given the general name of φάρμακον by Plato, is
+termed κώνειον by Xenophon in relating the execution of Theramenes,
+whose death occurred but forty years after Socrates. The same word is
+again used by Plutarch in describing the State Poison by which Phocion
+fell a victim to the Athenians in the year B.C. 317.
+
+Aristophanes, who was contemporary with Socrates, furnishes further
+evidence that the State Poison was commonly known in Athens by the name
+κώνειον, for in “The Frogs,” which was acted many years before his
+death, the following allusion to the poison occurs:—
+
+
+HERCULES: Then there is a short and beaten road—that by the mortar.
+
+BACCHUS: Speakest thou of hemlock, then?
+
+HERCULES: Most certainly.
+
+BACCHUS: A journey cold and winterly forsooth, for it immediately
+congeals the shins.
+
+
+Pliny and the other Latin authors use the word cicuta when alluding to
+the State Poison of the Greeks. Dioscorides (_circa_ A.D. 40) in his
+work on Materia Medica, describing the cicuta, says it has a knotted
+stem and likens it to fennel. “Its branches shoot with umbels at their
+summits, while it bears a whitish flower with a heavy smell and a fruit
+like that of anise, but whiter.” From this it was evidently an
+umbelliferous plant. Pliny refers to the spots on the stem, which
+further identifies the plant as the _Conium maculatum_, or hemlock.
+
+According to Sibthorpe, _Conium maculatum_ grows in various parts of
+Greece and in the vicinity of Athens, and no other poisonous
+umbelliferous plant grows in that country. This seems conclusive
+evidence that the cicuta of the Greeks was the plant we know as _Conium
+maculatum_.
+
+In addition to this, Pliny states that the cicuta (described by him as
+the Athenian State Poison) grows in Attica and at Megara, and describes
+the seeds and leaves as particularly fatal when drunk in wine, the
+former producing the most deadly effects.
+
+The clinical effects of the drug as graphically described by Plutarch
+are identical with those produced by conium or hemlock. He mentions the
+coldness of the extremities, concluding with its influence on the brain,
+which would account for the strangeness of the last words of Socrates,
+referring to a sacrifice to the deity who presided over the Medical Art.
+
+It is probable that opium was sometimes combined with hemlock, judging
+from the statement of Theophrastus, who was born only twenty-eight years
+after the death of Socrates.
+
+He says: “Thrasyas, the Mantinian, stated that by making use of the
+juices of cicuta, the poppy and such other things, he had discovered a
+substance which occasioned death easily and without pain, and so
+portable and minute that the weight of a δραχμή (about sixty grains) was
+sufficient and absolutely irremediable.” Further, that it was capable of
+being preserved for any time without alteration. That a powerful
+preparation and certain in effect was required at the time of the death
+of Socrates, is evident from the caution of the executioner, who states
+that none of the contents of the cup could be spared. Judging from all
+accounts, and the evidence afforded by the description of its action,
+there seems little doubt that the Athenian State Poison consisted of
+hemlock, probably in the form of the concentrated juice of the leaves,
+to which a proportion of poppy juice was added to render its action more
+certain.
+
+A curious custom prevailed among the inhabitants of the island of Ceos
+in which poison played a part. When the old men found they were no
+longer of service to the State and began to feel life a burden, they
+assembled at a banquet of death and, with their heads crowned with
+chaplets, cheerfully drained the poison cup. A relic of this ancient
+custom was once practised at Marseilles, where a poison was kept by the
+public authorities, of which hemlock was an ingredient. A dose of this
+was allowed by the magistrates to anyone who could bring a sufficient
+reason why he should deserve death. Valerius Maximus observes, “This
+custom came from Greece, particularly from the island of Ceos, where I
+saw an example of it in a woman of great quality who, having lived very
+happy ninety years, obtained leave to die in this way, lest by living
+longer she should happen to see a change of her good fortune.”
+
+The reputed poisonous property of bull’s blood is recorded by various
+ancient writers, and it is stated that Æson, Midas King of Phrygia,
+Plutarch and Themistocles the Athenian leader employed it as a means of
+suicide. It is probable that some strong poisonous vegetable substance
+such as cicuta was mixed with it.
+
+The symptoms and signs which were accepted in early times as evidence of
+poisoning are sufficiently crude to inspire us with considerable doubt
+as to the reliability of many of the cases narrated. That there were
+certain post-mortem appearances which were generally considered as
+evidence of death by poison is recorded by Cicero, Tacitus and other
+early writers. In the account given by Suetonius of the death of
+Germanicus, who was poisoned by Piso at the instance of Tiberius, they
+are enumerated as “livid spots on the face and body, and foam at the
+mouth.” It was further generally believed that worms could not generate
+in the bodies of persons who had died from the effect of poison.
+
+Dioscorides throws a further light on the poisons of antiquity in his
+work on Materia Medica, which for fifteen centuries or more remained the
+chief authority on that subject. He mentions cantharides, copper,
+mercury, lead and arsenic. Among the animal poisons he includes toads,
+salamanders, poisonous snakes, a peculiar kind of honey, and the blood
+of the ox, probably after it had decomposed. The sea-hare is frequently
+alluded to by the ancient Greeks, and was evidently regarded by them as
+capable of producing a very powerful poison. Domitian is said to have
+administered it to Titus. It is supposed to have been one of the genus
+Aplysia, among the gasteropods, and is described by the old writers as a
+dreadful object which was neither to be touched nor looked upon with
+safety.
+
+Among the poisonous plants enumerated by Dioscorides are the poppy,
+black and white hellebore, henbane, mandragora, hemlock, elaterium, the
+juices of a species of euphorbia, and apocynae. The black and white
+hellebore were known to the Romans and used by them as an insecticide,
+and Pliny states that the Gauls used a preparation of veratrum to poison
+their arrows. Arsenic, in the form of the native realgar and orpiment,
+was employed by the Greeks as a caustic and for removing hair from the
+face; but no mention is made of it being used internally or as a poison.
+Copper, mercury, and lead were also used in their medical treatment. The
+study of poisons was forbidden for a long period, and Galen mentions the
+fact that only a few philosophers dared treat the subjects in their
+works.
+
+Theophrastus states that the poison of most subtle operation of his time
+was extracted from wolf’s bane (aconite); no antidote had been
+discovered to this poison and it was a capital crime to have in one’s
+possession the plant from which it was extracted. He tells us that in
+Ethiopia “there grows a certain deadly root, with which the people smear
+their arrows,” and “In Scythia there are others some of which kill at
+once those who eat them, some after an interval shorter or longer, so
+that in the latter case men have a lingering death.” He thus relates the
+story of one Thrasyas of Mantineia, who had discovered
+
+
+“a poison which produces an easy and painless end; he used the juices of
+hemlock, poppy, and other such herbs, so compounded as to make a dose of
+conveniently small size, weighing only somewhat less than a quarter of
+an ounce. For the effects of this compound there is absolutely no cure,
+and it will keep any length of time without losing its virtue at all. He
+used to gather his hemlock, not just anywhere, but at Susa, or some
+other cold and shady spot; and so too with the other ingredients. His
+pupil Alexias was also clever and no less skilful than his master, being
+also versed in the science of medicine generally.
+
+“At last Eudemus, the vendor of drugs, who had a high reputation in his
+business, after making a wager that he would experience no effect before
+sunset, drank quite a moderate dose, and it proved too strong for his
+power of resistance: while the Chian Eudemus took a draught of hellebore
+and was not purged. And on one occasion he said that in a single day he
+took two and twenty draughts in the market-place as he sat at his stall,
+and did not leave the place till it was evening, and then he went home
+and had a bath and dined, and was not sick. However, this man was able
+to hold out because he had provided himself with an antidote; for he
+said that after the seventh dose he took a draught of tart vinegar with
+pumice-stone dust in it, and later on took a draught of the same in wine
+in like manner; and that the virtue of the pumice-stone dust is so great
+that if one puts it into a boiling pot of wine it causes it to cease to
+boil, not merely for the moment, but altogether, clearly because it has
+a drying effect and it catches the vapour and passes it off. It was by
+this antidote that Eudemus was able to contain himself in spite of the
+large quantity of hellebore which he took.”
+
+
+Livy records that about 200 B.C. several persons of distinction died in
+a mysterious way in Rome. At first it was thought that they had
+succumbed to plague, but Quintus Fabius Maximus is said to have been
+informed by a female slave, that the persons had been poisoned and that
+she could reveal the names of the guilty. The matter was laid before the
+consuls and the Senate. The stipulated pardon was granted, and, guided
+by the slave, the officers of justice are said to have discovered the
+poisoners, among whom were women belonging to the noblest families of
+Rome. Twenty in all were seized; two of them, Cornelia and Serpi,
+undertook to speak for the rest, and declared that the drugs they had
+prepared were medicinal. They were told that to prove this, the
+preparation they had made would be tried on themselves and to this test
+they agreed. After drinking the draughts it is said they all died. One
+hundred and seventy more of the noblest ladies of Rome were seized, on
+similar information and condemned, and before that day, says Livy, there
+was never an inquest on poisoning. To mark this memorable example of
+what had never been done before, it was resolved to have a nail driven
+into the temple of Jupiter. A dictator was appointed for that mystic
+duty, a master of the horse, and he drove a nail into the temple of
+Jupiter, after which a stop was put to poisoning for two or three
+centuries.
+
+Unfortunately, however, the method of taking life by poisons did not die
+out, but apparently increased and became very common in Rome under the
+early Emperors. Among these nefarious practitioners, mostly apparently
+women, was Locusta, who lived in the time of Nero. She had been
+condemned to death for a case proved against her, but her life was
+spared, so that she might use her nefarious methods in the service of
+the State. She was employed by Agrippina to poison the Emperor Claudius
+and to her is attributed the death of Britannicus, whom Nero wished to
+remove from his path. Britannicus was dining with his brother and the
+Imperial family, and as was the custom of the Romans, hot water was
+brought round by slaves to the table, the water being heated to varied
+degrees to suit the taste of the drinker. The cup of water handed to
+Britannicus proved to be too hot and he gave it back to the attendant
+slave, who added cold water to it, which addition is supposed to have
+contained the poison, for no sooner had he swallowed the draught than he
+fell back, gasping for breath. His mother, Agrippina, and Octavia, his
+sister, became terror-stricken, but Nero, unmoved, calmly remarked that
+he often had such fits in his youth without danger, and the banquet
+proceeded.
+
+A curious tradition which has survived from early times, and still
+entertained by the ignorant, is, that if a body after a sudden death
+rapidly decomposes, it is to be attributed to the effects of poison,
+thus when Britannicus died it is recorded that the Romans attempted to
+conceal his discoloured face by the use of paint.
+
+Locusta appears to have been appointed a kind of unofficial
+poisoner-in-ordinary to the Emperor, one of her duties being to train
+pupils so that her secrets should not be lost. She was encouraged to
+experiment with her knowledge on slaves, who were liberally supplied for
+the purpose.
+
+The Persians in ancient times are said to have studied with care the art
+of poisoning. Plutarch and Ctesias relate that Queen Parysatis, the
+mother of Cyrus the younger, during the reign of Artaxerxes II (405–359
+B.C.), poisoned her daughter-in-law Statira by means of a knife, one
+side of the blade being smeared with venom. A bird was set before the
+two queens at supper and was divided by the poisoned knife; Parysatis
+ate her half with impunity, but Statira died. Such is the story, but
+there is no evidence to corroborate it. The Carthaginians were
+apparently also skilled in the art of poisons, and it is related that
+they killed Regulus, the Roman general, by this means.
+
+With reference to the use of poisons in Persia in early times the poet
+Nizámi, in his _Treasury of Secrets_, relates a story of rivalry between
+two court physicians which finally reached such a point that they
+challenged one another to a duel or ordeal by poison. It was agreed that
+each should take a poison supplied by his antagonist, of which he should
+then endeavour to counteract the effects by a suitable antidote. The
+first prepared a poisonous draught “the fierceness of which would have
+melted black stone”; his rival drained the cup and at once took an
+antidote which rendered it innocuous. It was now his turn, and he picked
+a rose from the garden, breathed an incantation over it, and bade his
+antagonist smell it, whereupon the latter at once fell down dead. That
+his death was due simply to fear and not to any poisonous or magical
+property of the rose is clearly indicated by the poet:
+
+       “Through this rose which the spell-breather had given him
+       Fear overmastered the foe and he gave up the ghost.
+       That one by treatment expelled the poison from his body,
+       While this one died of a rose from fear.”
+
+An incident which happened to the army led by Mark Antony against the
+Parthians, and described by Plutarch, is said to have been caused by
+aconite. At one time during the expedition, the soldiers, being very
+short of provisions, sought for roots and pot-herbs and met one that
+brought on madness and death. “The eater immediately lost all memory and
+would busy himself in turning over every stone he met with as if on some
+important pursuit. The camp was full of unhappy men digging up and
+removing stones, till at last they were carried off by bilious
+vomiting.” Whole numbers, says Plutarch, perished, and the Parthians
+still continued to harass them. Antony is said to have frequently
+exclaimed: “Oh! the ten thousand!” alluding to the army which Xenophon
+led in retreat both a longer way and through more numerous conflicts and
+yet led in safety.
+
+There is a story told of Alexander the Great that after crossing the
+Cydenus, he was seized with a fever and was warned by Parmenio in a
+letter not to take the medicine which his physician offered to him for
+fear of poison. The physician’s name was Philip, and Alexander so
+trusted him that he gave him the letter to read, scanning his face
+meanwhile. The calm air of the physician satisfied the ailing conqueror
+and assured him that he might safely drink the potion.
+
+The death of Alexander the Great, like that of many other monarchs, is
+ascribed by some historians to poison, but from Littré’s investigations
+it would appear that the great Emperor, debilitated by his drinking
+habits, contracted malarial fever in the marshes round Babylon and died
+after an illness of eleven days.
+
+In India and the Far East, poisons have been used from very early times,
+not only for the destruction of human life, but also for destroying
+animals; arsenic, aconite, opium and many other poisonous mineral and
+vegetable substances being employed for the purpose.
+
+The Hindus have many curious traditions concerning poisons, and like the
+Western nations attribute to some the property of causing a lingering
+death, which can be controlled by the will of the poisoner. The
+knowledge of the substances employed is guarded with great secrecy and
+even now they are not fully known. Blyth mentions a mysterious substance
+known in India, called _Mucor phycomyces_, which is said to be a species
+of fungus. When the spores are administered in warm water they are said
+to attach themselves to the throat and speedily develop and grow, with
+the result that in a few weeks the respiratory organs are attacked and
+the victim is rapidly carried off as if by a fatal disease. Nine active
+or virulent poisonous substances are mentioned by the ancient writers on
+Hindu medicine. Some of them are at present still unidentified, while
+others, there is little doubt, are varieties of aconite, also opium,
+ganja (_Cannabis indica_), datura stramonium, the roots of _Nerium
+odorum_, and _Gloriosa superba_, the milky juices of _Calatropis
+gigantea_ and _Euphorbia neriifolia_, white arsenic, orpiment and the
+poison venom from snakes.
+
+Most of the early Sanscrit MSS. are written on paper prepared with
+orpiment to preserve them from the ravages of insects. Three varieties
+of datura yield atropine, a powerful poison. These plants were
+frequently employed in India for putting a sudden end to domestic
+quarrels, and to this practice may be traced the origin of the custom of
+“Suttee,” or widow-burning, as the Brahmins found from experience that
+by making a wife’s life co-terminous with the husband’s, the average
+husband lived considerably longer. It is worthy of note that the diamond
+was celebrated as a medicinal agent by the Hindus, who prepared it by
+roasting it seven times and then reducing it to powder. It was given in
+doses of one grain as a powerful tonic.
+
+Both the Chinese and Japanese, from ancient times down to the present
+day, have paid a great deal of attention to the study of poisons. From
+an early period the Chinese are said to have used gold leaf for suicidal
+purposes, and at the present time when a high official puts an end to
+his life it is officially announced that he has “taken gold leaf.”
+
+At the time of the death of the Emperor Kwang Su, the cause of which was
+enveloped in mystery, it was rumoured that he did not die from natural
+causes, but committed suicide by request. For some time previous to his
+death, it is said that the Emperor had led a miserable existence and was
+simply a ruler in name. The Dowager-Empress, Tzu Hsi, had resolved that
+her nephew should precede her to the tomb. She therefore convoked the
+Grand Council and as a result of this conclave it was announced that
+Kwang Su was dangerously ill from heart disease, but the offers of the
+foreign Legations to send their medical officers were firmly declined.
+
+According to the story “at ten o’clock next morning the Chief Eunuch,
+with two confidential attendants, entered the Little Palace where the
+Emperor was confined, and after having ordered everybody out of the room
+he declared to Kwang Su that the Empress was dying, and that it was
+needful for him to predecease her.
+
+“He then deposited on a table, pills of opium, a packet of gold leaf,
+and some yellow silk plaited cord, promising to return in three hours’
+time. If he found that neither the opium nor the gold leaf had been used
+it would be his painful duty to call upon the two assistants to strangle
+him with the silken cord. Meanwhile, the two executioners would watch
+the door of the room. It should be explained that a piece of fine
+gold-leaf is placed over the lips, and, the breath being deeply drawn,
+it is inhaled and obstructs the glottis, causing immediate suffocation.”
+
+When the Chief Eunuch returned at one o’clock, he found the opium pills
+had disappeared and Kwang Su was stretched unconscious on his couch, but
+still breathing. It was stated that he died at five o’clock, and the
+three-year-old Pou Yi was at once brought to the Imperial Palace and
+proclaimed Emperor.
+
+The Japanese are said to import from China certain powerful poisons
+prepared by the Chinese medicine-men, the secret of which is only known
+to them. They are thought to be a mixture of both animal and mineral
+substances which have a very deadly effect, though their exact
+composition is yet undetermined.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+                  ANTIDOTES TO POISON IN ANCIENT TIMES
+
+
+Judging from the earliest laws on record, criminal poisoning does not
+appear to have been common amongst the ancient Egyptians or Hebrews.
+
+The first recorded instance of a judicial trial for poisoning at Rome is
+stated by Livy to have been in the year 329 B.C. In the time of
+Justinian (A.D. 483–565) the aid of the physician was called in
+specially during the investigation of crime. According to the institutes
+or laws of that period, those who by odious arts, whether by poison or
+by “magical whispers” (incantations), took away the life of another,
+were punished with death. A contract for the sale of a poison was also
+held to be void “on the analogy of the contracts of partnership and
+agency which have no power to deal with improper matters.”
+
+It seems appropriate that the first law to regulate the sale of poisons
+should have been enacted in Italy. Thus as early as 1365 a statute was
+passed in Siena rendering it illegal to sell red arsenic or corrosive
+sublimate to any slave, freed or otherwise, or to any servant or person
+under twenty years of age. These poisons could only be sold to an adult
+who was well known to the apothecary. There was also a law in Perugia in
+1378 which enacted that a person could not obtain a poison without the
+express permission of a doctor, which permit should state the purpose
+for which it was intended to be used. The statutes of Genoa (1488)
+amongst other items demanded that in no medicament should substitution
+be allowed, or as the statute reads “Ponere quid pro quo” without the
+doctor’s express permission. The pharmacist was to be careful that honey
+was not substituted for sugar, nor that the latter should serve as a
+cover for the former, and that he should put neither rice nor starch in
+anything composed of sugar, in whole or in part.
+
+In ancient times there is little doubt that many people died from the
+effects of poison without suspicion, although on the other hand many
+more succumbed to the sudden effects of latent and unrecognized
+diseases, such as aneurism, peritonitis and others of which practically
+nothing was known, whose deaths were wrongfully attributed to poison.
+Before the period of judicial post-mortem examination, the practice was
+to expose the bodies for inspection to those who were believed to be
+able to form a sufficiently accurate judgment for themselves as to the
+cause of death.
+
+It was believed that poisonous substances had a peculiar action on the
+heart and were capable of altering its substance in such a manner that
+it resisted the action of a funeral pyre and remained unconsumed. When
+the heart resisted the pyre it was regarded as unmistakable evidence
+that the person had perished by poison. If, in addition, the body from
+any cause rapidly decomposed, such a sign was at once believed to be
+conclusive of death from poison. This belief prevailed to a greater or
+lesser extent down to the middle of the seventeenth century.
+
+From the time man first discovered the effects of poisonous substances,
+he no doubt began to consider some means of preventing their action if
+taken internally by accident. He sought also to find protection against
+the bites of venomous animals, reptiles and mad dogs. Homer (900 B.C.)
+in the “Odyssey,” in the account of Ulysses’ men, alludes to a plant
+which Hermes recommended him to take when he set out to rescue his
+followers:—
+
+             “Then take the antidote the Gods provide
+             The plant I give through all the direful power
+             Shall guard thee and avert the evil hour.”
+
+This is thought to refer to a herb called moli or molu which is often
+mentioned by ancient writers. It is alluded to by Theophrastus, Ovid,
+Pliny, Dioscorides and Galen and it was considered to be a species of
+Allium. It is described by some as a plant having an onion or
+squill-like odour, and was said to grow in Arcadia and Campania.
+
+The Hindus, like other ancient peoples, also had an idea of a universal
+antidote against poisons, as expressed by the word “agada.”
+
+Apparently the ambition of the early Greek physicians was to discover a
+universal antidote to all poisons, and many of them appear to have
+devoted years and spent a great part of their lives in attempting to
+find it. These antidotes were called by the Greeks Alexipharmics, or
+Theriacs, the former word being derived from the Greek “Alexipharmakos,”
+meaning that which keeps off a poison, and the noun “antipharmakon,” an
+antidote.
+
+One of the earliest writers on the subject was Nicander of Colophon
+(185–135 B.C.), who was physician to Attalus, King of Bithynia, under
+whom he is said to have secured special facilities for studying poisons,
+being allowed to experiment upon condemned criminals. He was an
+hereditary priest of Apollo at Clarus. He wrote a work in about a
+thousand hexameters on
+
+  Theriaca, which deals with the bites of venomous animals and six
+    hundred hexameters on
+
+  Alexipharmica, which treats of poisonous substances when swallowed by
+    the mouth, and the use of emetics.
+
+Theriaca became an actual substance and differed from the
+_Alexipharmica_, which was more a method of treatment. This division was
+afterwards adopted by all the subsequent early writers on the subject,
+including Dioscorides, Galen, Aetius, Paulus Aegineta, Avicenna and
+Rhazes.
+
+From the first century theriaca was regarded as a very important
+compound, and in the endeavour to secure the most effective combination
+for the purpose, the most extraordinary formulæ containing a large
+number of ingredients, were devised by various physicians. The general
+treatment recommended by Nicander for the bites of all venomous animals
+was sucking the wound, applying cupping vessels to it, cauteries and
+leeches, and afterwards administering stimulant medicines.
+
+Respecting the sucking of a wound, he gives an important injunction that
+the person who sucks the wound should not be fasting, from which it may
+be gathered that he was aware of the physiological fact that the vessels
+absorb more readily when in an empty state.
+
+Nicander’s particular remedies were such drugs as birthwort, alkanet,
+and theriaca of vipers, which was prepared with a great many aromatic
+roots and fruits, including ginger, cinnamon, myrrh, iris and gentian.
+In his work he mentions twenty-two poisonous substances including:
+
+Aconite (wolf’s bane), litharge (lead oxide), buprestis (a beetle
+resembling cantharides), ceruse (white lead), conium (hemlock),
+cantharides, hyoscyamus (henbane), ixias (probably a species of
+chameleon), coagulated milk, sea-hare, poppy (opium), pharicum (probably
+a composition of agaric), the red toad and marsh frog, the salamander,
+bull’s blood, taxus (yew), and toxicum (an unknown poison). As antidotes
+he recommends warm oil, warm water and mallow or linseed tea to excite
+vomiting.
+
+From this list we have some idea of the knowledge of poisons at that
+period. Most of the substances enumerated are of vegetable or animal
+origin, few of the soluble mineral poisons being known at that time.
+
+Galen noticed that opium dissolved in a small quantity of wine produced
+stronger effects than when given alone, and that when a larger draught
+of wine was given, it proved an antidote by counteracting the narcotic
+powers of the opium. He stated that he once cured a person reduced to
+the last stage of coma by the administration of strong wine.
+
+Dioscorides also dealt very largely with this subject, and, like
+Nicander directs that “the person who sucks the poisoned wound be not
+fasting and that he shall keep some oil in his mouth.” The wound is then
+to be fomented with a sponge and scarified or cut out, a method on which
+there is no improvement at the present time. Cauterization with fire is
+another method which Dioscorides recommends, and for the bite of a
+venomous serpent known to be fatal, he advises immediate amputation to
+save life.
+
+According to Pliny and Galen, the formula for the first theriaca against
+the bites of all venomous animals was inscribed in verse on a stone in
+the temple of Asklepios on the island of Cos. It contained wild thyme,
+opoponax, aniseed, fennel, parsley, meum and ammi. These were to be
+beaten up with meal of fitches (ervum ervilla), passed through a sieve,
+kneaded with wine, cut into lozenges of the weight of half a denarius
+(30 grammes), one to be placed in three cyathi (about five ounces) of
+wine and swallowed.
+
+The next theriaca in antiquity is that originated by Antiochus the
+Third, King of Syria and Babylon, who flourished about 223 B.C. He is
+said to have devised a compound that was proof against the bites of all
+venomous animals and reptiles except the asp.
+
+One of the most celebrated of the theriaca was that of Mithridates VI
+(120–63 B.C.), King of Pontus in Asia Minor. From the constant
+apprehension of being poisoned by his enemies, Mithridates is said to
+have rendered himself immune from their effects by taking small doses of
+poisonous substances daily in combination with the antidote he devised,
+and thus believed himself poison-proof. For many years he carried on
+warfare with the Romans, but was finally defeated by Pompey, and, not
+wishing to fall into the hands of his enemies, he put an end to his
+life. After the conquest Pompey is said to have captured the coveted
+formula among the secret papers of the King.
+
+This compound contained fifty-four ingredients, which were prepared in
+the form of a conserve or electuary. Needless to say this elaborate
+remedy would be quite useless as an antidote to any poisonous substance,
+but judging from what Pliny tells us of some of the so-called poisons
+known to Mithridates, such as “the blood of a duck found in a certain
+district of Pontus” which was supposed to live on poisonous food, it is
+no wonder he had a belief in its efficacy. Curiously enough, Mithridates
+employed the duck’s blood as an ingredient in the later modifications of
+his theriaca, and he tells us that he did so because he observed that
+“these ducks fed on poisonous plants and suffered no harm.”
+
+Another theriaca is attributed to Zopyros, a Greek physician of
+Alexandria, about 80 B.C. He named his formula “Ambrosia,” and it
+contained frankincense, galbanum, pepper and other aromatic substances,
+made into a conserve with boiled honey. A piece the size of an Egyptian
+bean was directed to be taken, washed down with a draught of wine.
+
+Equally celebrated was the theriaca of Philon of Tarsus, who is said to
+have lived in the early part of the first century and recorded his
+formula in symbolic Greek verse. Galen mentions that it had a great
+reputation for a long time and was one of the most famous compounds of
+the kind. It contained such curious substances as “the red hair of a lad
+whose blood had been shed on the fields of Mercury,” which was possibly
+symbolic language for suffering, and certain drugs the names of which
+are disguised in mystic language. The whole of the mixture was to be
+made into a conserve with “the work of the Daughters of the Bull of
+Athens” which is supposed to mean Attic honey.
+
+The Theriaca Philonium survived over 1,700 years and has an interesting
+history. It passed into many of the pharmacopœias of Europe, remaining
+in the _London Pharmacopœia_ until 1746, when it was composed of opium,
+pepper, ginger, caraway, syrup, honey and wine. Until 1746 it was called
+“Philonium Romanum,” but was then changed to “Philonium Londonense,” and
+syrup of poppies was substituted for the honey. It is probable that this
+mixture was originally intended as a remedy for a peculiar form of colic
+which became epidemic in Rome when Philon flourished there. Philon’s
+formula formed the basis of what was afterwards known as Confection of
+Opium and remained in the _London Pharmacopœia_ until 1867.
+
+The Theriaca which eclipsed all others in fame and popularity was that
+originated by Andromachus, physician to Nero (A.D. 37–68). So much did
+the Emperor appreciate his physician’s efforts to devise a universal
+antidote that he raised him to the dignity of Archiatrus. The Theriaca
+of Andromachus was claimed to be an improvement on that of Mithridates,
+until then the greatest antidote in Roman pharmacy. He added vipers to
+the compound and called his theriaca “Galene.” Like other physicians of
+his time Andromachus wrote his formula and described its virtues in
+Greek verse, which he dedicated to Nero. He claimed that it would
+“counteract all poisons and bites of venomous animals and that it would
+also relieve all pain, weakness of the stomach, asthma, difficulty of
+breathing, phthisis, colic, jaundice, dropsy, weakness of sight,
+inflammation of the bladder and kidneys, and plague.” It was indeed a
+panacea for all complaints.
+
+Galen states that he tested this antidote by giving it to a number of
+fowls to which he had first administered a poison. Those to which the
+theriaca had been given survived, but all the others died. He says that
+it resisted poison and venomous bites and cured a great many diseases.
+The original formula contained no less than seventy-three ingredients,
+including dried vipers. This remarkable preparation remained in popular
+use throughout the Middle Ages and is still made and sold in the drug
+bazaar of Constantinople and also in some parts of Italy.
+
+About the year A.D. 50 the Theriaca of Democrates became famous. This
+was similar to the compound of Andromachus, the formula for which
+Democrates, a Greek physician then living in Rome, translated into
+verse. Other formulæ were originated by Nicolaus of Salerno, Amando,
+Arnauld and Abano, each of whom added something to the original formula.
+These preparations may be said to have reached their zenith in the
+sixteenth century when Pietro Andrea Matthiolus, the commentator of
+Dioscorides, published another formula which contained no less than two
+hundred and fifty separate substances, including dried vipers, pearls,
+red coral and emeralds. This formula in a modified form was included in
+the _London Pharmacopœia_ in 1618 and remained an official remedy until
+1746.
+
+Several cities became celebrated for the manufacture of Theriaca,
+including Cairo, Florence, Genoa, Bologna and Venice. The Theriaca of
+Venice or Treacle, as it was called, contained sixty-one ingredients,
+had a reputation throughout Europe and was included in the _London
+Pharmacopœia_ down to 1746. In Bologna the mixing of the Theriaca was
+carried out with great ceremony in the courtyard of the ancient
+Archiginnasio in the presence of the chief officials of the city. The
+ingredients were mixed under the supervision of the medical professors
+of the University to ensure of it being faithfully and properly
+compounded. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century it was
+regarded as a remedy for plague and was used in great quantities.
+Evelyn, in his Diary, March 23, 1646, thus alludes to the Theriaca of
+Venice—
+
+
+“Having packed up my purchases of books, pictures, casts, treacle, etc.
+(the making and extraordinary ceremony whereof I had been curious to
+observe, for it is extremely pompous and worth seeing) I departed from
+Venice.”
+
+
+The great consumption of this medicament in the sixteenth century is
+evidenced by Morgan, Apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, who in a pamphlet
+insists that a product that he had made had been compared with other
+“theriacle” brought from Constantinople and Venice and had been
+commended.
+
+
+“It is very lamentable to consider,” he writes “that straungers doe
+dayly send into England a false and naughty kinde of Mithridatium and
+Threacle in great barrelles more than a thousand weight in a year, and
+vtter ye same at a lowe price for 3_d._, and 4_d._ a pound, to ye great
+hurt of Her Majesties subjects and no small gaine to straungers purses.”
+
+
+In 1612, it is recorded that the Master and Wardens of the Grocers’
+Company of London marked that “a filthy and unwholesome baggage
+composition was being brought into this Realm as Tryacle of Genoa, made
+only of the rotten garble and refuse outcast of all kinds of spices and
+drugs, hand overhead with a little filthy molasses and tarre to worke it
+up withal.” This was communicated to the College of Physicians, and they
+set about not only to devise their own formula, but to superintend its
+manufacture, which was then entrusted to William Besse, an apothecary in
+the Poultry. Besse was made to take a “corporal oath” before the Lord
+Mayor, and every year when he made the confection had to show the
+ingredients and the product to the College of Physicians. His treacle
+was sold at not above 2_s._ 8_d._ per lb. or 2_d._ per ounce.
+
+The use, however, of this medicament in Great Britain goes back to a
+much earlier period. It was recommended to Alfred the Great by Helia,
+the Patriarch of Jerusalem, according to an Anglo-Saxon MS. of the
+eleventh century. It is again mentioned by Foucher de Chartres in 1124,
+who states it was used in the first Crusade. It is recorded in a Close
+Roll of King John in 1208, and a “triacle box du pere apelle une Hakette
+garniz d’or” is mentioned amongst the precious effects of Henry V.
+
+Prosper Alpinus, the physician of Padua, who travelled in Egypt in 1591,
+refers to the manufacture of Theriaca in Cairo and states that it was
+only allowed to be made in public, and that the ceremony was performed
+once a year in the Mosque of Morestan by the chief apothecary of the
+city in the presence of all the physicians. He states that at that time
+Italians, Germans, Poles, Flemings, Englishmen and Frenchmen came to
+Cairo to purchase this true Theriaca.
+
+Much more might be written describing the making of this ancient and
+interesting medicament, which has a literature of its own, but it will
+be sufficient to quote one more account from the Regulations and
+Statutes of Montpellier, where the compounding was also carried out with
+great ceremony.
+
+According to a report by Laurens Catelan, Master Apothecary in Ordinary
+to Monseigneur the Prince of Condé, it was required that the preparation
+should be made in public in the presence of the very illustrious
+professors of the famous Faculty of Medicine so that they might have the
+opportunity of censuring or approving the ingredients and that the
+public might therefore be sure of the virtue of these important
+medicines.
+
+It may well be asked what was the rationale of administering these
+extraordinary compounds which survived for centuries. All that can be
+said is, that these complex mixtures of gums, balsams and aromatic
+substances would probably have some antiseptic action on the alimentary
+and internal organs. They were generally directed to be given with wine
+which would aid this effect and, at any rate, would have a reviving and
+stimulating effect on the individual, but no real antidotal properties
+can be ascribed to them.
+
+The search for antidotes to poison was not confined entirely to the Old
+World, for according to the _Carolina Gazette_ of May 9, 1750, the
+General Assembly, the Governing Body of the Colony, authorized the
+publication of “Nigger Caeser’s cure for poison.” The General Assembly
+had purchased Nigger Caeser’s freedom, who was apparently a slave, and
+granted him £100 a year for life as the price of his formula, which
+consisted of roots of plantain and wild horehound, 3 oz. boiled together
+in 2 quarts of water down to 1 quart and strained. Of this, one-third
+was to be given every morning fasting for three consecutive mornings.
+Certain dieting was also required, and it is stated that if in the three
+days’ treatment no benefit had resulted, it was a sign that the patient
+had either not been poisoned at all or had been by such poisons as
+Caeser’s antidote would not remedy.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+         PREVENTIVE METHODS AND SUBSTANCES USED AGAINST POISONS
+
+
+Among the famous medicaments of antiquity reputed to be effective in
+counteracting poisons was “terra sigillata” or “sealed earth,” a
+peculiar clay which originally came from the Isle of Lemnos. Its
+reputation dates from the time of Herodotus, and it continues in use in
+Turkey and some parts of the East to-day. This red clay was formerly
+excavated from the side of a certain hill on August 6, with great
+ceremony, in the presence of the principal inhabitants of the island.
+The ceremony was originally associated with the worship of Diana and was
+carried out on May 6, each year. This particular earth was not allowed
+to be dug by anyone on any other day of the year except that formally
+set apart for the operation.
+
+According to Dioscorides, the clay was made into a paste in his time
+with goats’ blood, and the Greeks stamped or sealed the earth with a
+representation of Diana, one of the goddesses associated with healing,
+and this seal was regarded as sacred. It had a universal reputation as
+an antidote to all poisons, and a poisoned liquid drunk from a cup made
+from the clay was believed to be harmless. The earth was so called on
+account of the seal stamped upon it in proof of its being genuine.
+
+So great was the demand for the famous “terra sigillata” of Lemnos from
+the thirteenth to the fifteenth century that many other earths, for
+which similar properties were claimed, were exploited and recommended in
+books on medicine of the period. Thus a “terra sigillata” was made in
+Cilicia (Silesia), also in several districts of Italy, in Malta and in
+Palestine. In England a clay was found which was said to have the same
+properties. It entered into the composition of many important remedies,
+including the Theriaca of Andromachus, and was regarded generally as
+being an antidote against all deadly poisons.
+
+On analysis made some years ago “terra sigillata” was found to consist
+of oxides of iron, aluminium, and magnesia, with a proportion of
+silicates. The whole formed an astringent and absorbent earth, its chief
+virtues probably being, like many other ancient remedies, chiefly due to
+the mystery surrounding its origin and the superstition connected with
+its source.[4]
+
+Footnote 4:
+
+  See “Terra Sigillata, a famous Medicament of Ancient Times,” C. J. S.
+  Thompson, _Proceedings 17th International Congress of Medicine_,
+  London, 1913.
+
+A curious account of how its value was once tested is recorded in the
+following grant dated 1580, made by Prince William, the Landgrave of
+Hesse, to Andreas Bertoldus of Oschatz:—
+
+
+Be it knowen unto all persons, that an honest man called Bertold of
+Oschatz, came into the presence of the most noble Prince and Lord, the
+Lord William Landgraue of Hesse Court of Catzenelnbogen Ditz, Ziegenheim
+and Nidda etc., our gracious Lord and prince, and in humble manner
+declared unto him, that hee had found in an olde mine of Golde within
+the dominion of Schneidnitz, a new kinde of earth, which is a present
+help and a most notable remedie against all manner of poysons and
+sundrie diseases, which earth having a stampe upon it he offered to sell
+unto his Excellencie: who not trusting the man upon his bare worde,
+committed the matter to his Phisitions Maurice Thauern, and Laurence
+Hyper: Commanding them to make a perfect tryall of the saide earth,
+whereupon the saide Doctors in Phisicke to satisfie their Prince, did
+make a double proffe of the deadliest poysons that might be, which were,
+Mercurie Sublimate, Aconitum, Nereum and Apocinum, and of some one of
+these they gave halfe a dramme a peece to eight dogges, to four of them
+they gave the earth, after the poyson, and to the other foure the poyson
+alone: of these foure that tooke it alone, the first that tooke
+Apocynum: dyed within halfe an houre, the second that has taken Nereum
+died within foure houres: the third that swallowed Mercurie, died within
+nine houres after. And although they all did call up some part of the
+poyson, yet after most cruell tormentes with crampes and trembling they
+died: the fourth dogge that eat Aconitum, systeyned thirteene great
+panges of the crampe, so as every man thought hee woulde have died with
+his fellowes, yet lived he the first day, and having half of the dose of
+this medicine given him, he thoroughly recovered. The other foure dogges
+to whom the poysons before named with the like quantities of this Terra
+Sigillata was given, for three houres after the receiving of it, were
+very sicke and feeble, especially one of them to whom the double
+quantitie of Aconitum by negligence was given, vomited thrise: the next
+day they were all well and did eate their meate greedily, so as there
+appeared scarse any token of poyson.
+
+When thus his Highnesse had seene the experience of this earth to bee so
+present a remedie against such deadly poysons, and that the saide Andrew
+Bertold had humbly craved his letters of credite, both in the favour of
+man and advancement of the truth, that others might have knowledge, he
+denied not to graunt them: But commanded that his letter, testimonial
+sealed with his Highnesse his privie seale, and subscribed with the
+handes of the foresaid Doctors, in whose presence this triall was made,
+should be given unto him. Which we the above named Doctors upon our
+allegiance to his Highnesse, and for the furtherance of the truth,
+because we found it as hath beene declared to be true and unseyned, most
+willingly have done. Given the XXVIII of July, the yeare of our Lorde
+1580.
+
+                                               MAURITIUS THAUER, D.
+                                               LAURENCIUS HYPERIUS, M.D.
+                                               IOHAN KRUG.
+
+
+Another document regarding a trial of the “terra sigillata” is as
+follows:—
+
+
+A copie of the Letters Pattents which the noble earle Wolfgan earle of
+Holenhoe, Lord of Langenburg, etc. Had graunted to Andrewe Bertolde
+Oschatz, in witnes of the wonderful vertues of the Terra Sigillata,
+found latly in Germaine which hath been tried to be an approved medicine
+against the strongest poysons, and sundrie other grieues: faithfully
+translated out of the Germaine Originall.
+
+We Wolfgangus, Earle of Holenhoe, Lorde of Langenburge Hc. Do openile
+make known unto all men by these my Letters, Testimoniall, that there
+came lately before me at Langenburge, my well-beloved friende Andreas
+Bertoldus of Oschatz, and declared unto mee that he had a most excellent
+kinde of Terra Sigillata, which was not al onely of great force against
+sundrie diseases: but also a most undouted remedie against all manner of
+venemous poisons, as had beene proved by sundrie witnessess upon a great
+number of dogges, which made me also desirous to see the triall of it.
+It happened at the same time, that one called Wendel Thumblardt was by
+our Lieuetenant of Langenburg for certain felonies imprisoned, who being
+examined by our Justices, confessed himselfe guilty of a great number of
+robberies: And therefore brought to the barre was condemned to bee
+hanged. Being yet detained in prison, and coming to his eare that there
+was such a medicine, so soueraigne against sundrie sicknessess, and the
+most deadly poisons, he made humble request as well by his parents, as
+by other his friends, of which there were present no small number,
+desiring for the mercie of God, and respect of his poore life, that
+being thus condemned, he might have given unto him the most deadly
+poison that might be devised, whereby a perfit triall might bee had of
+the worthiness of this medicinable earth. And in this respect, not onely
+for this pittiful request of his: but also for the commoditie and
+benefite of all Christendome, (if so be the medicine proove answearable
+to the report). Pardoning the offender, wee graunted his life on that
+condicion. Therefore the day of the date of these present, and our
+welbeloved Cosin the Countie George Friderick of Holenhoe, and the Lord
+of Langenburg, and in the presence of all our Nobilitie and Commons, the
+said patient received a dram and a halfe of Mercurie Sublimate, mingled
+with Conserue of Roses, and immediately after it he drank a dram of the
+Terra Sigillata in olde wine. And albeit the poison did in the judgment
+of our learned Phisition George Pistor Doctor of Phisicke, and John
+Lutzen our Apothecarie, who were both by him all the while, extremely
+torment and vexe him: yet in the end the medicine prevailing overcame
+it, whereby the poore wretch was delivered, and being restored to his
+health was commited to his parents. Whereas therefore the foresaid
+Andrew Bertold, hath humbly required to have our Letters Testimoniall
+for his farther credite, wee have thought good for the furtherance and
+advancement of the truth, to graunt him these our Letters, signed with
+our seale Manuell. Given at Langenburg the 25th of Januarie, in the
+yeare of our Lord, 1581.
+
+
+Petrus Oponus or Petri de Abano (1250–1303), so called from his
+birthplace, Abano, wrote a work entitled “De Remediis Venenorum” in the
+thirteenth century in which he gives the following poisons known in his
+time, many of which, however, are innocuous. He mentions mercury,
+gypsum, copper, iron rust, magnetite (magnetic stone), lapis lazuli,
+arsenic sublimate, litharge, lead, realgar, cateputia juice, cucumber
+juice, usnea, coriander juice, mandragora, poppy, opium, scammony,
+aconite, oleander juice, hellebore juice, mezereon juice,
+fool’s-parsley, briony, nux vomica, colocynth, laurel berries, poppy,
+cicuta, serpentary and cantharides.
+
+Certain charms were believed to act as antidotes to poison and the two
+following quotations are taken from a MS. by Petrus Hispanus (Pope John
+XXI) in the fourteenth century:—
+
+
+                             CONTRA VENENUM
+
+[Illustration]
+
+          “Scribe nota nostra i lamina loctonus ut alio quoque
+          comodo et lana et dari biber et abent scribi
+          cum moro ut cumque nio alio nota sit nota et sine
+          scripta 7 lineis past.”
+
+[Illustration]
+
+                  “Zaare. Zaare Zaam, Zaare
+                  Zaare ssleqer Bohorum, nabarayn
+                  Uessally—uessredaza—asseyan—Haurahe
+                  reamue—ayn latinume quene:
+                  draytery, nuyyeri, quibari, yeh ay
+                  hahanny ymkatrum hanitanery vnerym
+                  caruhe tahuene cehue beyne
+                    et Lana cuz aqua ... dame bibere.”
+
+
+The so-called Toadstone has from early times been reputed to possess the
+property of counteracting the effect of poisons. These stones were
+believed to be found in the heads of old toads which, when caught, were
+placed on a red cloth and the stone recovered through the mouth. Pomet,
+who wrote in the seventeenth century, threw doubt on this source of
+origin and states that “toad stones are found in the mountains or
+plains, although he would not dispute that they might have been bred in
+the heads of old toads.” He describes two kinds, “the round and the
+long: the former being of a deep grey inclining to blue; the long being
+redder grey with reddish spots. It is false that they change colour and
+sweat when they approach the cup wherein there is poison.”
+
+Lemery, a French writer of the same period, in describing these stones,
+states, that when applied to the sting or bite of venomous beasts, they
+draw out the poison. They were usually set and worn as rings and
+regarded as of great value. They were generally mounted so that the back
+of the stone could touch the skin, and were said to notify the presence
+of poison by producing a sensation of heat in the finger at the point of
+contact.
+
+A toadstone ring is described by Jones, which he attributes to the
+fossil palatal tooth of a species of Ray that is believed to be a
+specific in cases of kidney disease when immersed in water and drunk by
+the patient. In the inventory of the Duc de Berry mention is made of a
+toadstone in a ring of gold, and similar rings are alluded to in the
+records of the Duke of Burgundy.
+
+Fenton, writing in 1569, says, “Toadstones being used in rings, give
+forewarning of venom”; and in Ben Jonson’s “Fox” they are referred to as
+follows:—
+
+              “Were you enamoured on his copper rings,
+              His saffron jewel, with the toadstone in’t?”
+
+Lupton, in his _Thousand Notable Things_, goes as far as to give a
+method of obtaining the stone from the toad:
+
+
+“Put a great or overgrown toad (first bruised in divers places) into an
+earthen pot; put the same into an ants’ hillock, and cover the same with
+earth, which toad at length the ants will eat, so that the bones of the
+toad and stone will be left in the pot.”
+
+
+Another writer, however, states that the stone should be obtained while
+the toad is living, and this may be done by simply placing him upon a
+piece of scarlet cloth, “wherewithal they are much delighted, so that,
+while they stretch out themselves as it were in sport upon that cloth,
+they cast out the stone of their head, but instantly they sup it up
+again, unless it be taken from them through some secret hole in the same
+cloth.”
+
+The scarlet cloth, however, did not always perform this miracle, for
+Boetius relates how he watched a whole night an old toad he had laid on
+a red cloth to see him cast forth the stone, but the toad was stubborn,
+and left him nothing to gratify the great pangs of his whole night’s
+restlessness.
+
+In the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum there is a toadstone mounted
+as a ring in bronze gilt of the seventeenth century; and the
+Londesborough Collection included a specimen described as being of metal
+gilt, having upon it the figure of a toad swallowing a serpent. Another
+set with a large greyish-brown stone mounted in silver bears an
+inscription on the inside of the ring, “God cureth me.”
+
+The so-called horn of the unicorn, which was in reality the tusk of the
+narwhal, has been associated with mysterious properties since the time
+of Aristotle, Pliny and other ancient writers. Ctesias (about 390 B.C.)
+was the first to record the wonderful properties attributed to it.
+“Drinking vessels,” he says, “were made of the horn and those who used
+them were protected against poisons, convulsions and epilepsy, provided
+that, just before or just after taking poison, they drank wine or water
+from the cup made from it.” Other writers declared that poisoned wounds
+could be cured by merely holding the horn of the unicorn close to the
+wound.
+
+These horns were considered of great value and in the Middle Ages are
+said to have been worth about ten times the price of gold. In 1553 a
+unicorn’s horn was brought to the King of France which was valued at
+£20,000 sterling, and one presented to Charles I, supposed to be the
+largest then known, measured seven feet long and weighed 13 lb.
+
+Edward IV gave to the Duke of Burgundy a gold cup set with jewels, with
+a piece of unicorn’s horn worked into the metal; and one large horn in
+the possession of the City of Dresden was valued at 75,000 thalers. A
+piece was occasionally sawn off to be used for medicinal purposes, and
+it was a city regulation that two persons of princely rank should be
+present whenever this operation was performed.
+
+In the sixteenth century these horns were so rare that Dr. Racq, a
+physician of Florence, recorded that a German merchant sold one of them
+to the Pope for 4,000 livres. Ambroise Paré wrote a treatise on the
+unicorn’s horn and its remedial properties, and Thomas Bartholinus
+published a work on “Observations on the Unicorn Horn” in 1678, dealing
+with its medical uses only.
+
+Although it was considered of such great value, the horn was utilized
+for making goblets mounted in gold, and walking sticks, to which were
+ascribed remarkable virtues, the greatest of which, according to writers
+on natural history of the time, was its “resistance to all manner of
+poysons.”
+
+Before the seventeenth century the genuine unicorn’s horn was supposed
+to be black or dark in colour, and Boetius de Boodt records that he saw
+a horn in Venice at the close of the sixteenth century which was said to
+be a genuine unicorn horn, but he believed it to be that of a gazelle.
+However, in the seventeenth century it came to be universally agreed
+that the genuine so-called unicorn’s horns were long, and of an
+ivory-like colour, tapering towards the tip with curling staves. Several
+of these horns are still kept among the treasures in churches and
+monasteries in Europe. One of the more famous and frequently mentioned
+is the horn that was preserved in the Monastery of St. Denis, near
+Paris. Cardanus, who described it in the sixteenth century, added that
+he saw it when he visited the monastery while on a journey in France. He
+states “it was so long that he could not reach the tip when he placed it
+at his side; it was not particularly thick, becoming gradually thinner
+towards the tip and curling like a snail’s shell. The colour was that of
+a hartshorn.”
+
+This horn was greatly venerated and was included in the inventory of
+treasures consisting of gold and precious stones and holy relics of the
+monastery. Two unicorn’s horns were preserved at St. Mark’s in Venice,
+and in the sixteenth century were exhibited to the people once a year on
+Ascension Day, together with the other treasures of the Duomo.
+
+There is frequent mention in records of ducal cups of unicorn’s horn
+which were used as drinking vessels by those whose lives were sought by
+poisoners. The effect of the poison was believed to be neutralized on
+coming into contact with the horn. A cup of this kind is preserved at
+Rosenberg which dates from the early part of the seventeenth century.
+
+Gesner states that the rich put a piece of horn in their cups to protect
+themselves and to cure themselves, “but it must be a fresh piece and not
+one the properties of which have been exhausted by often being placed in
+drinks. It loses its virtue like plants do.”
+
+Pomet, writing in the seventeenth century, says: “We ought to undeceive
+those who believe what we now call the unicorn’s horn was the horn of a
+land animal whereof mention was made in the Old Testament, since it is
+nothing but the horn of the Narwhal and, as to the choice of it, ought
+to be the whitest, largest and finest.”
+
+It is recorded in 1650 that a certain well in Venice was remarkable for
+its fresh water on account of two pieces of unicorn’s horn being
+concealed at the bottom.
+
+In all probability horns were used in early times as drinking vessels,
+not only on account of their suitability in shape, but also with the
+idea that they could impart their supposed health-giving properties to
+the liquid placed in them.
+
+In Denmark, in the seventeenth century, unicorn’s horn was sold in the
+apothecaries’ shops and was much esteemed by Danish physicians on
+account of its medicinal properties. In 1593 there is a record that some
+physicians in Vienna in order to prove the efficacy of unicorn’s horn as
+an antidote to poisons, experimented on a dog who was first given a dose
+of arsenic followed by one of unicorn’s horn, and the dog subsequently
+recovered, while dogs to which arsenic had been given alone died from
+the effects. Similar tests were said to have been carried out in
+Copenhagen in 1636, as the result of which it was recorded that
+“unicorn’s horn is an antidote against poisons, just as those seen at
+Paris and elsewhere.”
+
+On October 31 of that year, Drs. Fincke, Worm and Scheele met in the
+house of an apothecary called Johannes Woldenberg in Copenhagen and
+undertook the following experiment. Two pigeons and two cats were dosed
+with arsenic and corrosive sublimate. Unfortunately for the experiment,
+the pigeon which received both the poison and the antidote of unicorn’s
+horn, vomited the latter and died some hours afterwards. The cat which
+was given sublimate but no antidote, is said to have died after a short
+interval, while the cat which in addition to the poison was given a
+small dose of unicorn’s horn lived until the middle of the night. These
+and similar attempts to prove the value of the horn were made in Europe
+during the seventeenth century. It was said to be efficacious in plague
+and fever because they had certain symptoms in common with those
+produced by poisons and were called “poisonous diseases.”
+
+The Coronation Chair of the royal house of Denmark in the seventeenth
+century was partly composed of unicorn’s horns, which are said to have
+been used on account of their great value, and as being more precious
+than gold. The making of this curious chair was commenced by Frederick
+III, “the columns supporting it being composed of narwhal’s teeth and
+the chair covered with the horn wherever possible, the same being used
+for the supports for the arms.” In the time of Frederick III and
+Christian V this chair was considered one of the most wonderful and
+valuable objects in the kingdom, and was celebrated both in history and
+story. On June 7, 1671, Christian V in magnificent robes was crowned in
+it, and the feet of the throne were guarded by two silver lions. The
+bishop who crowned the king in the Castle of Fredericksborg in his
+address said, “Of mighty King Solomon, history bears witness that he
+built a throne of ivory and covered it with the finest gold; Your
+Majesty is also sitting on a costly throne which in the glory of its
+material and shape is like unto King Solomon’s throne, and the like
+thereof cannot be found in any kingdom.”
+
+From a time of great antiquity, the horn of the Indian rhinoceros has
+been reputed to possess the power of absorbing poisonous substances
+brought into contact with it.
+
+The Chinese fashioned these horns, which they still value very highly,
+into cups which are sometimes ornamented with beautiful carving. The
+tradition in China concerning the horn was, not so much that it acted as
+an antidote to poison, but that it gave a sure indication when any
+liquid placed in it contained some poisonous substance. When a poisoned
+liquid was allowed to stand in the horn the latter was said to sweat and
+change colour. It is not therefore to be wondered at that the great
+emperors of the East, whose lives were frequently attempted by poison,
+chose these horns as drinking cups.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  DRINKING CUP OF UNICORN’S HORN (XVII CENTURY).
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  [_Copyright to the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum._
+
+  ASSAY CUPS OF RHINOCEROS HORN USED TO DETECT POISON IN WINE (XVITH
+    CENTURY).
+]
+
+Rudolf II of Germany (1575–1612) fashioned a cup of rhinoceros horn for
+his own use, which is now preserved in the National Museum at
+Copenhagen. Several other vessels of rhinoceros horn are mentioned in
+Danish records, one being described as “a little flat dish of rhinoceros
+horn with a gilt foot and then gilded, with an Indian underneath.”
+
+Lemery says: “The horn and nails of the animal are both used in medicine
+and contain in them a good deal of volatile salt and oil which are
+useful to resist poison.”
+
+Pomet declares that “the horn is highly alkalescent and is also good
+against malignant fevers and destroys malignant acids which stir up the
+most pernicious diseases.”
+
+There have been certain periods in the world’s history when every
+eminent personage, king, prince, minister or favourite, was deemed in
+danger of poison, and when not a particle of food was swallowed by them
+until it had been first tasted.
+
+The traditions attached to the horn of the rhinoceros must have come to
+Europe at an early period, as we find that cups made from the horn,
+called “assay cups” were used in England as early as the fifteenth
+century in the time of Edward V.
+
+The earliest allusion to the assay cups, which were made both from the
+horn of the rhinoceros and the unicorn, is in Russell’s _Book of
+Nurture_, 1480, in which it is stated:—
+
+                   “Credence and tastynge is used
+                   for drede of poysenynge
+                   to all officers ysworne and grete
+                   othe by chargynge.”
+
+It was customary for the esquire in attendance on a distinguished person
+to first test the wine by drinking some from his assay cup. Hall, in his
+Chronicle (1550), refers to this custom as follows:—
+
+
+“The esquier whiche was accustomed to sewe and take the assaye before
+kyng Rychard.”
+
+
+“The Maior of London claymed to serue the quene with a cuppe of golde
+and a cuppe of assay of the same.”
+
+
+Gutch in 1530 alludes to
+
+             “Two little Cuppis of asseye silvar and gilt.”
+
+An assay cup of rhinoceros horn with a silver rim about 1½ in. deep,
+with a bishop’s mitre and the initials T.T. crudely engraved upon it, is
+in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum with other specimens of the
+kind. It is believed to date from the middle of the sixteenth century.
+
+On account of its association with medicine, the rhinoceros was adopted
+as the crest of the Apothecaries’ Society of London when it was founded
+in 1617.
+
+The Chinese, who appear to have ever been suspicious of being poisoned,
+also made little cups of glass about 1½ in. high which they believed
+would crack if a poisoned liquid were poured into them.
+
+There is an early tradition in India connected with bowls of pottery
+with a light greenish glaze, called Gherian ware. They are supposed to
+break into pieces if touched by poisoned food or liquid, and are said to
+have been introduced into Northern India by Mohamed Ghori in the twelfth
+century from whom they take their name.
+
+Another substance which was regarded with great veneration as an
+antidote to poisons, especially in the East, was the bezoar stone, a
+calculus found in the intestines of Persian wild goats, cows, a species
+of ape and other animals. These stones vary much in size from that of a
+small egg down to a hazelnut, and are of a yellowish brown colour.
+
+Pomet says, “If you would have the finest and best oriental bezoar, you
+must choose that which is shining, of a pleasant scent, tending to that
+of ambergris. The shape is of no consequence, whether round, smooth or
+rough, and whether white, yellow or grey, but the principal colour is
+usually an olive.”
+
+It was introduced into Eastern medicine by the Arabs, but its reputation
+is of much greater antiquity. The name is said to be of Persian origin
+and derived from the word “pad-zahr,” “an expeller of poisons,” and is
+mentioned first by Avenzoar, an Arab physician of Seville, about the
+year A.D. 1140.
+
+It was known to the Hebrews in ancient times as “Bel Zaard” which means
+the “Master,” or “every cure for poisons.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  Oriental Bezoar.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  Oriental Bezoar.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  [_Copyright._
+
+  Occidental Bezoar.
+
+  BEZOAR STONES.
+]
+
+There are several varieties of these stones, the most esteemed being the
+Oriental, which come from Persia. On dividing the calculus, it appears
+to have been formed by a deposit of calcium phosphate round some
+nucleus, such as hair or the stone of a fruit. One that is still
+preserved in the Museum of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital has a date stone
+as the nucleus. It was believed that the special virtues of the stone
+were due to some unknown plant on which the animal had fed.
+
+The Occidental, another variety of bezoar stone, is said to be obtained
+from the llamas of Peru, and a European variety is got from the chamois
+of the Swiss mountains, but these varieties never commanded the great
+value as did those from the Orient, which are said by early writers to
+have been sold for ten times their weight in gold. The Occidental bezoar
+stone is usually much larger than the Oriental and has a dull surface.
+
+Lemery mentions a bezoar stone obtained from the hog, which is of a
+whitish colour inclining to green. It is said to be produced in the gall
+of certain swine in India and is very highly esteemed by the natives.
+
+All varieties of bezoar had a reputation for counteracting the effects
+of poison. They were generally preserved in elaborate cases of pierced
+gold with a chain attached so that they could be suspended in the wine
+or liquid before it was drunk. “The Portuguese above all nations,” says
+a writer of the seventeenth century, “drive a great trade with bezoar,
+because they are always on their guard and watching one another for fear
+of poison.”
+
+As well as an antidote to poison, the bezoar came to be regarded as a
+valuable remedy for fevers and was also applied externally in skin
+diseases. It was given internally in doses of 4 to 16 grains and, in
+Portugal, in time of plague, the stones were loaned to sufferers at
+about the equivalent of 10_s._ a day.
+
+Three bezoar stones were sent by the Shah of Persia, as a royal gift, to
+the Emperor Napoleon a little over a century ago.
+
+Ambroise Paré, when surgeon to Charles IX of France, relates that one
+day, when the king was at Clermont, a Spanish nobleman brought him a
+bezoar stone which he assured him was an antidote to all poisons. The
+king sent for Paré and asked him if he knew any substance which would
+annul the effects of any poison. Paré said that could not be, for there
+were many sorts of poisons which acted in very different ways. The
+Spanish nobleman, however, maintained that this stone was a universal
+antidote and as the king was eager to test the question, the Provost of
+the Palace was sent for and asked if he had any criminal in his charge
+condemned to death. He replied that he had a cook who had stolen two
+silver dishes, who was to be hanged the next day. The offer was
+thereupon made to the cook that he should take a poison and the alleged
+antidote immediately afterwards, and if he escaped with his life he
+should go free. The cook gladly consented, and an apothecary was ordered
+to prepare a deadly draught and administer it, to be followed by a dose
+of the bezoar. This was done. The poor wretch lived for about seven
+hours in terrible agony which Paré tried in vain to relieve. After his
+death Paré made an autopsy which showed that the antidote had no effect
+at all. It was sublimate which had been given. “And,” the writer
+concludes, “the king commanded that the stone should be thrown into the
+fire; which was done.”
+
+A stone called Draconites, described by Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) as a
+shining black stone of pyramidal shape, was also believed to be antidote
+to all kinds of poisons.
+
+A cup or goblet made of electrum, an alloy composed of gold and silver
+known to the ancients, according to Pliny, had the property of revealing
+any poisonous liquid which was placed in it, by exhibiting certain
+circles like rainbows in the liquid, which it also kept sparkling and
+hissing as if on fire.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+             SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH POISONOUS PLANTS
+
+
+Many strange superstitions are associated with certain poisonous plants
+which have been handed down to us from past ages. The mysterious
+properties, especially of those which caused sleep or by supposed
+magical powers concealed in them produced delirium, were attributed by
+the ancients to a spirit or demon which dwelt in the roots of the
+plants, and various rites and ceremonies were connected with their
+gathering. The real cause of their physiological effect on the body was
+of course unknown, but the narcotic effects which from experience were
+found to produce insensibility, dreams, and frenzy made a deep
+impression on the mind.
+
+The hallucinations of the witches which we read about in the Middle
+Ages, may be compared with those of the medicine-men of many savage
+tribes to-day. In all probability they were not entirely fictitious, but
+these effects were produced by the taking of various drugs which had the
+effect of causing hallucinations and temporary insanity. Weak-minded
+women, who probably formed the greater part of the class known as
+witches, made use of an unguent with which they anointed themselves in
+preparation for the so-called “witches’ Sabbath.” Johannes Wierius, who
+was a witness of such a gathering, recorded in 1566 the composition of
+the witches’ ointment and states it contained such powerful narcotic
+poisons as mandrake, belladonna, henbane and stramonium. The absorption
+of this unguent was followed by unconsciousness and sleep, and on being
+awakened the person so anointed was fully assured that she had visited
+the “Sabbath.”
+
+The frenzies into which the sorcerers of the Middle Ages worked
+themselves may also no doubt be attributed to the action of various
+substances with similar properties.
+
+There is probably no plant around which clusters more legendary lore and
+tradition than the mandrake (_Atropa mandragora_). Sufficient has been
+recorded about it to fill volumes, and between the years 1510 and 1850
+no less than twenty-two treatises are known to have been written on the
+subject.
+
+It was known to the Babylonians over 3,000 years ago, and their women
+carried a mandrake root as a charm against sterility. The ancient
+Egyptians called it “The Phallus of the Field” and held it in the
+highest esteem. The Greeks surrounded it with strange traditions, and in
+Eastern Europe, Arabia, Palestine and Syria, it has been associated with
+mysterious rites and customs from time immemorial.
+
+Theophrastus (300 B.C.) the earliest writer on botany, alludes to the
+mandrake and records its property of inducing sleep and its use in the
+composition of love-philtres. Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, is
+stated to have compared his lethargic hearers to those who had eaten it.
+The early Greeks bestowed on it the name of Circeium, derived from the
+name of the witch Circe, as they believed that an evil spirit dwelt in
+the root. Pliny, in alluding to the mandrake, states that “he who would
+undertake the office of uprooting it should stand with his back to the
+wind, and before he begins to dig make three circles round the plant
+with the point of a sword, and then turning to the west proceed to dig
+it up.” In other countries the gathering of the root was believed to be
+attended with great danger to the individual who was sufficiently daring
+to pull it from the ground.
+
+The Greeks believed that when dragged from the earth the root gave a
+dreadful shriek and struck dead the person who had the presumption to
+pull it up. They therefore adopted the following ingenious method of
+obtaining it. A dog was allowed to fast, and was then brought near the
+plant round which was fastened a cord, the end of which was tied to the
+tail of the dog. The gatherer would then place some food within a few
+feet of the hungry animal, who in his struggles to reach it would uproot
+the plant and be killed by the evil spirit in consequence. At the moment
+of uprooting the gatherer generally sounded a horn, which was supposed
+to drown the shriek of the demon that dwelt in the plant.
+
+It is believed by some, that the mandrake is the plant alluded to in the
+Book of Genesis, which was called by the ancient Hebrews “Dudaïm,” and
+is stated to have been found by Reuben, who carried it to his mother.
+The inducement which tempted Leah to part with it proves the value set
+upon the plant at this time. Maundrell found it used in the
+neighbourhood of Aleppo as described in the Bible and states that the
+Arabs call it “tuphac el sheitan.” The Greeks sometimes alluded to Venus
+as Mandragoritis and the fruit of the plant was popularly termed “place
+of love.” Pythagoras calls the mandrake “Anthropomorphum,” and Columella
+terms it “semihomo.”
+
+Dioscorides refers to it in the first century, and mentions that it is
+used for love charms and philtres. In the earliest MS. of his work,
+written in the fifth century, and which is still preserved in Vienna,
+there is a drawing in colour depicting Euresis, the goddess of
+discovery, presenting the author with a mandrake root. The root is in
+human form with five leaves growing out of the head, and near by on the
+ground is a dog in the agonies of death.
+
+Josephus records the custom in a Jewish village of pulling up the root
+by means of the dog, which was killed by the shriek from the demon which
+resided in it. This tradition appears to have been attached to the
+gathering of the mandrake in nearly every country where it was grown.
+
+Many of the traditions and superstitions connected with the plant appear
+to have arisen from the curious natural shape of the root, which often
+bears a strong resemblance to the human form. This similitude was turned
+to account by those who dealt in the plant, as they found they obtained
+a greater value after manipulating it to make the features and limbs
+more perfectly resemble a man or a woman.
+
+Beyond the effects attributed to it by tradition, the mandrake has
+undoubted powerful narcotic properties. Its active principle, discovered
+by Ahrens, is called mandragorine, and is said to be a mixture of bases
+of which hyoscyamine is the chief, mixed with scopolamine. The ancients
+attributed powerful aphrodisiacal virtues to the root and claimed that
+it could produce a condition of sexual excitement which was often
+attributed to natural and magical powers, and for this reason included
+it in the composition of their love-philtres. It was among the more
+important narcotic drugs employed by the ancients for producing
+anæsthesia, and Dioscorides gives the formula for a wine made by
+infusing the root in Cyprus wine, which was directed to be administered
+before amputation of a limb or before the application of hot cautery.
+
+Pliny remarks that mandrake “is taken against serpents and before
+cutting and puncture, lest they be felt. Sometimes the smell is
+sufficient,” and Apuleius, writing in the second century, claims that
+half an ounce with wine is sufficient to make a person insensible, even
+to the pain of amputation.
+
+Lyman believes it was mandragora wine mixed with myrrh that was offered
+to Christ on the Cross, as it was commonly given to those who suffered
+death by crucifixion to allay in some degree their terrible agonies.
+
+In Shakespeare’s time the mandrake still kept its place in estimation as
+a narcotic. Thus we have Cleopatra asking for the drug that she may
+“sleep out this great gap of time,” while her Antony is away, and Iago,
+whilst the poison begins to work in the mind of Othello, exclaims
+
+             “Not poppy, nor mandragora
+             Nor all the drowsy syrups of this world
+             Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep”
+
+In the sixteenth century the Germans called these human-like roots
+Abrunes or Alraun, considering them very valuable and treating them with
+the greatest veneration. After fashioning them as near as possible to
+the form of a man or woman, they dressed them every day and consulted
+them as oracles. They were introduced into England in the time of Henry
+VIII, and met with ready purchasers. To increase their value and
+importance, the roots were said by the vendors to be produced from the
+flesh of criminals which fell from the gibbet, and that they only grew
+beneath the gallows:—
+
+Lord Bacon notices their use in the following words:—
+
+
+“Some plants there are, but rare, that have a morsie or downie root and
+likewise that have a number of threads like beards, as mandrakes,
+whereof witches and impostours make an ugly image, giving it the form of
+a face at the top of the root, and these strings to make a broad beard
+down to the foot.”
+
+
+Madame de Genlis states that “the mandrake roots should be wrapped in a
+sheet, for that then they will bring increasing good luck.”
+
+The plant is still used medicinally in China, where it is said to be
+largely used by the Mandarins, who believe it will give them increased
+intellectual powers and prolong their lives.
+
+The origin of Alraun, the German name for the mandrake root, has been
+variously explained. Tacitus speaks of a formidable people among the
+Germans called Aurinia, believed to be endowed with magical powers, and
+“some attribute Allrun to their name on account of their use of the
+plant in sorcery. They are the same of whom Aventinus speaks as
+loose-haired, bare-legged witches who would slay a man, drink his blood
+from his skull and divine the future from his mangled remains.” There is
+some reason to believe, however, that the word is simply a later form of
+the Gothic Allrune, and that it is related to rune. The French word
+Mandragloire is simply a part of the Greek word Mandragora, blended with
+the name of the old French fairy Magloire. In Germany and France the
+superstition took the following form. The mandrake was said to spring up
+where the presence of a criminal had polluted the ground. It was sure to
+be found near a gallows, and so was popularly called in Germany
+Galgemännlein. It was to be obtained generally in the way described by
+Josephus, but, it was added, one must sign the cross three times over
+the plant before pulling it up. Having got the root it must be bathed
+every Friday, kept in a white cloth in a box and then it would procure
+manifold benefits. There is a letter still preserved from a burgess of
+Leipzig to his brother at Riga written in 1675, which shows the popular
+notion of the mandrake at that time and its various names. It reads:—
+
+
+“Brotherly love and truth and all good wishes to thee dear brother. I
+have thy letter and have made out from it enough to understand that thou
+dear brother in thy home affairs hast suffered great sorrow; that thy
+children, cows, swine, sheep and horses, have all died; thy wine and
+beer soured in thy cellar, and thy provender destroyed and that thou
+dwellest with thy wife in great contention; which is all grievous to
+hear. I have therefore gone to those who understand such things to find
+what is needed and have asked them why thou art so unlucky. They have
+told me that these evils proceed not from God but from wicked people;
+and they know what will help thee. If thou hast a Mandrake (Allruniken
+oder Erdmannikin) and bring it into thy house, thou shalt have good
+fortune. So I have taken the pains for thy sake to go to those who have
+such things and to our executioner have paid 64 thalers and a piece of
+gold drinkgelt to his servant, and this (Mandrake) dear brother I send
+thee, and thou must keep it as I shall tell in this letter. When thou
+hast the Erdman in thy house let it rest three days without approaching
+it; then place it in warm water. With the water afterwards sprinkle the
+animals and sills of the house going all over, and soon it shall go
+better with thee and thou shalt come to thy own if thou serve
+Erdmannikin right. Bathe it four times every year and as often wrap it
+in silk cloth and lay it among thy best things and thou need do no more.
+The Bath in which it has been bathed is especially good. If a woman is
+in child pain and cannot bear, if she drinks a spoonful she will be
+delivered with joy and thankfulness. And when thou goest to law put
+Erdman under thy right arm and thou shalt succeed whether right or
+wrong. Now dear brother this Erdmannikin I send with all love and faith
+to thee for a happy new year. Let it be kept and it may do the same for
+thy children’s children. God keep thee—Leipzig, Sunday before fastnight,
+75 Hans, N.”
+
+
+It is certainly remarkable that in 1675 so much as seventy-five thalers
+could be obtained for one of these little figures, but is probable that
+the dealing in them had become very secret on account of the danger
+incurred of being suspected of witchcraft. In 1630 three women were
+executed in Hamburg on this account. Matthiolus, in his commentary on
+Dioscorides, describes the great ingenuity which had been reached in the
+carving of the root into the human semblance and the training of little
+shoots from seeds planted in it which were manipulated so as to look
+like hair. The same ingenuity was employed to invest each figure with a
+marvellous legend of its origin or potency.
+
+A haunted spot is shown in Lower Würtemberg where a merchant of Ulm
+tried vainly to get rid of his Galgemännlein, and for a long time a
+house stood in Frankfort which was avoided because it was related, that
+there a baker woman had perished horribly with a mandrake in her
+possession, which she had long tried to be rid of.
+
+This diabolical phase of the superstition was especially strong in
+France and England. It was believed by many that Joan of Arc had one of
+the mandrake figures in her possession, and she was even asked by the
+judge at her trial whether this was not the case; but she disclaimed any
+knowledge of the mandrake. At Romorantin, Margaret Ragum Bouchery, the
+wife of a Moor, was hanged as a witch in 1603, the charge against her
+being that she kept and fed daily a living mandrake fiend which was
+stated to be in the form of a female ape.
+
+Superstitions concerning the mandrake were strong throughout the South
+of England, the belief being that it had a human heart at its root. It
+was believed that in some places it was perpetually watched over by
+Satan, and if pulled up at certain holy times and with certain
+invocations, the Evil Spirit would appear to do the bidding of the
+practitioner. In the mining regions of Germany the mandrake was supposed
+to reach down to the cobolds beneath the earth, and shrieked when it was
+torn up. In Silesia, Thuringia, the Tyrol and Bohemia, it is still
+connected with the idea of subterranean treasures, and in the Hartz,
+mandrake decoction is poured on animals to prevent swellings.
+
+In 1429 the use of mandrakes as amulets was so general in France that
+Friar Richard furiously denounced them and vast numbers were burned. La
+Fontaine’s fable “La Mandragore,” copied from Machiavel’s comedy of the
+same title, turns upon the supposed potency of the plant to produce
+children. The Tyrolese believe that it not only reveals treasures, but
+prevents wicked possessions, and renders the possessor proof against
+blows. In the Alpine regions it is laid on the bed to prevent nightmare,
+and carried to secure the mountaineer against robbers and bad weather.
+
+The mandrake is called in Iceland thjofarot (thieves’ root) and is
+believed to spring from the froth of the mouth of one who has been
+hanged or the cairn where he has been buried.
+
+In Kent the mandrake may be occasionally found kept by women to prevent
+sterility, and the superstition still survives in Greece, where pieces
+of the root are worn by young people as love charms. Mandrake roots are
+also carried in Syria and Turkey by women against sterility and are sold
+to-day in the bazaars of Constantinople.
+
+Of the poisonous plants known to the ancients, aconite may rightly be
+claimed to be one of the most important. It has been called the “Queen
+Mother of Poisons” and has been a matter of comment and note by early
+historians for over two thousand years. Species of the plant were known
+as wolf’s bane, leopard’s bane, and women’s bane. Its root was compared
+by some of the ancient botanists to sea crabfish, by others to a
+scorpion; “for,” says one writer, “the root doth turn and crook inward
+in manner of a scorpion’s taile.” Various origins are given to the name
+aconite; some attribute it to the fact that it grows quite naturally
+upon bare and naked rocks, which the Greeks call Aconas. Theophrastus
+says the name is derived from Aconæ, “a certain towne, neer to which it
+groweth abundantly.” It is also said to have been derived from the Greek
+word for javelin or arrow, because “some barbarous nations employed the
+juice to poison their arrows and spears.”
+
+In ancient times apparently quite a number of poisonous plants were
+described under the name of aconite, as well as the _Aconitum napellus_,
+the species now employed in medicine. Its deadly effects are alluded to
+by Ovid, Virgil and Juvenal. Plutarch, in referring to the death of
+Orodes, says: “He fell into a disease that became a dropsie after he had
+lost his son Pacorus who was slain in a battle by the Romans. Phraates,
+his second son, thinking to set his father forwards gave him a drink of
+the juice of Aconitum. The dropsie received the poison and the one drave
+the other out of Orodes’ body and set him on foot again.”
+
+Hanbury says the ancients were well aware of the poisonous properties of
+aconite, though the various species were not more exactly distinguished
+until the close of the Middle Ages. It was used by the Chinese in
+ancient times and is still employed by the less civilized of the hill
+tribes of India as an arrow poison. It is said also to have been used
+for the same purpose by the aborigines of ancient Gaul. It is mentioned
+in the well-known ancient Welsh MS. of “The Physicians of Myddvai,”
+written in the thirteenth century, as “one of the plants that every
+physician is to grow.”
+
+Matthiolus, in his commentary on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides,
+relates the results of certain experiments carried out by order of Pope
+Clement VII, on the persons of two criminals condemned to death, for the
+purpose of testing the value of an antidote to aconite, which he
+describes as the most deadly of all known poisons. One of the criminals
+was used as a test and the other for control experiment.
+
+The root, which contains the largest proportion of the active principle
+called aconitine, has often caused fatal results in being mistaken for
+that of horse-radish. It had rarely been used for criminal purposes
+until Lamson in 1881 employed the alkaloid to take the life of Percy
+Malcolm John. In connection with aconitine it is related that
+Christison, the famous toxicologist, who was professor of Medical
+Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh, when giving evidence in a
+certain case as to the recognition of poisonous substances sought for in
+the body after death, said to the judge, “My Lord, there is but one
+deadly agent of this kind which we cannot satisfactorily trace in the
+human body after death, and that is—” when the Judge sharply interrupted
+him with, “Stop, stop, please, Dr. Christison. It is much better that
+the public should not know it.” Years afterwards it was vividly recalled
+to the memory of his then student class, that Lamson, who was a member
+of his audience as a medical student, and exceptionally assiduous in
+note-taking, was present on one of the occasions when Professor
+Christison was explaining to his class that the real name of the poison
+which the Court had prevented him from naming was “aconitine.”
+
+It is satisfactory to record that toxicology has advanced since the days
+of Christison, for Sir Thomas Stevenson, who gave evidence for the Crown
+at Lamson’s trial, was able to prove by clinical tests that the boy John
+had been poisoned by aconitine, and his murderer, Dr. Lamson, suffered
+the extreme penalty of the law.
+
+The aconite now used for medicinal purposes is derived from the
+_Aconitum napellus_, chiefly grown in Britain. It is also found in the
+mountainous districts of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere.
+It grows on the Alps, the Pyrenees, the mountains of Germany and Austria
+and also in Denmark and Sweden. On the Himalayas it is found at 10,000
+to 16,000 feet above the sea-level. Both the root and the leaves are
+used medicinally. Aconite contains several alkaloids, all of which are
+powerful poisons, the chief of these being aconitine—one of the most
+deadly poisons known—the fiftieth part of a grain of which has nearly
+caused death. Indian aconite known as “Bish” is chiefly derived from
+_Aconitum ferox_—a native of high altitude in the Himalaya regions—and
+is mentioned by the Persian physician, Alhervi, in the tenth century,
+and also by many early Arabian writers on medicine. Ali Ben Isa
+pronounced it to be the most rapid of deadly poisons, and describes the
+symptoms with tolerable correctness. The chief symptoms of poisoning by
+aconite are heat, numbness and tingling in the mouth and throat,
+giddiness, and loss of muscular power. The pupils become dilated, the
+skin cold and pulse feeble, with oppressed breathing and dread of
+approaching death. Finally, numbness and paralysis come on, rapidly
+followed by death in a few sudden gasps. The poison being extremely
+rapid in effect, immediate action is absolutely necessary to save life.
+
+Several species of aconite grow plentifully in India, where it has been
+used for centuries. It is found growing, among other places, in the
+Singalilas, a mountain range which forms the watershed boundary between
+Nepal and British territory, north-west of Darjiling. _Aconitum
+palmatum_ is collected in abundance at Tongloo, the southern termination
+of the Singalilas, but _Aconitum napellus_, which is more poisonous,
+requires a higher elevation in which to thrive. The natives, especially
+the hill tribes, take aconite in the crude state as a remedy for various
+ailments, and every Bhotiah has a few dried roots put away in some
+secure corner of his hut.
+
+Early in October, when the aconite root has matured, the collecting
+begins, and one of the leading men of the village organizes a party
+composed of both sexes. He, for the time, becomes their leader, settles
+all disputes and quarrels while out in camp, and, while keeping an
+account of general expenses, supplies to each all necessaries in the way
+of food. Before starting he has to obtain a ‘permit’ from the Forest
+Department, the charge for which is fifteen rupees. Carefully wrapping
+the permit in a rag and placing it in his network bag of valuables, he
+collects his band together, and they set out for the higher ranges. As
+soon as they arrive at the slopes where aconite is growing plentifully,
+they set to work to build bamboo huts about five feet high, roofing them
+with leaves. After the morning meal they all set off for the lower
+slopes, each with his basket and spade over his shoulder. But before the
+actual work is commenced, a ceremony has to be performed. The Bhotiahs,
+like the Nepalese, have a belief that the presiding demon of the hills
+imprisons evil spirits in the aconite plant, which fly out as soon as it
+is dug up, and inflict dire calamity on the digger. In order, therefore,
+to counteract this, every morning before the digging commences, the lama
+or headman, standing on a convenient hill with his followers around him,
+makes a fire and burns some dhuna, a native resin, then, inserting two
+fingers in his mouth, blows several shrill whistles. All wait in
+breathless silence till an answering whistle is heard, which may be an
+echo or the cry of some bird. Whatever it may be, it is taken as the
+dying dirge of the evil spirits, and digging begins at once.
+
+The roots, after being shaken from the soil, are placed in the baskets,
+which on return to the encampments are emptied and formed into heaps,
+and covered with bamboo leaves to protect them from the frost. During
+the day they are spread out in the sun to dry. When a sufficient
+quantity has been collected and dried thus, bamboo frames are fixed up
+with a fire below, on which the aconite is placed when the flame has
+died out. The one who looks after the drying process has a cloth tied
+round his head covering the nose, as the constant inhalation of the
+fumes causes a feeling of heaviness and dizziness in the head. This
+process is carried on three or four days until the roots are dried. When
+sufficient have been collected and dried they are packed in baskets.
+These are shouldered, and with their cooking utensils and blankets on
+the top, the whole band set their faces homeward. On arrival at the
+commercial centre at the termination of their march the results of the
+expedition are soon sold, and each man is handed his share of the
+profits, according to the amount of aconite he has collected.
+
+
+Hemlock, or cicuta, was a classical poison well known to the ancients.
+References are made to it in Greek literature as early as the fourth or
+fifth century B.C. The old Roman name of Conium was Cicuta, but it was
+applied in the sixteenth century by Gesner to other varieties of the
+plant, such as _cicuta virosa_, which is of a non-poisonous nature. Its
+use by the ancient Greeks as a State poison has already been fully
+described in a preceding chapter. It was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine,
+and is mentioned in the vocabulary of Alfric as early as the tenth
+century. The name “Hemlock” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words “hem,”
+border or shore, and “leac.” Its chief active principle, conine, is a
+colourless oily liquid, which resembles nicotine in its action. It is to
+Linnæus we owe the use of the classical Greek name _Conium maculatum_ in
+1737.
+
+Another plant around which clustered many superstitions in ancient times
+was black hellebore, called Melampus root, or Christmas Rose. It is said
+to have taken its name from Melampus, a traditionary physician, who is
+said to have flourished at Pylus about 1530 B.C. He is reputed to have
+cured the daughters of Proetus, King of Argus, of mental derangement and
+leprosy with hellebore. Pliny states that the daughters of Proetus were
+restored to their senses by drinking the milk of goats which had fed on
+hellebore. Black hellebore root was used by the ancients to hallow their
+dwellings, and they believed that by strewing it about it would drive
+away evil spirits. This ceremony was performed with great devotion, and
+accompanied with the singing of solemn hymns. They also blessed their
+cattle with hellebore in the same manner to keep them free from the
+spells of the wicked. For these purposes it was dug up with many
+religious ceremonies—such as drawing a circle round the plant with a
+sword; then, turning to the East, a humble prayer was finally offered up
+by the devotee to Apollo and Æsculapius for leave to dig up the root.
+The flight of the eagle was particularly attended to during the
+ceremony, for should this bird approach near the spot during the
+celebration of the rite, it was considered so ominous as to predict the
+certain death of the person who uprooted the plant in the course of the
+year. Others ate garlic previous to the rite, which was supposed to
+counteract the poisonous effluvia of the plant. Dioscorides relates that
+when Carneades, the Cyrenaic philosopher, undertook to answer the books
+of Zeno, he sharpened his wit and quickened his spirit by purging his
+head with powdered hellebore, and it is of this plant Juvenal
+sarcastically observes “Misers need a double dose of hellebore.” It is
+stated that the Gauls never went to the chase without rubbing the point
+of their arrows with this herb, believing that it would render the game
+killed with them all the more tender.
+
+Hyoscyamus, commonly called henbane, is a herb which has been employed
+in medicine from early times. Benedictus Crispus, Archbishop of Milan,
+in a work written shortly before A.D. 681, alludes to it under the name
+of hyoscamus and symphoniaca, and in the tenth century its virtues are
+recorded in the works of Macer Floridus. In the early Anglo-Saxon
+manuscripts it is called henbell and sometimes belene. In a French
+herbal of the fifteenth century it is called hanibane or hanebane. From
+ancient times it has been employed as a sedative and anodyne for
+producing sleep, although hallucinations sometimes accompany its use.
+Its chief active principles are hyoscyamine and hyoscine, both of which
+are very powerful poisons. An old tradition states, that once in the
+refectory of an ancient monastery, the monks were served in error by the
+cook with henbane instead of some harmless vegetable. After partaking of
+the dish they were seized with the most extraordinary hallucinations. At
+midnight one monk sounded the bell for matins, while others walked in
+the chapel and opened their books, but could not read. Others sang
+roystering drinking songs and performed mountebank antics, which
+convulsed the others with uncontrollable laughter, and the pious
+monastery for the nonce was turned into a lunatic asylum.
+
+There are few drugs used to-day with a more interesting history than
+opium. It figures not only in history but also in romance and crime. It
+has been associated with the acquisition of wealth and prosperity and
+with the most terrible degradation. Opium has been the cause of war, of
+bitter feeling and punishments, and whilst it has enslaved many with the
+most pleasurable hallucinations, and relieved the most agonizing pains,
+it is capable of reducing human beings to the level of the beasts.
+
+It is mentioned in the Papyrus Ebers, one of the earliest known records
+of medicine, as having been known and used by the Egyptians about 1550
+years B.C. It is described by Theophrastus as having been used by the
+Greeks 300 years B.C. and is supposed to have formed the chief
+ingredient in the potion known as “Nepenthe” which Helen of Troy gave to
+the guests of Menelaus to drive away their care. This conjecture
+receives support from Homer, who states that Nepenthe was obtained from
+Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. According to Prosper Alpinus, the
+Egyptians were practised opium eaters and were often faint and languid
+through the want of it. They prepared and drank it in the form of
+“Cretic Wine,” which they flavoured and made hotter by the addition of
+pepper and other aromatics. Scribonius Largus (A.D. 40) mentions the
+method of preparing opium and points out that the true drug is derived
+from the capsules of the poppy and not from the foliage of the plant.
+
+Dioscorides, in the same century, describes how the capsules from which
+the drug is collected should be cut and the milky juices collected, and
+one can infer from his statements that the collection of opium was at
+that time a source of industry in Asia Minor. Pliny gives an account of
+“opion,” while it is also mentioned by Celsus, a Roman medical writer of
+the first century, and by several other Latin authors, who allude to it
+by the quaint name of “poppy tears.”
+
+It was well known to the Arabs, who transmitted their knowledge of its
+properties first to the Persians and then to other nations of the East.
+In India its introduction would appear to be connected with the spread
+of Mahommedanism, and may have been favoured by their prohibition of the
+use of wine. The earliest mention of opium in connection with India
+occurs in the travels of Barbosa, who visited Calicut and the Malabar
+Coast in 1511, and who gives it a prominent place with other valuable
+drugs. Pyres, the first ambassador from Europe to China in 1516, speaks
+of the opium of Egypt, Cambay, and the kingdom of Coûs (Kus Bahar, S.W.
+Bhotan in Bengal), and states it was eaten by “the kings and lords, and
+even the common people, though not so much because it costs dear.” In
+the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries its praises were sung by poets of
+the Far East.
+
+It is believed that opium was introduced by the Arabs into both India
+and China, as they are known to have traded with the southern parts of
+the empire as early as the ninth century. In the eighteenth century the
+Chinese marketed the drug in their junks as a return cargo from India,
+and it was at that time almost exclusively used as a remedy for
+dysentery, but the trade grew, and in 1787 the importation reached a
+thousand chests, for some years most of the trade being in the hands of
+the Portuguese.
+
+The East India Company in 1780 opened an opium depot with two small
+vessels at Lark’s Bay, Macao. The Chinese authorities began to complain
+of these two ships in 1793, but the traffic still increased, until they
+issued an edict forbidding any vessel having opium on board to enter the
+Canton River. This led to political differences which culminated in the
+war that was called the “Opium War.” It was concluded by the Treaty of
+Nankin, after which five ports of China were opened to foreign trade,
+opium being admitted as a legalized import in 1858.
+
+Opium smoking does not appear to have been known in China until the
+latter part of the seventeenth century, but within a hundred years it
+spread like the tentacles of an octopus over the entire empire. At this
+time the authorities became greatly alarmed at the injurious effects
+among the people following the abuse of opium. Suicides became frequent
+and the high officials and all classes were becoming rapid slaves to the
+habit; the sale rose from 2,300 chests in 1788 to 17,500 in 1836. The
+first edict was issued in 1796 and since that time they have been
+innumerable, but the traffic increased and is still almost universally
+carried on. In 1879 in the State of Amoy and its adjacent towns the
+proportion of opium smokers was estimated at from fifteen to twenty per
+cent. of the total population.
+
+With regard to the introduction of opium into India, the Mahommedans,
+once having established its use, began to make it a source of income.
+The Great Mogul monopolized the opium production and trade, and derived
+an immense income from its sale. From reliable reports it appears that
+in India “the largest amount of opium is produced in the central tract
+of the Ganges, extending from Dinapore in the east to Agra in the west,
+and from Gorakhpur in the north to Hazaribagh in the south, comprising
+an area of about six hundred miles long and two hundred miles broad.” In
+the district of Bengal, the Government has the monopoly of the opium
+industry, and the districts are divided into two agencies, Behar and
+Benares, which are under the control of officers residing in Patna and
+Ghazipur. In 1883 the number of acres under poppy cultivation in Behar
+was 463,829, and the Benares district 412,625; but the export of opium
+has somewhat diminished since then. Anyone may undertake the industry,
+but cultivators are obliged to sell the opium exclusively to the
+Government agencies, at a price which is fixed beforehand by the
+officials. The Government sells the ready goods to merchants at a much
+higher price, which difference is paid by the country to which the opium
+is exported. In India itself, the sale of opium is restricted to
+licensed shopkeepers, a practice which has proved to be useful, because
+in some places, when the licensed shops have been closed, a greater
+number of unlicensed and secret places have sprung up, and have made the
+contract insufficient.
+
+The opium question is so complex in its nature, and is so largely
+influenced by the habits and constitution of those nations who are
+addicted to its use, that it is obvious that only those with skilled
+medical knowledge, who are on the spot and have lived and had a daily
+experience of the people, are in a proper position to deal with the
+question. So much has been written by religious enthusiasts, and other
+persons totally ignorant of the nature and properties of the drug, that
+one almost hesitates to touch upon the subject.
+
+The following facts have been furnished by reliable medical authorities,
+who are really in a position to judge on the matter.
+
+The cause which led to the use of this narcotic drug by the races of the
+East, as already stated, may have been primarily due to the prohibition
+of wine by the Moslems, but more likely on account of its remedial or
+protective properties being needed by a race subject to malaria and
+kindred diseases, and to counteract the effect of the hot climate to
+which they are exposed. It is a remedy at hand, and would seem to be one
+to which they at once fly. The evil lies more in the smoking than the
+eating of the drug, the former habit being more prevalent in China, and
+has the more demoralizing effect. The extent of its use in the East
+varies according to the geographical and social differences of the
+people, and it is used in various degrees of moderation and excess.
+
+The drug is employed in various forms, according to the class of people
+who consume it. In India it is largely used in the crude state, and is
+sold at about two annas a drachm, in small square pieces. The opium
+eater will take two or three grains and roll them into the form of a
+pill between his fingers, and then chew or swallow it, often twenty
+times in the day. It is also used in a liquid form called Kusamba, made
+by macerating opium in rose water; others boil it with milk, then
+collect the cream and eat it. The varieties for smoking are known as
+Chundoo and Mudat, the former being a very impure extract of a fairly
+stiff consistency, and the latter made from the refuse of Chundoo, of
+which it largely consists; but being much cheaper, is chiefly used by
+the low-class Hindus and Mahomedans. From two to four grains a day may
+be called a moderate use of the crude drug. The poorer people regularly
+give it to children up to two years of age, to keep them quiet, also as
+a preventive against such complaints as enteritis, which is very common
+in the East; and so before youth is reached they become inured to its
+action. Licences to sell the drug are sold to the highest bidder at the
+opium auctions, the licensee having the privilege of supplying a certain
+number of small dealers.
+
+The Chinese smoker usually lays himself down on his side, with his head
+supported by a pillow. On the straw mat beside him between his
+doubled-up knees and his nose, a small glass oil lamp, covered with a
+glass shade, is burning. Close to this is a tray, containing a small
+round box, holding the drug, a straight piece of wire used for
+manipulating it, a knife to scrape up the fragments, and the pipe used
+for smoking. The latter is about two feet long, with a nose of about
+half an inch in diameter, and is not unlike the stem of a flute before
+it is fitted. About two inches from the bottom of the tube, is a closed
+cup or bowl of earthenware or stone, having a central perforation. To
+charge the pipe, a small portion of the drug (weighing a few grains) is
+picked up with the wire, kneaded and rolled in the closed surface of the
+cup, then heated in the flame of the lamp till it swells. This is rolled
+up and again manipulated, then finally placed in the aperture in the
+surface of the bowl. It is then lighted from the lamp, and the smoke
+drawn into the lungs through the tube till the first charge is
+exhausted.
+
+In a report made by the _British Medical Journal_ concerning the use of
+opium in India, from the evidence of medical men long resident in that
+country, there seems a general consensus of opinion that opium eating,
+in the majority of cases, exercises no unfavourable influence on the
+people who indulge in the habit, and that it is a prophylactic against
+fever, and prevents the natives from malaria and excessive fatigue.
+There is no comparison between the effects of the opium habit and the
+habitual use of alcohol. English people cannot judge, from their own
+standard, the manners and customs of people living under conditions with
+which they are unacquainted. While we look upon opium as a narcotic, the
+Hindu uses it as a stimulant to enable him to go through hard work on
+the smallest quantity possible of food. With reference to the measures
+suggested by the Committee of the League of Nations for the suppression
+of the use of opium in India, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar has recently
+declared that it would be impossible to carry them out. It was a habit
+among working men who needed opium, just as the European wanted tobacco.
+In Persia, at the present time, according to Wills, nine out of ten of
+the aged, take from one to five grains of the drug daily. It is largely
+used by the native physicians. It does not appear that the moderate use
+of Persian opium in the country itself is deleterious. Opium smoking is
+almost unknown, and when it is smoked, it is, as a rule, by a doctor’s
+orders. The opium pillbox—a tiny box of silver—is as common in Persia as
+the snuffbox was once with us. Most men of forty in the middle and upper
+classes take from a grain to a grain and a half, divided into two pills,
+one in the afternoon and one at night. The majority of authorities agree
+that opium smoking as a habit is much more harmful and attended with
+much more demoralizing influences than opium eating; but either habit is
+undoubtedly harmful to Europeans, and when once formed, is extremely
+difficult to break.
+
+Paracelsus is generally credited with being the originator of the word
+“laudanum,” the name by which tincture of opium is commonly known. Yet
+there seems little doubt the word was first applied to the gum of the
+cistus. Clusius, in his _Rariorum Plantarum Historia_, states: “The gum
+of the cistus is called in Greek and Latin, ladanum, and in shops
+laudanum.” It is therefore very likely that the secret preparation
+originated by Paracelsus which he called laudanum, was composed of the
+gum of the cistus as well as opium, and that he adopted the title from
+the former ingredient.
+
+Sir Henry Holland, in his Recollections,[5] relates that Mehemet Ali,
+whom he visited, brought the conversation round to poisons. It ended by
+Mehemet Ali asking him point-blank whether he knew of any poison which,
+put on the mouthpiece of a pipe or given in coffee, might slowly and
+silently kill, leaving no note behind. Holland instantly answered that
+“as a physician he had studied how to save life, not destroy it.” This
+reply, he added, was probably faithfully translated to Mehemet Ali, for
+he dropped the subject abruptly, and never afterwards reverted to it.
+Desgenettes, when it was suggested to him by Napoleon that he should
+poison the plague-stricken soldiers at Jaffa, curtly answered that it
+was his business to prolong life, not to kill.
+
+Footnote 5:
+
+  _Recollections of Past Life_, Sir Henry Holland.
+
+When he was driven from Leipzig in defeat and disaster, culminating in
+his abdication at Fontainebleau, it is said Napoleon attempted to end
+his life by means of opium. During the retreat from Moscow the Emperor
+requested his physician to provide him with means to prevent his falling
+into the hands of the enemy alive, and was supplied with a drug which he
+carried in a small packet suspended round his neck. Either from the
+poison losing its properties or having become innocuous, it is said only
+to have thrown Napoleon, after he took it, into a deep sleep, from which
+he awoke in spasms.
+
+The Kiowa and other Mexican Indians use the fruit of the _Anhelonium
+Lewinii_, which they call “mescal buttons,” to produce a species of
+intoxication and stimulation during certain of their religious
+ceremonies. The effects of this fruit, which, like Indian hemp, varies
+considerably in different individuals, are very peculiar, and have been
+described by Lewin, Prentiss and Morgan.
+
+The eating of the fruit first results in a state of strange excitement
+and great exuberance of spirits, accompanied by volubility in speech.
+This is shortly followed by a stage of intoxication in which the sight
+is affected in a very extraordinary manner, consisting of a
+kaleidoscopic play of colours ever in motion, of every possible shade
+and tint, and these constantly changing. The pupils of the eyes are
+widely dilated, cutaneous sensation is blunted and thoughts seem to
+flash through the brain with extraordinary rapidity. The colour visions
+are generally only seen with closed eyes, but the colouring of all
+external objects is exaggerated. Sometimes there is also an
+indescribable sensation of dual existence.
+
+Some years ago Havelock Ellis published an account of the use and his
+personal experiences of the properties of mescal buttons. The Mexican
+Indians treat this cactus with great veneration, gathering it with
+uncovered heads and amid clouds of incense.
+
+The celebration of the rite is usually held on a Saturday night, when
+seated in a circle around a large camp fire, for the visions are said to
+be most intense by flickering firelight. The men pray for “a good
+intoxication,” and then the leader passes the drug around. Throughout
+the night the men sit quietly round the fire in a state of reverie,
+absorbed in colour visions, amid continual singing and beating of drums
+by assistants. The effects do not pass off till the following noon, when
+they get up and go about their business with apparently no depression or
+other after-effects.
+
+After taking three of the buttons in small fragments by pouring boiling
+water on them twice and drinking the infusion thrice at intervals of an
+hour, Ellis states that the phenomena of mescal intoxication are merely
+the saturnalia of the specific senses and chiefly an orgy of vision.
+
+After a transient consciousness of energy, he felt faint and giddy, pale
+violet shadows floated before him, suggesting, without any definite
+form, pictures. The air seemed to be filled with a vague perfume, then
+he saw glorious fields of jewels which sprang into flower-like shapes
+before his gaze, and then turned into butterfly forms.
+
+“I was further impressed,” he says, “not only by the brilliance and
+delicate beauty of their colours, but even more by their lovely and
+various textures.”
+
+A friend, to whom he gave some of the drug, experienced a pain at the
+heart and a sensation of imminent death, then with the suddenness of a
+neuralgic pain the back of his head seemed to open and emit streams of
+bright colour. “I had the sensation of the skin disappearing from the
+brow; any movement sent out streams of blue flames of wondrous beauty.”
+
+The Mexicans also make a drink from the mescal, which is distilled from
+the juice of the plant, and during their social entertainments swallow
+it in copious draughts. Its effects are said to be highly intoxicating,
+and according to the reports of authorities 90 per cent. of the crimes
+perpetrated in the ranches and villages are due to this poisonous
+liquid.
+
+Recent investigation into the pharmacology of the mescal plant prove it
+to be a poison of a very powerful nature. Large doses produce complete
+paralysis, and death is caused by respiratory failure.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+                  THE POISON LORE OF TOADS AND SPIDERS
+
+
+From early times the toad has had an unenviable reputation and has been
+suspected of poisonous properties. Some of the early historians
+attribute the death of King John of England to a friar who placed a toad
+in his cup of wine. The story is no doubt fictitious, but there is some
+ground for the evil reputation that has so long been associated with
+this unlovely reptile. The venom of some toads is believed to possess
+poisonous properties in certain countries throughout the world, and some
+species are said to be particularly virulent. A few years ago Phisalix
+and Bertrand undertook an investigation to ascertain if there was any
+truth in the story of the poisonous properties attributed to toads. They
+succeeded in extracting two powerful principles from the parotid gland
+and skin of the common toad. One of these was found to act on the heart
+in a similar manner to digitalis, and the other known as bufotenine
+exercises a powerful paralysing action on the nerve centres.
+
+The _Ceratophrys ornata_, a toad found in South America, is of a very
+poisonous nature. It will bite anything that comes in its way and then
+hang on with the tenacity of a bulldog, poisoning the blood with its
+glandular secretion. Death may follow its bite, and it has been known to
+kill a horse by gripping him by the nose, while the animal was cropping
+grass.
+
+Shakespeare alludes to the evil reputation of the toad in two of his
+plays and the
+
+                    “Toad, that under cold stone,
+                    Days and nights went thirty-one
+                    Swelter’d venom sleeping got,”
+
+formed an ingredient in the witches’ hell-broth in “Macbeth.” When
+dropped into the wine cup it was believed to act with deadly effect on
+those who drank its contents.
+
+In connection with the poison of the toad there is an interesting record
+on a medical diploma at present in the Library of Ferrara, which was
+granted to one Generoso Marini in 1642. Marini appears to have made an
+application for a diploma of medicine and the judges who had the power
+of granting such degrees, ordered him to produce some efficient proofs
+of his capability to practise the healing art. Marini agreed to comply
+with their demand and the result is recorded on his diploma, which was
+discovered by Cittadella among the archives of Ferrara some years ago;
+it reads as follows:—
+
+
+“Having publicly examined and approved the science and knowledge of
+medicine of Signor Generoso Marini, and his possession of the wonderful
+secret called ‘Orvietano,’ which he exhibited on the stage built in the
+centre of this our city of Ferrara, in presence of its entire
+population, so remarkable for their civilisation and learning, and in
+presence of many foreigners and other classes of people, we hereby
+certify that, also in our presence, as well as that of the city
+authorities, he took several living toads, not those of his own
+providing, but from a great number of toads, which had been caught in
+fields in the locality by persons who were strangers to him, and which
+were only handed to him at the moment of making the experiment. An
+officer of the court then selected from the number of toads collected,
+five of the largest, which the said Generoso Marini placed on a bench
+before him, and in presence of all assembled spectators, he, with a
+large knife, cut all the said toads in half. Then, taking a drinking
+cup, he took in each hand one half of a dead toad, and squeezed from it
+all the juices and fluids it contained into the cup, and the same he did
+with the remainder. After mixing the contents together, he swallowed the
+whole, and then placing the cup on the bench he advanced to the edge of
+the stage, where for some minutes he remained stationary. Then he became
+pale as death and his limbs trembled and his body began to swell in a
+frightful and terrible manner; and all the spectators began to believe
+that he would never recover from the poison he had swallowed, and that
+his death was certain. Suddenly taking from a jar by his side some of
+his celebrated ‘Orvietano,’ he placed a portion of it in his mouth and
+swallowed it. Instantly the effect of this wonderful medicine was to
+make him vomit the poison he had taken, and he stood before the
+spectators in the full enjoyment of health.
+
+“The populace applauded him highly for the indisputable proof he had
+given of his talent, and he then invited many of the most learned of
+those present to accompany him to his house, and he there showed them
+his dispensary as well as his collection of antidotes, and among them a
+powder made from little vipers, a powerful remedy for curing every sort
+of fever, as he had proved by different experiments he had made on
+people of quality and virtue, all of whom he had cured of the fever from
+which they were suffering, etc.
+
+“In consequence of the rare talent exhibited by Signor Generoso Marini,
+and as a proof of our love and respect for his wisdom, we have resolved
+by the authority placed in our hands publicly to reward him with a
+diploma so that he may be universally recognised, applauded and
+respected. In witness thereof we have set our hands and the public seal
+of the municipality of Ferrara.
+
+“Data in Ferrara con grandissimo applauso il di 26 Luglio, 1642.
+
+                   “JOANNES CAJETANUS MODONI,
+                   Index sapientum Civitatis Ferrari.
+
+                   “FRANCISCUS ALTRAMARI,
+                       Cancellarius.”
+
+
+But although the toad under certain conditions was credited with
+poisonous properties, during the Middle Ages it was esteemed a valuable
+remedy for the plague and was employed for that purpose in Austria as
+late as the year 1712.
+
+The country people of Brazil believe the milky secretion of the common
+toad possesses wonderful curative properties and use it externally as a
+cure for shingles. In these cases living toads are generally applied to
+the part affected.
+
+The poisonous drug known as “Senso” in China and Japan is said to be
+composed of the dried poison from a species of toad. It has been found
+to contain cholesterol, the bufagin of Abel and Macht; bufotenine, and a
+base resembling epinephrine. Bufagin causes a marked rise of blood
+pressure, and acts as a diuretic. It is toxic in small doses. Bufotenine
+acts as a local anæsthetic, causes convulsions of the medullary type,
+and is pharmacologically allied to picrotoxin. The base, resembling
+epinephrine, is a powerful sympathicomimetic poison.
+
+Certain species of spider possess poisonous properties, notably the
+_Chiracanthium nutrix_ and the _Epeira diadema_. The bite of the female
+of the former is distinctly venomous, and one milligramme of the juice
+of the latter variety injected into a cat resulted in death.
+
+Some curious methods of the manner in which some Indian tribes of South
+America utilize a poisonous grass as a method of defence have been
+investigated by Bomain. He found that a belt of this plant formed a
+natural barrier between the Indian tribes who lived on each side of a
+range of mountains, where it flourished. Animals died as soon as they
+ate the poisonous grass, and thus a hostile tribe was prevented from
+encroaching on the territory of another.
+
+On scientific investigation, it was discovered that a few hundred grains
+of the grass would kill a horse or a mule in an hour or two, the deadly
+effect being due to the production of prussic acid, which was caused by
+the decomposition of a glucosive under the influence of a ferment.
+
+A mysterious poison is said to be known among some of the gipsy tribes
+of Europe which is supposed to consist of the germs of a certain
+poisonous fungus. When mixed with food it causes death in from two to
+three weeks after administration. The symptoms produced are said to be
+similar to those of typhoid fever. A case of poisoning with this
+substance, which is known to the gipsies by the name of “Dri” or “Drei,”
+was reported in London in 1864.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+               SOME CLASSICAL POISONS AND THEIR HISTORIES
+
+
+Arsenic appears to have had an extraordinary fascination for the
+poisoner for centuries past and has, perhaps, been more frequently used
+than any other substance for criminal purposes. Through its history runs
+a vein of mystery and romance which has continued until the present day.
+
+It was known to the Greeks as early as the fifth century before Christ.
+Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who flourished 460–377 B.C., used
+it as an external remedy for ulcers and similar disorders. It was known
+to the Greeks in that time in the form of sulphuret of arsenic or
+realgar, also as arsenic sulphide or orpiment, which is found native in
+Greece and Hungary. Dioscorides knew it in its latter form and also
+mentions its properties when applied externally. There is no allusion at
+this period to its employment either as a poison or for internal
+treatment of disease.
+
+The golden colour of orpiment caused many of the early alchemists to
+consider it the key to the philosophers’ stone, and this is said to be
+grounded on some enigmatical phrase attributed to the Sibylline oracles.
+The Emperor Caligula (A.D. 12–41), according to Pliny, ordered a large
+quantity of orpiment to be melted and manipulated so that the gold it
+was supposed to contain could be extracted from it, but he was no doubt
+disappointed by the result.
+
+Diocletian (A.D. 260) is said to have collected all the books dealing
+with the transmutation of metals possessed by the Egyptians whom he had
+conquered, and destroyed them; but, when the Arabs overran Egypt, the
+Jews who fled to Europe, carried with them the knowledge of chemistry
+they had acquired from the Arabs who kept the lamp of alchemy alive.
+
+In the eighth century there arose a great Arab alchemist called Jábir
+ibn Háyyan, whose writings were known under the name of Geber. He is
+said to have been a native of Tarsus and believed to have been the first
+in Europe to obtain what is now known as white arsenic (arsenious acid)
+by heating realgar. He gave it the name which it still bears to
+distinguish it from orpiment or yellow arsenic. From his works we know
+that he was acquainted with metallic arsenic and apparently knew, that
+under certain conditions, it deposited a dull silver coat when in
+contact with bright copper. This discovery was not without its
+disadvantages to mankind, as from this period probably dates the time it
+became used for criminal purposes. On the other hand, its medicinal
+properties, when properly administered, became known and recognized by
+physicians.
+
+Before white arsenic or arsenious acid was known, most of the poisons
+recorded by the early writers had something peculiar in regard to their
+taste, smell or colour, but white arsenic put a new instrument in the
+hands of the cunning poisoner who sought for something powerful and
+tasteless for his evil designs, which we shall see later developed into
+a diabolical art in several parts of Europe.
+
+In India, arsenic has been commonly used for criminal purposes from
+ancient times down to the present. The reports of the Analyst of the
+Bombay Government throw considerable light on the methods pursued by
+native poisoners. In most cases the poison is introduced into sweetmeats
+and generally distributed by a “strange woman” who has been met in the
+bazaar or street and who mysteriously disappears. This “strange woman”
+is found in nearly every analyst’s report for the past fifty years and
+under much the same circumstances. Most of the cases are typical of the
+people among whom they occur, as instanced in the account of a man who
+went into a shop one day and entered into friendly conversation with a
+stranger he met there. By way of thanking him, the stranger presented
+him with some sweets for distribution among his friends. The result was
+that five men and a boy were poisoned, and the obliging stranger has
+never been heard of since.
+
+It is difficult to account for the rationale in such cases, but still
+they occur and the professional poisoner in India—for there are many
+such—is rarely caught or even suspected. In many instances, crimes of
+this kind are taken little notice of by the community and sometimes the
+criminal apparently thinks nothing of poisoning a whole family in order
+to make sure of his victim. The utter absence of motive in many cases
+would point to the conclusion that they are largely the result of
+homicidal mania.
+
+In the Middle Ages there was a prevalent idea that all poisonous
+substances possessed a powerful and mutual elective attraction for each
+other, and if a portion of the substance was worn suspended round the
+neck it would intercept and absorb all other noxious matter and even
+preserve the body from contagion of disease. During the Great Plague of
+London amulets containing arsenic were worn suspended over the region of
+the heart and were believed thus to preserve the wearer from infection.
+
+It is characteristic of arsenic, antimony and mercury that their
+presence may be detected and demonstrated years after they have been
+taken into the body. Many cases might be cited in corroboration of this,
+but the following is one of peculiar interest. A wealthy farmer died and
+was buried in the grave where his father had been interred thirty-five
+years previously. An examination of certain of the bones of the father
+revealed particles of a metallic-looking substance which was collected,
+and on analysis proved to be mercury. It had thus been preserved in the
+remains for more than a third of a century, the probability being that
+he had been in the habit of taking it medicinally during the latter part
+of his life. Another case worthy of record came under the notice of a
+Bristol analyst, in which he found abundant traces of arsenic in the
+remains of young children after they had been buried for eight years.
+
+A curious case, proving how the advance of science may influence the
+rendering of justice, is shown in a striking way by a decision of the
+Judicial Committee of the revision of trials in France in February,
+1904. Twenty-five years previously one Dauval, a chemist, had been found
+guilty of the murder of his wife by poisoning her with arsenic, and was
+sentenced to transportation for life. Scientific evidence having since
+come to light, tending to show that he was innocent of the crime, he was
+granted a free pardon eighteen months previous to the meeting of the
+Judicial Committee. The evidence on which Dauval was found guilty was
+purely scientific, and later investigation showed the evidence in
+question to be open to doubt. At the trial in 1879, all the expert
+witnesses swore that the quantity of arsenic—namely one
+milligramme—found in the body of Dauval’s wife after the post-mortem
+examination, could not possibly have existed in the system under natural
+circumstances. It was held to be proved that the presence of such a
+quantity of the poison was incompatible with life. Since the trial
+Gautier and Bertrand and other scientific workers have demonstrated that
+the quantity of arsenic mentioned can, and frequently does, exist in the
+human body in a normal condition. The presumption thus set up in
+Dauval’s defence was, that the presence of arsenic in his wife’s remains
+was owing to her having been in the habit of taking the drug in
+medicinal doses.
+
+A strange story is related by the late Sir Richard Quain that came under
+his notice, and one which would have proved a profound mystery to this
+day but for his practical knowledge and acumen. He was asked to make a
+post-mortem examination on the body of a man who was by trade a
+stone-mason. To continue the story in his own words; “One day, on coming
+in to his dinner, he went into the scullery, washed his hands, and going
+into the kitchen he said to his wife, ‘It is all over; I have taken
+poison.’ ‘What have you taken?’ ‘Arsenic,’ he replied, and she at once
+took him off to the Western General Dispensary.
+
+“The senior surgeon was out when they got there, but two young students
+of his happened to be in, who thought it was a very important case, and
+they would treat it pretty actively. So they gave him tartar emetic,
+pumped out the stomach, and pumped oxide of iron into it, and performed
+a good many other operations. The poor man was extremely ill and died in
+twenty-four hours. The coroner’s beadle went to the chemist and said:
+‘How did you come to sell this man poison?’ He replied, ‘I sold him no
+poison; I thought he was off his head when he came.’ ‘What did you give
+him?’ ‘Oh, I gave him some alum and cream of tartar and labelled it
+poison.’” “He swallowed this in the belief it was arsenic,” says Sir
+Richard. “When I made the post-mortem examination, to my amazement I
+found a great deal of _arsenic_ in the stomach. This was rather
+puzzling. I said, if it is in the stomach it ought to go farther down.
+So I searched the intestines, but there was no trace of arsenic
+anywhere. The simple explanation of it was this, these two young
+fellows, horrified to find the man had died without taking arsenic after
+all, pumped some into the stomach.”
+
+Another instance that terminated in a less tragic manner, in which a
+would-be suicide was frustrated by a watchful chemist, happened some
+years ago. One morning a tall, decently-dressed man, of seafaring
+aspect, entered a chemist’s shop in the neighbourhood of the docks of a
+northern seaport, and in a solemn and confidential manner asked for a
+shilling’s worth of _strong_ laudanum.
+
+“For what purpose do you require it?” asked the chemist.
+
+“Well, you see, sir,” the man explained, “I’ve just come off a voyage
+from ’Frisco, and I find my sweetheart has gone off with Jim, you see,
+sir, and now it’s all up with me. Give me a strong dose please, and if
+you don’t think a shilling’s worth will be enough——”
+
+“But, my good man——” interrupted the chemist.
+
+“I’ll shoot myself if not, sir, I will,” replied the man, thrusting his
+hand into his pocket.
+
+“All right, then,” said the chemist; and seeing that argument was
+useless, he proceeded to mix an innocent but nauseous draught of aloes.
+
+“Now put in a shilling’s worth of arsenic.”
+
+“Very well,” replied the chemist, adding some harmless magnesia.
+
+“And you might as well throw in a shilling’s worth of prussic acid,”
+said the broken-hearted lover.
+
+The chemist carefully measured a little essence of almonds into the
+glass and handed it to the would-be suicide. He paid, swallowed it at
+one draught, and solemnly walked out of the shop. Crossing the street,
+which was quiet at the time, he deliberately laid himself flat on his
+back on the footpath and closed his eyes. A group of children gathered
+round, and stood gazing with their eyes and mouths open in wonderment,
+and an occasional passer-by stopped a moment, cast a glance at the
+unwonted sight and then passed on. After lying thus quite motionless for
+about five minutes, he suddenly raised his head, took a look round, then
+with one bound jumped to his feet and made off as hard as he could run.
+
+A parallel case occurred quite recently at Dartmouth, when a naval
+stoker after a quarrel with his fiancée, entered a chemist’s shop and
+asked for an ounce of strychnine. The chemist, noting his excited manner
+and becoming suspicious, to pacify him gave him an ounce of borax which
+he took away, and obtaining a glass, mixed it with water and went out on
+the cliffs and drank it. Finding it only made him feel very unwell he
+resolved to throw himself over the cliffs into the sea, but the police
+arrived just in time to prevent him and found the glass with the remains
+of borax in it at his side. In this case it ended in a charge of
+attempted suicide.
+
+Arsenic has been the favourite medium of female poisoners from early
+times, and in two celebrated poison cases of recent years, in which
+women were accused of murder by the administration of arsenic, it has
+been pleaded that the poison had been used by them for cosmetic
+purposes. The effect of arsenic on the skin is well known, and also that
+it is frequently used by women both internally and externally to improve
+the complexion. That this practice may lead to the taking of arsenic as
+a confirmed habit there is also evidence to prove, and there are many
+cases recorded where the habit of taking arsenic in solution has been
+contracted by women.
+
+Formerly, many cases of chronic arsenical poisoning have resulted from
+arsenic which at one time was used in making cheap green wall-papers and
+green sweets (both coloured by Scheele’s green or hydrogen copper
+arsenite), the arsenic in the wall-papers being given off in gaseous
+form during warm damp weather. It is also found in some artificial
+flowers, in carpets, furs, dress fabrics dyed with aniline dyes, and in
+black stockings. Murrell examined a number of coloured tobacco and
+cigarette covers and found arsenic in one-third of them. Used as an
+insecticide for spraying fruit, it remains on the skins and is sometimes
+eaten. In these minute doses it seldom does any harm, but may produce
+chronic poisoning, with loss of hair, neuritis and other harmful
+results.
+
+Arsenic is poisonous to all animals with a central nervous system (brain
+or spinal cord) and to most of the higher plants. Mice show the greatest
+resistance and next come hedgehogs, rabbits, dogs and cats.
+
+In 1903 an analysis of sweets in the Isle of Wight revealed the presence
+of ¹⁄₁₅th of a grain of arsenic per pound. When arsenic is taken for
+some time it finds its way into the hair within about two weeks and
+remains there for years.
+
+The alleged practice of eating arsenic or taking it as a habit has long
+been a matter of discussion, and as far back as the early part of the
+last century toxicologists were sceptical as to the statement that the
+inhabitants of Styria, and other parts of Hungary where arsenic is
+found, had contracted the regular habit of taking the drug until they
+had almost become immune to its effects.
+
+In 1865, Maclagan of Edinburgh visited Styria for the purpose of
+investigating these statements, and he affirms in an account of his
+visit given in the _Edinburgh Medical Journal_, 1865, that while he was
+staying at the village of Legist in Middle Styria, two men were brought
+to him, and in his presence one took about 4½ and the other 6 grains of
+white arsenic. He brought back samples of what they had swallowed, and
+on testing it found it to be undoubtedly white arsenic. It was taken by
+one man on a piece of bread, and by the other was washed down with a
+draught of water. How extensively the habit existed in the district
+Maclagan was not able to ascertain, but he mentions that the peasants
+called it Hydrach or Huttereich. One of the men took a dose about twice
+a week, the other generally once a week, and he learned they had
+commenced the habit with doses of less than a grain. The effect was said
+to be tonic and stimulant and was believed to aid the respiration when
+climbing. Once having acquired the habit, like that of other poisons, an
+occasional dose is much missed if omitted.
+
+Arsenic has been a subject of interest to some of our most eminent
+chemists, one of whom at least, has fallen a victim to it. The first to
+make an accurate investigation of its chemical nature was Georg Brandt,
+a Swede, in 1773. The famous Swedish chemist Scheele (1742–1786) also
+worked on the subject, and discovered arsenic acid in 1775, and impure
+arseniuretted hydrogen. Soubeiran, the French chemist, together with
+Pfaff, succeeded in obtaining pure arseniuretted hydrogen, but so little
+was known of its deadly nature that in 1815 Gehlen, the professor of
+chemistry at Munich, died owing to inhaling a minute quantity of the
+pure gas. Both Berzelius (1779–1848) and Bunsen contributed much to the
+scientific knowledge of arsenic, and the latter in 1842 discovered an
+organic radical containing arsenic and methyl, which became known as
+cacodyl, the salts of which have since been introduced into medicine for
+certain diseases with satisfactory results.
+
+From the end of the eighteenth century the founders of the modern
+science of toxicology, Orfila, Raspail, Christison, Taylor and Thomas
+Stevenson, devoted the best part of their lives to the discovery of new
+and accurate tests for poisons. Orfila (1787–1853) did his best to make
+their detection a matter of certainty by insisting that poisons should
+be looked for in other parts of the body and not only in the alimentary
+canal. It was in his time that the three principal tests by liquid
+reagents became known.
+
+Robert Christison (1797–1882) worked under Orfila in Paris, and devoted
+much attention to methods of testing for arsenic. He was professor of
+medical jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh until 1882, and was
+called as toxicological expert at the trial of Madeleine Smith and in
+other famous cases.
+
+Reinsch, who developed the test of the deposition of metallic arsenic on
+a bright copper plate, published his results in 1842, and this was
+followed by Marsh with his still more important test with nascent
+hydrogen in 1846. Fresenius and von Babo discovered a method for the
+systematic search of the organic matter of the viscera in 1844, and in
+1850 Stas published his process by which alkaline poisons could be
+extracted from the viscera.
+
+As the science of toxicology has progressed, so the chances of the
+criminal poisoner have grown smaller and smaller, till at the present
+day there is a very slight chance of the arsenical poisoner going
+undetected.
+
+The story is told of a distinguished medical professor who used to
+impress on his students that they should never dismiss from their minds
+the possibility of murder in the case of a mysterious illness, however
+little suspicious the circumstances might be. He used to give an
+illustration from his own experience in a case where he was called in
+consultation by a local practitioner, who was baffled by the illness of
+the wife of a clergyman. The professor, after the consultation, asked
+the husband, “Has the possibility of poisoning occurred to you?” “It
+has,” was his reply, “and I have been so careful to guard against it
+that I have actually made it a practice to prepare my wife’s food
+myself.” “Then I dismiss the thought,” replied the doctor, “but as I
+have already taken a sample of the food in the bedroom, I may as well
+have it analysed as a matter of form.” The clergyman thanked the
+physician for his scrupulous care, the latter returned to London, and
+the former shot himself. According to the story, the truth of which is
+not vouched for, the wife recovered and erected a memorial to her
+husband in the parish church.
+
+Mercury, one of the most fascinating of all the elements, has traditions
+that carry it back to an unknown period of antiquity. In the form of
+sulphide it is recorded in the Papyrus Ebers (1550 B.C.) as being used
+by the ancient Egyptians, but it is said to have been known at an even
+earlier date in the form of quicksilver in China and India.
+
+The metal was probably named after the Roman divinity Mercury on account
+of its volatile nature and its elusive properties when handled. It has
+the peculiar property of absorbing other metals and forming amalgams. As
+well as being found native, it was obtained by the ancients by
+sublimation from cinnabar the oxide. By the alchemists it was
+represented by the same sign as the planet Mercury. It is alluded to by
+Theophrastus in the fourth century B.C., but it is to Dioscorides in the
+first century A.D. it owes the name of hydrargyrum or fluid silver.
+
+For a long time the liquid metal was believed to be poisonous and the
+native quicksilver was thought to be different from hydrargyrum obtained
+from the sulphide. Berthelot has shown that the protochloride of mercury
+was prepared and known as far back as the time of Democritus in the
+fifth century B.C. In 1386 Chaucer alludes to it as “quicksilver yclept
+mercurie.”
+
+The Arabs, who doubtless derived their knowledge of the metal from the
+Greeks, were much attracted by it, and Geber describes perchloride of
+mercury, also the red oxide from which Priestley afterwards prepared
+oxygen. Avicenna, the Arab physician, was the first to doubt the
+poisonous properties of the metal itself, and noted that many persons
+swallowed it without any ill effects, as it passed through the body
+unchanged. Fallopius (1523–1562) records that shepherds gave quicksilver
+in his time to sheep and cattle to expel worms, and Brassavola
+(1500–1555) says that he had given it to children in doses from two to
+twenty grains for the expulsion of worms.
+
+About 1497 it was first used in the treatment of syphilis, in the form
+of inunction, plasters and fumigation. Beringario de Carpi of Bologna,
+who lived in the early part of the sixteenth century, is said to have
+made large sums of money from his treatment of syphilis by inunction
+with mercurial ointment. John Vigo advised fumigation in obstinate
+cases. The first to record its use internally was Peter Matthiolus, the
+commentator of Dioscorides (1501–1577). Paracelsus popularized its use,
+and since the sixteenth century mercury has come to be recognized as a
+valuable medicine throughout the world.
+
+Robert Boyle, who was born in 1627, and is regarded as the father of
+chemistry in Great Britain, commenced his experiments in a little
+laboratory in Oxford in 1653. He afterwards founded the Royal Society,
+and used to make the oxide by heating mercury in a bottle fitted with a
+stopper provided with a narrow tube by which air was admitted. The
+product was known as “Boyle’s Hell,” on account of the belief that it
+caused the metal to suffer extreme agonies.
+
+The many ways in which mercury can be transformed and the numerous
+products which can be made from it, have had a fascination for chemists
+throughout the ages. Homberg (_c._ 1675), a German chemist, found that
+by putting a little mercury into a bottle and attaching it to the wheel
+of a mill that the metal was turned into a blackish powder (protoxide).
+It is to Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne that we owe the popularity of
+calomel, another product of mercury, for medicinal purposes. Mayerne was
+the favourite physician of Henry IV of France, but being compelled to
+leave Paris, he settled in London and served in the same capacity to
+James I and Charles I.
+
+Mercury has been credited with certain occult properties, and in the
+seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was a common practice in London
+to carry in the pocket a quill filled with quicksilver and sealed at the
+end, as a protection against rheumatism. This superstition has survived
+to the present day, and in some chemists’ shops in the City little glass
+tubes containing mercury, sealed and placed in wash-leather bags, are
+still sold, and carried in the belief that they will ward off attacks of
+rheumatism while the phial is on the person.
+
+Antimony has played an important part, both in medicine and chemistry,
+from a very early period. Known to the ancients as “stibium” or
+“stimmi,” the native sulphide was used by women in Egypt and in the East
+over three thousand years ago, for darkening the eyebrows and eyelids.
+Arab women still use it in the form of “kohl,” finely ground for making
+lines between the eyelids, which they regard as an aid to beauty. It was
+a favourite metal with the alchemists, who hoped to obtain from it a
+remedy for all ills. They soon discovered how readily it formed alloys
+with other metals, and found it a simple matter to make salts of the
+metal. They knew that by simply heating crude antimony in a crucible
+they would sometimes get a vitreous substance, in consequence of some of
+the silica of the crucible combining with the antimony. They found that
+by digesting it in wine, the tartar of the wine formed a tartrate of
+antimony, and by other processes they got various salts which they
+discovered had medicinal properties.
+
+The white oxychloride which was called “Algaroth’s powder” or the
+“mercury of life” was one of the most popular emetics in the sixteenth
+century; it was introduced by Victor Algarotti, a physician of Verona.
+Another celebrated antimony compound was Kermes Mineral, which is said
+to have been discovered by Glauber about 1651. The process for making
+this orange-red powder was kept secret, and wonderful cures are declared
+to have been effected by it.
+
+In the seventeenth century it was probably one of the most popular
+remedies in France for ague, dropsy, smallpox, syphilis and other
+diseases. Louis XV bought the formula for its preparation for a
+considerable sum in 1720 from La Ligerie.
+
+In the early part of the seventeenth century, Mynsicht is said to have
+re-discovered the properties of tartar emetic, which has probably been
+more frequently used in medicine than any other salt of antimony. It was
+regarded at one time as a specific for fevers, but used more especially
+for its emetic properties.
+
+In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cups were made of an alloy of
+antimony and tin, called “antimony cups” (_pocula emetica_). The cup was
+filled with wine, which was allowed to stand in it for some little time
+and become slightly impregnated with tartar emetic, so that the liquid
+when drunk produced vomiting. These cups were frequently found in
+monasteries, where it is said they were kept in order that the monks who
+took too much wine could be punished by having to drink some more which
+had been kept in the _poculum emeticum_.
+
+In the seventeenth century Basil Valentine, a German monk, whose
+identity is still a matter of dispute, published a work entitled the
+“Triumphal Chariot of Antimony,” in which he describes its virtues as a
+remedy, and the forms in which it could be prescribed. It was translated
+into English and published in London in 1678.
+
+Antimony has several times been employed as a poison for criminal
+purposes, and the cases of Dr. Pritchard and Chapman or Klosowski, who
+used it, are described in later chapters.
+
+A curious case, which shows how by accidental means a poison may find
+its way into human remains after death, came to light some months ago in
+Yorkshire. After the death of a young man, who was certified to have
+died of gastro-enteritis, his friends found that they could not obtain
+an order to cremate the body until a partial post-mortem examination had
+been made. This was done and a small quantity of antimonious oxide was
+found, which was supposed to have contributed to the cause of death.
+
+A further examination was therefore ordered, and the organs of the body
+were sent to the Home Office analyst. He found that these were entirely
+free from antimony, but he discovered that antimonious oxide was present
+in the rubber rings of old pickle jars which had been used to send the
+remains to London for examination. From this source the organs had
+become contaminated and the certificate that death resulted from natural
+causes was confirmed.
+
+It is probable that in this case if the analyst had not found antimony
+present in the rubber bands of the stoppers of the glass jars—which of
+course should not have been used—it might have been declared that the
+man had died from the effects of antimonial poisoning, as presumably he
+had been actually taking antimony in the form of medicine and the result
+would have been another unsolved poison mystery.
+
+One of the peculiarities of antimony when given in large doses is its
+property of preserving the tissues of the body after death. In the
+Klosowski case the body of one of his victims, whom he had poisoned with
+antimony, was exhumed after five years, and was found to be completely
+mummified and as well preserved as if it had only been buried a few
+days.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+                      ROYAL AND HISTORIC POISONERS
+
+
+Poison appears to have been employed as a political agent from an early
+period of history, and many stories, probably more legendary than
+correct, have been handed down of royal personages who used this secret
+and deadly method of ridding themselves of troublesome individuals and
+removing enemies from their path. In the same way, they themselves
+sometimes became the victims of jealous rivals by similar nefarious
+means. The greatest craft and cunning were exerted in order to introduce
+poison into the human body, and there are many stories concerning the
+curious and subtle methods said to have been employed.
+
+There are but few authenticated records of the use of poison in England
+for the purpose of taking life until the sixteenth century, although
+according to tradition King John is said to have compassed the death of
+the unfortunate Maud FitzWalter by means of a poisoned egg.
+
+The story is a romantic one, and is related by Hepworth Dixon in _Her
+Majesty’s Tower_. In the reign of King John the White Tower received one
+of the first and fairest of a long line of female victims, in the person
+of Maud FitzWalter, who was known to the singers of her time as Maud the
+Fair. The father of this beautiful girl was Robert, Lord FitzWalter, of
+Castle Baynard on the Thames, one of John’s most powerful and greatest
+barons. The King, it is said, during a fit of violence or temper with
+the Queen, fell madly in love with the fair Maud. As neither the lady
+herself nor her father would listen to his disgraceful suit, the King is
+said to have seized her by force at Dunmow and brought her to the Tower.
+FitzWalter raised an outcry, on which the King sent troops into Castle
+Baynard and his other houses, and when the baron protested against these
+wrongs his master banished him from the realm. FitzWalter fled to France
+with his wife and other children, leaving poor Maud in the Tower, where
+she suffered a daily insult in the King’s unlawful suit. She remained
+obdurate, however, and refused his offers. On her proud and scornful
+answer to his overtures being heard, John carried her up to the roof and
+locked her in the round turret, standing on the north-east angle of the
+keep. Maud’s cage was the highest and chilliest den in the Tower, but
+neither cold, solitude nor hunger could break her resolve, and at last,
+in a rage of disappointed love, the King sent one of his minions to her
+room with a poisoned egg, of which the brave girl ate and died.
+
+According to the French Chronicles, “After the death of Gaultier
+Giffard, Count Buckingham, in the early part of the twelfth century,
+Agnes his widow became enamoured with Robert Duke of Normandy, and
+attached herself to him in an illicit manner, shortly after which time
+his wife Sibylle died of poison.”
+
+Probably the earliest recorded case of secret poisoning in England is
+that of Sir Walter de Scotiney, who was convicted of poisoning the Abbot
+of Westminster and William, brother of the Earl of Gloucester. According
+to Leland’s account, this happened during the meeting of a parliament
+which had been convened at Winchester by Henry the Third about 1230. The
+story is told in the following words:—
+
+
+“The Abbot of Westminster and William brother of the Earl of Gloucester,
+a person of great worth and spirit, were both destroyed. The Earl of
+Gloucester himself languished under the effects of the poison and only
+escaped death with extreme difficulty, for the hair fell from his head
+and the nails from his fingers. They are said to have received into
+their bowels the deadly drug at the table of the Lord Edward, King
+Henry’s eldest son, during breakfast. The Earl escaped destruction
+merely by the strength of his constitution with the loss of his hair,
+nails, skin and great injury to his teeth. These atrocious deeds struck
+the people with Horror. The villainy was imputed to a certain knight,
+Walter de Scotiney, and at the appeal of the Countess de L’Isle he was
+seized, judged and drawn.”
+
+
+“In the same year and the latter end of February,” the chronicler
+continues,
+
+
+“was apprehended at London Walter de Scotiney, the Chief Councillor of
+the Earl of Gloucester and his seneschall, being suspected of having
+given the poisonous potion to the Earl, who was himself hardly saved
+from the gate of death, and to his brother William de Clare who was
+really killed by it; also was taken William de Bussey whose villanies if
+related must excite horror and astonishment. He was the seneschal and
+principal councillor of William de Valence. These men, although they had
+been under the safe custody of sureties, being now seized and brought
+before the judges were committed to a viler prison and put in chains.”
+
+
+In the records of Hugh de Bigot, the High Justiciar, it is stated:
+
+
+“Coming to Winchester they brought Walter de Scotiney steward of the
+Earl of Gloucester to his trial for poisoning William de Clare the
+preceding year. Scotiney was convicted, condemned and executed.”
+
+
+Henry VIII at one period of his life was apprehensive of being poisoned,
+and it was commonly stated that Anne Boleyn attempted to administer
+poison to him surreptitiously. It is recorded that the King, in an
+interview with young Prince Henry, burst into tears, saying that “he and
+his sister, the Princess Mary, might thank God for having escaped from
+the hand of that accursed and venomous harlot, who had intended to
+poison them.”
+
+The story of the Countess of Somerset, who was tried with others for the
+murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in the reign of James I, forms an
+interesting episode in the history of romantic poisoning. Robert Earl of
+Essex, son of Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, and who afterwards became
+Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces, married, at the age of
+fourteen, Frances Howard, a younger daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, the
+bride being just a year younger than her husband. The match had been
+arranged and brought about through the influence of relatives, who
+thought it expedient that the youthful bridegroom should be sent off to
+travel on the Continent immediately after the marriage had taken place,
+and he remained away for three or four years. During this period the
+countess, who was brought up at Court, developed into a very beautiful
+woman, but seems to have been equally unprincipled and capricious. On
+the return of the earl from his travels, she shrank from all advances on
+his part, and showed the utmost repugnance to her husband on all
+occasions. Their dispositions were entirely different. He loved
+retirement, and wished to live a quiet country life, while she, who had
+been bred at Court, and accustomed to adulation and intrigue, refused to
+leave town. The King about this time had a number of young men of
+distinguished appearance and good looks attached to the Court, and of
+these, one Robert Carr, at length became an exclusive favourite. Between
+him and the self-willed young countess there sprang up an attachment,
+which, at least on her side, amounted to infatuation. Her opportunities
+for meeting her lover were short and rare, and in this emergency she
+applied to a Mrs. Turner, who introduced her to Dr. Forman, a noted
+astrologer and magician at that time, and he, by images made of wax and
+other devices of the black art, undertook to procure the love of Carr
+for the lady. At the same time he was also to practise against the earl
+in the opposite direction. These measures, however, were too slow for
+the wayward countess, and having gone to the utmost lengths with her
+inamorato, she insisted on a divorce from her husband, and a legal
+marriage with her lover.
+
+One of Carr’s greatest friends was Sir Thomas Overbury, a young courtier
+and a man of honour and kindly disposition. He was much against this
+intimacy, and besought his friend to break it off, assuring him it would
+ruin his prospects and reputation if he married the lady. Carr unwisely
+made this known to the countess, who at once regarded Overbury as a
+bitter enemy, and resolved to do what she could to overthrow him. The
+pair plotted together with evident success, for the unfortunate Sir
+Thomas was shortly afterwards committed to the Tower by an arbitrary
+mandate of the King, and was not allowed to see any visitors. Finally,
+his food was poisoned, and, after several unsuccessful attempts on his
+life, he at last died from the effects of poison. Cantharides, nitrate
+of silver, spiders, arsenic, and last of all, corrosive sublimate, are
+said to have been administered in turn to this unfortunate individual.
+Meanwhile, the countess obtained a divorce from her husband on the
+ground of impotency, and married Carr, who was soon after made Earl of
+Somerset by King James.
+
+Two years elapsed before the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury was brought
+to light, when the inferior criminals, Mrs. Turner and others, were
+convicted and executed; but the Earl of Somerset and his countess,
+although found guilty with their accomplices, received the royal pardon.
+The happiness of the earl and countess, however, was not of long
+duration, as it is stated they afterwards became so alienated from each
+other, that they resided for years under the same roof with the most
+careful precautions that they might not by any chance come into each
+other’s presence. Mrs. Turner, implicated in the crime, is said to have
+been the first to introduce into England the yellow starch that was then
+applied to ladies’ ruffs. Her last request was that she should be hanged
+in a ruff dyed with her own yellow starch, and her wish is said to have
+been carried out.
+
+Whether Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Prime Minister and favourite
+of Queen Elizabeth, was as black as he is painted by some of the
+historians of his time, it is difficult to judge. His ambition to marry
+his royal mistress, who, shrewd woman as she was, appears to have had no
+insight into his unscrupulous character, was apparently the cause of his
+attempting to move every human obstacle from his path by insidious
+methods. The death of Amy Robsart, a mystery which has never been
+completely solved and a description of which is given in a following
+chapter, is attributed to Leicester’s machinations. He was suspected of
+causing the death of Lord Sheffield, and the Earl of Essex, another
+rival, is stated to have been also the victim of his hatred.
+
+The death of the latter peer is said, in the language of a contemporary
+chronicler, as having been due to “an extreme flux cause by an Italian
+Receit, the maker whereof was a surgeon that was then newly come to my
+Lord from Italy, a cunning man and sure in operation.” The inventor of
+this recipe was known as Dr. Julio, who was said to be able “to make a
+man dye in what manner of sickness you will.” Essex died when on his way
+back to England from Ireland, with the object, it is said, of revenging
+himself on Leicester for his domestic wrongs. “With the Earl of Essex,
+one Mrs. Alice Drakott, a godly gentlewoman, is also said to have been
+poisoned.” This lady happened to be accompanying the earl on her way
+towards her own house, when after partaking of the same cup she was also
+seized with violent pain and vomiting, which continued until she died, a
+day or two before the earl succumbed. “When she was dead,” says the
+chronicler, “her body was swollen into a monstruous bigness and
+deformity; whereof the good earl, hearing the day following, lamented
+the case greatly, and said in the presence of his servants, ‘Ah! poor
+Alice, the cup was not prepared for thee, albeit it was thy hard fortune
+to taste thereof.’”
+
+According to all accounts, Leicester’s list of victims did not cease
+here, and, rightly or wrongly, the death of Cardinal Chatillian, who was
+taken suddenly ill and died in Canterbury, is also attributed to him.
+The Cardinal had accused the earl of preventing the marriage of the
+Queen to the King of France, and was journeying back to Dover when he
+was taken ill and died in a mysterious manner.
+
+Another mysterious death at this time that occasioned considerable
+sensation was that of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, a wealthy city magnate
+of Elizabeth’s time, whose name is still perpetuated in the City. Sir
+Nicholas is said to have been an associate of Leicester’s and the one
+who was ready to do his bidding in thwarting the doings of the Lord
+Treasurer, Sir William Cecil, who was thought by Leicester to be playing
+him false. He invited him one night to a supper at his house in London,
+and, just as the meal was served, hurriedly left for Court, to which he
+said he had been called suddenly by her Majesty. Sir Nicholas was told
+to proceed with the meal in his absence, which he did, but soon after
+was seized with violent vomiting, from which he never recovered. The
+story continues, that the day before his death he declared to a dear
+friend “all the circumstances and causes of his complaint, which he
+affirmed plainly to be poison given him in a sallet at supper,
+inveighing most earnestly against the earl’s cruelty and bloody
+disposition, and affirming him to be the wickedest, most perilous and
+perfidious man under heaven.”
+
+Whether Leicester was the unscrupulous villain he was made out to be or
+not, there is no evidence to prove. Many writers aver that he kept his
+professional poisoners ready to do his will and carry out his designs.
+There seems little doubt that he had some needy physicians in his pay.
+His personal doctor, one Bayly, is said to have boasted of the fact that
+“he knew of poisons which might be so tempered that they should kill the
+party afterwards at what time it should be appointed.” This method,
+which is alluded to by many writers of the fifteenth century as slow
+poisoning, was probably due to the effect of administering some poison,
+such as arsenic or antimony in small doses until the cumulative effect
+of the substance proved fatal.
+
+An Italian doctor whom Leicester brought home from his travels in Italy,
+is mentioned in several stories as one of the unscrupulous physicians
+employed by him who were ready to administer the “Italian Comfortive,”
+as the poison was called, at his bidding. Those whose sudden deaths were
+attributed to Leicester’s instrumentality were commonly said to have
+succumbed to “Leicester’s cold.”
+
+There is little doubt, however, that Leicester was suspected of being
+the instigator of many murders which probably he may have had nothing to
+do with, as he made many enemies.
+
+His name is also associated with the sudden demise of Lord Sheffield,
+whose death is said to have been due to “Leicester’s cold.” A short time
+afterwards the earl married his widow, but under pretence that the Queen
+would be offended at the marriage, compelled her to keep it secret.
+After some time, the more effectually to conceal the connection, he
+required her to marry Sir Edward Stafford. This she refused to do, till
+under the gentle discipline of Leicester it is recorded that “her hair
+fell off and her nails fell out, and she did what was demanded of her to
+save her life.” This story is certified by her own testimony on oath,
+and recorded by Sir William Dugdale.
+
+The Earl of Sussex, his great rival, is also said to have been one of
+his victims. On his death-bed he is said to have warned his friends in
+the following words: “I am passing into another world and must now leave
+you to your good fortunes and to the Queen’s grace and goodness; but
+beware of the gipsy’s son [Leicester] for he will be too hard for you
+all. You know the beast as well as I do.”
+
+Camden, the historian, who does not discredit many of these stories,
+asserts that Leicester actually proposed in Council that Mary Queen of
+Scots should be removed by poison.
+
+There was a curious mystery about the death of Prince Alexander, the son
+of Peter the Great, the story of which is related by Henry Bruce, an
+Englishman in Peter’s service in 1782. Bruce states that he was at the
+citadel of St. Peter and St. Paul, where the Tsarevitch was imprisoned
+on a charge of _lèse-majesté_, the Tsar and Marshal Veide being also
+present. The latter ordered Bruce to go to the apothecary Beer, who
+lived close by, and tell him “the potion must be made strong, for the
+Prince was very bad indeed.” The apothecary trembled and turned pale at
+the message, but refused to explain to Bruce why he was thus agitated.
+The Marshal, who had sent Bruce, followed him, and told Beer to “hurry,
+for the Prince had had an apoplectic fit.” The apothecary handed him a
+silver cup, which the Marshal carried to the Prince, “staggering all the
+time like a drunken man.” Half an hour after the Tsar left the citadel,
+gloomy, like all his retinue. Bruce was ordered to stay and dine at a
+table set for the Tsarevitch. “Two doctors and two surgeons dined apart.
+They were called in to the Prince; he was in convulsions, and died at 5
+p.m., after atrocious suffering. Bruce informed the Marshal, who told
+the Tsar. The viscera were removed by Peter the Great’s orders before
+the body was coffined.”
+
+In India, when powdered glass is employed for lethal purposes, it is
+generally given with sherbet or some kind of food. It acts as a powerful
+irritant to the coats of the stomach or intestines and produces
+gastro-enteritis.
+
+A celebrated case in which this substance was used occurred in India in
+1874, when the Gaekwar or reigning prince of Baroda, was tried for
+attempting to kill the British political resident, Colonel Phayre, by
+administering powdered glass to him in sherbet. He was brought to trial
+before a court composed of three Indian and three English judges, and
+after a trial lasting thirty-five days the English judges pronounced for
+a conviction and the three Indian ones for an acquittal. In the end the
+Gaekwar was deposed and deported to Madras.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+                     POISONS TRIED ON HUMAN BEINGS
+
+
+From an early period science has been gradually built up by experimental
+methods and even the ancients were cognizant of the fact that the
+remedial properties of a substance could only be proved by actual
+experiment. Not only animals but human beings were utilized for this
+purpose by many famous physicians in the Middle Ages. Criminals who had
+been condemned to death were generally selected when available.
+
+It is stated by Pierre Fabre, in the _History of the Apostles_, that the
+Apostle John was present at the execution of two criminals by poison in
+the public forum at Ephesus.
+
+Vivisection of the live human subject was practised by the Alexandrian
+school in the time of the Ptolemies. Erasistratos and Herophilos, pupils
+of Chrysippos of Cnidos, are said to have experimented upon 600
+condemned criminals handed over to them by Ptolemy Soter. They opened
+the abdomens of some of these men to study the movements of the colon
+and those of the muscle of the diaphragm on the inspiration of air; they
+also opened the chests of the others to study the cardiac movements.
+Their conduct, however, met with the reprobation of their
+contemporaries. Celsus and Galen reproached Herophilos with “cruel and
+useless sacrifices” and of “inhuman feeling,” while Tertullian called
+him roundly “an executioner who gave lingering death with refined
+cruelty.” The Court physicians of Attalus, King of Pergamus, and
+Mithridates, King of Pontus, were authorized in virtue of their office
+to try poisons upon criminals, and were accused by their jealous
+colleagues of pluming themselves upon their privileges, while less
+favoured practitioners were compelled to be content to experiment upon
+cocks and dogs.
+
+An allusion to the use of animals for the purpose of physiological
+experiment is to be found in a document still preserved in the Venetian
+secret archives, which bears the date 1432. It states: “Trial has been
+made on three porcine animals of certain venoms found in the chancery
+sent very long ago from Vicenza which have been proved not to be good.”
+
+This document affords interesting proof that the Italians at that early
+period were much in advance of other European nations in their knowledge
+of poisonous substances.
+
+Brassavola of Ferrara studied little known and doubtful remedies by
+testing their effects on criminals, and Fallopius, his pupil, who
+eventually made such important physiological discoveries, followed his
+master’s example. It is recorded that Cosimo de Medici, Grand Duke of
+Tuscany, on one occasion ordered the magistrates of Pisa to hand over
+two men to Fallopius, “in order that he may put them to death in
+whatever way he pleases, and then anatomize them.” Fallopius, however,
+seeing the men were condemned to death, seems to have acted with both
+dignity and humanity. He gave them each eight grains of opium; one died
+and the other recovered. Cosimo pardoned him, but, if we may believe
+contemporary records, Fallopius did not: he gave the man eight grains
+more, and this time he died.
+
+At Bologna, poisons were habitually administered to criminals without
+their knowledge to obviate the perturbing influence of fear upon natural
+toxic effects. Arsenic was employed in the same way at Mantua and
+Florence. Even princes of the Church did not show themselves above
+taking part in these experiments. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Ravenna,
+with the permission of Duke Ercole II, tried the effects of corrosive
+sublimate (!) as an antidote, though this seems rather like cutting off
+a child’s head to cure it of squinting. Pope Clement VII’s experiment
+with a secret oil which was given to certain unfortunate Corsicans as an
+antidote to the aconite they administered judicially, may be cited as a
+more humane effort in the cause of science, and was, no doubt,
+considered to have been partially successful, as one of the victims
+survived the aconite and received a free pardon.
+
+Dr. Harris, who was physician-in-ordinary to Charles II, gives an
+account of one Pontæus, apparently a contemporary, who is described as
+the first mountebank who ever appeared on a stage in England. This
+performer issued a challenge to the physicians of Oxford to prepare the
+rankest poison they could contrive, and he undertook that one of his
+servants should take it and recover. Thus would he demonstrate the
+marvellous virtues of the orvietan he had for sale. The medical
+practitioners of Oxford accepted the challenge, and decided on aqua
+fortis. Pontæus’s man drank off on the stage what they brought him, fell
+down as dead, was carried off, and reappeared the next day no worse for
+his experience. Dr. Harris explains that previous to the test he had
+well greased his mouth and gullet with 2 or 3 lb. of fresh butter, and
+that after getting him behind the scenes a lot more butter was
+administered, and then warm water, which made him sick. Another member
+of the charlatan’s staff next washed his hands in molten lead before the
+spectators. His hands were immediately violently inflamed, and his
+sufferings were obvious to the crowd, if not appreciated by himself.
+Some of the professor’s famous green ointment was then applied to the
+almost skinless flesh, and the hands were carefully bandaged. Next day
+the bandages were removed, and the hands were scarcely even inflamed. It
+transpired afterwards that the molten lead was warm quicksilver placed
+in a ladle painted red, and when the man dipped his hands in the metal
+he was concealing in them some vermilion, which he rubbed over the flesh
+under the quicksilver.
+
+François Ranchin, Professor and Chancellor of the Faculty of Montpellier
+in the eighteenth century, wrote that experiments upon human beings were
+worthy of approval and had been held in high honour by the ancients.
+
+English surgeons in the eighteenth century were also willing to avail
+themselves when the opportunity offered to experiment on a condemned
+criminal.
+
+In 1731 a man named Charles Ray was reprieved on condition that William
+Cheselden, the famous anatomist and surgeon, should perforate the drum
+of his ear in order to ascertain if it would cause deafness. The
+unfortunate subject, however, was taken ill with fever before the
+experiment could be performed, and the operation was abandoned.
+
+Again, in 1763 another condemned man was offered a reprieve on condition
+that he consented to have one of his legs amputated to test the power of
+a new styptic. Fortunately, perhaps, for him, he died before the
+experiment could be performed. Four years later one John Benham is
+reported to have been reprieved for a similar purpose, but when Pierce,
+the inventor of the styptic, waited upon the Secretary of State to make
+arrangements, he was informed that His Majesty the King was of the
+opinion that it was quite improper to try such an experiment.
+
+In more recent times seven condemned criminals in France were inoculated
+with the plague, but only one contracted the disease, and a certain
+German professor inoculated a man with carbuncle, which brought upon him
+the denunciations of his professional brethren.
+
+On the ethics of such experiments much diversity of opinion exists, but
+only when the subjects voluntarily submit themselves, as was recently
+done in connection with the researches on yellow fever, can this course
+be in any way justified.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+              THE SLOW AND TIME POISONS OF MEDIÆVAL TIMES
+
+
+The belief that certain slow and secret poisons could be so prepared
+that their administration could be controlled with such a degree of
+precision as to cause death at any given period, according to the will
+of the poisoner, has existed from ancient times. This idea was
+encouraged and fostered by the practitioners of alchemy and astrology,
+and others who professed to exercise magical powers. They also claimed a
+knowledge of certain lethal bodies which could be administered to the
+victims that would leave no trace behind them.
+
+
+“Truly,” says a writer of the seventeenth century, “this poisoning art
+called ‘veneficium’ of all others is most abominable, as whereby [crime]
+may be committed where no suspicion may be gathered nor any resistance
+be made; the strong cannot avoid the weak; the wise cannot prevent the
+foolish, the godly cannot be preserved from the hands of the wicked;
+children may thereby kill their parents, the servant the master, the
+wife her husband so privily, so uncurably that of all other it hath been
+thought the most odious kind of murther.”
+
+
+The origin of the time or slow poison tradition may be found in the
+cunning which is usually associated with the poisoner. In order to avoid
+suspicion, the poison was probably first administered to the victim in
+minute quantities, then gradually increased, from time to time, until it
+was finally decided to give the lethal dose, and so the culminating time
+was determined by the poisoner.
+
+Theophrastus refers to a poison prepared from aconite which, he states,
+would produce its effects after two, three or six months, or even years,
+after it had been administered. Plutarch records that one of the Philips
+of Macedon caused such a poison to be given to Aratus King of Sicyon,
+which is said to have produced a gradual wasting of the whole body,
+accompanied by bleeding from the nose.
+
+
+In Italy, during the Middle Ages, the highest dignitaries of the Church
+did not scruple to employ this evil method of gaining their ends, and
+statesmen used it as an instrument of diplomacy. Princes and nobles
+became adepts in devising the most cunning methods of administering a
+lethal dose to those whom they wished removed from their paths. This
+subtle method for the destruction of human life seems to have specially
+appealed to the Latin races of all classes. When they desired to dispose
+of a dangerous enemy or an inconvenient rival, they saw no distinction
+between using poison and the dagger. Many notable personages are said to
+have fallen victims to the poisoner’s craft, including Pope Victor II,
+Christopher I, King of Denmark, and Henry VII of Germany.
+
+With respect to the latter monarch, it is stated that on his return from
+Italy, where he had made many enemies both in Church and State, he
+stopped at the small town of Buonconventis to celebrate the festival of
+Easter. After receiving the sacrament he fell suddenly ill and died in
+terrible agony. The sacred elements of the Eucharist are said indeed to
+have been often utilized as a medium for this evil purpose. A case
+occurred within recent years when the same method was employed, proving
+that even to-day, in some remote parts of Italy, the old craft of the
+poisoner still survives. A few years ago, an aged priest named Donato
+Marulli, while celebrating mass in his church in the village of
+Villamagua in Abruzzi, fell writhing in agony on the altar steps.
+Consternation ensued among the congregation present, who crowded round
+the sacristan demanding explanations. Hearing suspicions of poisoning
+mentioned, he seized the chalice and drained the contents to demonstrate
+that the priest’s seizure was not due to the consecrated cup, but in a
+few moments he collapsed in the same manner. Suspicion afterwards fell
+on a young priest, who was subsequently arrested. It was found that he
+had mixed corrosive sublimate with the wine just before the celebration,
+the motive being to get promoted as parish priest in the old man’s
+stead.
+
+The extent to which the belief in the extraordinary power of poisons
+grew is instanced in the story of an association of women that
+flourished at Cassalis in Italy in the year 1536. The members are said
+to have poisoned whole families by
+
+
+“smearing the posts and doors of their houses with a noxious ointment
+and powder of which they prepared about forty crocks for the purpose.
+The like villainy was practised at Genoa and execution was done upon the
+offenders. Their art consisted in poisoning cattle as well as men, for
+it is written by divers authors that if wolves’ dung be hidden in the
+mangers, racks, or else in the hedges about the pastures where cattle go
+(through the antipathy of the nature of the wolfe and other cattle) all
+the beasts that favour the same do not only forbear to eat but run about
+as though they were mad.”
+
+
+It need hardly be said that this story is simply a phase of the
+witchcraft superstition so commonly believed at this period.
+
+On carefully investigating the cases recorded of so-called secret and
+slow poisonings mentioned by writers of the Middle Ages, the substance
+employed in the majority of such cases was probably arsenic in some
+form. La Spara’s mysterious elixir, that was the cause of so many deaths
+in Rome in the seventeenth century, was a preparation of arsenic, and so
+also was the famous Aqua Toffana, which is said to have put an end to no
+less than six hundred persons. It is very improbable that any substances
+of a toxic nature were used in mediæval or earlier times that are
+unknown to science to-day, and most of the stories of slow and secret
+poisoning can be explained by the manner in which the poison was given.
+A common phrase used by historians of this period in closing the account
+of some personages of note was, “he died not without suspicion of
+venom.”
+
+According to the Burghley papers, there was great dread of secret
+poisoning in Queen Elizabeth’s time.
+
+On June 27, 1572, one Richard Bexley, writing to Burghley, advises him
+not to take any physic of Dr. Gyfford, recently from Rome, lest he might
+be “Italianated” (a phrase actually coined to express secret poisoning).
+As early as 1561 it became necessary to surround the Queen with
+precautions against poisons. Not an untasted dish was allowed to be
+brought to her table, not a glove or a handkerchief might approach her
+person which had not been scrutinized, and she was dosed weekly with
+antidotes.
+
+Another story which shows the extraordinary credulity respecting the
+power of poisons that existed in the sixteenth century is related in a
+rare tract published in 1652, that purports to be an account of an
+attempt on the life of Queen Elizabeth. It states, in “Anno Dom. 1596
+one Edward Squire sometime a scrivener at Greenwich, afterwards a deputy
+purveyor for the Queen’s stable, in Sir Francis Drake’s last voyage was
+taken prisoner and carried into Spaine, and being set at liberty, one
+Walpole a Jesuite grew acquainted with him and got him into the
+Inquisition whence he returned a resolved Papist, he persuaded Squire to
+undertake to poyson the pommell of the Queen’s [Elizabeth’s] saddle,
+and, to make him constant, made Squire receive the Sacrament upon it; he
+then gave him the poyson chusing that he should take it in a double
+bladder and should prick the bladder full of hoales in the upper part,
+when he should use it (carrying it within a thick glove for the safety
+of his hand) should after turne it downward pressing the bladder upon
+the pommell of the Queen’s saddle. This Squire confest. Squire is now in
+Spaine, and for his safer dispatch it was devised that two Spanish
+prisoners taken at Cales should be exchanged for Squire and one Rawles,
+that it might not be thought that Squire came over but as a redeemed
+captive.
+
+“The Munday sennight after Squire returned into England, he
+understanding the horses were preparing for the Queen’s riding abroad
+laid his hand and crushed the poyson upon the pommell of the Queene’s
+saddle saying, ‘God save the Queene,’ the Queene road abroad and as it
+should seem laid her hand upon the place or els received no hurt
+(through God’s goodness) by touching it. Walpole counting the thing as
+done, imparted it to some principall fugitives there, but being
+disappointed of his hope, supposing Squire to have been false, to be
+revenged on him sent one hither (who should pretend to have stolne from
+thence) with letters wherein the plot of Squire was contained; this
+letter was pretended to be stolne out of one of their studies.
+
+“Squire being apprehended confessed all without any rigor, but after
+denied that he put it into execution, although he acknowledged he
+consented to it in the plot, at length he confessed the putting it in
+execution also.”
+
+The death of Niccolo Macchiavelli, whose abbreviated Christian name
+according to Macaulay was the origin of the term “Old Nick” commonly
+applied to the universal enemy of mankind, is said to have been due to a
+magic potion. Henry Morley, however, gives another version, and states
+that, “having failed in health after his last reverses, Macchiavelli
+increased his ailment by an overdose of castor oil, a medicine then in
+particular repute, and died two days afterwards on June 22, 1527.”
+
+This statement is evidently an error, as castor oil (the oil expressed
+from the seeds of the _Ricinis communis_) was not in use as a medicinal
+agent until more than 200 years after Macchiavelli’s death. The drug
+that Macchiavelli may have taken is the oil of castor, a product of the
+animal of that name which was often used in the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries. An interesting light is thrown on the composition of the
+so-called magic potion in a letter written by him to his friend
+Guicciardini on August 17, 1525, nearly two years before his death. He
+states:
+
+
+“I send you twenty-five pills made for you already four days since; you
+will find the receipt for them at the end of my letter. I tell you they
+have resuscitated me. Begin by taking one after supper; if it has any
+effect you will cease; if not, you will take two or three, but not
+beyond five. As for myself, two have always sufficed, and that only once
+a week, except when my head is heavy or my stomach loaded.... But let us
+return to the receipt for the pills:—
+
+                Aloes                         drachm 1½
+                Carman. deos? (Cardamom sem.)   „    1
+                Saffron                         „     ½
+                Myrrh                           „     ½
+                Betony                          „     ½
+                Pipinella                       „     ½
+                Armenian bole                   „    ½”
+
+
+Such was the medicine of which Macchiavelli ordinarily made use, and
+which Paul Jove entitles an enchanted potion, saying that Macchiavelli,
+after having taken it, died mocking God, and pretending that he was, so
+to speak, become immortal.
+
+These pills are a strong purgative taken in the dose prescribed, and it
+is possible Macchiavelli, while in a weakened condition, may have
+overdosed himself with them, and so hastened his end.
+
+Elisabetta Sirani, one of the famous women painters of the Bolognese
+school in the seventeenth century, is supposed to have been poisoned by
+her maid, and an interesting account of her illness and death is
+recorded in a manuscript in the Archives of Bologna. It states, that,
+“In Lent 1665, she was seized with pains in her stomach. She grew thin
+and lost her colour so that every one wondered at it, for before she was
+healthy and robust. In the summer, about St. Bartholomew’s Day, a
+redness with a little swelling appeared under her chin and jaw. These
+were cured with an ointment in a few days. On August 12 or 13 she was
+again seized with pain which was worse after eating. Her sister was in
+bed stricken with fever and the family physician Doctor Gallerati was
+attending her. Elisabetta complained to him. He said, ‘it was no time to
+take medicine for the Sun was in Leo and that the pain was due to a
+little catarrh.’ He advised her to take a little acid syrup early in the
+morning. Her aunt made the syrup and she took it two or three times,
+four teaspoonsful for a dose and seemed relieved.
+
+“But the pains returned. Nevertheless, she went with her mother on
+August 24 to the Feast of the Porchetta, and when asked how she was,
+said she ‘was all right when she didn’t think about it.’ On August 27
+about two in the afternoon the pain returned with violence. She became
+ghastly and was bathed in cold perspiration. Her aunt with difficulty
+put her to bed. She could not lie flat, but was easier in a half sitting
+posture.
+
+“She felt sick, but the emetics and clysters given had little effect.
+All through the night her relations applied hot cloths to her cold body.
+The pain continued and the extremities turned black.
+
+“A little while before her death the pain seemed to lessen and go lower;
+she began to move in bed, then fainted and died about eleven o’clock
+after being ill about thirty-three hours. After death her body swelled.
+The nose thickened, the features changed. She looked like a woman of
+sixty albeit she was but twenty-six years of age. She was given by her
+relatives: 1, Teriaca; [6]2, Spetie di Elescoff in broth; 3, Bezoar and
+oil of the Grand Duke against poison.”
+
+Footnote 6:
+
+  A purgative electuary composed of scammony, cream of tartar and salt
+  of tartar.
+
+At her father’s urgent request a post-mortem examination was made the
+day following Elisabetta’s death! This, it is recorded, was carried out
+by Master Ludovico, Surgeon of the Ospedale della Morte, in the presence
+of six other physicians. Perforations were found in the stomach, which
+five out of the seven doctors, attributed to the action of a “corrosive
+poison.” A Doctor Fabri introduced his finger into one of these
+perforations and found the circumference was surrounded by hardened
+tissue, and Dr. Gallerati, the family physician who had attended her,
+was of the opinion there was evidence of a “corrosive poison.”
+
+Suspicion fell upon a maidservant called Lucia Tolomelli, on the
+assertion of another domestic, that she had seen her place a “brown
+powder” in some food. So Lucia was arrested on September 1, 1665, and
+charged with the murder of Elisabetta Sirani. After a protracted trial,
+the evidence was deemed insufficient and she was released, it being
+concluded that death had been due to natural causes.
+
+There seems little doubt that this conclusion was correct, and this
+gifted lady probably died from peritonitis.
+
+In this case, as in many others where the physician was unable to
+diagnose the disease and was puzzled to account for a patient’s death,
+it was generally deemed to be the result of a slow poison, which
+deduction formed a ready solution of the difficulty.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+                    THE ITALIAN SCHOOL OF POISONERS
+
+
+The study of the criminal methods of using poisons developed into a cult
+in Italy during the Middle Ages, and the Italian school of poisoners
+became known throughout Europe. There is authentic record that its
+members were ready on receipt of certain fees to carry out murder by
+poison to order.
+
+A document drawn up by Charles King of Navarre throws some light on the
+systematic manner in which the poisoning of obnoxious persons was
+carried out. It is in the form of a commission to one Wondreton to
+poison Charles VI, the Duke of Valois, brother of the King, and his
+uncles, the Dukes of Berri, Burgundy and Bourbon. It reads:
+
+
+“Go thou to Paris; thou canst do great service if thou wilt. Do what I
+tell thee; I will reward thee well. There is a thing which is called
+sublimed arsenic; if a man eat a bit the size of a pea, he will never
+survive; Thou wilt find it in Pampeluna, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and in all
+the good towns thou wilt pass at the apothecaries’ shops. Take it, and
+powder it; and when thou shalt be in the house of the King, of the Count
+de Valois his brother, and the Dukes of Berri, Burgundy and Bourbon,
+draw near and betake thyself to the kitchen, to the larder, to the
+cellar, or any other place where thy point can best be gained, and put
+the powder in the soups, meats, or wines; provided that thou canst do it
+secretly. Otherwise do it not.”
+
+
+It is satisfactory to learn that the miscreant who was entrusted with
+this diabolical commission was detected in time, and executed in 1384.
+
+From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century there were schools of
+poisoners both in Venice and Rome. The Venetian poisoners who first came
+into notoriety began their operations early in the sixteenth century. At
+that period the mania for poisoning had risen to such a degree that the
+governments of the States were formally recognizing secret assassination
+by poison, and considering the removal of emperors, princes and powerful
+nobles by this method. This is not a myth, as record of the notorious
+Council of Ten, which met to consider such plans, and an account of
+their proceedings still exists. It gives the number of those who voted
+for and who voted against the proposed removal of certain persons, the
+reasons for their assassination and the sums paid for their execution.
+Thus these conspirators quietly and secretly arranged to take the lives
+of many prominent individuals who displeased them. When the deed was
+executed it was registered on the margin of their official record by the
+significant word “Factum.”
+
+On December 15, 1543, John of Ragusa, a Franciscan brother, offered the
+Council a selection of poisons, and declared himself ready to remove any
+person whom they deemed objectionable out of the way. He openly stated
+his terms, which for the first successful case were to be a pension of
+1,500 ducats a year, to be increased on the execution of future
+services. The Presidents, Guolando Duoda and Pietro Guiarini, placed
+this matter before the Council on January 4, 1544, and on a division it
+was resolved to accept this patriotic offer, and to experiment first on
+the Emperor Maximilian. John, who had evidently reduced poisoning to a
+fine art, submitted afterwards a regular graduated tariff to the
+Council, which reads as follows:—
+
+For the great Sultan, 500 ducats.
+
+For the King of Spain, 150 ducats, including the expenses of the
+journey, etc.
+
+For the Duke of Milan, 60 ducats.
+
+For the Marquis of Mantua, 50 ducats.
+
+For the Pope, 100 ducats.
+
+He further adds at the foot of the document, “The farther the journey,
+the more eminent the man, the more it is necessary to reward the toil
+and hardships undertaken, and the heavier must be the payment.”
+
+What may be called the Roman school of poisoners became prominent in the
+early sixteenth century, and their operations continued until the early
+part of the eighteenth century. During this period the magnitude and
+daring of their crimes struck terror into the hearts of the chief nobles
+and rulers of the country. The books on what were called “secrets,”
+published in Italy about this time, which contain formulæ of various
+descriptions, contain many allusions to poisons. Stories are told of
+poisons supposed to be unknown, whose secrets died with their
+originators.
+
+The mania for poisoning appears to have seized on all classes from the
+highest to the lowest, and no one who made an enemy was safe. Baptiste
+Porta, who wrote a book on the subject in 1589, made a careful study of
+the subject, and describes methods which were no doubt used in his time.
+He mentions various means for drugging wine, a favourite medium for
+administering poison. For this purpose belladonna root, nux vomica,
+aconite and hellebore were employed, all of which are very deadly in
+their effects. He gives a formula for compounding what he calls a very
+strong poison named “Venenum Lupinum,” which was composed of aconite,
+taxus baccata, caustic lime, arsenic, bitter almonds and powdered glass.
+These substances were to be mixed with honey into a stiff paste and made
+into pills the size of hazel nut. His method of poisoning a sleeping
+person was to make a mixture of hemlock juice, bruised stramonium,
+belladonna and opium, which was to be placed in a leaden box with a
+perfectly fitting lid, and allowed to ferment for several days. When
+this was done it was to be uncovered and placed under the nose of the
+intended victim while asleep. So long as the individual only smelt and
+did not swallow the compound, it could not have done him much harm.
+
+During the early part of the seventeenth century the southern parts of
+Italy, including Sicily, also appear to have been infested by
+unscrupulous practitioners in the use of poison, and Naples became a
+centre for this nefarious trade. The most notorious of these criminals
+whose name has been left on record is the woman named Toffana, who,
+there is little doubt, was responsible indirectly for the deaths of
+hundreds of people. About 1650, when she was little more than a girl,
+she began her evil career in Palermo, but in 1659, during the
+pontificate of Alexander VII, she removed to Naples and made it the
+centre of her operations. Whether she herself devised the poison which
+is associated with her name, or whether she obtained the knowledge from
+a confederate, is not known, but her method was to prepare the solution
+and bottle it in special phials bearing the representation of some
+saint, generally Saint Nicholas of Bari, who was connected with a
+medicinal spring, the water of which had a reputation for healing.
+Sometimes she used other names for her poisonous solution, such as
+“Aquetta di Napoli,” “Manna of St. Nicholas di Bari,” or gave her own
+name to it, “Aqua Toffana.” These bottles of poison were freely sold,
+especially to women, reputedly as a cosmetic for application to the skin
+to improve the complexion, for which purpose, owing to its active
+constituent being arsenic, it probably proved effective. Anyone in the
+secret could buy the poison for its supposed external application, and
+Toffana took care only to deal with individuals after due safeguards had
+been built up. She changed her abode so frequently, and adopted so many
+disguises, that even when suspicion actually fell upon her after many
+mysterious deaths, detection was rendered very difficult. She cunningly
+worked on the minds of her clients who were susceptible to religious or
+superstitious influences, and those who were unaware of the origin of
+her deadly solution were told it was a certain miraculous fluid supposed
+to ooze from the tomb of St. Nicholas, a saint of healing.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  [_Copyright._
+
+  A BOTTLE WITH REPRESENTATION OF ST. NICHOLAS OF BARI SAID TO HAVE BEEN
+    USED FOR AQUA TOFFANA.
+]
+
+Her preparations were doubtless bought by many in good faith in the
+belief that the liquid had miraculous properties, but those who knew the
+secret, especially women, often used it for criminal purposes, and it is
+estimated that over six hundred persons were poisoned by her
+preparations in Naples and Rome. Two Popes and other Church dignitaries
+are said to have fallen victims to the poison, and it was not until
+after a long career, and when Toffana had reached the age of seventy,
+that she was found to be the originator of these wholesale crimes. In a
+letter addressed to Hoffman[7] by Garcelli, physician to the Emperor
+Charles VI of Austria, he informed him that being Governor of Naples at
+the time, he knew that the Aquetta di Napoli was the dread of every
+noble family in the city, and that the subject was investigated legally.
+He thus had the opportunity of examining all the documents, and found
+the poison to consist of a solution of arsenic, which was of such
+strength that from four to six drops in water or wine was said to kill
+an adult, and that it was colourless, transparent and tasteless.
+
+Footnote 7:
+
+  _Medicinia Rationalis Systematica_, i. 198.
+
+When the manufacture and sale of the poison was at last traced to
+Toffana, she took refuge in a convent, where, under the privileges of
+the place, she bade defiance for some time to the officers of justice,
+and continued to vend her solution from the very bosom of the Church
+until the scandal became at length too great to be tolerated. She was
+then dragged from her refuge and thrown into prison. A great outcry was
+raised by the clergy at this violation of their privileges, and the
+people, unwilling to be defrauded of their right to use the poison,
+joined in the clamour of the priests. It was only by circulating a
+report that she had poisoned the wells in the city, that the current of
+public sentiment could be turned against her. Being put to the rack she
+confessed her crimes, and named those who had afforded her protection.
+They were immediately arrested in various churches and monasteries. It
+was stated that the day before her last flight from justice, she had
+sent two boxes of her “manna” to Rome. They were found in the
+custom-house in that city. The archbishop still murmured at her being
+torn from a privileged asylum and accordingly the authorities contrived
+to have her strangled and thrown into the courtyard of the convent from
+which she had been taken in 1709. Her practices, however, did not cease
+at her death, and, according to Keysler, who travelled in Southern Italy
+in the early part of the eighteenth century, the _aquetta_ continued to
+be prepared in great quantities for some time afterwards.
+
+There was naturally much mystery at the time as to the composition of
+Aqua Toffana and the most extraordinary properties were attributed to
+it. Its alleged effects are described by Behrens, a contemporary writer,
+who states that on taking it,
+
+
+“a certain indescribable change is felt in the whole body, which leads
+the person to complain to his physician. The physician examines and
+reflects, but finds no symptoms either external or internal, no
+vomiting, no inflammation, no fever. In short, he can only advise
+patience, strict regimen, and laxatives. The malady, however, creeps on,
+and the physician is again sent for. Still he cannot detect any symptoms
+of note. Meanwhile the poison takes firmer hold of the system; languor,
+wearisomeness, and loathing of food continue; the nobler organs
+gradually become torpid, and the lungs in particular at length begin to
+suffer. In a word, the malady, from the first is incurable; the unhappy
+victim pines away insensibly even in the hands of the physician, and
+thus he is brought to a miserable end through months or years, according
+to his enemy’s desire.”
+
+
+Father Labat, in his _Travels in Italy_, observes that the association
+of the name of St. Nicholas of Bari with Aqua Toffana was a great
+advantage to her, as there was such a preparation in reality, a sacred
+water, and Toffana’s solution, under the name “Manna of St. Nicholas di
+Bari,” was able to pass the Custom-house with little scrutiny.
+
+Toffana had many imitators, who continued to practise for some time
+after her death. A similar scheme was attempted with a poisonous
+preparation which was sold for cosmetic purposes, called “Aquetta di
+Perugia.” It is said to have been prepared by killing a hog, disjointing
+it, and strewing the pieces with white arsenic, which was well rubbed
+in, and finally collecting the juice which dropped from the meat itself.
+
+This preparation was supposed to be a much stronger and powerful poison
+than arsenic, and was more rapid in its action.
+
+Some idea of the extent to which criminal poisoning was carried in Italy
+may be gathered from an account of a secret society of women that was
+formed in Rome in 1659. Many of the members were young married women
+belonging to some of the best and wealthiest families of that city. They
+apparently met together with the chief object of plotting to destroy the
+lives of their husbands or members of families connected with them. They
+gathered at regular intervals at the house of a woman called Hieronyma
+Spara, who was reputed to be a sorceress. She provided the members of
+the Society with the poison necessary for their purposes, and planned
+and instructed them how to use it.
+
+Operations had been carried on for some time before the existence of the
+Society was discovered, “and,” says a contemporary writer, “the hardened
+old hag passed the ordeal of the rack without confession, but another
+woman divulged the secrets of the sisterhood, and La Spara, together
+with twelve other women implicated, were hanged.” Many others were
+publicly whipped through the streets of the city.
+
+A curious story is told of D’Annunzio, the Italian poet, who became
+prominent in 1921 in the seizure of Fiume, which he held as dictator for
+some time. It is stated that when serving in the Italian Air Force,
+which he did with distinction during the war, it was his custom to carry
+a small bottle of a very powerful poison in his pocket which he used to
+allude to invariably as “My Pharmic Liberator.” This poison he is said
+to have had concocted for him in Venice, and it was made from a mediæval
+recipe only known to the Venetian poisoners. It is said that when he was
+performing his memorable raid over Vienna the engines of his aeroplane
+stopped and restarted thrice over, and feeling certain that a descent
+over enemy territory was inevitable, he got his phial ready in order
+that the Austrians should not capture him alive. At that very moment he
+is said to have seen an apparition of his mother, who had died two years
+beforehand, who bade him cast away all fears and he would get through.
+He is said also to have kept his phial of poison close at his hand
+during the bombardment of Fiume, and his friends had to keep perpetual
+watch upon him during those critical hours.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+                       THE MYSTERY OF THE BORGIAS
+
+
+Considerable mystery has ever enveloped the history of the Borgia
+family, whose name historians have linked with some of the most morbid
+stories of crime and secret poisoning during the Middle Ages. A great
+deal that has been written concerning their crimes is doubtless pure
+fiction, and it is only within recent years that owing to the discovery
+of certain contemporary documents some light has been thrown upon the
+darksome deeds they are said to have perpetrated. From an examination of
+these records, on the one hand it would appear that certain members of
+the family were not so black as tradition has painted them, and on the
+other there seems little doubt that some of the Borgias were guilty of
+terrible and sinister deeds, which were only too common in the times in
+which they lived.
+
+The Borgias, who were of Spanish origin, migrated to Italy and came into
+notoriety in the time of Pope Calixtus III, about the year 1455. The
+first member to come into prominence was Rodrigo, who was born in 1431,
+and who began life as a soldier. Afterwards, through the influence of
+Calixtus he entered the priesthood, and finally rose to be the head of
+the Church under the title of Pope Alexander VI. He is said to have had
+five children by his mistress Vanozza de Cattanei, viz.: Pier Luigi, who
+died in infancy, Giovanni Duke of Gandia, Giffredo Count of Cariati,
+Cesare, afterwards Duke of Valentinois, and Lucrezia, who eventually
+became Duchess of Ferrara.
+
+Alexander himself is described by contemporary writers as “a handsome
+man of majestic and kingly bearing,” and is said to have looked “more
+like a Cæsar returned to life than a Vicar of Christ.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  POPE ALEXANDER VI.
+
+  (_From the painting by Pinturicchio in the Vatican._)
+]
+
+As his children grew up he loaded them with titles and honours. When he
+came to the papal chair Cesare was about twenty-two years of age and
+Lucrezia between thirteen and fourteen. He recognized all of them in
+special Bulls, except Cesare, from whom (in order to bestow the purple
+on him) he wished to remove the stigma of his origin, and declared him
+to be the son of Vanozza and Domenico d’Arignano. This is proclaimed in
+a Bull dated October 17, 1480.
+
+In the early part of 1498 a youth was introduced to the household called
+Romano, who the Pope declared was the son of Cesare and created him Duke
+of Nepi, and presented him with large estates. According to documents
+discovered by Gregorovius, dated September 1, 1501, the Pope himself was
+the real father, and the maternity of this boy involves one of the most
+obscure mysteries of the history of the Borgias.
+
+Before Alexander obtained the pontificate, he had betrothed Lucrezia to
+a Spanish gentleman, but he broke off the engagement with the evident
+object of marrying his daughter to a man of higher rank, and on June 12,
+1493, Lucrezia was espoused to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. The
+marriage was not by any means a happy one, and at the end of four years
+was dissolved by the Pope, who had other motives in view, for he soon
+arranged a fresh alliance between Lucrezia and Alfonso Duke of
+Bisceglie, the natural son of Alfonso II, King of Naples. The marriage
+took place, but soon after the birth of their first child, the Duke was
+attacked by several men and severely wounded. The story is thus told by
+a chronicler:—
+
+
+“On the night of July 15 (1500) on which solemn ceremonies were taking
+place to celebrate the jubilee of the Pope, a young man staggered
+headlong into the pontifical apartments, endeavouring to stem with his
+hands a stream of blood which gushed from a large wound in his chest. It
+was the Duke of Bisceglie, Alfonso of Aragon, Lucrezia’s second husband.
+Consternation was caused when it was spread abroad that a band of
+assassins in the pay of Cesare had attempted to assassinate him near the
+steps of St. Peter’s when on his way to the celebration. The young man,
+who is said to have been of a kind and gentle nature, fell unconscious
+at the feet of the Pope. Lucrezia and his sister Sancia, who were
+standing by, both fainted away and were carried into a room of the tower
+behind the Pope’s chambers. He is said to have been nursed by the two
+women and to have nearly recovered, when one night in Lucrezia’s absence
+he was strangled with a cord in bed under the eyes of Cesare.”
+
+
+Lucrezia then retired for a time to the estate of Nepi. On her return to
+Rome, she appears to have acted as a kind of secretary to her father the
+Pope, and in about twelve months her betrothal to Alfonso d’Este, the
+eldest son of the Duke of Ferrara, was announced, and the marriage took
+place by proxy on December 20, 1502. Shortly afterwards she left Rome to
+take up her residence in Ferrara.
+
+From father to children, who apparently put no restraint on their
+criminal and sensual instincts, it was not long before the most
+extraordinary stories were circulated about the Borgias. Cesare, in
+particular, appears to have been a degenerate of the worst possible
+type. He was first made bishop of Pampeluna and afterwards Cardinal of
+Valenza, and appears to have been even a worse character than his
+father. Tragedies in the family began in 1497 when Giovanni Duke of
+Gandia, the second son, was found in the Tiber, his body being pierced
+with ten wounds from a dagger. According to Scalona, suspicion rested on
+Sforza Count of Pesaro.
+
+Cesare conceived a violent jealousy of an attendant in his sister’s
+household, named Pedro Calderon, who was probably a Spaniard. In a fit
+of passion he is said to have pursued the man with a dagger right into
+the pontifical apartments and assassinated him in the presence of the
+Pope, “even so,” says the chronicler, “that the pontifical garments were
+splashed with blood.” According to Capello, “four hired ruffians carried
+his body to the Tiber, tied a large stone to his neck and threw him into
+the river.”
+
+Public feeling now began to be aroused against the Borgias, but
+Alexander kept on his way serenely, in spite of the wave of contumely
+which seethed round the papal throne in Rome. Sannazaro’s couplets,
+Pontano’s epigrams, and the reports let drop by the Mantuan and Venetian
+ambassadors of the grave rumours but whispered in Rome, were followed by
+the accusations of bishops and even of some cardinals, but nothing was
+done.
+
+In justice to the Borgias one must try to visualize the condition of the
+people in Rome at this period. Poison may be said to have become a
+common weapon in the social and political life of the country. For the
+politician it was a weapon which procured him office, for the theologian
+a secret method of removing an enemy from his path, and so on throughout
+the whole social strata. Superstitions were rampant, and according to a
+writer of the time, even the worst criminals would make the sign of the
+Cross on passing before a church and supplicate the Madonna to give them
+help and profit in their crimes. Scarcely any value was attached to
+human life, and those in prominent positions lived in a constant state
+of insecurity. No wonder that vendors of amulets, talismans and
+antidotes to poison flourished everywhere.
+
+Apollinaire paints a lurid picture of the Borgias in his account of a
+fête held in the vineyard of St. Peter-in-Chains, in the following
+words:—
+
+
+“La Vanozza de Cattanei receives the cardinals and the ambassadors, and
+after being introduced to one another, the guests disperse about the
+vineyard and exchange conversation and courtesies. Later she disappears
+and joins Cesare in a room on the first floor of the building. She finds
+him with his sleeves rolled up, bent over a kneading trough, and
+absorbed in his task. This room was reserved for Vanozza and Cesare;
+only the Pope shared with them the right of entry, no one else was
+allowed to cross the threshold. On the floor lay several large shallow
+copper dishes, some of which were entirely covered with verdigris, and
+from which a colourless-looking liquid was being evaporated. One of
+these dishes was always placed near the fire in order that the heat
+might hasten the evaporation.
+
+“As La Vanozza enters Cesare remarks: ‘Yet I forbade you to make a
+fire.’
+
+“‘I only put a few live coals to hasten the result,’ she replies. ‘I did
+not make enough for it to be possible for the powder to scorch; if I had
+not done it we should not have had the powder to-day!’
+
+“‘It is not so much for fear of its scorching, but because of the
+cinders which mix with the powder and render it less fine,’ said Cesare.
+‘Happily Cardinal di Riaro is short-sighted. This is quite enough for
+him in any case, but for others, hand me the tart dish,’ he continues.
+‘It should be dry by now.’
+
+“La Vanozza lifts the heavy red copper dish by the two handles, and on
+it may be noticed a mouldiness, or greenish spots caused by a settling
+deposit. With a hare’s paw Cesare collects this powder, then with an
+ivory knife he carefully scrapes the copper, and mixes the residue in a
+marble mortar. From it he takes in small pinches some of the powder and
+places it in another mortar of agate, and reduces it with a pestle to an
+impalpable dust until it is like a morsel of polished silver.
+
+“‘Give me the “manna,”’ says Cesare. La Vanozza hands him the arsenic
+which he calls by that name, and he mixes some with the powder in the
+mortar, passing the mixture again under the pestle until thoroughly
+incorporated, and then, his task completed, he stands erect and
+exclaims, ‘God said “Let there be light” and there was light. We Borgias
+are able to say “Let it be night,” and night it shall be.’ He then
+remarks to Vanozza, ‘It is time for luncheon.’ La Vanozza leaves him and
+retraces her way; when she is gone, the copper dish being empty, he
+pours urine in it in order to replace that which has evaporated, the
+salts of which he had just utilised. The salt which resulted, combined
+with the verdigris were then mixed with arsenic and this formed the
+famous poison which the Borgias called ‘La Cantarella.’ ‘That which the
+Borgias utilized in conjunction with arsenic without knowing it,’ says
+Apollinaire, ‘was phosphorus, a secret which had been divulged to the
+Borgias by a Spanish monk, who also knew the antidote for it, as well as
+an antidote for arsenic; one sees, therefore, that they were well
+armed.’”
+
+
+There is no evidence to prove the truth of Apollinaire’s statements, and
+he may only have recorded the reports common at the time. These records
+are, however, useful to compare with the statements made by other
+contemporary historians.
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  “A CUP OF WINE WITH CESARE BORGIA.”
+
+  (_From a painting by the Hon. John Collier._)
+]
+
+An astrologer is said to have predicted to Alexander that he would never
+die so long as he carried on his person a box containing the Blessed
+Sacrament. This gold box is stated to have never left his person. On a
+certain day he is said to have invited those who had been nominated as
+cardinals to supper with him. Suspicious of their host the commanded
+guests were doubtful of acceptance, and only agreed to come on condition
+that the supper took place at the house of the Cardinal de Corneto.
+Alexander and his son Cesare are stated to have bribed the chief
+attendant of the Cardinal for a large sum and pledged him to serve
+certain wine at dinner to which they had added poison. The evening
+arrived, and Alexander, as he entered the room, remembered he had
+forgotten the box containing the Blessed Sacrament. He at once ordered
+Monsignor Caraffa to fetch it; Apollinaire, who records the story, says,
+“While Caraffa obeyed, the Pope irritated by his forgetfulness, asked
+that a drink should be brought to him before seating himself at the
+table. The chamberlain in attendance said he would see the order was
+carried out, but it happened that the chief attendant whom the Pope had
+bribed was absent at the moment, and the chamberlain who came for the
+wine was served by an underling who was in ignorance of the plot. A
+goblet was filled from the poisoned caraffe which had been prepared by
+Cesare and taken to the Pope. Directly after Caraffa arrived, bringing
+with him the missing box. It was, however, too late; the Pope had drunk
+some of the wine and was already feeling the effects of the poison.
+Cardinal Valentinois himself lay convulsed upon the ground, surrounded
+by the others kneeling round in absorbed awe and murmuring Pater
+Nosters. Alexander appeared to suffer greater agonies than the rest.
+Surgeons were called in and bled him without any effect, and he
+succumbed on the eighth day afterwards.”
+
+Sanuto gives another account of Alexander’s death.
+
+
+“The death of Pope Alexander VI,” he states, “occurred in the following
+manner. The Cardinal Datary Arian de Corneto having one morning received
+a message from the Pontiff stating that he intended in company with his
+son Cesare, the Duke of Valentinois, that evening to pay the Cardinal a
+visit and to sup with him, and that they would bring their supper with
+them, was terrified at the intelligence, being fully impressed with the
+conviction that His Holiness or his son intended poisoning him to
+possess his treasure, the said Cardinal being very rich. Thinking
+rapidly over the matter he saw but one means of saving his life. He
+immediately sent to the head carver of the Pope requesting he would
+oblige him by visiting him as soon as possible. The carver obeyed the
+request and the Cardinal having conducted him to a private room placed
+in his hand ten golden ducats which he requested the said carver to
+accept as a proof of the love he bore him. After many objections and
+simulated repugnance the carver accepted the gift, stating that he did
+so from obedience to the orders of his Eminence. The Cardinal then
+finding the carver willing to lend a ready ear to anything he might say,
+addressed him in the following manner: ‘You perfectly well know the
+intentions of the Pope and that he and his son have determined that I
+shall die by poison, which will be administered to me this evening and I
+now humbly beg of you to spare my life.’
+
+“After some demur the carver told him the manner in which it had been
+agreed between them that the poison should be administered. After supper
+was over he had been ordered to place on the table three boxes of
+confectionery one of which was to be placed before the Pope, another
+before the Cardinal, and the third before the Duke of Valentinois,
+taking care to place the one containing the poison before his
+Excellency. The Cardinal begged and implored the said carver to change
+the manner in which the confectionaries were to be placed on the table
+so that the one containing the poison should be put before the Pope,
+that he might eat of it and die. The carver at first was horrified at
+the suggestion, but on the Cardinal offering him 10,000 ducats in gold
+as a reward he relented and agreed that the box of poisoned sweetmeats
+should be placed before the Pope.
+
+“In the evening of the same day the Pope accompanied by the Duke arrived
+at the palace of his Eminence, who as soon as his Holiness had seated
+himself flung himself on the ground before him and kissed his feet. Then
+with most affectionate words he begged his Holiness would grant him a
+favour saying he would never rise from his knees should his Holiness
+refuse to oblige him. Surprised at the extreme earnestness of the
+Cardinal, the Pope asked him to rise from his knees and explain his
+request. The Cardinal however persisting, the Pope was surprised at the
+perseverance of his Eminence and promised to grant him any request he
+might make. The Cardinal then rose from his knees and said, ‘It is not
+respectful that when the lord honours his servant with a visit his
+servant should eat at the same table with his lord and the favour I ask
+of you is just and honest. It is that you will allow me during your
+repast to wait on you as your servant.’ His Holiness to please the
+Cardinal granted his request. After the supper was over, the Cardinal
+placed on the table the boxes of sweetmeats, having first received
+information from the carver which was the one containing the poison, and
+that the Cardinal placed before the Pope, who under the impression that
+the one before him did not contain the poisoned sweetmeats ate one of
+them gaily, and of the other which he believed contained the poison, the
+Pope pressed the Cardinal to eat, who obeyed him without hesitation.
+Shortly after His Holiness had departed he fell ill and the next morning
+died; while the Cardinal, who still having some fear that the sweetmeats
+he had eaten might have been poisoned, took an emetic and thus escaped
+the danger with which he had been threatened.”
+
+
+Lecontour agrees with the account given by Apollinaire in the following
+words:
+
+
+“It should be called to your notice that this death has been the subject
+of many discussions and that the documents transmitted differ very much.
+Here are some opinions on the subject, and first of all there is the
+description of the corpse of the Pope by the Marquis of Mantua, in a
+letter written to his wife Isabella, and then the testimony of those who
+approached the body and which is made to disquiet us. Here is one:—
+
+“Immediately after his death, the Pope became black and so deformed, so
+prodigiously swollen that it was hardly possible to recognise him,
+putrefied matter flowed from his nose, his mouth was open and in so
+terrifying an attitude that one could not look at it without horror, nor
+suffer the stench without fear of being infected.”
+
+
+In a further letter written by the Marquis of Mantua at the time, he
+says:
+
+
+“His body has become putrefied, foam comes from the mouth as from a
+saucepan on the fire. This has lasted as long as he has remained
+unburied. He has swelled so enormously that he no longer has the form of
+a human being, and it is impossible to distinguish between the length
+and the breadth of the body.
+
+“No one would touch this mass of flesh and putrefaction. No one would
+put it in the coffin. Those who approached it fell asphyxiated.
+
+“In the end two street porters were found who consented to drag it, by
+means of cords which were attached to the legs of the death-bed, as far
+as the vault where they let it drop. The flesh detached itself during
+the transit, leaving a track of putrefying fragments.”
+
+
+Portigliotti, writing of the death of Alexander VI, states:
+
+
+“There was no religious rapture at his death-bed, no holy prayers beside
+his corpse. As soon as he had breathed his last, Cesare, who was keeping
+to his own rooms on pretence of illness, sent his trusted squires to
+close all doors which gave access to the papal apartment. One of them
+(says Burckhardt) drawing a dagger threatened Cardinal Casanova that he
+would cut his throat and throw him out of the window if he did not give
+him at once the keys of the pontifical treasury; the cardinal,
+terrified, gave them to him. The strong-boxes soon yielded piles of
+golden ducats, while the servants rifled the wardrobes and rooms,
+leaving only a few cloth tapestries fastened on the walls.
+
+“The Pope’s body, washed and clothed, was placed in a room between two
+wax candles. None went to recite over it the prayers for the dead, none
+watched it that night. The next morning it was borne, uncovered
+according to rite, into St. Peter’s Church. The cardinal who presided at
+the function fearing that some one would gash it out of personal spite,
+had it brought into a chapel behind a very high and resistent iron
+grating. ‘Vultus erat sicut pannus vel morus nigerrimus,’ writes
+Burckhardt, ‘livori totus plenus, os amplissimum, nasus plenus, lingua
+duplex in ore, que labia tota implebat, os apertum ed adeo orribile quod
+nemo videns unquam ad esse talem dixerit.’ The orator Costabili mentions
+that evening in a despatch ‘the Pope’s body has been all day in St.
+Peter’s, an ugly thing to see, black and swollen ... and many do not
+doubt he has been poisoned.’”
+
+
+To counteract the rumours of poisoning which the rapid decomposition of
+the body was arousing, it was thought well to keep it covered by day and
+only to leave it exposed in the evening. But at night, by the yellowish,
+flickering and smoking light of the candles, Borgia appeared still more
+horrible and terrifying: a repulsive fetor emanated from that black and
+putrefying flesh. It was therefore decided to enclose it without more
+ado in the bier. Two joiners and six porters “ludentes et blasfemantes
+sive contra papam sive in spretum cadaveris,” “had no small difficulty
+in pushing it into the coffin, which had become too narrow; and because
+the stench and the heat were unbearable, they hastened their task
+without any regard, and forced it in with hand and foot. No priest was
+present at the funeral operation, not a candle was lit.”
+
+In the morning, there was found on the bier these couplets:
+
+          “Quis jacet hic. Sextus—Quis funera plangit? Erymus.
+          Quis comes in tanto funere obit? Vitium.
+          Et quae causa necis? Virus pro homina, virus,
+          Humane generi vita salusque fuit.”
+
+The Venetian Giustinian who attended him in his last hours wrote the
+significant words, “Very near the end of the tribulation of
+Christendom,” and a Bolognese priest, noting the date of his death in
+the margin of a document, says, “To-day he is descended to hell where he
+was born.”
+
+On the other hand, Burckhardt, whose account is generally favoured,
+states that the Pope was attacked by a fever on August 12, 1503, and on
+the 16th he was bled, the disorder seeming to become a tertian. On the
+17th he took medicine, but the following day he became so ill that his
+life was despaired of. He then received the viaticum during mass, which
+was celebrated in his chamber, at which five cardinals assisted. In the
+evening extreme unction was administered to him, and a few minutes
+afterwards he died.
+
+This account is corroborated by Muratori, who quotes many authorities to
+show that the death of Alexander was not caused by poison, and the
+balance of evidence certainly seems in favour of the theory that,
+despite all his crimes, Alexander VI died from a natural cause, and that
+probably a fever of virulent type.
+
+Thus ended Alexander VI, after a pontificate of eleven years, on August
+18, 1503.
+
+According to a chronicler of the time:
+
+
+“Cesare Borgia survived his father, and his life was saved because he
+had himself plunged into the stomach of a living mule, but on his
+recovery he lost both his power and his prestige. The Pope Julius II,
+after the very short pontificate of Pius III, which only lasted
+twenty-one days, ordered his arrest when he was the master of all
+Central Italy, after having arrested Varano, Vitelli, the Orsini and the
+Baglioni. Cesare resisted for a year, sustained by the unimpeachable
+fidelity of his captains and soldiers. He yielded at last in 1504, was
+liberated again, but fell into the hands of Gonzalo di Cordova, who sent
+him to Spain. Having escaped, he took service again in the capacity of
+commander under his father-in-law, the King of Navarre. He died in 1507
+in a fight, pierced by a javelin.”
+
+
+Another historian gives the following account of the end of Cesare:—
+
+
+“At the time of his father’s death Cesare Borgia was sick in bed, his
+illness it is said being caused by swallowing a portion of the poisoned
+sweetmeats which cost his father his life. Cesare it is related partook
+of the poisoned sweetmeats in error and omitted to carry out the advice
+of Macchiavelli always to carry an antidote with him.”
+
+
+It is probable that he was suffering from an attack of the same fever
+which his father had contracted.
+
+On hearing of the Pope’s death, although unable to leave his room, he at
+once sent one of his emissaries with several armed attendants to take
+possession of the palace and allow no one to enter until he had taken
+away his father’s treasure.
+
+As time went on he became more and more unpopular, and public feeling
+was very strong against him. After some time it was arranged that he
+should be allowed to quit the Ecclesiastical States. Three days were
+given him to leave the city, but after the election of Julius II he
+again returned to Rome. Feeling was still strong against him, and he
+decided to journey to France to seek the assistance of the King. The
+King of Navarre gave him command of a troop of horse, and in a small
+battle under the walls of the castle of Viana Cesare was killed.
+
+Remorsi says:—
+
+
+“The Duke of Valentinois did not die, because God willed that as a
+greater scourge this ambitious and cruel spirit should survive fortune
+and grandeur and see his most down-trodden enemies in power, for the
+strength of his temperament and of his youth overcame the poison, being
+aided by good remedies which the doctors gave him. Some of them assert
+that the most efficacious remedy employed was that of putting him
+several times into the body of a bull or mule opened for the purpose,
+like Ladislas, King of Naples, who was delivered in this manner from the
+poison which was given to him in his youth.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  LUCREZIA BORGIA.
+
+  (_From the painting by Pinturicchio in the Vatican._)
+]
+
+“Others write of having heard the said Cardinal (di Corneto) say in the
+villa where he took the poison, how he was plunged into a great vessel
+of cold water, from which he was not taken until his skin had been
+entirely removed in pieces, because his intestines were completely
+burned. However his cure was effected, he remained extremely oppressed
+by the illness for a long time and at a time when he had most need of
+perfect health in order to remedy the revolution of his affairs. So that
+he constantly had reason to complain of his reverses of fortune.”
+
+
+Cesare’s death was lamented at least by one person, and that was his
+sister Lucrezia, who at once set out for the Monastery of Corpo di
+Christo to offer prayers for his soul, where she remained for two
+nights.
+
+Some of the entries in the book of her household expenses are
+interesting, and throw a light on the remuneration paid to a Court
+physician of the time.
+
+In 1507 is an entry:—
+
+
+“To Maestro Ludovico physician to Her Highness 110 lire for the balance
+of his salary.
+
+“On the 31st December 240 lire as a year’s salary for her Highness’s
+physician Maestro Ludovico at the rate of 20 lire a month.”
+
+
+Patroness of poets and painters in her latter days, Lucrezia made
+herself popular in Ferrara. In the Library of Modeno is a list of her
+magnificent jewels which she sold to free her husband from the debts he
+contracted during the wars in defence of his territories. Many of her
+letters still extant show that during these troublous times the relief
+of the poor, sick and needy was Lucrezia’s constant care. She died
+during her confinement on June 21, 1519. The accouchement had been long
+and difficult and the officers and servants of her household were
+clustered at the foot of the grand staircase leading to her room. Great
+fears were entertained of her recovery, and they waited in breathless
+silence for every sound from the apartment. “At length,” says the
+chronicler, “Maestro Alberti, the Court Apothecary, was seen descending
+the staircase with an ewer in his hand. All pressed forward to ask him
+where he was going. He replied significantly, ‘To get some rose water to
+wash the body of the duchess.’”
+
+Thus ended Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, who, to quote a letter
+written by a cousin of Federico Gonzaga who was present in Ferrara at
+the time, was “one who appears to have been universally beloved not only
+for the habitual piety of her life, but for her unbounded charity and
+kindness of heart.”
+
+Lucrezia has been accused of being guilty of the worst possible crimes,
+including that of poisoning, but there is practically no historic proof
+of the truth of these stories. It is probable that many of the infamous
+crimes of her brother Cesare were attributed erroneously to her.
+
+The composition of the so-called “Cantarella,” the poison said to have
+been employed by the Borgias, has long been a subject of dispute.
+According to Paolo Jovio, it was “a kind of whitish powder, that to a
+certain extent resembled sugar, and which had been used on a great many
+poor innocent people who died in a miserable state.”
+
+Carelli, physician to Charles VI, gives the following account of how it
+was prepared. He states: “The abdominal viscera of a sow which had been
+poisoned with arsenic were powdered with arsenious acid; they waited
+until the putrefaction was complete and the liquids which flowed from it
+were then concentrated by evaporation and constituted a white powder
+which was called ‘La Cantarella.’” Apollinaire’s account of its
+preparation has already been given, from which it may be concluded that
+it consisted of a mixture of subacetate of copper and crude phosphorus.
+
+Several other contemporary writers claim to give the true method of its
+preparation. One states that a bear was killed, then cut open and
+treated in a similar manner and the liquid that dripped from it formed
+the poison.
+
+It is evident that this method of preparing a venom was employed by some
+of the Italian poisoners and was known at the period. The combination of
+the animal poison contained in the products of putrefaction, together
+with arsenic, would no doubt furnish a poisonous substance of a very
+powerful nature, but whether the Borgias ever used such a preparation
+there is no evidence to prove.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  CESARE BORGIA.
+
+  (_From a painting ascribed to Raphael._)
+]
+
+Baron Corvo, in his _Chronicles of the Borgias_, scouts the idea that
+the family possessed any such secret, and denies that the venom ever
+existed. The probability is, that when the Borgias found it necessary to
+use a poison for nefarious purposes they employed arsenic, which was so
+commonly used in Italy at that period. The fact that Cesare Borgia’s
+signet ring contained a secret receptacle which might easily have been
+used to carry arsenic, goes a long way to substantiate this conjecture,
+and is the strongest evidence we have that he at least used a very
+powerful poison to carry out his evil designs.
+
+In connection with the Borgia poison there is an interesting story that
+the secret of its preparation perished with the Duc Riaro-Sforza, who
+died in Paris about the middle of the nineteenth century. Before his
+death, one evening at the opera the Duke is said to have confided to a
+distinguished critic, who occupied the neighbouring stall, that he still
+possessed the secret of the famous poison, although for centuries it had
+lain idle in the family archives. Its composition was, he added, simpler
+than generally supposed, and not long afterwards he told his friends
+that, feeling age advancing and having no direct heirs, he had thought
+it best to burn the recipe lest it might fall into bad hands.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+               POISON MYSTERIES IN EARLY SCOTTISH HISTORY
+
+
+According to ancient historical records Scotland had its poison
+mysteries in early times.
+
+In the year 1332 Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, who on the death of
+Robert Bruce was appointed Regent during the minority of the young King
+David the Second, is said to have been a victim to poison.
+
+Hector Boece, in his _Cronikles of Scotland_, boldly attributes his
+death to the malice of Edward III, King of England, who, he states, “tuk
+purpos to sla him be venome.” The fatal draught is said to have been
+administered to the Earl by a monk who had been sent by the English King
+as a physician, with the result that the unfortunate Moray found
+“certaine dolouris ilk day mair increasing in his wame,” and died very
+suddenly.
+
+The Duke of Albany, younger son of James III, according to a chronicler,
+was also “posonit in oure Souverane lordis presens and palas,” which
+caused “a sclandir and murmur rising in the cuntre,” but by whom it was
+administered it is not known.
+
+In 1497 Margaret Drummond, mistress of James the Fourth, is said to have
+been poisoned, with her two sisters, at the instigation of the nobles
+who wished the king to marry.
+
+In 1536 Jean Douglas, Lady Glamis, grand-daughter of “Bell-the-Cat,” was
+tried for having removed her husband some years before _per
+intoxicationem_, and for having conspired to dispose in the same way of
+King James the Fifth, who had put the whole Douglas family under ban.
+She was _convicta de arte et parte proditorie conspirationis et
+imaginationis interfectionis sive destructionis nobilissime personne
+serenissimi domini nostri Regis per pessimum venenum lie poysone_, and
+condemned to “be had to Castell hill of Edinburghe and their Brynt in
+ane fyre to the deid, as ane Traytour.”
+
+Another case of alleged poisoning famous in Scottish history is that of
+the Earl of Atholl, Treasurer of the Kingdom, who died suddenly after a
+reconciliation feast given by the Regent, Morton. Atholl, a near kinsman
+of the King, was a Catholic; Morton “a licentious man, but a fervent
+Protestant”: the two men were, besides, rivals in the State. It was
+generally believed at the time that Atholl was poisoned by Morton, and
+so clamorous did the popular indignation become, that by order of the
+Privy Council an inquest was held in the presence of the King and his
+Councillors. Six surgeons were appointed to make a post-mortem
+examination. James Owhegarty, “Ireland man born leiche that ministratis
+medicine in the mouth and curis outward be herbis,” testified that the
+cause of death was “rank venom” introduced by the mouth. The testimony
+of Alexander Prestoun, “Doctour in Medicine,” and George Boswell,
+“Mediciner and Chirurgiane in Perty,” was to the same effect. Gilbert
+Moncrieff gave a more guarded opinion; he considered the humour in the
+stomach to be venomous, but was unable to say whether it was exterior or
+interior grown within the body. David Rattray, “Chirurgiane in Conpare,”
+gave it as his opinion, that death was caused by “ane extraordinarie
+poyson,” adding that “ane spune put in the humour change it in the
+cullour of brass.” R. Craig, “Burgess of Edinburgh, chirurgiane,”
+cautiously opined that the Earl “to all appearance” had died of poison.
+A non-medical witness thought that a red matter shown to him by Dr.
+Prestoun was “a cauld poyson.” Several ministers also gave testimony,
+one of them stating that he saw “strange and unnatural tokens in the
+stomach, black and red, as it were the dregs of bread and wine mixed,
+and that he had heard the dead man say that he had got offence, and God
+forgive them that had done it.” Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish
+Ambassador, writing to his King, gives the following description of the
+inquest:—
+
+
+They had opened the body in the presence of five doctors, three of whom
+said he had been poisoned, and two that he had not. One of the latter,
+to assure them that he was right, by proof, took some of the contents of
+the stomach on his finger, and put it into his mouth. The effect was
+that in a few hours he was thought to be dying. It is not known whether
+the order to poison him came from Morton or some private person.
+
+
+In the end “the physicians did upon their oath declare that his death
+was not caused by any extraordinary means.” The result of the inquest
+did not, however, allay the general suspicion, and Morton thought it
+necessary, when he was about to die on the scaffold in 1581, to make a
+solemn declaration, that he “would not for the Earldom of Atholl have
+either ministered poison unto him or caused it to be ministered unto
+him.”
+
+Shortly after the death of Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, who was an
+illegitimate brother of Queen Mary, a quarrel arose between his eldest
+son Patrick and his young brothers, John, James, and William Stewart.
+Eventually the latter were suspected of conspiring to poison their
+brother, who had succeeded to the title, and in 1596 we find the three
+brothers, John, James and William, were brought to trial and accused of
+having “conspyrit and dewysit how to murthour the said Patrick Erl of
+Orkney his brother, be poysoning or utherwayes be craft and guylt
+dealing,” in November, 1593.
+
+The Earl, it appears, captured his brother’s servant, who confessed he
+was hired to do the deed. This confession, however, was only extorted
+from him after being tortured eleven days and nights in the
+“cashie-lawis,” put in the “buitis” twice a day, and “skargeit with
+towis.”
+
+Tried on the charge of plotting to murder the Earl at a banquet in the
+house of David Moncriefis of Kirkwell in Orkney, John was acquitted.
+
+Another Scottish noble, George Home, Earl of Dunbar, is said to have
+been poisoned by “tablets of Sugar given him for expelling the cold” by
+Secretary Cecil in 1611. A post-mortem examination was made by one
+Martin Souqir, a doctor, who is said to have tried the poison by laying
+his finger on the subject’s heart and touching it with his tongue (a
+curious clinical test for poison on which apparently great reliance was
+placed at that period), with the result that he died within a few days
+thereafter.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+                    HISTORIC POISON CASES IN FRANCE
+
+
+In the latter part of the sixteenth century the mania for criminal
+poisoning spread from Italy to France. The practice increased with great
+rapidity, and poisons appear to have been commonly employed by those of
+the highest to the lowest classes of society, to get rid of enemies and
+undesirable persons. It is stated that the Prior of Cluny and his valet
+Saint-Barthélemy, with grim humour, even poisoned their physicians in
+order to avoid paying them. It may be said of the many stories of poison
+mysteries in France that have come down to us from the seventeenth
+century, that though their truth may be doubtful they are not without
+romantic interest.
+
+Jeanne d’Albret, mother of Henry IV, who died of a fever after four
+days’ illness, was generally believed to have met her death by wearing
+poisoned gloves. So great was the credibility of the stories spread
+abroad after the sudden death of many distinguished persons, that in
+this case it was believed that the gloves were placed in a box with a
+double bottom, beneath which was placed a mixture of opium, belladonna,
+hyoscyamus, and other poisons. These were supposed not only to have
+impregnated the gloves but to have been administered to the victim while
+asleep, the box being exposed under her nostrils.
+
+Francis II, the first husband of Mary Queen of Scots, who died in 1560,
+was supposed to have succumbed to poison, and Beaucaire de Péguillon
+goes so far as to charge Ambroise Paré, the great military surgeon, with
+having been the cause of the crime. As a matter of fact, it was proved
+from an investigation by Courladon a few years ago, that Francis, who
+was born with an obstruction of the nose and mouth, probably due to
+adenoids, died from chronic suppurative otitis.
+
+The Duc d’Albe asserts that Mary Stuart was the cause of his death, but
+John Knox was nearer the mark when he wrote on hearing of it: “The
+potent hand of God from above sent unto us a wonderful and most joyful
+deliverance; for unhappy Francis, husband to our Sovereign, suddenly
+perisheth of a rotten ear ... that deaf ear that never would hear the
+truth of God.”
+
+A curious method of introducing poison is recorded in the story of the
+Cardinal of Lorraine, uncle of Mary Queen of Scots, who is said to have
+died after touching poisoned gold coins. As a matter of fact, there is
+evidence to show that his death was due to pleurisy caused by a cold
+caught in walking barefooted at the head of a procession at Avignon.
+Catherine de’ Medici was credited with having poisoned her three sons,
+Charles IX, the Duc d’Anjou and Francis II, but the story has apparently
+no foundation.
+
+Towards the end of the sixteenth century a romantic case connected with
+poison, which caused great consternation in Paris, was that of the death
+of Gabrielle d’Astrées. The divorce proceedings between Henry IV and
+Marguerite de Valois were almost complete, when all preparations for the
+marriage of the King to Madame d’Astrées were brought to a sudden end in
+Holy Week, 1599, by her mysterious death. A post-mortem examination made
+by the doctors threw no light on the cause of death, and hints began to
+be spread abroad that she had been secretly poisoned by the Grand Duke
+of Tuscany. According to the story, she had arrived in Paris on Tuesday,
+April 6, and on the following Thursday, while in the Church of
+Saint-Antoine, she was taken ill with headache and vertigo and had to
+leave before the end of the service. Severe convulsive attacks followed,
+which increased in violence and frequency, until she lost consciousness
+and died during the night of April 10. The cause of her death remains a
+mystery.
+
+The seventeenth century saw a still greater increase in the mysterious
+deaths in France attributed to poison. On June 30, 1670, Henrietta Anne
+of England, Duchess of Orléans and sister of King Charles II, died
+suddenly in Paris. It appears that after drinking a glass of cold water
+in her apartment at St. Cloud, she was said to have been seized with a
+fit of shivering, followed by acute fever, which caused her great
+agonies. Consternation was caused when she declared to her ladies that
+she had been poisoned, and physicians were sent for in hot haste. On
+their arrival they were struck with her livid appearance, and,
+acknowledging their helplessness in giving her relief, advised her to
+receive the Last Sacraments of the Church without delay. The Duchess, on
+hearing of this, desired that Bossuet, who had attended her mother the
+Queen-Dowager of England, should be called in, and three couriers were
+immediately dispatched to bring him. Before he arrived at St. Cloud
+between eleven and twelve at night, she had received the Sacrament from
+the hands of the Abbé Feuillet, who appears to have treated her with
+considerable harshness. Between her shrieks caused by the violent pain,
+he told her that her sins were not punished as they deserved. On the
+arrival of Bossuet, the Duchess entreated him to promise not to leave
+until she breathed her last; he fell on his knees by her bedside,
+holding a crucifix in his hand, and with tremulous voice invited her to
+join him in devotion. She remembered that the crucifix which he held in
+his hands towards her was the same which he had given to her mother the
+Queen-Dowager, to hold in her agony. She took it in her hand and held it
+in hers till she breathed her last. Before she died she spoke to Madame
+de Lafayette in English, expressing her gratitude for the assistance she
+had received from Bossuet, and requested that an old emerald ring set
+with diamonds of great value might be presented to him. The Duchess died
+at three o’clock in the morning, and the news being conveyed to the
+King, he sent for Bossuet and gave him the emerald ring, placing it on
+his finger, and desiring him to wear it for the rest of his life.
+
+We owe this description to Butler, who edited the life of Bossuet. The
+Duchess undoubtedly believed herself to have been poisoned, and the same
+belief appears to have been held by the English ambassador, the Court
+and the people of the city of Paris. It is even said that one of her
+household gave the name of her poisoner to Voltaire, and the medium was
+stated to be diamond dust strewn on strawberries with sugar. Another
+rumour was that she died in consequence of drinking a glass of succory
+water which had been poisoned, but according to Voltaire she died a
+natural death. This is most probable, as she had suffered from a chronic
+disease of the liver for some time; diamond dust, it may be said, is
+without any poisonous properties, and could only act as a mechanical
+irritant in the stomach.
+
+About this time a German apothecary and alchemist named Glaser settled
+in Paris and, together with Exali and another Italian, began work in a
+laboratory they started, reputedly with the object of searching for the
+philosophers’ stone. Having come to the end of their resources in a very
+short time in the pursuit of this chimera, they commenced the secret
+sale of poisons. Through the confessional their nefarious trade became
+known to the Grand Penitentiary of Paris. This dignitary gave
+information to the Government, and the two suspected chemists were
+promptly sent to the Bastille, where one of them died. Exali, however,
+while still in prison, managed to carry on his business and found ready
+purchasers for his secrets. Catherine de’ Medici was said to have been
+instrumental in introducing the Italian methods into France, and deaths
+in Paris attributed to poisons now increased to an alarming extent.
+Florentine perfumers were supposed to have been adepts in mixing the
+poisons with sweetmeats and articles of food.
+
+From the highest to the lowest all seem to have had the dread of meeting
+death in this way, and it is said that Henry IV, when a guest at the
+Louvre, ate only eggs which he cooked himself and drank only water which
+he drew from the Seine.
+
+In 1682 it was thought necessary to devise some more drastic method of
+dealing with the secret sale of poisons, and a decree was issued by
+Louis XIV, forbidding apothecaries to sell arsenic, sublimate, or any
+drug reputed to be a poison except to persons known to them. It further
+required, that the purchaser should sign a register declaring the
+purpose for which he was buying the poison. A similar condition had been
+imposed by the local authorities in Montpellier about twenty years
+previously, but Louis applied it to the whole country.
+
+The priests of Notre-Dame at length became appalled at the number of
+self-accusations of murder by poison made to them in the confessional,
+and conveyed an intimation of the fact without names to Colbert and
+Louvois, then Ministers of State. The authorities were placed on the
+alert, and by means of a clue obtained from an intercepted letter, they
+arrested the Chevalier de Vanens and the Count de Bachimont, who were
+found to be secret purveyors of poisons. On private examination, they
+implicated a large number of persons, insomuch that a judicial
+commission was appointed by Louis XIV, by which strict justice was done,
+without distinction of person, condition or sex. It sat for three years
+and was known as the Chambre Ardente, or Chamber of Poisons, and was
+established at the Arsenal near the Bastille.
+
+The stir and mystery made by the examinations of this Court apparently
+drew more attention to the study of poisons than before, and many began
+to learn how to employ them, with the object of succeeding to heritages
+or of ridding themselves of persons they disliked.
+
+Among those arrested and brought before the Court were members of some
+of the noblest families of France, together with magistrates, priests
+and a number of women, who had practised as witches, fortune-tellers,
+_sages-femmes_ and poisoners. Confessions which were extracted from
+these people by torture showed that systematic poisoning had for some
+time been carried out by the ladies of the court of the _Grand
+Monarque_. One of the dealers in poisons, named La Voisin, is said to
+have amassed in a few years a sum of money equivalent to £20,000.
+Another is said to have earned £1,600 a year, which is hardly to be
+wondered at, when it was revealed that Madame de Montespan had paid
+fifty crowns for a love-philtre, and another lady one hundred louis d’or
+for a powder to administer to her husband. La Voisin and her accomplices
+were eventually condemned and burned at the stake, which seemed to check
+for a time the series of terrible crimes which spread through France
+during the eighteenth century.
+
+Shortly before this the whole of the country had been aroused by the
+remarkable case of the Marquise de Brinvilliers, who confessed to having
+poisoned her father, two brothers and a sister, together with a number
+of people whose existence she found inconvenient, or who simply bored
+her. Apparently when she had no serious business on hand, she practised
+her art on the patients in the hospitals which she visited under the
+pretence of charity. This woman, who stands in history as the most
+infamous of all poisoners of whom we have record, was named Marie
+Madeleine D’Aubray, the daughter of a magistrate named Dreux D’Aubray.
+She was born on July 22, 1630, and was the eldest of five children, all
+of whom came to occupy positions of importance. She received a better
+education than most women of her time, but her religious instruction
+appears to have been wholly neglected. According to the priest who
+ministered to her before she paid the penalty of her crimes, she was
+destitute of even a rudimentary knowledge of religion, and she appeared
+to have had no moral training whatever. Of a passionate temperament and
+extraordinary energy in anything that might serve for the gratification
+of her desires, she had a most complex nature, which was at once
+sensitive to anything that touched her vanity or self-love.
+
+In 1651, at the age of twenty-one, she married Antoine Gobelin, the
+Marquis de Brinvilliers, a lineal descendant of the founder of the
+famous tapestry manufactory. He is said to have had an income of 30,000
+livres a year, and his wife brought him another 200,000 as a dowry.
+
+The marquise at that time is said to have been a particularly beautiful
+woman, and both she and her husband began their married life with every
+prospect of happiness. In 1659 they made the acquaintance of a Captain
+Sainte-Croix, a young man of good family and who was an officer in a
+cavalry regiment. He became a constant visitor to the house, and so
+ingratiated himself with both the marquise and her husband that he
+eventually took up his residence with them.
+
+At the time that Sainte-Croix came to live with the Brinvilliers there
+were several children in the house under the care of a tutor, named
+Briancourt, who also was said to be one of the many lovers of the
+marquise. The marquis himself seems to have developed a distrust of his
+wife, and was ever on the watch; whether he had gleaned some knowledge
+of her enthusiasm in the study of poisons or not, it is difficult to
+say, but it is stated that at dinner he always took care that
+Sainte-Croix sat on the lady’s right, while he occupied a place near the
+sideboard. He was waited on by a servant particularly attached to his
+person, whom he instructed never to change his glass, and to rinse it
+out whenever he served him with wine.
+
+Although suspicious that his wife was making attempts to poison him—and
+there is little doubt she was attempting to do so—the marquis was not
+without medical care. She would occasionally call in a Dr. Brayer, one
+of the most famous physicians in Paris of the day. According to Madame
+de Sévigné, Brinvilliers owed his life on these occasions not so much to
+his wife as to the fear of her lover, who did not relish the idea of
+marrying her. She states that “while the marquise gave her husband
+poison Sainte-Croix gave him antidotes, so that after being tossed like
+a ball from one to the other in this way five or six times, now
+poisoned, now restored, he remained alive.”
+
+As a result of these experiences the marquis suffered from chronic
+weakness in the lungs. He always carried about with him a box of the
+theriaca or treacle of Andromachus, which was supposed to be a powerful
+antidote against poison. This he not only took frequently himself, but
+also gave it to his servants.
+
+Sainte-Croix soon became notorious as the lover of the marquise, and her
+father, on hearing of this, obtained a _lettre de cachet_ and had him
+arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille. Now it so happened that the two
+Italians, Exali and his confrère, were confined in the Bastille at the
+same time under the charge of secret dealing in poisons. As already
+stated, they had professed to be working in Paris in conjunction with
+Glaser, a German apothecary. Another account states that there is every
+reason to believe that long before Sainte-Croix was committed to the
+Bastille, he had studied the art of poisoning from this Christopher
+Glaser, who was Apothecary in Ordinary to the King, and author of a
+treatise on chemistry which had some reputation. Glaser now not only
+instructed Sainte-Croix but supplied him with poisons which he passed on
+to the marquise. On the death of the marquis, whose property had
+practically all vanished owing to the extravagance and dissipation of
+his wife, Sainte-Croix, who had by that time been released from prison,
+renewed his intrigue with the marquise, who, eager for revenge on her
+father for having him imprisoned, and probably impatient to gain
+possession of the money she would inherit at his death, conceived the
+idea of using poison for the purpose of destroying his life.
+
+One historian states that after Sainte-Croix had acquired his knowledge
+of poisons from Glaser, he confided it to the marquise, while others say
+that she got into direct touch with Glaser, who gave her the necessary
+poison which she had made up her mind to test for herself by experiment.
+This she did with great cunning, assuming the character of one of the
+Sisters of Charity, who visited the hospitals to relieve the sick and
+suffering and bring them cakes, wine and other luxuries. The recipients
+of her gifts generally soon died in great suffering, but the
+significance of this apparently passed unnoticed until some time
+afterwards. She also found subjects for her experiments among her
+servants, one of whom, Roussel, gave evidence at her trial at a later
+date and declared that her mistress had one day given her some
+gooseberry jam on the point of a knife and that it made her ill. She
+also affirmed that the marquise had given her some ham “which gave her
+great pain, and she felt as if she had been pricked in the heart, after
+which she was ill for three years.”
+
+When the marquise had satisfied herself that her method of
+administration was not likely to be easily discovered, she turned her
+attention to its use for her own purposes, and her first victim was her
+father. Apparently she administered poison to him in repeated doses, and
+it was not until eight months had passed that D’Aubray died in great
+agony. After his death she lived still more riotously and with the
+greatest extravagance, contracting very heavy debts until she ran
+through all the money she had obtained.
+
+It is stated at this time that the marquise developed “a demoniac temper
+and inhuman cunning, such as perhaps no mortal ever exhibited.”
+
+She next began to plot to get rid of her two brothers, with the result
+that one of them died after three months of great suffering, and the
+other a few months later. She then tried to poison her sister in the
+same manner, but suspicion being aroused, she gave up the attempt. On
+the death of her second brother, the medical attendants insisted on
+examining the body after death, and declared that he had been poisoned;
+so little, however, was his sister suspected, that the actual murderer,
+a servant named La Chaussée whom the marquise bribed and introduced into
+her brother’s house for the purpose of administering the poison, had a
+legacy left to him by his victim for his _devoted services_. At length
+suspicion appears to have fallen on the marquise and Sainte-Croix, owing
+to an accident which happened to him after his reimprisonment. It is
+stated that when engaged in preparing his poisons he was accustomed to
+wear a mask, presumably to prevent him inhaling the fumes of the
+chemicals which he was using. While thus engaged, he was found one day
+in a state of unconsciousness in his cell and never recovered. The
+authorities, on examining his effects, came across a small box to which
+a paper was attached which contained a request that after his death it
+should be delivered to the “Marquise de Brinvilliers who resides at the
+rue Neuve Saint Paul.” The paper was signed and dated by Sainte-Croix,
+May 25, 1672, and on the box being opened it was found to contain a
+number of poisons of different kinds with labels attached. It is also
+said that he kept in this box a number of compromising letters which he
+had received from her, together with bonds for large sums which she had
+given him as hush-money in the matter of her brother’s murder.
+
+According to another account, as no relations of his were known, the
+authorities proceeded to put seals upon his property. When the inventory
+was taken a casket was found, which was opened, and the first article
+discovered in it was a written document, which ran thus:—
+
+
+“I humbly entreat those into whose hands this casket shall fall to do me
+the favour to place it in the very hands of Madame de Brinvilliers, who
+resides in the Rue Neuve Saint Paul, the contents appertaining to her
+and to her only, and being moreover of no use to any one else in the
+world. In the event of her death taking place before mine, it is my
+desire that the casket and all its contents be burned, unopened and
+undisturbed; and that none may plead ignorance, I swear by God whom I
+adore, and by everything that is most sacred, that nothing is here said
+save what is most true; and if, by any chance, my request be
+contravened, just and proper as they are in this point, I charge such
+contravention upon their conscience, both in this world and in the next,
+in discharge of mine own conscience. And this I say and sign as my last
+will.
+
+                                               “Signed, DE SAINTE-CROIX.
+
+“Done at Paris, this afternoon of the 25th day of May, 1672.”
+
+
+Underneath were added the following words:—
+
+
+“There is one single packet, addressed to M. Penautier, which must be
+restored to him.”
+
+
+“Precautions too elaborate frequently produce an effect the opposite of
+that intended,” says the historian. “If in this casket, which was
+securely locked up, there had been the mere words, ‘This casket belongs
+to Madame de Brinvilliers,’ it is probable that it would have been
+forwarded to her unopened, but the very style of the injunction was
+calculated to arouse suspicion. The casket was opened, and an inventory
+made of its contents, and the following is the description of this
+deposit which was so solemnly placed under the safeguard of God and of
+all things sacred”:—
+
+1. A packet, sealed with eight seals of various armorial bearings, and
+endorsed: “Papers to be burned in the case of my death, they being of no
+value to any one. I most humbly entreat that they be burned by
+whomsoever may find them. I even charge it upon their conscience to do
+this, and to do it without opening the packet.” In this packet was
+enclosed another, which contained sublimate.
+
+2. Another packet, secured by six seals of various armorial bearings,
+similarly endorsed, and enclosing another packet, consisting of a pound
+and a half of sublimate.
+
+3. Another packet, secured by six seals of different armorial bearings,
+in which were three other packets, one containing half an ounce of
+sublimate, a second containing two ounces of Roman vitriol, and the
+third calcined and prepared vitriol.
+
+4. A large square phial full of a clear light liquid, the quality of
+which could not at the moment be ascertained.
+
+5. Another phial of light-coloured liquid, at the bottom of which was a
+whitish sediment.
+
+6. A small earthenware jar, in which was a quantity of prepared opium.
+
+7. A folded paper, in which were two drachms of corrosive sublimate, in
+powder.
+
+8. A small box containing “Infernal Stone.”
+
+9. A paper containing an ounce of opium.
+
+10. A piece of regulus of antimony, weighing three ounces.
+
+11. A packet of powder marked....
+
+12. A packet secured by six seals, superscribed like those already
+described. This packet contained twenty-seven pieces of paper, on each
+of which were the words, “several curious secrets.”
+
+The first care of the civil authorities was directed to a careful
+examination of these substances, to have them analysed, and to
+experiment with them upon animals.
+
+The result of that examination and those experiments was very curious,
+and the following is the report which was made by the chemists and men
+of science to whom the examination was entrusted.
+
+
+“This artful poison” [it runs] “defies the researches attempted to be
+made into its nature; it is so disguised that it cannot be detected—so
+subtle that it defies all the science and ability of the doctors. Upon
+this poison all experiments blunder, all rules are false, and all
+aphorisms absurd.
+
+“The most certain and usual experiments are made by means of the
+elements, or upon the bodies of animals. In water the weight of the
+poison precipitates; it is the superior must needs be precipitated. No
+less sure is the action of fire; it evaporates, it dissipates, it
+consumes all that is innocent and all that is impure, with the exception
+of a sharp and acrid substance which alone can resist its effects. Upon
+animals the effect of poison is even more obvious; it carries malignity
+into every part which it touches, vitiating, burning, and withering up
+the whole internal economy as with a strange fire.
+
+“The poison of Sainte-Croix has been subjected to all trials; it defies
+all the skill and science of the doctors, and mocks and baffles all
+experiments. This poison swims in water instead of sinking, and it
+escapes from the test of fire, leaving behind only a mild and innocent
+substance. In animals it so completely hides itself that it cannot be
+detected; all the parts of the poisoned animal remain living and sound
+even while it is shedding death all around it.
+
+“All sorts of experiments have been tried upon this poison. In the first
+instance some drops of a liquor contained in one of the phials were
+poured into oil of tartar and water. No precipitate was formed in the
+vessel.
+
+“In the second experiment some of the same liquid was poured into a
+sanded vessel, the sand retained no acridly tasting substance. The third
+experiment was made upon a turkey hen, a pigeon, and a dog; they died in
+a brief space, and on their being opened on the following day, only some
+coagulated blood was found in the ventricles of the heart.
+
+“Another experiment was made with some white powder, which was given,
+with some mutton, to a cat. The cat vomited for half an hour, and on the
+following day was found dead; it was opened, and no interior part showed
+marks of the action of the poison. A second trial of the same poison was
+made upon a pigeon, which died in a short time. When opened the bird had
+only some red liquid in its stomach.”
+
+
+“Such,” according to the historian, “was the dying present of
+Sainte-Croix to his mistress. His past crimes being insufficient to
+gratify his malignity, he was fain to be the accomplice of future
+crime.”
+
+According to Dr. Nass, Sainte-Croix died a natural death after an
+illness of several months. To continue the story, when the marquise
+heard of his death and the discovery of the box, she at once made every
+effort to obtain it by bribing the officials, but failing in this she
+fled to England, and after much negotiation between Louis XIV and
+Charles II as to her extradition, she escaped to Holland, where she took
+refuge in various convents, until at last she was arrested at Liège. She
+attempted to commit suicide by swallowing fragments of broken glass and
+pins, and other methods, which are described by Madame de Sévigné.
+
+A romantic story is told of her arrest, which was made by an officer
+called Des Grais, who was sent from Paris to apprehend her. Finding he
+was unable to remove her forcibly from the convent, he disguised himself
+in the dress of an abbé and so found access and the means of making her
+acquaintance. Assuming the character of a lover he induced her in this
+way to accompany him on a pleasure excursion, but once outside the
+building he arrested her and conveyed her to Paris.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  MARGUERITE D’AUBRAY, MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS.
+
+  (_By Lebrun._)
+
+  Drawn from life at the time of her being taken to execution.
+]
+
+After the marquise had fled, La Chaussée, the servant whom she used as
+her tool, fell under suspicion, was arrested, brought to trial, and,
+after confessing to being the instrument of several murders, was broken
+alive on the wheel in 1673. The discovery of these terrible crimes
+attributed to Brinvilliers, and the revelations made in documents which
+had come into the possession of the authorities amounting to a
+confession of her numerous murders, caused a great sensation, not only
+in Paris but throughout the whole of France.
+
+The scene at her trial was intensely dramatic, and even the judges were
+greatly moved. The marquise herself kept up a bold front and showed the
+greatest resolution, in spite of the evidence stoutly denying all the
+charges brought against her. She was confronted with her former lover
+Briancourt, the tutor, to whom it is said she confided all the secrets
+of her crimes. The evidence was for the most part unquestioned, and she
+was found guilty and sentenced on July 16, 1676. It is recorded as
+follows:—
+
+
+“The Court has declared and declares the said D’Aubray de Brinvilliers
+duly attainted and convicted of having procured the poisoning of M.
+Dreux D’Aubray, her father, and the said Messrs. D’Aubray, Civil
+Lieutenant and Councillor in the said Court, her two brothers, and
+attempted the life of the late Teresa D’Aubray, her sister, and by way
+of reparation has condemned and condemns the said D’Aubray de
+Brinvilliers to make public apology in front of the principal door of
+the Church of Paris, whither she will be taken in a cart, with bare feet
+and a rope round her neck, holding in her hands a lighted torch of two
+pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare that wickedly,
+and in order to possess their goods, she procured the poisoning of her
+father and her two brothers, and attempted the life of her deceased
+sister, of which she repents and asks pardon of God, the King, and the
+law: this done, taken and conveyed in the same cart to the Place de
+Grève of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold to be
+erected for the purpose in the said place; her body burnt, and the ashes
+thrown to the winds. She is first to be put to the question, ordinary
+and extraordinary, in order to obtain a disclosure of her accomplices.”
+
+
+She heard the sentence with courage, and during the time previous to its
+being carried out was visited by a Jesuit priest named Pirot, who was a
+doctor of the Sorbonne and a man of great intelligence. It was his hope
+to induce her to reveal the names of her accomplices, the compositions
+of the poisons she used and the antidotes that would nullify their
+effects. She accepted his ministrations with graceful courtesy and is
+said to have convinced him of her penitence and made a full confession
+of the crimes she had committed. According to her account, the only
+poisonous substances she ever used were arsenic, vitriol and toad venom.
+
+At first she said, “I do not know exactly what they were,” but shortly
+before her death she remarked, “I should like to know the composition of
+the poisons which I used and which were used at my direction, but all I
+know about them is that there was toad’s venom and that there were some
+that consisted of rarefied arsenic.”
+
+It is quite possible that she may not have known of the composition of
+some of them, as they were probably originally compounded by Glaser, who
+was a skilled chemist and well versed in the science of his time.
+
+The only antidote she stated that she knew was milk, and her only
+accomplices Sainte-Croix and certain lackeys.
+
+On July 16, 1676, when she was taken to the scene of execution, an
+enormous crowd had assembled. “Never,” says Madame de Sévigné, “had any
+seen such a crowd, or Paris so excited or so interested.” The marquise
+drew herself to her feet in the cart with her eyes flashing and cried
+out in a loud voice charged with contempt, “You have come to see a fine
+spectacle.”
+
+Such is the tragic story of Marie Madeleine de Brinvilliers. She is
+described by contemporary writers as with the face that one might
+expect, “degraded by excesses, and distorted by evil passions, but with
+features extremely regular, with a rounded face that was full and
+beautiful and a certain look which seemed to breathe goodness.”
+
+A great deal has been written in France about her supposed knowledge of
+poisons, and her great skill in using them for criminal purposes; in
+reality, she was but a murderess of the common type, in whom sensuality,
+cunning and vice were combined.
+
+The execution of the Marquise de Brinvilliers did not, however, put a
+stop to the extraordinary wave of criminal poisoning that passed over
+France towards the end of the seventeenth century. During the reign of
+the _Grand Monarque_, brilliant and glittering though it was, the vices
+of avarice and jealousy led many to unscrupulous practices and crime. In
+this state of society it was little to be wondered at that Paris swarmed
+with fortune-tellers, astrologers, sorcerers and others of their kind
+who made enormous sums of money out of their dupes. Many of these
+combined the sale of poisons with actual practice, and claimed to be
+able to accomplish almost any crime, from the removal of an inconvenient
+husband to anyone who stood in the way to an inheritance.
+
+The papers of one of these Italian adventurers, named Primi Visconti,
+were discovered and translated a few years ago, and throw some light on
+the methods of these parasites of society. Visconti, who had obtained
+entry to the French court by his professed skill in palmistry and
+chiromancy and had become somewhat popular with the courtiers, relates
+that it had come to the King’s knowledge that the infamous Sainte-Croix
+had sought to obtain the position of _maître d’hôtel_ in the palace of
+Versailles, and had been recommended to the position by a wealthy and
+avaricious person named Penaultier, Receiver-General of the Clergy, who
+was also suspected of being concerned in the recent crimes.
+
+About 1677 the Ministers of the State awoke to the fact that it was time
+something was done to put a stop to these practices. Colbert and Louvois
+issued instructions to the police to keep a sharp look-out for cases of
+poisoning. An official record states that some years before 1677 and up
+to the end of 1678 the judges and magistrates of the city of Paris and
+its neighbourhood, as well as the Secretary of State, had noticed that
+of the number of criminals and malefactors whom they had caused to be
+arrested for ordinary offences, the greater number were charged by
+declarations, death-bed depositions or information given to the
+Government “with complicity in, or knowledge of different poisonings
+carried out on different persons of all sorts and conditions, who had in
+consequence died.”
+
+The _Chambre de Poisons_ or _Chambre Ardente_ previously referred to,
+sat in all 210 times until July 21, 1682, and during that period dealt
+with charges against 442 persons, and ordered the arrest of 367; 218
+were kept prisoners, 36 were executed, 2 died in prison, 5 were sent to
+the gallows, and 23 were banished.
+
+In spite of this it is said that the worst criminals escaped, owing to
+influence that they brought to bear in their favour. “The chief
+culprits,” says Ravaisson, “belonged to the nobility or the law, and
+almost all of them had amongst the members of the court friends, clients
+or relatives.” The King had set a bad example by allowing some
+individuals who were compromised to go free. The judges had not the
+courage to be more severe, and the weight of the condemnations fell
+almost entirely on the miserable creatures who sold the poisons and not
+on those who bought and used them.
+
+An example of the class alluded to were two women called La Vigoureux
+and La Voisin and a priest named Le Sage who were first arrested and
+then tried for carrying on a trade in poisons. They made themselves out
+to be practitioners in necromancy, claiming to raise the spirits of the
+departed for those who wished and to supply love-philtres to those who
+desired them. Their rooms were constantly visited by people of position
+and others, many probably out of curiosity, as has been the case with
+fashionable fortune-tellers of a later date. La Voisin, however, kept a
+list of her clients, and on her arrest, when this was discovered, they
+were also arrested and brought to private trial before the Chambre. The
+list contained such names as the two nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, the
+Duchesse de Bouillon and the Comtesse de Soissons.
+
+At the trial of the Duchess nothing could be proved beyond her statement
+that she had resorted to Le Sage to consult him as a fortune-teller. He
+also claimed to be able to show her even the Devil himself. La Reiné,
+one of the judges of the court, was indiscreet enough to ask the Duchess
+if this had taken place and if she had ever seen the Devil? The lady
+quickly replied that she saw him at that very moment, that he was
+extremely ugly and very hideous, and appeared to her in the guise of her
+questioner.
+
+The charge brought against the Comtesse de Soissons and the Marshal de
+Luxembourg was more serious. The three criminals claimed to know the
+secret of a particularly poisonous powder which they prepared, and to
+which they gave the name of the _poudre de succession_, so called from
+the real or supposed frequency with which it had been used to hasten or
+change the succession in the families of the rich. The names of those
+who obtained possession of it had been reported to the Government. It is
+said that the King intimated to the countess that if she was guilty she
+had better escape by flight. Although she declared her innocence, she
+said she could not endure the scandal of a public trial and fled to
+Brussels, where she died in 1708.
+
+With respect to the marshal, his explanation of his connection with the
+infamous trio was that he had consulted them in order to recover some
+lost papers of value. He had done this through the medium of a man named
+Bonard; Le Sage swore, however, that the marshal had applied to him to
+poison a woman who had possession of the papers and refused to give them
+up. His accomplices testified that they had accordingly poisoned her and
+disposed of the body into the river at the instigation of the marshal.
+The marshal was imprisoned and placed in a dungeon six and a half feet
+long, where he fell sick and remained five weeks before being brought to
+trial. The trial of the marshal was prolonged fourteen months, when he
+was finally released without being condemned or acquitted. La Voisin, La
+Vigoureux, together with Le Sage, the priest, were eventually convicted
+and burned alive in Paris.
+
+The _Chambre Ardente_ came to an end after being criticized as a
+political tribunal which did little to effect the purpose for which it
+was designed.
+
+According to later writers, the famous _poudre de succession_, consisted
+of arsenic, sometimes mixed with vegetable poisons such as aconite,
+belladonna and opium.
+
+Among the substances believed to be deadly was powdered diamond, for
+which powdered glass was probably substituted. Another writer states
+that _poudre de succession_ appears to have been composed of sugar of
+lead. Nail-parings and powdered lobster claws were used for a similar
+purpose. Vegetable poisons—opium, hemlock, belladonna, euphorbium, and
+many other poisonous plants—are also mentioned, and one enterprising
+Frenchwoman, who had been to the West Indies, appears to have had the
+idea of importing curare taken from poisoned arrows.
+
+There seems little doubt that in the eighteenth century, when the
+practice became almost a cult, poison was sometimes secretly
+administered by means of a clyster, the use of which was so common at
+the time. Arsenic, corrosive sublimate, cantharides and opium are said
+to have been given in this way.
+
+Louis XVIII of France is said to have narrowly escaped death by poison
+in 1804. At that time he was living under the name of the Comte de Lille
+near Warsaw, and had in his household a servant named Coulon, a French
+adventurer, who had been a prisoner of war at Portsmouth and arrived in
+the Polish city in 1803. He declared that he was approached in July,
+1804, by two emissaries “charged to poison Louis XVIII, his wife, and
+also the Duke and Duchess d’Angoulême,” who were living with the royal
+couple. The emissaries offered him four hundred louis d’or if he would
+place in the soup served to the King and his family some hollow carrots
+filled with poison. A postchaise would await Coulon to carry him at once
+to France, where the regicide would be asked no questions so long as his
+victim was a Bourbon. Coulon accepted the carrots, but denounced the
+couple. Part of Poland was then subject to Prussia, and the Prussian
+police appear to have been singularly averse to taking action in the
+matter, and allowed the two emissaries to escape. This circumstance,
+coupled with the fact that Napoleon was all-powerful at the period, and
+the supposition that the man who ordered the Duc d’Enghien to be shot
+was capable of compassing the death of other Bourbons, gave rise to the
+suspicion that the plot was really set on foot by Napoleon’s police.
+Louis XVIII requested that Coulon might be arrested and the carrots
+officially analysed, but the Prussian authorities refused to act.
+
+
+“Seeing that it was impossible to rely either upon the law or the
+Prussian police,” the narrator continues, “d’Avray went with Dr.
+Lefèvre, the King’s physician, to call upon Dr. Gazatkiewick, one of the
+most celebrated practitioners of Warsaw. Here, in the presence of a
+second physician, Dr. Bagenzorve, and of M. Guidal, a local pharmacist,
+the seals placed by the Archbishop on Coulon’s packet were broken. The
+three carrots therein contained were opened and found to be filled with
+a sort of paste formed of three arsenics, yellow, white and red.”
+
+
+A report was drawn up and handed to M. de Tilly, head of the city
+police, but he declined to take any notice, saying the affair was
+outside his province.
+
+The question of the various poisons used during this period in France
+for criminal purposes has been ably discussed by Dr. Lucien Nass, who
+has had access to the documents relating to the various important trials
+that took place. He says, that according to police inventories of
+articles found in the domiciliary visits made by them in the course of
+their inquiries into these poisoning cases, many substances were
+employed. If one failed another was tried. The method of administration
+was varied with considerable ingenuity, and arsenic, opium, cantharides
+and lead acetate were the substances mostly employed.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+                   THE MYSTERY OF AMY ROBSART’S DEATH
+
+
+The mystery attending the death of Amy Robsart, the wife of Robert
+Dudley, who eventually became Earl of Leicester, is one which, owing to
+the lack of detailed documentary evidence, is never likely to be
+entirely solved. So much has been written concerning the troubled life
+of this unfortunate lady and its sad ending, that a brief outline of her
+story, which has been gathered from the most reliable sources, is all
+that is necessary here.
+
+She was born about the year 1532 and was the daughter of Sir John
+Robsart of Sidestern in Norfolk, whose wife was the widow of one Roger
+Appleyard.
+
+Where she first met Robert Dudley is not known, but they were married at
+Sheen (Richmond) on June 4, 1550. The wedding is recorded by Edward VI
+(who was present at the ceremony) in his journal. Dudley was master of
+the King’s buckhounds and was knighted by him. At the time of her
+marriage Amy Robsart was probably eighteen, while Dudley is said to have
+been about the same age.
+
+Of the first ten years of their married life little is known, but on
+Elizabeth’s accession Sir Robert Dudley, who was on terms of close
+friendship with the young queen, suddenly became a personage of
+importance and received his title from her. As the special favourite of
+his sovereign his position at Court speedily became one of envy, to
+which was added the jealousy of his rivals. It was freely rumoured that
+but for the fact that he was already married, he stood a good chance of
+becoming the royal consort.
+
+The close intimacy of Queen Elizabeth and Dudley soon became a public
+scandal, and during this time nothing is heard of his wife, until the
+spring of 1560, when it was announced that she had gone to reside at
+Cumnor Place, a house situated a few miles from Abingdon. Neglected and
+slighted by her husband, whom she saw had been weaned from her, the
+unhappy woman no doubt fell in readily with Dudley’s suggestion that she
+should take up her residence in this lonely country house.
+
+Cumnor Place was a stone-built residence of fair size, and had formerly
+belonged to Doctor George Owen, who was physician to Henry VIII. On his
+death he bequeathed the estate to his son William, who had let it to one
+Anthony Foster, a country squire who appears to have been well known to
+Dudley.
+
+At the time when Lady Amy Dudley took up her residence at Cumnor, there
+were living in the house besides Foster and his wife, a Mrs. Odingselle,
+his sister-in-law, and Mrs. Owen, who, according to Adlard, was the
+widow of Dr. George Owen, the physician, and original owner of the
+property.
+
+It is a noteworthy fact that very shortly after Lady Amy’s arrival
+rumours became current that her life was in danger. It was also reported
+that she was ill, a story which was probably spread abroad with an
+object.
+
+De Quadra, the Spanish Ambassador to the Court at the time, in an
+extraordinary letter written from Windsor to King Philip on September
+11, 1560, bears evidence to these rumours in the following words: “He
+[Cecil] ended by saying that Robert [Dudley] was thinking of killing his
+wife, who was publicly announced to be ill, although she was quite well,
+and would take every care they did not poison her. The next day the
+Queen told me as she returned from hunting that Lord Robert’s wife was
+dead, or nearly so, and begged me to say nothing about it.”
+
+“Since writing the above,” he continues, “I hear the Queen has published
+the death of Robert’s wife and said in Italian, ‘She broke her neck.’”
+
+One must assume from this letter, which was written only three days
+after Lady Amy’s death, that she had been aware that an attempt had been
+made to poison her.
+
+To return to the story. On Sunday, September 8, a fair was being held at
+Abingdon, and according to the statement of Dudley’s own kinsman Thomas
+Blount, Lady Amy insisted on her servants, who were much attached to
+her, going to the fair. Of the tragic events that followed, very little
+is known. Amy dined alone that day with Mrs. Owen; Foster, his wife and
+sister-in-law being, it is presumed, in the house. When the servants
+returned to Cumnor late that night, they found their mistress lying dead
+at the foot of a short staircase that led from her bedchamber to the
+ground floor. It was announced the next day that the unfortunate lady
+had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck.
+
+The news was at once sent to Dudley at Windsor, who made no attempt to
+go to Cumnor himself, but wrote to his relative Thomas Blount,
+requesting him to go and investigate the matter and instructing him to
+see that the coroner made a searching inquiry as to the cause of his
+wife’s death.
+
+He also notified Amy’s half-brother, John Appleyard, and asked him to
+proceed to Cumnor to assist Blount.
+
+All that is known of the inquiry that followed is told in two letters
+written by Blount to Dudley.
+
+In one of these he suggests that Lady Amy had become insane, “for,” he
+says, “the tales I do heare of her make me to think she had a strange
+minde.” He further informs Dudley that he had met several of the jury
+who had been chosen for the inquest, and that “they be verie secrete and
+yet do I heare a whysperinge that they can find no presumpcions of
+evill.”
+
+In a letter written by Dudley to Blount, he mentions having
+
+
+“received a letter from one Smythe, one that seamethe to be foreman of
+the jurye. I perseve by his letter that he and the rest hath and do
+travill verie diligentlie and circumspectlie for the tryall of that
+matter whiche they have charge of; and for anything I hear, that by any
+serche or examinacione they can make in the world hitherto, it doth
+plainlie appeare he saith, a verie mysfortune, which for my own parte,
+cousin Blount, dothe much satisfie and quiet me.”
+
+
+From this it would appear that the foreman of the jury was in
+communication with Dudley and even foreshadowed their verdict, which
+appears to have been that Lady Amy Dudley had met her death by accident.
+
+She was buried with considerable ceremony at the University Church of
+St. Mary at Oxford on September 22, 1560.
+
+The inquest probably lasted several days, but no report of the
+proceedings or of the actual verdict of the jury is to be found. There
+must have been such a report, as it is recorded that a copy was made for
+and received by John Appleyard, Amy Dudley’s half-brother, who on June
+4, 1567, wrote to the Council that he had read, and on June 3 had
+returned the document. In which verdict he not only finds such proofs
+testified under the oath of fifteen persons how his late sister “_by
+misfortune_ happened of death.”
+
+Reports that Dudley was responsible for his wife’s death were soon
+spread abroad and discussed throughout the country, and even in France
+public feeling was strong against him.
+
+At a meeting of the Privy Council in April, 1566, called to consider the
+propriety of giving sanction to the marriage between the Queen and
+Dudley (then Earl of Leicester) it was urged against the proposal that
+Leicester was “infamed by the deth of his wife.”
+
+Anthony Wood, who visited Cumnor a century after the tragedy, records
+the local tradition that, “those who plotted against Amy Dudley’s life
+took advantage to convey her to another chamber where her bed’s head
+should stand against a door which she did not know of. In the middle of
+the night came a man with a spitt in his hand, open the privy door and
+run ye spitt into her head and tumbled her downstairs.”
+
+This story is most unlikely, as evidence of foul play would have been at
+once noticed, and the coroner at the inquest apparently failed to
+discover any trace of a blow or external injury.
+
+John Aubrey, who next described the event after Wood, states, “she was
+either stiffled or strangled before being thrown downstairs,” which is a
+more probable theory.
+
+Camden’s story of the event is as follows:—
+
+
+“She was prevailed upon to visit Cumnor-house, the seat of Antony
+Foster, one of Leicester’s creatures. There the unfortunate lady became
+ill,—the consequence of the infernal practices upon her,—which however
+produced their effect too slowly to answer the desired end. She was
+importuned by Foster and his tool Varney, to take medicine for her
+disorder. They, seeing her sad and heavy, as one that well knew by her
+other handling, that her death was not far off, began to persuade her,
+that her present disease was melancholy, and other humours, and would
+needs counsel her to take some potion. This she absolutely refusing to
+do (as suspecting the worst), they sent a messenger for Dr. Bayly,
+professor of Physic, in Oxford University, and entreated him to persuade
+her to take some little potion, by his direction. They would fetch the
+same at Oxford, _meaning to have added something of their own for her
+comfort_, as the doctor, upon just cause and consideration did suspect,
+seeing their great importunity, and the small need the lady had of
+physic, and therefore he peremptorily denied their request.”
+
+
+Before considering the probable cause of Lady Amy Dudley’s tragic death
+according to the present available evidence, several curious and
+significant events that followed must be mentioned. Antony Foster, who
+held Cumnor Place on lease at the time, about twelve months after the
+tragedy, became the proprietor of the estate, and on his death
+bequeathed it to Dudley, then Earl of Leicester. In 1567 Appleyard, Amy
+Dudley’s half-brother, who was sent by Dudley with Blount to be present
+at the inquest, confessed that certain of the jury had been bribed. He
+bore a very indifferent character.
+
+It is also another notable fact that the Privy Council books of this
+period and the report of the Coroner’s inquest and verdict are missing,
+and have never been discovered.
+
+Dudley’s relations with the Queen formed a powerful motive for a man of
+his unscrupulous character to compass his wife’s life. There were strong
+suspicions against him of having been concerned in the poisoning of
+several persons who he thought had stood in his path. He carefully
+refrained from going to Cumnor in person and also from attending the
+funeral of his wife.
+
+In reviewing the fragmentary story of the events at Cumnor, the tragedy
+must have occurred between dinner time and midnight, when the servants
+probably returned from the fair and found the lifeless body of their
+mistress with her neck broken lying at the foot of the staircase. This
+staircase is said to have been a short winding stone flight connecting
+the first floor with the hall. Although her neck was broken, it was
+remarked, curiously enough, that a hood or cap she wore on her head was
+not disarranged. This fact is mentioned in a letter printed in 1584, now
+in the Bodleian library, entitled, “The Copie of a leter wryten by a
+master of arte of Cambridge to his friende in London”; in it is stated,
+“She had the chaunce to fal from a paire of stares and so to break her
+neck, but yet without hurting of her hoode that stoode upon her heade.”
+
+Presumably there were in the house on the fatal Sunday night, Foster and
+his wife, Mrs. Odingselle, Mrs. Owen and Foster’s servants, yet we must
+assume that if, as alleged, the unfortunate lady did accidentally fall
+down the staircase, none of these people were aware of it. It was left
+for her own servants to find her body on their return from Abingdon,
+probably late at night. It is hardly conceivable that she could have
+fallen without noise of any kind.
+
+She was evidently aware that attempts had been made to poison her, but
+we know not whom she specially suspected or how these attempts were
+made.
+
+Apparently she did not suspect Mrs. Owen, with whom she dined alone on
+the fatal night, yet Mrs. Owen had been the wife of a physician and
+doubtless had some knowledge of drugs, and like other ladies of the time
+doubtless knew also how to prepare them.
+
+Although the report of the inquest is missing and we are ignorant of the
+proceedings and evidence given, even if this interesting document were
+discovered it would not prove conclusively how Lady Amy Dudley came by
+her death.
+
+We do not know if any medical evidence was called at the inquest or if
+an autopsy was made to discover the cause of death. There was probably
+no post-mortem, as the broken neck would doubtless be considered
+sufficient evidence as to the cause of death, and at that period only
+cases of sudden death without external signs of disease or violence were
+attributed to poison. There are records that post-mortem examinations
+were sometimes made in the sixteenth century on the bodies of those who
+were suspected of having been poisoned, and a description of two such
+cases is given in a previous chapter.
+
+But although rough clinical tests are said to have been attempted in
+those cases, no chemical tests were known at that period capable of
+proving the presence of many poisons. Supposing opium had been given to
+Amy Dudley, an autopsy, therefore, would have been of no avail, and in
+the absence of direct evidence the poisoner would go undetected.
+
+Taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration, in
+conjunction with the meagre details of the tragedy that have come down
+to us, it certainly does not appear probable that Lady Amy’s death was
+purely accidental.
+
+Her husband’s unscrupulous character was known. She alone stood in the
+way of the realization of his great ambition to marry the Queen.
+Elizabeth’s words, that “none of his were at the attempt at his wife’s
+home,” also add to the strong suspicion that Dudley was the instigator
+of a plot against his wife’s life.
+
+Let us suppose that previous attempts to administer poison had been
+frustrated by the unfortunate lady’s watchfulness, as she was apparently
+aware of the designs against her life, the opportunity suddenly afforded
+by the absence of all her personal attendants from the house might have
+been seized upon to make another and a surer attempt. It would be easy
+to have introduced some narcotic such as opium or belladonna into her
+wine at dinner, and after the opiate had taken effect, it would be a
+still easier matter to precipitate her body down the staircase, thereby
+causing an injury sufficient to give colour to the statement that she
+had met her death by accident.
+
+After all, proof in this case is practically impossible, and whether
+Lady Amy Dudley was murdered or not, is a question that will probably
+never be conclusively answered.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+              A POISON MYSTERY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+                 The Strange Case of Sir Euseby Andrew
+
+A long-forgotten mystery which comes down to us tinged with the romance
+of past centuries is that surrounding the death of Sir Euseby Andrew.
+This worthy baronet, whose family seat was at Charwelton in
+Northamptonshire, was descended from an ancient stock well known in that
+county. His father, when sheriff of the county, had attended on Mary
+Queen of Scots at her execution at Fotheringay Castle. The interesting
+story of the strange circumstances which attended Sir Euseby’s death are
+recorded by Dr. John Cotta, a physician, who practised in Northampton in
+the early part of the seventeenth century, and who committed it to
+writing at the time.
+
+It is evident from the account given by Doctor Cotta that the baronet
+had been ailing for some time and that rumours of foul play were abroad
+when he was summoned to attend him. We give the narrative in the quaint
+phraseology of the period as penned by the physician in his manuscript.
+
+
+“I was sent for by Sir Euseby Andrew,” he states, “in his last
+extremities whereof he died, twice. First, by his apothecary Nicholas
+Rawlings upon the Sunday before his death. Secondly by his servant
+Euseby Barbon upon the Tuesday before he died. I came then unto him
+altogether ignorant of any project matter or mention of Poyson. After my
+coming he tolde me as he was able in weake manner of fainting speach
+that I was welcome and that he desired to speake with me before he died.
+After these words I left him a while and went downe to seeke my servant.
+When I returned, he asked me whether I had ever seene him sicke formerly
+in that strange manner and torment wherein nowe he was. My answer was
+that I had never seene him in that manner. He then tolde me that he had
+been tormented in that manner ever since he had taken a broth or gellie.
+
+“I demanded who gave him that gellie, whether his Physition. He answered
+No, but said there was fault therein and further at that time did not
+proceede his strength sences and speech so farr faylinge that no life
+was expected a great space.
+
+“Upon certain cordials administered, he, beyond all expectation both of
+myself and all present obtained unexpected ease and remission of his
+extremities a large time though not freed from them. Upon this hope by
+him conceived of his recovery, the next day he abruptly uttered unto me
+these words, videlicet, Doctor, how am I beholding unto you, I hope now
+I shall live. If I live I will discover the strangest practise or wonder
+that was ever heard of in Northamptonshire, but if I die God will
+revenge it and I hope my brothers will call my wrong into question—
+
+“Hereto I answered nothing that day or the next; he relapsed againe and
+then uttered these words unto me, videlicet, Good Doctor lett me goe
+with you into Northampton, I objected, his weakness for such a journey
+and his unfittness; he said he might be carried in his Coatch with a bed
+therein. And the journey being objected as too much for him he then
+desired he might go into Daventry being neare hand, wherein I seemed no
+forward to satisfie him, he burst out into these speeches, ‘I am not
+safe, I am not secure in my owne house, I would I were a poore sheppard
+that I might lie in the fieldes.’ After the passions uttered (the
+distance of time I do not remember) the Ladie Andrew his wife came unto
+him, and had some speeche with him (but what it was I do not now
+remember) but his reply was ‘It is enough for you that I have desired
+it, but since you brave me in my owne house and in this poore distresse
+wherein I am, get you from me and come no more at me untill I sende for
+you. You make her (quoth he) your bedfellow your companion, I wot she is
+no companion for you; at another time Sir Euseby fallinge into a new
+passion because Mistress Moyle was not removed out of his house the Lady
+Andrew intreated me to tell him that Mistress Moyle was gone, which I
+was loth to say because I knew the contrary, I notwithstanding to
+quallifie his discontented moans and complaints did tell him, that I did
+heare that she was gone, which my Ladye confirming likewise unto him, he
+suddenly and briskly looked up and said ‘you lie you know she shall not
+goe.’ About the same time or before, I do not well remember, it was
+bruted by some in the house that Sir Euseby did talke idly which he
+understanding by whom or what means (I know not) he did call me unto him
+and wishing some that stoode near to stand apart, he uttered these
+words, videlicet, ‘Doctor, they would make you believe that I do talke
+idly but because you shall know that I do not talke idly I will give you
+my reasons why I suspect Mistress Moyle.’ He then related that Jaquinto
+had told him of a bason stained with gellie wherinto Mistress Moyle had
+cast salte, that Jaquinto told him she was a bad woman and meant him no
+good, and warned Mistress Francis his daughter to take heede that
+Mistress Moyle came not neare her father’s brothes or gellies. He
+further said, that she was too officious aboute him to rise at 3 or 2 a
+clock to give him gellie or broth. He said further that after his taking
+of a gellie he immediately did fall into vomiting and purging 20 times a
+day, 3 dayes together, and into those torments of his stomache sides and
+gutes which I did then see.
+
+“He farther saide that Mistress Moyle had given forth that he would not
+live past Tuesday, which daye (saide he) I had died in my owne feeling
+and in all others expectation, that were present, if your coming into
+Charleston that night had not by your Cordialls revived and kept me
+alive. He saide farther, that Mistress Moyle did talke of burying him
+the next day. He added farther, that Mistress Moyle when he was in a
+sounding fitt did take the pillows and bolster from under his head which
+afterward reviving he did misse and call for as he saide. These things
+as his reasons of suspecting Mistress Moyle he did deliver unto me,
+while I replied that I was sorry that his minde was troubled with such
+things and wondered that a stranger who seemed unto me a sober and
+modest gentlewoman should intende any such mischief, he thereto answered
+‘Good Doctor, be not led by them. You are an honest man,’ said he, ‘they
+are too subtle for you.’ Thus we brake of conference for that time. Some
+hours before his death he called for his clothes and said he could arise
+and die in his clothes and not in his bed. In the mean season some
+gentlemen did offer him a writing or instrument to seal which he then
+refused, saying, ‘I am now distracted and troubled bring it again anone.
+I doubt the parson will controvert some part of it.’ After his clothes
+were put on he did point and was ledd unto a chair near his bed, where
+he did sit down and called for the formerly mentioned writing and viewed
+it, sett his hand unto it, sealed and delivered it. He then called for
+his will which he untied and brake the seal and taking a pen begann to
+rase something therein, but Mr. Thomas Andrews stayed his hand saying,
+‘Good brother don’t alter your will, I hope she will prove a good mother
+unto her children,’ by which Sir Euseby not seeming much moved, another
+gentleman upon his knees thus spake unto him, ‘Good Sir, remember that
+you have almost been married together these 20 years and you have had
+many sweet children together and as you met in love so part in love.’
+Hereunto Sir Euseby answered, ‘I am contented,’ and threw the pen from
+him and delivered the will back again.
+
+“Then he required to be laid upon his bed in his clothes and called for
+the preachers to pray with him, which they did until his strength and
+speech and senses failed him, and he drew his wind very short and from
+that shortness of breath did fall and lie gaping and now and then did
+take a gasp.
+
+“After we nerby now supposed him dead he again revived and feeling for
+his pocket did draw there out a seal and offered it, saying, ‘the boy,
+the boy.’ He was demanded whether he meant his eldest son—he answered
+‘Yea,’ and putting again his hand into his pocket he drew out a key, and
+added it unto the seal. He then relapsed again a short time unto drawing
+his wind short and gasping and then reviving again said, ‘My brothers,
+my brothers,’ Who being called unto him said ‘Norton, Norton, I would
+have an honest use made thereof and no more but an honest use.’ This
+said, he then relapsed again so long a space that I supposed him passed
+reviving any more and I went down into the Court. There after I had
+stayed some space and was called up again unto him. When he did see me
+he said, ‘O Doctor, I cannot die,’ ‘Do you know the cause.’ I answered,
+‘No.’ He said, ‘I will tell you. The angels have been about me this hour
+and will not suffer me to die until I have made known that Mistress
+Moyle is the cause of my death.’ I did answer that I was sorry to hear
+him so say for that it may now be deemed he died not in charity for that
+he did not forget and forgive. He hereto replied, I do forgive her, but
+God commanded the Angels and they would not suffer me to die until I had
+thus spoken and now I shall die.’ Upon these words a Knight standing by
+said unto one Mr. Harrison a preacher, ‘By God you Divines are
+flatterers you should now tell him that these angels are Devils.’
+Hereunto I answered I did not take those words fitting but if Mr.
+Harrison, said I, you will tell Sir Euseby that those his wordes may be
+deemed to proceed from a sick brain or unto such purpose you may do very
+well.
+
+“Then Mr. Harrison said, ‘Sir I beseech you remember yourself, you speak
+such things as may breed much trouble and you know you are going out of
+the world I pray you take heed what you say.’
+
+“Sir Euseby looking upon him shaking his head and gently moving his hand
+towards him said, ‘This is no time to lie now.’ And then did relapse
+again and never did look up nor speake any more until he died.”
+
+
+That Mistress Moyle was charged with poisoning Sir Euseby Andrew may be
+surmised from the concluding portion of Doctor Cotta’s manuscript, in
+which he relates his “evidence given in open Court at the Assizes at
+Northampton three several times upon commande.”
+
+He states: “My first reason that bredd suspition was for that Sir Euseby
+Andrew did not seeme to me to die of that disease whereof he had so long
+before languished, but of another kinde.
+
+“That he died of another kind is manifest. First, for that the last
+disease whereof he died was an acute sharpe and swift disease. The first
+disease whereof he had so long before languished, was a chronicke
+ling’ring disease into which two kinds Phisitions do divide all
+diseases.
+
+“That the last disease was an acute disease is manifest, for that as is
+the manner of an acute disease it was in his motion swift and in his
+accidents and qualitie sharpe. This was planely seene, for that
+immediately after the approach of this latter disease Sir Euseby Andrew
+was driven to keepe his chambre, was unable to stand upon his leggs, to
+sett up in his bed whereby a general extreame anxietie and distresse of
+all his body by continual vehement faintings and soundings, by extreme
+torment of his stomache sides and gutes, he was in a few days compelled
+to yield up the ghost.
+
+“That the latter disease was of another kind different from the first,
+is yet farther manifest, namely, for that it had accidents which were
+not in the first, that is a blackness of the tongue, soreness and
+rawness of the throate and a frank excoriation in the stomake found
+after his decease.
+
+“If he died of a new disease that was a new cause and that remaineth to
+be inquired into, whether poyson yea or noe, which in my opinion may too
+justly be doubted for three reasons following.
+
+“1. The first reason is, for that in the stomake of Sir Euseby Andrew
+after his decease was found an usual effect of a corroding fretting
+poyson namely an excoriation in the stomake before mentioned without any
+probable or manifest cause thereof within the body. That there was no
+manifest or probable cause thereof within the body doth seeme to me. As
+there was nether staine nor substance of any inbred humour, so of some
+outward corroding matter there were manye presumptions in court deposed,
+namely, a bason and porringers stained, the bason staininge gellie in
+the takinge disliked, distasted after the takinge, within short time
+cast up againe, and after it following extreme purginge, vomiting,
+torments of stomake sides and gutts, continuing untill death wherof were
+many witnesses of note and worth.
+
+“2. The second reason is, for that the excoriation found in the stomake
+had so suspitious a proportion with the suspected gellie which was
+deposed in Court to staine the Bason and porringers and speedily after
+the taking to cause Sir Euseby Andrew to grow sick, to purge, to vomit,
+to be extremely tormented in stomake, sides and gutts. The first liquor
+of the suspected gellie was all cast away and fresh liquor was added
+unto the same ingredients both which were in Court deposed.
+
+“That Sir Euseby Andrew his tonge was black and his throate sore and raw
+was partly complained by himself while he lived and partly seen by
+others, and as I conceive is not denied by any—
+
+“In Sir Euseby Andrew as also seene staines or spotts upon his liver,
+and in his mouth, but whether without probable cause thereof within the
+body I referr unto the consideration of the number and weyht of the
+signes of poyson from without.
+
+“There were many signes of some corrodinge matter or poyson taken from
+without in or about Sir Euseby Andrew. The signes deposed were these.
+
+“First, a bason and Porringers stained with a gellie.
+
+“Secondly, Sir Euseby Andrew his distate of that gellie as soone as it
+was in his mouthe.
+
+“Thirdly, his growing extreme sicke immediately after it was swallowed
+downe.
+
+“Fourthly, after his growing sicke a vehement purging and vomiting, a
+fainting, and sounding and extreme torments of his stomake sides and
+gutts, from which accidents in that intense and vehement degree he was
+formerly free, as was deposed in Court by a Physition whom he had
+formerly used and who did see him in his last extremes likewise and as I
+myselfe do know.
+
+“Thus all signes of poison taken from without concurring, and so many
+circumstances consenting in one and the selfe same kinde and
+affirmative. I suppose I have sufficiently made good my opinion.
+
+“Therefor, Sir Euseby Andrew his disease accompanied with all those
+signes concurring did arise from poyson taken from without and not bredd
+within—And I take it the office of every honest physition to speake the
+truth in the behalfe of his distrissed patient espetially by himselfe
+when dying therto required. This I hope will satisfie all intelligent
+ingenuous minds.
+
+                                                           “JOHN COTTA.”
+
+
+Whether Mistress Moyle was found guilty of the crime or not, the worthy
+physician does not say. Certainly his evidence goes to prove that a
+crime had been committed, but by whom, he gives us no indication, and
+the strange death of Sir Euseby Andrew still remains among the mysteries
+which have never been solved.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+       A MYSTERY OF THE AUSTRIAN COURT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+In the spring of the year 1670, Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, was
+seized with a mysterious illness which greatly puzzled his physicians. A
+staunch and fervent Roman Catholic he was completely dominated by the
+Jesuit party, who dubbed him “Leopold the Great,” and received in return
+for their commendation many tokens of his favour. In spite of this
+friendship, however, seeing that the house of Austria was tottering, for
+Leopold had no male descendants, the fathers were engaged in secretly
+fomenting an insurrection in Hungary which was supported by Louis XIV.
+
+It was darkly hinted by some that the Emperor was being poisoned by the
+Hungarian malcontents. One day the papal nuncio was in conference with
+the sick monarch in his cabinet concerning the insurrection which had
+just broken out, and while they were in consultation a fresh despatch
+arrived, which contained a long list of the persons implicated. In this
+list appeared the name of Francis Borri. As the name was read out by the
+secretary, the nuncio started.
+
+“Borri!” he exclaimed. “Have him arrested at once, your Majesty. He is a
+most dangerous man and has contrived to escape from the avenging arm of
+the Holy Office.” Within a few hours afterwards, a Captain Scotti, of
+the Austrian Life Guards, was despatched on a special mission to
+Goldingen to arrest him.
+
+Giuseppe Francesco Borri was a remarkable man. Born in Milan in 1627, he
+left that city early in life for Rome, where he studied medicine and
+alchemy. His scientific studies did not, however, prevent him from
+taking a deep interest in other subjects, and among these theology
+claimed a place. His researches led him to doubt the supremacy of the
+Pope, and he began to deliver lectures claiming that the mysteries of
+the faith were derived from the principles of chemistry.
+
+The Jesuits at once obtained an order for his arrest through the
+Inquisition, and the Pope offered a reward of 35,000 francs to anyone
+who would deliver him up; but Borri was on the alert, and fled to
+Strasburg. His enemies in Rome, balked of their prey, meanwhile had his
+name publicly exposed on the gallows and his picture was burnt by the
+hangman. From Strasburg he journeyed to Amsterdam, and there became very
+popular as a physician, being besieged by patients who offered him large
+fees for his services. He professed to be an adept in toxicology and was
+learned in poisons and their antidotes. Leaving Amsterdam, he proceeded
+to Hamburg, where he made the acquaintance of Queen Christina and
+acquired a great reputation for his skill in ophthalmic diseases. For a
+few months he lived at the court of Copenhagen, but desire coming over
+him to go to a warmer climate he left the north with the object of
+settling in Stamboul.
+
+On April 10, 1670, he arrived at Goldingen on the Silesian border. But
+his enemies the Jesuits had not lost sight of him. They played a waiting
+game, which proved successful in the end, for the landlord of the house
+in which Borri lodged communicated his guest’s identity to the Jesuits
+at Vienna, and he was arrested as a suspect by Captain Scotti on April
+22. Travelling in a carriage surrounded by an escort of cavalry they at
+once set out for the capital. The captain happened himself to be an
+Italian and treated his prisoner with every consideration. He told him
+he was suspected of being concerned in a conspiracy, and that he had the
+papal nuncio among his opponents. “Then I realize the real cause of my
+arrest,” replied Borri.
+
+Scotti also told him, in conversation, of the Emperor’s mysterious
+illness, which had baffled his physicians and which was now supposed to
+be due to secret poisoning. Borri expressed the opinion that if this was
+the case he could readily discover the presence of a poison if one
+existed. He implored the captain to inform the Emperor that if he really
+suspected he was being poisoned he could free him from it, and was
+incapable of taking any revenge for the insult done by arresting him.
+The captain promised to comply with his request.
+
+On their arrival in Vienna on April 28, 1670, Borri was taken to the
+Swan Inn and there lodged in a room which was guarded by soldiers.
+
+Weary and tired by his journey he at once threw himself on the bed and
+fell asleep, but he was aroused during the night by the door being
+opened. A man entered, wrapped in a cloak and bearing a dark lantern.
+When he lighted the room he saw it was Captain Scotti.
+
+“Make haste and get ready,” said the captain. “The Emperor wishes to
+speak with you, for your reputation as a physician is known to him. I
+mentioned your proposal to him and his Majesty trusts you, but was
+obliged to wait till night as he does not wish this visit to be known.”
+
+Borri thanked the captain and in a few minutes they were walking through
+the dark and silent streets to the palace. When they arrived, Scotti
+handed his prisoner over to a chamberlain, who at once conducted him to
+the Imperial antechamber and bade him be seated.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour a gentleman of the bedchamber came in and
+made Borri a sign to follow him. They passed through several apartments
+until they came to a velvet-covered door which the conductor opened,
+and, drawing back a heavy _portière_, beckoned Borri to enter.
+
+He found himself in the Emperor’s cabinet, a gloomy room lighted by a
+few candles which shed but a dim light. Pictures of a religious
+character covered the walls, and by the side of a small work-table stood
+a lofty _prie-Dieu_, over which hung a finely carved crucifix. By the
+dim light Borri at length discerned a little man seated in an armchair
+near the table, making impatient movements. He wore a green silk
+dressing-gown and a cap with a shade for his eyes. His feet were wrapped
+up, his face was livid and his cheeks sunken.
+
+Borri advanced and bowed.
+
+“Are you the Milanese cavalier?” the Emperor asked in a trembling voice.
+
+“At your Majesty’s service,” replied Borri.
+
+“I am sorry to see you here as a prisoner, but you are not one at
+present,” said the Emperor.
+
+“Had I not been arrested I should not have had the happiness of seeing
+your Majesty,” rejoined the physician.
+
+“I hear much that is satisfactory about your learning, although in
+another respect you are said to be a dangerous man. Why do you trouble
+yourself with religious affairs? Leave them to the clergy,” said the
+Emperor, who continued to interrogate him at some length on religious
+subjects. At last he said, “Now I hear that you devote yourself to
+medicine. What have you heard about my condition?”
+
+“Nothing beyond the supposition that your Majesty has been poisoned,”
+replied Borri. “But that I may be able to express my views on the
+subject your Majesty’s physician-in-ordinary must bring the symptoms
+before me, and then I shall be able to speak with certainty,” he
+continued.
+
+A messenger was at once sent for the physician. Meanwhile, Borri noted
+the Emperor’s wasted and grey looks. Then, rising, he took a survey of
+the room, examining every ornament and object and sniffed suspiciously.
+The Emperor followed his movements with inquiring eyes.
+
+“Well, Borri,” he sighed at length. “What do you think?”
+
+“I think almost certainly,” remarked the physician decisively, “that
+your Majesty has been poisoned.”
+
+“Holy Mother, have mercy on me!” cried the Emperor.
+
+“I must, as I said, speak with your physician-in-ordinary,” continued
+Borri, “but I can also promise your Majesty’s recovery with equal
+certainty, for there is still time.”
+
+“And how do you come to this conclusion of poison? My friends dine with
+me out of the same dish. Do you notice anything on my body?”
+
+“Your Majesty, it is not so much your body,” replied Borri, “but the
+atmosphere of your room that is poisoned.”
+
+“How can you tell, when I feel nothing of it?”
+
+“Your Majesty is too accustomed to the poisonous exhalation to notice
+it.”
+
+“And where does the exhalation come from?”
+
+Borri rose, and, followed by the wondering eyes of the Emperor, lifted
+each candelabrum and placed it on the table, before the monarch, and so
+bringing twelve lighted candles together.
+
+“See the exhalation that rises from the candles,” he exclaimed. “Do you
+not notice the peculiar colour of the flame?”
+
+At this moment the chamberlain entered the room.
+
+“The light is vivid,” remarked the Emperor, “but does not seem to me to
+be extraordinary.”
+
+“Do you not see a fine white mist arising which is not found in ordinary
+candles?” continued Borri.
+
+The Emperor appealed to the chamberlain and asked if he noticed the
+mist, and he replied that he did. Just then the Emperor’s
+physician-in-ordinary entered the cabinet.
+
+“You have come at the right moment,” exclaimed the Emperor. This
+cavalier asserts that the air of my room is poisoned. “Have you the
+diagnosis with you?”
+
+“It is here, your Majesty, where it has been kept since your illness,”
+replied the physician.
+
+The report was handed to Borri, who quickly glanced at it and nodded his
+head.
+
+“Do you perceive the curious smell in the room and the fine, quickly
+ascending vapour?” asked Borri, as he pointed out the candles to the
+doctor. “Look also at the crust which the vapour has deposited on the
+ceiling.”
+
+“I see it all and bow to your sharpness, cavalier,” said the physician.
+
+“Does your Majesty burn these candles everywhere?” Borri asked. “It
+would be interesting to know if they are used in the Empress’s
+apartments?”
+
+The chamberlain at once went and brought two lighted candles from the
+Empress’s chamber, and placed them on the table near the suspected ones.
+The former burned clear and quietly, while the latter burned with a
+ruddy flame, emitting a thin vapour while repeated sparks with a
+crackling noise flashed from the wick.
+
+“There is the cause of your sickness,” exclaimed Borri, as he laid his
+hand on the Emperor’s candelabra. “Shall I now prove to your Majesty
+that these are impregnated with a subtle poison?”
+
+“At once,” replied the Emperor.
+
+Borri immediately closed the door of the apartment and extinguished the
+suspected candles. With the physician’s assistance he then commenced to
+remove all the wax from the wick. Meanwhile the chamberlain was summoned
+and commanded to bring all the candles he had into the Emperor’s
+cabinet. The entire stock, amounting to thirty-five pounds, was brought
+from a cupboard in the ante-room where they had been stored and laid
+before Borri.
+
+On examining them he called the Emperor’s attention to the peculiar fact
+that each candle was specially marked with a gold fillet round the top
+as if to prevent any mistake. Further questioning revealed the fact that
+no other candles but these had been used in the Emperor’s apartments
+since Candlemas. Borri next shredded the candle wick and calling for a
+small dish of meat carefully mixed the candle wick with it. A turnspit
+dog was then sent for, and was shut up in the cupboard with the dish of
+meat.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor was removed to another apartment, and Borri and
+the physician proceeded to the palace pharmacy to prepare an antidote
+for him. Here Borri tested the suspected candle wick and found, as he
+thought, it was impregnated with arsenic. He had left instructions that
+he was to be called as soon as the dog got restless, but the animal was
+found to be dead by the time he returned to the Emperor’s cabinet.
+
+The antidote prepared by Borri soon produced a beneficial effect on the
+Emperor, and his health improved so rapidly that within three weeks he
+was able to go out again.
+
+An interesting record of Borri’s examination of the poisoned articles
+shows his remarkable knowledge of chemistry. Of the whole of the
+suspected candles brought to him he kept back two as evidence and used
+the remainder in his analysis. The weight of the candles was twenty-four
+pounds, and the impregnated wicks three and a half pounds, from which
+Borri concluded that nearly two and three-quarters pounds of arsenic had
+been employed.
+
+Immediately Borri reported the result of his investigation to the
+Emperor he gave orders that the person who supplied the candles should
+be arrested at once.
+
+It was found that they had been supplied by the procurator of the
+Jesuits, who was, however, no longer in Vienna and was not to be found.
+Being warned in time, this astute individual had made good his escape.
+
+The solution of the mystery as to how the candles became impregnated
+with arsenic subsequently transpired. It was discovered that the
+pater-procurator of the Jesuits, accompanied by a humble member of the
+order, had personally delivered the prepared candles, which were packed
+in two boxes, at the palace on March 2, 1670, at dark, with instructions
+that they were to be delivered to the chamberlain and were to be treated
+with the greatest care.
+
+“Your reverence,” said the steward who received them, “will greatly
+oblige by telling me what the boxes contain, so that I may take due care
+of them, until I hand them over to the chamberlain on duty?”
+
+“Learn, my friend,” replied the procurator, “that the boxes contain a
+number of especially consecrated wax candles for use in the Imperial
+apartments. His Majesty, you know, receives everything he requires
+through the hands of us who have blessed it for his service. Inform the
+servants who have charge of the Imperial apartments that his Majesty
+gave his reverend confessor Father Muller to understand that he wished,
+in addition to other consecrated objects, to have such candles burnt in
+his rooms. They must be henceforth taken from this store.”
+
+The same evening the candles _consecrated_ by the Jesuit fathers were
+lighted in the Imperial cabinet.
+
+For a short time the Emperor appears to have shown some gratitude to the
+physician who had been instrumental in saving his life, and Borri dined
+at the Imperial table, but the hatred of the clerical party increased
+when they saw him thus favoured.
+
+On June 14, 1670, the Emperor, now quite restored to health, summoned
+Borri to his cabinet and thanked him fervently for his services, but, he
+added, he was sorry in the matter of religion Borri had gone astray and
+that it was necessary to cure him of his errors. The Pope would appoint
+a Commission. “I have obtained a guarantee from the papal nuncio,”
+continued the Emperor, “that in no case shall anything be done against
+your body or your life. So long as you live, two hundred ducats a year
+shall be paid to you by myself or my heirs as a memorial of what you
+have done for me.”
+
+On the following day Borri left under an escort for Rome. On his arrival
+he was arrested and imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo. Owing to the
+good offices of the French Maréchal D’Estrées, whom he attended during a
+serious illness, he was allowed a certain amount of liberty and could go
+in and out of the castle. He was also allowed to fit up a small
+laboratory, where he was able to carry on his work in chemistry. The
+Jesuit general Pater Gonzalez is said to have had several interviews
+with him while in St. Angelo, with the object of getting him to reveal
+the secret of his poison antidote, but Borri always declined to reveal
+it, and he eventually died in the castle of St. Angelo in the year 1695.
+
+Borri has been variously described by his biographers as an alchemist,
+physician, quack or charlatan who amassed money by duping the wealthy
+patients who consulted him, but, judging from the works he wrote, he was
+probably no worse than many others who practised medicine in his day,
+and certainly was before his time in his knowledge of chemistry.
+
+Although a fanatic on religious subjects, he appears to have had
+considerably more knowledge of disease than many of his contemporaries,
+and the stories of his successful treatment in many cases are probably
+true. The story here related of his discovery of the causes of the
+Emperor Leopold’s mysterious illness is related by Wraxall and vouched
+for by Michiel and is believed to be founded on fact.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+                              POISON PLOTS
+
+
+During the Middle Ages a strange dread of wholesale poisoning spread
+throughout Europe and caused numerous panics. Some of these rumours may
+probably have been circulated by unscrupulous traders who had articles
+to sell, or some business interests to forward, but of this disturbing
+fear authentic record still exists that it affected whole communities.
+
+England was probably freer from crimes of this kind than almost any
+other country, but in 1530 a case occurred which aroused great public
+indignation. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was accustomed to feed a
+number of poor people daily from his table, and one day a large number
+of his guests, together with some of the officers of the household, were
+taken ill and died. After examination of the food had been made it was
+declared that the yeast used in the bread had been poisoned. Parliament
+took up the case and the bishop’s cook, one Roose, was found guilty. He
+was tried and sentenced to be boiled alive as a terrible example to
+others. This seems to have been a penalty for poisoners during the
+Middle Ages, a fact which doubtless shows the great abhorrence in which
+crimes of this kind were held.
+
+During the case of Sir Thomas Overbury, at which Lord Bacon performed
+the duties of Attorney-General, he emphasized the enormity of the
+offence of poisoning, although he maintained that poisoning was not a
+crime to which English people were predisposed. “It is a crime,” he
+stated, “the more to be dreaded because it is so easily committed and so
+hard to be prevented and discovered.”
+
+As a result of the Rochester case a law was passed about 1531 making
+murder by poison high treason, the punishment being death by boiling.
+The wording of the act which recorded the story of the crime is worth
+recapitulating at length.
+
+
+“22 Henry VIII, c. 9. The Kynges royall majistie callyng to hys moste
+blessed remembraunce that the makyng of good and holsome laws and due
+execution of the same agaynste the offendours thereof is the only cause
+that good obedyence and order hath ben preserved in this Realme, and his
+Highnes havyng moste tender zeale to the same emonge other thynges
+consyderyng that mannes lyfe above all thynges is chyefly to be
+favoured, and voluntary murders moste highly to be detested and
+abhorred, and specyally of all kyndes of murders, poysonynge, which in
+this Realme hytherto our Lord be thanked hath ben moste rare and seldome
+comytted or practysed; and now in the tyme of this presente parliamente,
+that is to saye, in the xviij daye of Februarye in the xxijd yere of his
+moste victorious reygn, one Richard Roose late of Rouchester in the
+Countie of Kente, Coke, otherwyse called Richard Coke of his moste wyked
+and damnable dysposicyon dyd caste a certeyne venym or poyson into a
+vessel replenysshed with yeste or barme standyng in the Kechyn of the
+Reverende Father in God John Bysshopp of Rochester at his place in
+Lamehyth Marsshe wythe which yeste or Barme and other thynges
+convenyent, porrage or gruell was forthwyth made for his famylye there
+beyng wherby not only the nombre of xvij persons of his said famylie
+which dyd eate of that porrage were mortally enfeebled and poysoned and
+one of them, that is to say, Bennett Curwen gentylman thereof ys
+decessed, but also certeyne pore people which resorted to the sayde
+Bysshops place and were there charytably fedde wyth the remayne of the
+sayde porrage and other vytayles, were in lyke wise infected, and one
+pore Woman of them that is to saye Alyce Tryppytt wydowe is also thereof
+nowe deceassed: our sayde sovereign Lorde the Kynge of hys blessed
+disposicion inwardly abhorrying all such abhomynable offences, because
+that in manner no person can lyve in suertye out of daunger of death by
+that meane, yf practyse thereof shulde hot be exchued, hath ordeyned and
+enacted by auctorytie of thys presente parlyament that the sayd
+poysonyng be ajuged and demed as high treason. And that the sayde
+Richarde for the sayde murder and poysonynge of the sayde two persones
+as is aforesayde by auctoritye of thys presente parlyament, shall stande
+and be attaynted of high treason: and by cause that detestable offence
+nowe newly practysed and comytted requyreth condigne punysshmente for
+the same; It is ordayned and enacted by auctoritie of this presente
+parliamente that the said Richard Roose shal be therfore boyled to
+deathe withoute havynge any advauntage of his clargie.”
+
+
+Under this statute, according to Lord Coke, in his third institute,
+Margaret Davy, a young woman, was attainted of high treason, for
+poisoning her mistress, and some others were boiled to death in
+Smithfield, the 17th of March, the same year, 1524. But this act,
+continues his lordship, was too severe to live long, and was therefore
+repealed by I Ed. VI, c. 12, and I Mar., c. 1. It is thought probable
+that the proverbial expressions, to “keep out of hot water” and to “get
+into hot water,” may have had their origin in the punishment attached to
+this crime by the law of 22 Henry VIII.
+
+June 6 is still kept as a public holiday in Malta. Upon that day, over
+two hundred years ago, while the island was still possessed by the
+Knights of St. John, a Jew waited on the Grand Master and revealed to
+him a plot that had been planned for exterminating the whole population
+at one stroke. The man kept a coffee-house frequented by Turkish slaves,
+and, understanding their language, the conversation of his customers had
+aroused his suspicions. The Grand Master, believing the truth of the
+man’s statement, took immediate action. The slaves were at once seized,
+and, put to torture, they confessed a design of poisoning all the wells
+and fountains on the island, and, to make the result surer, each of the
+conspirators was to assassinate a Christian. One hundred and twenty-five
+were found guilty; some were burned, some broken on the wheel, others
+were ordered to have their arms and legs attached to two galleys, which,
+being rowed apart, thus dismembered them. Whether these fearful
+punishments were carried out it is impossible to say, but the fact
+remains that the people of Malta still commemorate their escape from
+poisoning on the sixth of June.
+
+Wholesale poisoning appears to have been frequent in Eastern countries,
+especially in India and Persia. The wells or other water sources were
+usually chosen as the media for disseminating the poison, and in this
+way whole villages have often been destroyed by some miscreant.
+
+An extraordinary poison plot was discovered in Lima towards the close of
+the eighteenth century. During the insurrection of 1781 a rich cacique,
+who professed loyalty, went into a chemist’s shop and asked for two
+hundred pounds of corrosive sublimate. He was willing to pay any price
+for it. The chemist had nothing like that amount in stock, but, not
+wishing to send away so good a customer, substituted two hundred pounds
+of alum. On the following day all the water in the town was found to be
+impregnated with alum, and on examination being made, the fence round
+the reservoir was found to have been broken down, the banks strewn with
+alum and the water rendered undrinkable.
+
+Although the use of poison for taking life was, according to Bacon,
+abhorrent to the English character, in some of the Latin countries the
+feeling was just the opposite, as evidenced by the following story:—
+
+The Duc de Guise in his memoirs relates, in a most matter-of-fact way,
+how he requested the captain of his guard to poniard a troublesome
+demagogue at Naples. The captain was shocked. He would poison anyone at
+his grace’s command with pleasure, but the dagger was a vulgar
+instrument. So the Duke bought some strong poison, the composition of
+which he describes at length, and it was duly administered. But Gennaro,
+the intended victim, had just eaten cabbage dressed in oil, which is
+said to have acted as an antidote, and so he escaped the effects of the
+dose.
+
+In the early part of 1917 an extraordinary plot to murder two of his
+Majesty’s Ministers of State was brought to light, which suggests some
+of the subtle methods employed in the Middle Ages. Three women named
+Alice Wheeldon, Hetty Wheeldon and Winnie Mason—mother and daughters—and
+a man named Alfred George Mason, husband of the latter, were charged
+with conspiring to kill the then Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George, and
+Mr. Arthur Henderson, his colleague on the War Council, by means of
+strychnine or curare.
+
+The plot was discovered by two secret agents of the Government who were
+employed for the purpose of obtaining information of the schemes of
+persons desirous of evading military service or otherwise conspiring
+against the country, and who had been directed to keep a watch upon this
+particular family. They obtained an introduction to the Wheeldons, who
+lived in Derby, by representing themselves as sympathizers and so won
+their confidence. They succeeded so well in ingratiating themselves with
+the family that not only was the plot revealed to them but they were
+entrusted by Mrs. Wheeldon with the task of actually carrying out the
+deed.
+
+The suspicions of the two men became aroused when they found that a
+letter had been sent to Mason with the object of procuring some poisons.
+The woman had previously shown one of the agents a stuffed skin of a
+snake shaped in the form of a bracelet, stating that it was poisonous,
+and remarked that she wished she had a hundred of them. The Wheeldons
+always showed the greatest animosity to the Prime Minister and Mr.
+Henderson, expressing the wish that they hoped they would soon be dead.
+Mrs. Wheeldon also told him that the Suffragettes had spent £300 in
+trying to poison Lloyd George, the plot being to get into an hotel where
+he was staying and drive a nail which had been dipped in poison through
+his boot; this, however, was frustrated by his going to France. She also
+declared her intention of killing another Minister by inserting a
+poisoned needle into his skull, and other schemes of an extraordinary
+character were discussed.
+
+Before handing over the poison Mrs. Wheeldon was stated to have said to
+one of the agents, “You know what you are doing! You will rid the world
+of a bloody murderer and be a saviour of the country.” Asked how the
+poison was used, she replied: “It is a crystal, and you drop two drops
+of water on it, dip your article in, and when the water evaporates it
+leaves the poison.” As the men were about to leave, Mrs. Wheeldon shook
+hands with them, and said that when she handed the poison over to them
+she washed her hands of it, and would deny on her word of honour that
+she ever gave it to them. She assured them that the phial contained
+enough to kill five hundred people. Walton Heath had been selected as
+being the most likely spot to offer a suitable opportunity, an air-gun
+being used as a medium.
+
+The agents at once informed their superior officer, who had the
+prisoners arrested and the house searched. Among the objects found was a
+small stuffed snake skin which was found to contain four glass phials
+embedded in cottonwool. The accused were charged at Derby on February 4,
+1917, and they were tried at the Old Bailey in London on March 7, a
+month later.
+
+The accused were described by the Attorney-General as a very dangerous
+and desperate type of people, who were habitually hostile to this
+country. They were shelterers of refugees from the army and persons who
+did their best to injure Great Britain in the war then proceeding. Mrs.
+Wheeldon’s son William was himself a conscientious objector.
+
+At the trial a two-ounce tin tobacco box was produced containing four
+phials sealed. Instructions were enclosed which had been copied by both
+the agents and were as follows:—
+
+“Powder in tube ‘A’ is sufficient for two or even three doses to be
+given by the mouth or in solution.
+
+“Powder ‘C’ to be injected either in solution or by a dart, which will
+penetrate into the body and stop for a while. Rusted in solution or
+fired from an air-gun, or a rusty needle if driven well in with powder
+will do, but don’t advise unless in urgent dilemma.
+
+“Solution ‘B’—either by mouth or injection.
+
+“Solution ‘D’—injection only.
+
+“All are certain.
+
+“All four will probably leave a trace, but if the bloke wanted dies
+suspect, it will be a job to prove it so long as you have a chance to
+get at the dog, dead in twenty seconds. Powder ‘A’ on meal or bread is
+O.K. If you care for microbe can supply needle thirty-six hours in
+strong solution and allow to dry in air, dip again for ten seconds and
+allow again to dry. Cover with ‘C’ powder.”
+
+Upon analysis the phials were found to contain:—
+
+“A,” 7½ grammes strychnine hydrochloride in crystals.
+
+“B,” 1½ drachms strychnine hydrochloride in solution.
+
+“C,” curare in powder.
+
+“D,” 1 drachm of curare in solution.
+
+The box containing the poison was sent to Mrs. Wheeldon by her
+son-in-law, Alfred Mason, who was a lecturer on pharmacy at Southampton
+University College and who was said to have made a special study of
+curare. Only a few weeks before the preceding Christmas he had showed a
+student in the college a specimen of it, and described its properties.
+The tobacco box containing the phials and instructions are said to have
+been despatched by him from Southampton to Derby at the request of Mrs.
+Wheeldon.
+
+Mrs. Wheeldon volunteered to give evidence, in which she acknowledged
+she had been active in helping men to escape from their military duties
+ever since conscription had been introduced. There was no form of help
+that she could give them that she had withheld. Her own son was a
+conscientious objector. She was quite prepared in the circumstances to
+violate what she knew to be the law and had no regard to consequences.
+She expressed her bitter hatred of Mr. Lloyd George and was ready to do
+him a mischief.
+
+At the examination of Alfred Mason, he said he had devoted some time to
+the study of criminology in relation to poison, but _he did not know
+that strychnine was used for poisoning_. If poison was to have been used
+for a human being he would have definitely stated in his instructions
+that it should be mixed with food. He said he had had experience in
+destroying two thousand dogs, and that when his mother-in-law had
+written she had said she wanted some poison for a dog, and that it was a
+dangerous dog, and the impression left on his mind was that it was
+difficult to get it. He treated the allusion to the microbe as a joke.
+
+Counsel on behalf of the prisoners denied the charges as a vindictive
+prosecution of the worst of its kind that had ever taken place in
+England. He submitted the curious suggestion that the proper trial of
+this case would be by ordeal, on which the judge remarked, “I am afraid
+that it has been abolished.” Counsel said he submitted it to the jury.
+The judge asked him if he proposed that the prisoners should walk over
+hot ploughshares or something of that kind, to which counsel replied: “I
+do, in order to prove their innocence.” He threw ridicule on the idea
+that Mr. Lloyd George could have been killed by poisoned darts or
+arrows.
+
+Mr. Justice Low, in summing up, said that of all forms of murder,
+poisoning was the most dastardly and the most dangerous, and conspiracy
+to murder by poisoning was the worst of all. It was almost incredible
+that these prisoners had by their own admission behaved as these people
+had done. The jury having found the prisoners guilty, the elder woman,
+Mrs. Wheeldon, was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude, the man
+Mason to seven years and his wife to five years; the girl Harriet
+Wheeldon was found not guilty and discharged.
+
+In December, 1909, a sensation was caused throughout Austria owing to
+the arrest of a young officer named Lieutenant Hofrichter of Linz, who
+was charged with being concerned in a plot to poison a captain of the
+Imperial General Staff and other highly-placed Imperial officers by
+sending them poisoned samples of a new patent medicine.
+
+The alleged motive was said to be a desire to clear a path for promotion
+by the removal of officers of higher rank. Suspicion was first directed
+towards him by the statement of a brother officer at Linz where he was
+stationed, who mentioned that he had received from the lieutenant a box
+exactly similar to those in which the fatal powder had been sent.
+
+About a week before this, a Captain Mader, together with several
+officers of the General Staff, had received by post a sample of a
+supposed patent medicine, and on taking some of it he died shortly
+afterwards. It was found that the medicine contained a large proportion
+of potassium cyanide.
+
+On suspicion falling on Hofrichter, his quarters were searched and a
+copying apparatus which apparently had been used for the circulars
+accompanying the poisoned medicine was found, and he was also identified
+as the purchaser of capsules, boxes and envelopes similar to those which
+had been sent to the officers. Hofrichter was brought to Vienna for
+trial by the military tribunal, from which the public were excluded.
+
+The first hearing of the case lasted seven hours, and in the course of
+the investigation it was stated that four officers had fallen victims to
+the effects of poison, the first being Captain Mader. In consequence of
+the order of the military court, the dwellings of eighty officers were
+searched in Vienna and the provinces and a series of extraordinary
+tragedies followed. One of the officers who was engaged at the War
+Office, felt the indignity to such an extent that he shot himself
+immediately afterwards. Another victim was a brother-in-law of the
+accused, who after devoting himself to collecting evidence and examining
+possible witnesses, hoping to prove the innocence of Hofrichter, died
+suddenly, the cause being said to have been hastened by his anxiety and
+excitement over the case. A Lieutenant Schmidt, who had been summoned to
+the military court in Vienna, also committed suicide.
+
+The tribunal then proceeded to inquire into Hofrichter’s previous
+career, which brought to light the fact that, some years before, he was
+engaged to be married to the daughter of a pastor in Bohemia, but the
+engagement was broken off after he entered the Vienna Military Academy.
+The girl, in despair, is stated to have poisoned herself with potassium
+cyanide, and a letter from Hofrichter which arrived after her death was
+buried unopened with her.
+
+It was rumoured that Hofrichter had sent the girl the poison. The
+tribunal decided to have the body exhumed. This was carried out, and the
+unopened letter that had been sent five years previously was discovered.
+The remains of her body were subjected to analysis, but no trace of
+poison was discovered.
+
+Meanwhile, the case was postponed for further investigation. This
+finally revealed the fact that Hofrichter had been leading a double life
+for a considerable time, and had done so with extraordinary cunning. In
+the army he had been generally liked and esteemed as a hard worker and a
+good officer, while under the name of Dr. Haller he carried on a
+criminal career.
+
+Letters to his wife which were intercepted from the prison, revealed
+that he intended to commit suicide, and in one of these he asked her to
+conceal various poisons including atropine and hyoscyamine in a bunch of
+flowers, which he had asked for to lay on an altar in his cell. At his
+house in Linz a considerable quantity of poisons and drugs were
+discovered.
+
+The long delays between the meetings of the military tribunal were very
+trying to the accused man. For months he had faced the ordeal of a
+severe cross-examination. He feigned insanity with great ability, and
+the methods of the police inclined the public in his favour. At length,
+after a trial lasting for four months, his defence broke down, and he
+confessed. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.
+
+During the year 1921 several attempts were made on the lives of
+well-known people, which appear to have had an influence on weak-minded
+persons or those on the border line of insanity. Such cases are not
+infrequent in the history of criminal poisoning, where attempts have
+been made to take life without any apparent motive.
+
+Early that year it was reported that the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford had
+received a box of chocolate creams by post, and being suspicious at the
+receipt of such an anonymous gift he submitted them to one of his
+colleagues, a professor of science. This gave rise to the rumours that
+they contained something of a deleterious nature, such as powdered
+glass, but the result of an analysis showed that the sweets were
+innocuous. An undergraduate was reported to have confessed, and the
+presumed plot against the Vice-Chancellor was declared to be a hoax.
+
+In November, 1922, a sensation was caused in London by an attempt to
+poison the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland
+Yard. On November 9 it was reported in the newspapers that the Chief
+Commissioner had been seized with an apparent heart attack in his office
+at Scotland Yard, which came on while he was dressing before proceeding
+to the Lord Mayor’s banquet. It was not till nine o’clock that night
+that the doctors summoned to attend him knew definitely that it was a
+case of poisoning by arsenic.
+
+It appeared that on November 3, six days previously, a package addressed
+to the Assistant Commissioner, New Scotland Yard, Westminster, had been
+delivered by parcel post. On being opened it was found to contain four
+chocolate éclairs, wrapped in grease-proof paper. Enclosed with the
+éclairs was a small white card three inches long by one and a half wide,
+bearing upon it the following: “A good lunch and a hearty
+appetite.—Molly.” The box had been posted in the Balham district. The
+éclairs were sent to an analyst for further investigation, but before
+the result had been received a second parcel arrived on November 9,
+addressed to Brigadier-General Horwood, New Scotland Yard, Westminster,
+S.W., and was opened by the Chief Commissioner himself. The box is
+described as being of cardboard, 7½ by 1¾ inches, and was wrapped in a
+piece of stiff white paper addressed in block letters and contained
+whipped cream walnuts. The box was tied with string and was also posted
+in the Balham district about 4 p.m., November 8.
+
+The morning that the box arrived Sir William had received a letter from
+a relative who said that she was sending him a box of chocolates for his
+birthday, and he accordingly opened the box unsuspectingly. He took one
+of the chocolates and offered them to his secretary who was in the room.
+She, however, only bit off a small piece of the outer covering of hers,
+and remarking that it tasted bitter, threw it away and told the
+Commissioner. He, still believing the package to have come from his
+friend, suspected nothing, and though he noticed it burned his throat a
+little, ate more later in the day. While dressing for dinner that
+evening the Commissioner was seized with severe pain and showed symptoms
+of having swallowed an irritant poison, and was removed to St. Thomas’s
+Hospital next day.
+
+On the chocolates being carefully examined it was found that there was a
+small square mark at the bottom of each as if a portion of the chocolate
+coating had been removed, a poison mixed with the cream inside and the
+square of chocolate afterwards replaced. On investigation it was found
+that the poison employed was undoubtedly arsenic, which was plainly to
+be seen and took the form of dark greenish-tinted matter.
+
+On November 10 another box was received at Scotland Yard. This was a
+small cardboard box 2¼ by 1¾ inches by ¾ of an inch, greyish tint with
+plain card pasted on lid, wrapped in light brown tissue paper, addressed
+in block letters to The Commissioner of the Police, New Scotland Yard,
+Westminster. The box contained two small tablets of Bournville chocolate
+wrapped in white paper. The box was sealed with black sealing-wax, and
+was posted in the Balham district about 3 p.m., on November 9.
+
+The Chief Commissioner, though for some days in a very critical
+condition, ended in making a complete recovery.
+
+Only a few weeks afterwards a small cardboard box was received at the
+Home Office addressed to “The Secretary for Home Affairs, Whitehall,
+S.W.” It was taken to the registry and opened, and was found to contain
+cream fondants. The parcel was obviously sent by the same person who
+sent the poisoned chocolates to the Commissioner of Police. The sweets
+had apparently been tampered with and were sent for analysis, but no
+arsenic was found in them. The writing on the address was the same in
+each case and the box had been posted in the same district of Balham.
+
+Previously to this the police authorities had issued a warning to
+well-known people, putting them on their guard against similar attempts.
+
+Early in February, 1923, a man living at Balham was arrested by the
+police at his residence, and was charged with attempting to murder the
+Chief Commissioner and the two Assistant Commissioners of Police. He
+made the following statement: “I sent the Commissioner chocolates. I
+sent them for 5 analytical purposes. I have had no real rest since then;
+I would not harm him for anything.”
+
+In the house where he lived a quantity of weed-killer was found coloured
+in similar manner to that found in the chocolates.
+
+The analyst to the Home Office, who examined the chocolate éclairs sent
+to the Commissioner, found that they each contained arsenic, the amount
+estimated in one being 3¼ grains. The three whipped cream walnut
+chocolates which were addressed to the Assistant Commissioners also
+contained a considerable quantity of arsenic, the amount in one of them
+which was tested being six grains.
+
+He also examined two Bournville chocolates which had been drilled with
+holes and filled with arsenic. The quantity of arsenic in one of these
+was ⅕ of a grain. In two Dairy Milk chocolates he examined, similar
+holes had been drilled, which had been filled up with the same kind of
+arsenic as that used in the weed-killer and was in the form of a blue
+powder which was strongly alkaline.
+
+The prisoner was committed for trial, was found to be insane, and
+ordered to be detained during the King’s pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+              CURIOUS METHODS EMPLOYED BY SECRET POISONERS
+
+
+Of the various methods employed by criminal poisoners, administration
+through the medium of food or drink has been more common than any other.
+The poisoned cake or wine recurs with monotonous frequency in the
+history of poisoning from the earliest times down to the present. Women
+especially seem to have had a predilection for this method of
+administering a lethal dose, a fact probably due to their control and
+direction of domestic matters, which renders the introduction of a
+poisonous substance into the food or drink an easy matter.
+
+In early times some fell victims to their own evil designs, as instanced
+in the case of Rosamond, the wife of Alboin, King of Lombardy, in A.D.
+573. It is stated that, wishing to rid herself of her husband, she gave
+him a cup of poisoned wine when he was coming from his bath. The king
+drank part, but suspecting its nature from the strange effect it
+produced, wisely insisted that she should drink the remainder, with the
+result that both died shortly afterwards.
+
+Reginald Scot, who wrote _The Discovery of Witchcraft_ in 1584, quaintly
+states his belief that “women were the first inventors and the greatest
+practisers of poysoning and more materially addicted and given thereunto
+than men.”
+
+Throughout the history of criminal poisoning there has always been a
+high percentage of women implicated and numerous cases could be cited of
+female lunatics with whom the use of poison for criminal purposes
+amounted to an obsession. With these types, not infrequently met with,
+there is no suggestion of a motive, the object being apparently to
+destroy life without any sane reason.
+
+Women of this kind have lived in various periods from the time of
+Locusta to de Brinvilliers. There was also Van der Linden, a Dutch woman
+who poisoned one hundred and two people, and Hélène Jegado, who
+apparently regarded poisoning as a pastime and whose victims were
+estimated to number twenty-six.
+
+Some poisoners, not content with introducing the substance into wine or
+other drink, essayed to improve on this method by preparing a goblet or
+cup in such a way that it would impregnate any liquid that was placed in
+it. There is record of one François Belot, a Frenchman, who made a
+speciality of this method, and, it is said, derived a considerable
+income therefrom; but he fitly ended his days by being broken on the
+wheel on June 10, 1679.
+
+According to a contemporary writer, Belot’s special method consisted in
+cramming a toad with arsenic, placing it in a silver goblet, and after
+pricking its head, crushing it in the vessel. Whilst this operation was
+being performed he recited certain charms. According to his own account,
+which is still on record, of treating a cup with a toad in this way, “I
+know a secret,” he says, “such that, in doctoring a cup with a toad, and
+what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink from it
+afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be done
+for, and the cup could only be purified by throwing it into a hot fire.
+After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a human
+being, but upon a dog, and I should entrust the cup to nobody.” Belot’s
+statements were evidently believed in his time, and he enjoyed a
+considerable reputation.
+
+Another individual named Blessis flourished about the same period, and
+who, claiming to practise sorcery and magic, went so far as to declare
+to the world that he had discovered a method of manipulating mirrors in
+such a way that whoever looked into them would meet his death.
+
+According to tradition, boots, gloves and other articles of wearing
+apparel have been utilized by poisoners for carrying out their evil
+plans, and although many of these tales are purely legendary, it is
+quite possible that others have some substratum of truth. Tissot states
+that John, King of Castille, owed his death to wearing a pair of boots
+which were supposed to have been impregnated with poison by a Turk.
+Henry VI is said to have succumbed through wearing poisoned gloves, and
+Louis XIV and Pope Clement VII through the fumes of a poisoned candle.
+
+The stories of the poisoned shirts which, if contemporary records are to
+be believed, were not infrequently employed by poisoners in the
+seventeenth century, are within the bounds of possibility. Apparently
+corrosive sublimate, arsenic and cantharides were employed for this
+purpose. The shirt is said to have been prepared by soaking it in a
+strong solution of one of these poisons, the idea being to produce a
+violent dermatitis with ulceration, which would force the victim to take
+to his bed. The physician would then be sent for, and would probably
+diagnose the case as due to syphilis, and prescribe mercury, with the
+effect of killing the patient in the end.
+
+Such a case is recorded by Dr. Lucian Nass, who relates the story of
+Madame de Poulaillon, the wife of a wealthy man who was a good deal her
+senior. Desirous of ridding herself of her husband, she sought the
+counsel of one Marie Bosse, who told Madame that she should try the
+method of the poisoned shirt, which she herself would prepare. She then
+took one of her husband’s shirts, together with a piece of arsenic “as
+big as an egg,” to La Bosse. She first washed it and then soaked the
+tail in a strong solution of arsenic, so that it only looked “a little
+rusty,” as if it had been ill-washed, and was stiffer than usual. La
+Bosse told her that only the lower part of the shirt had been thus
+prepared, and the effect would be to produce violent inflammation and
+intense pain.
+
+Madame de Poulaillon is said to have given La Bosse a sum of money,
+equal to £800 at the present day, for her services. The husband was,
+however, warned of the evil intended to him and had his wife arrested.
+The lady is said to have so fascinated her judges that a contemporary
+writer states “they were touched by her wit and by her grace and by the
+tones in which she spoke of her misfortunes and her crime, and though
+she confessed her guilt, and pronounced herself worthy of death, she was
+acquitted with applause.”
+
+A few years ago, Dr. Nass, with a view to ascertaining the truth of the
+assertions connected with the poisoned shirt, made some interesting
+experiments on a guinea-pig. He carefully shaved a portion of the left
+lumbar region and gently rubbed the skin with a paste containing arsenic
+in the proportion of one in ten. He repeated the operation several times
+during the day. Shortly afterwards the animal became prostrate, the eyes
+became dull, it assumed a cholera-like aspect and in forty-eight hours
+died. The skin on which the paste had been applied remained unchanged
+and unbroken, and showed no sign of ulceration. On examining the
+internal organs after death, fatty degeneration of the viscera was found
+and several marked symptoms of arsenical poisoning. This experiment does
+not, of course, prove the fact that a shirt impregnated with arsenic
+worn in direct contact with the skin would prove fatal, but it shows
+that arsenic may be introduced into the body simply by gentle friction
+on an unbroken skin, and that the effect of the poisoned shirt was
+possible.
+
+The Duke of Savoy is said to have been one of the last victims of this
+method, and it is stated that when a shirt could not be procured a
+slipper was used, although it did not prove so effective. Apparently the
+primary object in this method was not to kill but to prostrate the
+patient in bed where he could be despatched at leisure under pretence of
+treatment.
+
+Similar to the method of treating the shirt there is a legendary story
+in India of the Queen of Ganore, who is said to have killed Rajah Bukht
+by impregnating his marriage robes with poison. Chevers, who relates the
+story,[8] affirms that this form of poisoning is possible. “Anyone,” he
+writes, “who has noticed how freely a robust person in India perspires
+through a thin garment, can understand that if the cloth were thoroughly
+impregnated with the cantharadine of that very powerful vesicant, the
+Telini, the result would be as dangerous as that of an extensive burn.”
+He further states that Mr. Todd has published ample evidence in support
+of the idea that the deaths of several historical personages in India
+were caused by poisoned robes.
+
+Footnote 8:
+
+  _Manual of Medical Jurisprudence in India._ Norman Chevers.
+
+A curious case in which the poisoner attempted to prove that the medical
+treatment was responsible for the crime happened in France a few years
+ago, when a woman was charged at the Paris Court of Assizes with
+attempting to murder her husband. It was known that the couple had lived
+unhappily together, and arrangements had been made for a divorce.
+
+One morning the husband complained of a severe headache and his wife
+suggested a dose of antipyrine, which she gave him in some mineral
+water. He remarked to her at the time that the draught had a peculiar
+taste. Later in the day she administered sundry cups of coffee to him,
+but he grew rapidly worse and at night a doctor was summoned. He failed
+to diagnose the complaint, and called in other medical men, who were
+equally puzzled. One thing which they all noticed, was a peculiar
+dilatation of the pupils of the patient’s eyes.
+
+A consultation was held the next day, and shortly afterwards one of the
+medical men received a note from the lady in which she stated that her
+husband was “black.” “He was dead, more dead than any man I ever saw.”
+
+The doctor at once went to see the patient, and found him in a state of
+collapse. He bled him twice and injected caffeine, but he still remained
+motionless. After a time it occurred to the doctor that the patient’s
+symptoms resembled those of atropine poisoning, and, resorting to other
+measures, he eventually brought him round. Then he remembered that the
+lady had previously asked him for some morphine for herself, and when he
+had refused it she requested some atropine for her dog’s eyes. He wrote
+her a prescription for a solution of atropine, containing ten per cent.
+of the drug, and took it to the chemist himself. On further inquiries it
+was proved that the lady had procured atropine upon various other
+occasions by copying the doctor’s prescription and forging his
+signature.
+
+At the trial the medical evidence was very conflicting, but the
+consensus of opinion was in favour of the theory that atropine had been
+administered in small, repeated doses. The accused woman declared in her
+defence that atropine had been put into the medicine for her husband in
+mistake by the chemist who had dispensed it. There was no evidence to
+support this theory, and she was found guilty and sentenced to five
+years’ penal servitude.
+
+A modern instance of the poisoned boot came to light a few years ago in
+a case of death by the absorption of a poisonous boot-blacking. The
+victim, a young man, had been to a dance, and shortly afterwards became
+unconscious and died in four hours. For some time the cause of his death
+was a complete mystery, when a few days later a bottle of blacking was
+found in his room, with which it was discovered he had blacked his shoes
+on the evening of his death. The colouring had penetrated his socks and
+stained his feet and ankles. On analysis the solvent in the blacking was
+found to consist of nitro-benzene, an extremely poisonous liquid,
+largely used in the manufacture of the cheap, strong-smelling perfumes
+and soaps so frequently used. This was no doubt rapidly absorbed by his
+feet when dancing, and so caused his death.
+
+A great deal of fiction has been written concerning the so-called poison
+rings of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, which are generally
+taken to mean a finger ring containing a secret receptacle for carrying
+some poisonous substance. In the majority of cases it has been found
+that these receptacles were originally intended for hair kept as a
+“memento mori” or for fragments of religious relics.
+
+Rings have been described as being fitted with a tiny envenomed spike by
+means of which the wearer could inoculate his victim by a grasp of the
+hand, as described in the following story published a few years ago in a
+Paris journal.
+
+It stated that when examining an ancient ring he had picked up in the
+shop of an antiquity dealer in the Rue St. Honoré, a customer scratched
+his hand with the sharp part of it. While still talking to the dealer,
+in a few moments he suddenly felt an indescribable feeling, as if his
+whole body were paralysed to the finger-tips, and he became so ill that
+it was found necessary to send for a medical man. The doctor diagnosed
+it as a case of poisoning and after the prompt administration of an
+emetic the patient recovered. The medical man is then said to have
+examined the ring and found attached to it inside, two lions’ claws made
+of sharp steel, with grooves in them which contained the poison. Having
+long resided in Venice, he recognized it as being what was formerly
+called the “annelo della morte,” or “death ring,” often used by Italians
+in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
+
+Outside the realm of romance, however, there is little doubt that rings
+were used in ancient times as a medium for carrying poisons. This was
+originally done for the purpose of self-destruction, or at a later
+period may have been found useful as a lethal weapon against an enemy.
+There are several specimens of these rings with traditions attached to
+them which bear the evidence of authenticity.
+
+In the troublous times of the Roman Emperors, when those who took a
+prominent part in public affairs were liable to be suddenly thrown into
+prison at the word of a capricious monarch, rings containing receptacles
+for poison are said to have been often worn, so that the contents could
+be swallowed to save their wearer from torture, imprisonment or an
+ignominious death.
+
+Rings of the Roman period are always wrought with the hammer, and never
+cast; they were thus hollow and would easily afford a convenient
+receptacle for poison. Pliny records that when Marcus Crassus robbed the
+Capitol of the gold deposited there by Camillus, the custodian who was
+responsible for its safety “broke the stone of his ring” and died
+shortly afterwards.
+
+An interesting Roman gem which might have been used for this purpose is
+in a London museum. It is an onyx, upon which is engraved the head of a
+horned fawn. The stone itself has been hollowed out, forming a cavity
+sufficiently large to carry poison, to take which it would only be
+necessary to bite through the thin shell of the onyx and swallow the
+contents of the cavity.
+
+Further mention of these hollowed gems is made with reference to
+Heliogabalus, to whom it was foretold that he should die a violent
+death. It is said “he therefore prepared against such an emergency,
+halters twined with silk, and poison enclosed in rubies, sapphires and
+emeralds set in his rings to give him a choice of deaths.” It is said of
+Demosthenes that having given up all hope of escaping from his enemies
+the Macedonians, he swallowed a poison which he carried about with him
+concealed in a stylus.
+
+Hannibal also is said to have taken his life in a similar manner, and
+when hunted and in dread of being delivered into the hands of the Romans
+by Prusias, King of Bithynia, took the poison which he always carried
+with him concealed in the hollow of a ring. Juvenal thus alludes to it
+in his Tenth Satire:
+
+        “Nor swords, nor spears, nor stones from engines hurl’d,
+        Shall quell the man whose frown alarm’d the world;
+        The vengeance due to Cannæ’s fatal field,
+        And floods of human gore—a ring shall yield.”
+
+Although these stories describe what happened so long ago, it is curious
+to note how history repeats itself, when we recall the tragic conclusion
+to the trial of Whittaker Wright in London a few years ago. Immediately,
+when found guilty of the charges brought against him, either as he was
+listening to the judge’s closing words or as he was leaving the scene of
+the trial, he swallowed, unobserved, some tablets of potassium cyanide
+which he had secreted about him, and died shortly afterwards within the
+precincts of the court.
+
+Another instance of a similar refuge from persecuting fate is that of
+Condorcet, who was secretary to the Academy of Sciences of France, and
+who was proscribed by the Convention at the time of the Revolution in
+1792. He took refuge in the house of a Madame Vernet in Paris, but
+fearing to compromise his protectress by a longer stay, he left his
+asylum with the intention of taking refuge in the country house of an
+old friend. Unfortunately, the friend was away and he wandered about
+sleeping at night in some stone quarries, but was at length arrested and
+taken to Bourg-la-Reine and lodged in prison. On the following morning,
+March 28, 1794, he was found dead in his cell, having swallowed some
+poison which he carried about in readiness for an emergency, concealed
+in his ring. On investigation, the poison was found to consist of opium
+and stramonium which he kept specially prepared.
+
+Motley records that in the conspiracies against the life of the Prince
+of Orange about the year 1582, under the influence of the Court of
+Spain, the young Lamoral Egmont, in return for the kindness shown to him
+by the Prince, attempted to destroy him at his own table by means of
+poison which he kept concealed in a ring. Philippe van Marnix, Lord of
+Saint Aldegonde, was to have been treated in the same way, and a hollow
+ring containing poison was said to have been found in Egmont’s lodgings.
+
+There are, however, rings of the sixteenth and seventeenth century of
+Italian workmanship that have traditions from which there is little
+doubt they were actually used for the purpose of carrying poisons. In
+examining rings, claimed to have been used for the purpose, it is
+necessary to note first that the poison must be accessible, and second,
+that the receptacle must be so constructed that it could be used without
+the ring being taken from the finger. Rings are often found with
+cavities and receptacles on the inside of the bezel, and it is difficult
+to believe that they could have been used for this purpose. There are
+many ancient rings extant, often called poison rings, with small boxes
+placed at the back of a stone, but these rings could only have been used
+for containing a perfume or a small relic. The construction of a ring,
+claimed to have been used for the purpose, must show reasonable grounds
+that it could have been so employed. The most interesting ring of the
+kind known, is one that was formerly in the possession of the late
+Bishop of Ely. It passed from him to a clergyman in London, who was a
+well-known antiquary. He claimed that it once belonged to Cæsar Borgia,
+and from the workmanship there seems to be little doubt it belonged to
+the period. Made of gold, slightly enamelled, it bears the date of 1503,
+and round the inside are inscribed the words:—“FAYS CEQUE DOYS AVIEN QUE
+POURRA.” The bezel forms a hollow receptacle and on the front is
+engraved the name “Borgia,” and in letters reversed are the words “COR
+UNUM UNA VIA.” At the side of the bezel is a secret slide, which on
+being pushed reveals the cavity for holding the poison.
+
+Another gold ring of the late sixteenth century, in the possession of an
+Italian nobleman, is said to have originally belonged to a member of the
+family, who was a prince of the Church. The bezel is elaborately
+wrought, and richly ornamented with dark blue enamel, picked out with
+red and white. It is apparently made in one piece, but a small portion
+in the centre has cunningly been made to open on a hinge, revealing a
+secret receptacle capable of holding quite a sufficient quantity of
+arsenic or corrosive sublimate to cause the death of two or three
+people.
+
+Fairholt describes a jewelled ring of curious construction set with two
+rubies and a pyramidal diamond. The gold setting was richly engraved,
+and the collet securing the diamond opened with a spring, disclosing a
+somewhat large receptacle for “such virulent poisons as were concocted
+by Italian chemists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”
+
+One of the most curious rings of this kind was formerly in the
+possession of an Italian cardinal. It is beautifully wrought in fine
+gold and dates from the latter part of the sixteenth century. The shanks
+are partly enamelled in black and the bezel is rectangular; at the side
+of it is a very minute knob with a groove which could be easily turned
+with the finger nail without removing the ring from the finger. On
+turning the knob a cylindrical receptacle is revealed, which was most
+likely used for carrying some poisonous substance. There is a story told
+in connection with this ring that the secret receptacle was kept filled
+with tiny granules prepared from a deadly fungus, specially prepared for
+the owner. The secret receptacle of this ring is almost unnoticeable
+even when it has been opened.
+
+In connection with the stories relating to a poisoned pin-prick, the
+following account which appeared in a London morning daily some time
+ago, is not without interest. The writer says: “The police are searching
+for a man who is alleged to have poisoned a girl in London under
+extraordinary circumstances. The girl, who was a typist employed in a
+Fleet Street office, said that she was walking to her office when a
+well-dressed man overtook her and grasped her by the wrist. Directly she
+reached her office she was overcome by four fainting fits in succession.
+When she recovered she showed a small punctured wound in her wrist and
+the police were informed.” Then follows a lengthy description of the
+wanted man. “In various parts of America,” adds the writer, “similar
+reports of devices employed by persons connected with the White Slave
+Traffic have been made known. When the victim faints in the street, the
+assailant who then passes as a relative or friend, calls a cab and
+drives off with the girl, the poison having been injected into the wrist
+by pressure from a poison ring!”
+
+Probably one of the most curious receptacles ever used for carrying
+poison was a wooden leg. Some years ago a man named Jasper Reed, who was
+once a member of a gang of international thieves, lost his leg through
+amputation while he was in prison for a theft of £480 from a bank in
+Antwerp. After his release he was lost sight of for a long time, until
+one day a wooden-legged cripple was arrested in the street in Antwerp in
+connection with the theft of some bank-notes, and afterwards poisoned
+himself while in prison. A post-mortem examination of the body showed
+that he had killed himself with potassium cyanide, and a bottle
+containing the poison was found concealed in a hollow receptacle in the
+wooden leg he was wearing.
+
+There is a tradition that Pope Clement VII, one of the Medici, was
+poisoned in 1534 by the fumes of a torch impregnated with arsenic
+carried before him in a religious procession. This is quite within the
+realm of possibility, especially if the torch or candle had been so
+prepared that it would give off a certain amount of arseniuretted
+hydrogen while being burnt in a confined space.
+
+The poisoned flowers of mediæval romance, although they have been
+discredited in the light of modern science, must not be dismissed as
+entirely improbable, as evidenced from the following curious case which
+occurred in London a few years ago. A hawker with a barrow filled with
+bunches of lavender, was noticed talking wildly in a street in
+Stockwell. In a few minutes he was seen to fall insensible and was
+removed to Lambeth Infirmary, where he died shortly afterwards. The
+medical officer of the institution said he found the man was suffering
+from nitro-benzene poisoning, and in his pockets were discovered
+seventeen packets of lavender seeds and a bottle of oil of mirbane
+(nitro-benzene) which he had evidently used to increase the perfume of
+the lavender he sold. The doctor stated that in his opinion, the man had
+been overcome by the vapour of the nitro-benzene he had inhaled from the
+lavender on his barrow.
+
+Probably the most deadly poison known to science to-day exists in the
+form of an innocent-looking white powder, which is highly dangerous even
+to handle. It emits a slight vapour even when exposed to the air, which
+if inhaled would cause instant death. It has been estimated that if
+three grains were diffused in a roomful of people it would kill every
+one present. It is hardly necessary to state that poisons of such great
+virulence as those revealed by modern chemical research, were unknown to
+the chemists of the Middle Ages, and it is equally certain that the
+latter knew of few poisonous bodies that are not familiar to chemists of
+the present day.
+
+In the military poison plot investigated in Austria in 1909, and
+referred to in detail elsewhere, the gaol authorities were at a loss to
+account for the prisoner’s constant demand for flowers for pious
+purposes while he was on remand. It was only discovered by intercepted
+letters that he wanted them in order to smuggle poison into his cell,
+which he apparently succeeded in doing. He requested his wife to insert
+the poison in flowers which he asked for so he could place them on the
+altar which he had erected in his cell. The letter to his wife in which
+this was discovered reads: “I should like to commit suicide, but will
+not, as I must work for you and for the children. You can save me. Get
+me flowers and have some atropine or hyoscyamine. Victor or —— will
+obtain it for you, in liquid and solid. Put it carefully in a small
+quill and seal it up with wax. Put this quill in a carnation, the calyx
+will hold it well, then tie the calyx round with a thread as they do in
+florists’ shops.” It appears that some poison actually reached him in
+this ingenious manner.
+
+A curious case in which a poisoned bed played an important part came to
+light in America a few years ago, when a woman named Mary Kelliher was
+tried at Boston on charges of poisoning her husband, three children, a
+sister and sister-in-law. These people mysteriously died during a period
+of three years; but after the death of her daughter, in July 1908,
+suspicion was aroused, and a post-mortem was held which disclosed the
+presence of arsenic in the body. The bodies of the other five persons
+were then exhumed, in all of which arsenic was found. There was,
+however, no evidence connecting the woman with the administration of
+poison to her victim until it occurred to the District Attorney to
+examine some of the furniture in the bedroom. The mattress on which all
+of those of the family who had died had lain was then cut open and
+carefully examined. In the hair stuffing considerable quantities of
+arsenic were discovered, which suggested it had been specially
+impregnated, so the poison could be inhaled during sleep by the person
+lying on the bed. Ingenious as this suggestion for the prosecution was,
+as to how the poison came into the bodies of those who had died, Mrs.
+Kelliher was acquitted after being fifteen months in prison on this
+charge.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+                       LOVE-PHILTRES AND POISONS
+
+
+The employment of certain substances in the form of charms or potions to
+incite the amatory passion has been practised from a time of great
+antiquity. The idea involved in the use of love-philtres, as they were
+termed at a later period, was no doubt based to a certain extent on
+physiological principles and was probably first suggested by observation
+of the habits of the lower animals. The early Hebrews are said to have
+employed the fruit of the mandrake, which were known by the suggestive
+name of “love-apples,” for this purpose.
+
+The popularity of the _philtra_ or _pocula amatoria_ among the ancient
+Greeks and Romans at a later period can readily be understood in an age
+given to sensuality in its grossest forms. Medea was regarded as the
+greatest adept in the art of preparing philtres, and hence the term
+“Medei de herbae,” used by Horace and Ovid to designate the substances
+generally used. Next in reputation came the Thessalian women, who were
+supposed to have acquired the art from Medea, and who were said to be
+versed in all the secrets relating to poison and sorcery.
+
+Lucretius, the great philosophical poet of the Ciceronian era, is said
+to have written his poem entitled “On the Nature of Things” in the
+intervals of delirium occasioned by a philtre which had been secretly
+administered to him by his wife or his mistress, Lucilia, and it is
+stated that Lucullus, the Roman general, died in a state of delirium
+from a similar cause. Thus the effects of these potions were evidently
+often more serious than was contemplated by those who used them.
+
+Ovid, the exponent of the amatory art, judging from some of his lines,
+was evidently no believer in this method of procuring affection so much
+practised by his contemporaries. He writes—
+
+      “Who so doth run to Hæmon arts
+      I dub him for a dolt,
+      And giveth that which he doth pluck
+      From forehead of a colt.
+      Medea’s herbs will not procure
+      That love shall lasting give,
+      No slibbersawces given to maids
+      To make them pale and wan
+      Will help; such slibbersawces mar the minds of maid and man,
+      And have in them a furious force of phrensie now and then.”
+
+Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch and other early writers also state that the
+love-philtre was often indeed but a poison cup, and the death of the
+Emperor Lucius is quoted as having been due to a draught of this
+description given to him at the instance of Calisthenes.
+
+That the effects of these philtres were often dangerous and sometimes
+fatal is hardly to be wondered at, when we consider the extraordinary
+nature of some of the substances used in their composition in ancient
+times. They were generally compounded with much mystery by the old or
+wise women, who had a reputation for sorcery, and they observed the
+greatest secrecy as to their composition.
+
+According to the most authentic writers these ingredients were both
+grotesque and filthy, such as “the hair that grew in the nether part of
+a wolf’s tail, the penis of a wolf, the brain of a cat, the brain of a
+newt, the brain of a lizard, a certain fish called ‘remora,’ and the
+bones of a green frog which had been left bare by ants.” Young swallows
+were buried in the earth and after a time disinterred. The bodies of
+those that were found with open bills were believed to provoke love,
+while those with closed beaks were given to produce the opposite effect.
+
+The testicles of certain animals were employed, selected doubtless for a
+physiological reason, and the menstrual blood, especially that of a
+red-haired woman, was highly esteemed and was believed to produce
+powerful effects.
+
+Poisonous properties were attributed to the blood of both men and
+animals by the ancients.
+
+Herodotus states, that Psammenitus, King of Egypt, was put to death by
+Cambyses by means of a draught of bullock’s blood. Themistocles, who
+wished to die rather than fight against his countrymen, is also said to
+have drunk a goblet of the blood of a sacrificial ox and to have expired
+shortly afterwards. Zacutus Lusitanus relates several instances of the
+evil effects resulting from drinking blood and records the case of a
+student to whom was given in joke two ounces of the blood of a
+red-haired woman, mixed with sugar, with the result that he became
+insane.
+
+In the Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms, an ointment composed of goat’s gall,
+incense, goat’s dung and nettle seeds is recommended as an application
+to promote passion.
+
+Another substance highly esteemed as an ingredient in love-philtres was
+the mysterious hippomanes, which is described as “a growth found on the
+forehead of a newly born foal,” to which Ovid alludes in the lines
+previously quoted.
+
+Love-philtres and charms were also used by Eastern nations, and the
+Hindus still employ mango, champac, jasmine, lotus and asoka for this
+purpose. According to Albertus Magnus, the most powerful herb for
+promoting love is the “Provinsa,” the secret of which, he says, has been
+handed down from the Chaldeans. The Greeks called this plant Vorax. This
+is probably the same plant now known to the Sicilians as “Pizzu’ngurdu,”
+to which they attribute remarkable properties. They believe that if
+given surreptitiously it will provoke an ardent passion in the heart of
+the coldest and most chaste woman. The Sicilians have also great faith
+in the power of hemp to secure the affection of those on whom they set
+their hearts, and they gather this plant with certain ceremonies.
+
+“As touching this kind of witchcraft,” says a writer of the sixteenth
+century, “the principall part thereof consisteth in certain confections
+prepared by lewd people to procure love which indeed are mere poisons,
+bereaving some of the benefit of the braine and some of the sense and
+understanding of the minde.” Yet even such men as Van Helmont believed
+in the efficacy of the love-philtre. Writing in the middle of the
+seventeenth century, he says, “I know a plant of common occurrence which
+if you rub and cherish it in the hand till it becomes warm, and take the
+hand of another and hold it until it becomes warm, that person will
+forthwith be stimulated with love for you and continue so for several
+days.” Reginald Scot states wolf’s penis was an ingredient in the
+love-philtre of his time, and Frommaun mentions human skull, coral,
+verbena, urine and leopard’s dung.
+
+The mandrake root, which was a common ingredient in love-philtres in
+ancient times, is still worn in some parts of France as a charm for that
+purpose, and in Germany a belief in the power of endive seed to
+influence the affections still exists. In Italy basil was used to
+inflame the heart of the indifferent, and a young man who accepted a
+sprig of this plant from the hand of a maiden was sure to be inspired
+with love for her. Satyrion is another herb which is claimed to possess
+amatory properties, while other species of orchis, when eaten fresh, was
+believed to inspire pure love, and when dried was employed to check
+illicit passion.
+
+Of other plants employed in the composition of love-philtres, mention
+should be made of the cyclamen, carrot, purslane, cummin, maidenhair,
+valerian, navelwort, wild poppy, anemone, crocus, periwinkle, pansy and
+the root of the male fern, which has an ancient reputation for inspiring
+the tender passion, although, curiously enough, its present use in
+medicine is as a vermifuge.
+
+But superstition dies hard, and even at the present day the belief in
+the efficacy of love charms is not yet dead in some parts of England.
+Among the uneducated in some parts of the country “All Hallow Een” is
+dedicated to the performance of certain love charms, in which the gum
+resin called dragon’s-blood and quicksilver play an important part.
+Quite recently a Russian Jewess in the East End of London was indicted
+with having obtained money by false pretences from two women. From one,
+whose husband had deserted her, she obtained money to purchase candles
+into which she stuck pins which she said would attract the husband to
+his home again. This charm, however, did not work satisfactorily, and
+she insisted on having a nightdress, some sheets and pillow cases which
+she said she could prepare with a secret process so that one night the
+wife would wake up and find her husband beside her. He would be wearing
+the nightdress, and the pillow cases she had treated with something
+which would have the wonderful power of preventing her husband ever
+again running away.
+
+But all those charms failed, and even the final effort, in which a magic
+liquid was sprinkled about the room and the wearing of the clippings
+from the back of a black cat, proved useless in restoring the missing
+husband.
+
+To the other woman, who wished her intended husband to come from Russia,
+this modern magician gave two curious powders, with instructions that
+they were to be placed on the end of a hairpin and consumed in a flame
+which would show the man’s love for her.
+
+This modern witch’s practice, which was said to be a large and lucrative
+one, was suspended for nine months in gaol, to be followed by
+deportation to her native land.
+
+Ginseng root, which has been used for centuries in China to promote
+longevity, is also recommended as a love-charm. It is believed by the
+Chinese also to have the power of rejuvenating the old and stimulating
+the senses of the young.
+
+Among primitive peoples the love-philtre is still in vogue, and Mr. P.
+A. Talbot found it generally used among the tribes in Southern Nigeria,
+through which he travelled, especially among the mysterious race called
+the Ibibios, who live in the Eket district of the country. “It is a
+custom,” he states, “for a love-potion to be given by men and women to
+gain the hearts of those whom they desire, or to wrest affection from
+rivals.”
+
+A few years ago some extraordinary stories were revealed in the trial of
+the wife of a wealthy man living at Lakewood, Ohio, who was believed to
+have been murdered. It was stated during the trial that a spiritualistic
+practitioner had been called in by the lady who had administered to her
+husband a magic potion or philtre which contained arsenic; when this
+failed, he is said to have been assassinated.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+                            POISONS IN FOOD
+
+
+   Poison in Beer—Poison in Food—Poison in Honey—Poison in Cocoa and
+                               Chocolate
+
+In the latter part of the year 1900 a fairly widespread epidemic of
+peripheral neuritis of the extremities and its attendant symptoms was
+noted by medical men in certain districts of Manchester. In addition,
+many of the sufferers complained of swelling of the legs, weak
+circulation, vomiting and pigmentation of the skin. It was noted by the
+medical officers of the various hospitals who examined these patients
+that in every case they were heavy beer drinkers, and patronized
+public-houses supplied from certain breweries.
+
+The mysterious epidemic spread and cases were reported from different
+parts of the north of England. In Manchester and Salford there were five
+hundred and twenty-two cases, in Liverpool seventy-one, fifty at
+Birkenhead and fifty at Stourbridge; at Darlaston, Staffordshire, there
+were upwards of fifty cases, forty were reported from Chester,
+thirty-two in Birmingham and thirty in Leeds and district.
+
+Many deaths ensued, and the whole train of symptoms and circumstances
+were such that, had they happened two or three hundred years ago, they
+would have created consternation.
+
+The beer was the clue, and scores of samples were purchased at
+public-houses miles apart, and the ingredients used in the manufacture
+of the beer in breweries spread over the North of England were carefully
+examined. Dr. Hitchin, the Medical Officer of Health for Heywood, Lancs,
+stated that two or three hundred persons were attacked, and he
+discovered arsenic in stout as well as beer.
+
+The result of the analysis was startling, as in the majority of the
+cases it led to the discovery of arsenic. This was first detected by Dr.
+Reynolds, of Manchester, and at his instance the public were warned
+against drinking cheap beer.
+
+Meanwhile, research into the whole mystery went on. That large
+quantities of the beer were contaminated was certain, but how the
+poisonous substance got into it was the question which had to be
+determined.
+
+A clue was found when certain experts who were engaged in investigating
+the materials used in the brewing of certain kinds of cheap beer,
+discovered that in every instance glucose had been used in the
+preparation, and on analysis of the glucose it was found to be
+impregnated with arsenious acid. This was followed by still further
+examination of the materials employed in making the glucose, and it was
+found that the sulphuric acid used for this purpose was brown in colour
+and contaminated with arsenic, showing that it had been made from iron
+pyrites containing arsenic as an impurity, and thus the ring of evidence
+was complete and successful.
+
+This opened up possibilities of even more widespread poisoning. Samples
+of jams and golden syrup were obtained for analysis, but all gave
+negative results when tested for arsenic. It appears that there are only
+about a dozen manufacturers of glucose in England, a great deal of it
+being imported from America. It was therefore concluded that the makers
+of the contaminated glucose must be some particular firm who sold their
+product to brewers only, and that within a certain area. Some samples of
+glucose that were subjected to test showed in one instance a proportion
+of arsenic that was absolutely deadly, and this was located to one firm.
+They instantly sent out telegrams to their customers stopping the use of
+this ingredient. Everything was done to prevent further mischief, and
+the output of the poison-impregnated material was stopped. Heroic
+measures were taken by one brewery, which placed an embargo on all the
+beer in the cellars of their customers, until it was certified as pure
+by analysts deputed to visit them in turn. Some brews were recalled
+wholesale, and the loss to the firm amounted to several thousand pounds.
+
+The next thing was to discover how the arsenic got into the glucose
+during the process of manufacture, and this was traced down to a Spanish
+copper mine from whence pyrites was imported by a firm of manufacturing
+chemists in a northern county for the purpose of making sulphuric acid.
+The sulphuric acid in question was of the ordinary commercial variety,
+generally used in works for dyeing and similar purposes. It was usually
+of a brownish colour, and even though it was contaminated in any way for
+the purpose of such manufacture, no harm could ensue. If, however,
+without having it tested to see if it was free from deleterious matter,
+the manufacturers should then use glucose containing this ordinary
+commercial variety of sulphuric acid for their product, a considerable
+amount of arsenic would remain in it. In this way it was sold to brewers
+who used it in the manufacture of their beer, and this mineral poison
+was thus carried on through the various processes till it reached the
+consumer with the dire consequences already described.
+
+It is stated that brewers thought they could obtain a better-coloured
+and more satisfactory beer by treating the malt with invert sugar and
+glucose. Invert sugar is cane sugar boiled in solution with diluted
+sulphuric acid, and glucose is starch boiled in a similar manner. It was
+obvious therefore that the only ingredient which could have been
+contaminated with arsenic was the sulphuric acid.
+
+The manufacturers of the glucose had, of course, not the faintest idea
+that the mysterious poison which had caused so many deaths emanated from
+them. Although it was said that the sulphuric acid was tested, curiously
+enough it was admitted it was never tested for arsenic, and the
+explanation was put forward that the pyrites sent from the mine in Spain
+had been obtained from a new lode which was charged with an undue
+proportion of arsenic. After a full investigation had been made, special
+precautions were laid upon brewers to examine all ingredients used in
+making the beer, and since this time no similar cases have been
+recorded.
+
+The epidemic had developed into almost a panic in and around Manchester,
+and several cases of ordinary illness were put down to arsenical
+poisoning. The hospital wards were filled, but the prompt measures taken
+had their effect. It was said by the Manchester coroner at one inquest
+that the only pleasant feature of the epidemic was for the temperance
+people. The consumption of fourpenny ale was not a fraction so great as
+it was a fortnight previously. Arsenic had proved a temperance argument.
+
+Within the last few years many cases of food-poisoning of one kind or
+another with fatal results have been reported. It is probable that in
+spite of every precaution such cases will occasionally occur. Some may
+have been due to the fact that bacteria were actually living in the food
+at the time it was consumed, or as probably in the case of the Loch
+Maree fatalities, it may have resulted from toxins left by bacteria
+which once lived in the food. The former type of food-poisoning which is
+most common in this country results from the eating of food which has
+become contaminated by certain bacteria, whose presence may be due to
+disease in the animal before it has been slaughtered, or if they have
+gained access to the food in course of its preparation.
+
+The heat used in cooking is generally sufficient to kill such organisms,
+and no doubt it often does so. Again, it may be introduced from the
+outside, as in a recent case when the instrument of infection was found
+to be a contaminated knife used in cutting ham for sandwiches.
+
+In cases of food-poisoning due to a toxin formed by organisms, these
+probably being dead, the organism concerned is what is known as
+_Bacillus botulinus_, so called from its having first been discovered in
+German sausages. The bacteria thrive especially in a medium in the
+absence of oxygen, and so breed with rapidity in air-tight tins or
+inside sausage skins, and are to be found even in vegetable matter. They
+form a very powerful poison, acting upon the nerve centres in the brain,
+causing paralysis of the muscles which move the eye and eyelids and
+those concerned in speaking and swallowing. The resulting disease known
+as botulism has fortunately been rare in England, where there is not a
+very large consumption of tinned meat or vegetables, but it has been
+frequent in both America and Germany.
+
+Botulism and food-poisoning, therefore, must not be confused, as the
+former is a poisoning by a specific toxin and the latter may be called
+an infection.
+
+A very curious case of poisoning was brought to light some years ago at
+an inquest held on a woman who had died with symptoms of poisoning after
+attending a wedding breakfast. The guests, after regaling themselves
+with wedding cake, had finished up with kippered herrings, and shortly
+afterward one of them was taken ill with severe pain and died.
+
+During the inquest it was pointed out, that it was possible that some of
+the ingredients used in curing the kippers, when brought into contact
+with almond paste on the wedding cake, would possibly liberate prussic
+acid, if the almond paste had been made with bitter almonds, in
+sufficient quantity to cause death.
+
+The poisonous effects produced by honey gathered in certain districts
+has been known for centuries, and the story of some of Xenophon’s
+soldiers having been poisoned by this means more than two thousand years
+ago is well known. This poisonous property was formerly attributed to
+the bees having gathered the honey from the flowers of henbane and
+hemlock, which grow largely in the neighbourhood of Trebizond, but it
+has now been proved that the poisonous principles may be extracted by
+the bees from other plants, according to the locality in which the honey
+is found. Thus American honey has been found to contain poisonous
+ingredients derived from gelsemium or golden seal.
+
+A serious case in which fourteen persons were poisoned from eating
+honey, one of whom died, is reported from Princetown, N.S. The honey was
+found to contain Andromedo-toxin, a poisonous principle obtained from
+certain ericaceous flowers.
+
+There are other instances on record of poisoned honey which has been
+contaminated by bees which have carried poison from certain flowers, but
+cases in which poison has been introduced into honey for criminal
+purposes are rare.
+
+Some years ago a young man was arrested at Coire, in Switzerland, on his
+own confession of having murdered two young women, to whom he had been
+engaged to be married, by introducing strychnine into the cells of some
+honeycomb which he presented to his victims. In each case the girls died
+in great agony on their wedding eve, after a visit from the man. One
+victim had been buried two years, and the other some months, before
+suspicion was aroused and the bodies exhumed for examination, and the
+man was convicted of the crime.
+
+Within recent years the contamination of food substances with arsenic
+has come into some prominence, not only in connection with certain cases
+in which chocolate sweetmeats have been used as a medium for the
+administration of arsenic, but also in substances in common use, such as
+cocoa. Towards the end of November, 1922, the Public Analyst, acting for
+the Reigate Town Council, reported on seven samples of cocoa that had
+been taken under “The Sale of Foods and Drugs Act,” and he found that
+one contained arsenic (arsenious oxide) to the extent of ¹⁄₇₅th grain to
+the pound of cocoa. It was obvious that such a report could not be
+allowed to remain unnoticed, as, according to the Royal Commission on
+Arsenical Poisoning, it is illegal for an article of food to contain
+¹⁄₁₀₀th of a grain or more of arsenic per pound.
+
+The matter was reported to the Minister of Health who took a serious
+view of it, and it culminated in two summonses being issued by the
+Surrey County Council against the vendor and the manufacturer, the
+charge being that the cocoa was “adulterated with arsenic (arsenious
+oxide) to the extent of ¹⁄₄₀th of a grain per pound.”
+
+The cocoa had been purchased at a shop in Richmond and was labelled
+“Pure Cocoa Essence. Guaranteed absolutely pure Cocoa.” On analysis this
+sample was found to contain ¹⁄₄₀th of a grain per pound, but on inquiry
+from the manufacturers it appeared to be a mystery how the arsenic was
+introduced into the cocoa. The investigation was rendered more difficult
+when it was found that the actual sample purchased was a blend of seven
+different cocoas; however, samples of these were taken, and one was
+found to contain arsenic to the extent of ⅒th of a grain per pound.
+
+On tracing back the source of contamination it appears that an alkali
+such as potassium carbonate is mixed with cocoa to render it more
+soluble, and in this case the impurity was discovered in the potassium
+carbonate, which was found to contain a substantial quantity of arsenic.
+The manufacturers, on finding this out, sacrificed three hundred and
+fifty tons of cocoa and did everything they could in the interests of
+the public to stop the sale. The retail firm, directly they heard of the
+impurity, also withdrew sixty-five tons from their shops and twenty-five
+tons from their warehouses and had them destroyed.
+
+Although potassium carbonate is not used in the making of chocolate,
+several cases have been reported of illness caused through eating sweets
+in this form.
+
+About the same time a London lady was taken seriously ill after eating
+some marzipan sweets which she purchased at a Church bazaar. It appears
+she ate about half a dozen of them and became ill shortly afterwards,
+the symptoms pointing to arsenical poisoning.
+
+Although powdered glass has been used for criminal purposes from time to
+time, it is not generally known that glass itself may be contaminated
+with arsenic.
+
+Some time ago it was found on making an analysis of a bottle that the
+glass contained both arsenic and lead, insomuch that they probably
+contaminated some potassium carbonate that had been kept in the bottle.
+
+The danger in careless packing and handling of arsenic imported to this
+country has recently been commented on by the Medical Officer of Health
+for the Port of London. He states in a report, that “a ship from Oporto
+had aboard about fifty bags of shelled almonds. On the same deck were
+twenty-two cases of white arsenic.
+
+“When examined by the inspector two of these cases of arsenic were
+standing on end with their heads open, and one was leaking at its bilge
+on to the deck.
+
+“Two of the bags of almonds which had become displaced showed arsenic on
+their surfaces. Minute quantities of arsenic were found on almonds taken
+from one of the bags.”
+
+In another case a ship had landed 160 cases of arsenious acid at the
+King George V Dock.
+
+“The cases containing the arsenic were composed of old, dry wood, and
+from some of them the poison was leaking on to the floor of the shed.
+The possibility that some of it might find its way into any food handled
+in the same shed cannot be overlooked.”
+
+That such carelessness might lead to very serious consequences is
+obvious.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+                        POISONS USED IN WARFARE
+
+
+The use of poison as a weapon in warfare is not by any means a modern
+practice. It may be traced back to the use of poisoned arrows and
+spears, and from the time of the discovery of gunpowder, when surgeons
+believed that a bullet formed a septic wound.
+
+François Bernier, who died in Paris in 1688, served in the capacity of
+physician to Aurungzebe, the Grand Mogul. In describing a battle fought
+at Agra against the Mogul, he states that the Rajputa, a hereditary race
+of warriors, were great opium eaters and consumed it in large
+quantities, and when going into battle they always doubled the dose to
+their soldiers, which had the effect of rendering them insensible to
+danger. “They threw themselves,” he states, “into combat like wild
+beasts, knowing no retreat, and died at their Rajah’s feet if he would
+keep his post.”
+
+It was on April 22, 1915, that the French and Canadian troops in the
+front line in the neighbourhood of Langemarck saw what appeared to be a
+wave of curious green mist approaching them which soon caused them to
+choke and gasp and seemed to seize them in a deadly grip from which they
+could not escape. A gap was made in the line in that sector, but the
+results of this first use of poison gas in the Great War, although
+serious, were not disastrous.
+
+A thrill of horror went up from the Allied nations against this fiendish
+manœuvre, which was regarded as a crime against humanity and will never
+be forgotten. The gas first used was chlorine, the effects of which are
+well known, and was liberated by the enemy from cylinders concentrated
+on a front of six hundred yards. The first attack was evidently made as
+an experiment, and in the interval, owing to the activity of our
+chemists, our men were supplied with a temporary respirator as a defence
+from this new peril.
+
+During the following months of May and June, several other gas attacks
+were made by the Germans, but not on a very large scale, as for some
+time the prevailing winds had been in favour of the Allies, which would
+be likely to blow the deadly cloud back into the enemy’s lines.
+
+On December 19, 1915, a much more important attack with poison gas was
+made on the British front in the Ypres salient, on a front of three and
+a half miles. Gas was released continuously for an hour, but thanks to
+the protective measures which had been adopted by this time, although
+25,000 troops are stated to have been in the area of attack, the
+casualties were small.
+
+Disappointed in the effects of their first essay with this form of
+weapon, the Germans next introduced phosgene, a very deadly vapour, and
+one against which the respirators then used were no protection. A new
+type of respirator, however, was speedily devised, and proved effective
+against the danger. The gas helmet with its special filter, invented by
+Lieut.-Colonel Harrison, came into use, and our men became very quick in
+placing it in position.
+
+In August 1916 they launched a highly concentrated phosgene attack
+against the Allied lines, on a hot and stifling day, the effects of
+which were felt as far as nine miles behind the lines.
+
+The uncertainty of the atmospheric conditions led the Germans to adopt
+later another vile method of disseminating poisonous vapours, and they
+introduced the gas shell, of which numerous varieties were eventually
+made. The contents of these shells were distinguished by the Germans by
+special marks in the form of coloured bands on the shell cases; the
+so-called “blue cross” contained diphenyl chlorasine, a substance which
+when scattered as a fine powder caused intense sneezing to those in the
+neighbourhood of it. Two-thirds of the shell were filled with high
+explosive, and the intention was to produce uncontrollable sneezing, so
+that the wearing of a respirator was made impossible.
+
+Other gas shells were filled with di-phosgene (trichlor methyl
+chlorformate), which formed a vapour of a very deadly character
+immediately the shell burst and produced most serious consequences.
+Another type contained in addition to di-phosgene a quantity of
+chlorpicrin, which was not only deadly, but produced extreme running at
+the eyes and nose.
+
+These vapours, however, were succeeded in July 1917, in the
+neighbourhood of Ypres, by the use of di-chlorethyl sulphide, called
+“mustard gas.” Mustard gas is undoubtedly one of the most terrible and
+deadly of the gas poisons used. It not only blistered the skin and
+turned it brown, but caused intense inflammation, of the eyes and lids,
+the throat and nose, often causing permanent blindness and loss of
+voice, and eventually producing septic bronchopneumonia, frequently
+ending in death.
+
+In the autumn of that year it was used on a large scale against the
+Italians, and largely assisted the Austro-German armies in the
+break-through at Caporetto.
+
+Clothing, boots, soil or other things which came in contact with it were
+liable to affect seriously those brought near them, days after the
+articles had been contaminated, but even against this terrible weapon
+our gas masks were made effective, if put on with sufficient quickness
+and the men could be warned in time.
+
+In spite, however, of this fiendish weapon, the Allies held their own,
+and were enabled by scientific and other means to combat these attacks.
+It is satisfactory to note that, however deadly were the gases employed,
+some means was soon found to counteract them effectively.
+
+The use of poison as a lethal weapon in the Great War was by no means
+confined to deadly gases. Numerous instances, many of which are
+undoubtedly authentic, were recorded from 1914 to the time of the
+Armistice of poisoned sweetmeats and disease organisms that were dropped
+from enemy aeroplanes in France and other countries.
+
+On November 4, 1916, it was reported by cable that Prince Mercier, the
+youngest child of King Ferdinand of Rumania, who was only five years
+old, had died of typhoid.
+
+According to Helen Vacarescu, the Rumanian poetess, the Prince was the
+victim of poisoned sweets which were dropped by German airmen into the
+streets of Bukarest and other cities of Rumania. Some of these sweets
+are said to have fallen into the garden of the Royal Palace, and the
+little Prince while playing there took some up and ate them. According
+to Miss Vacarescu, he fell sick almost immediately, and when he told
+about the sweets he had eaten, a search was instituted, and some of them
+were found in the garden. On a scientific investigation being made of
+these, they were found to be impregnated with typhoid bacilli. According
+to _Le Temps_ it is said that all the families who ate the sweets died.
+
+According to _The Times_ of October 31, 1916, an aeroplane coming from
+Transylvania scattered about boxes of poisoned sweetmeats for the
+purpose of murdering children, and this excited the greatest indignation
+in the district. According to further reports, several of the sweets
+contained the microorganisms of various infectious diseases.
+
+On October 12, 1916, a report was received from Petrograd of an enemy
+air squadron which dropped bombs on Constanza, the Rumanian Black Sea
+port, as well as darts and poisoned sweets saturated with cholera
+bacilli.
+
+According to an official report, on October 9, 1916, a squadron of eight
+German aeroplanes flew over Bukarest at eleven o’clock one morning and
+dropped bombs in the neighbourhood of some linen warehouses. The damage
+done was insignificant, but an investigation of the German Legation led
+to the discovery of numerous cases of high explosive buried in the
+garden, as well as phials labelled Virus Morbi Glanders, which are
+supposed to have been sent to propagate an epidemic against cattle and
+horses in the country. The discovery is vouched for by a representative
+of the United States Legation.
+
+In May 1917 it was reported from Rome that during an Austrian air-raid
+over Codigaro, near Ferrara, sweets were thrown out which were found to
+contain cholera bacilli. The local authorities issued an order directing
+that all wells thereafter should be kept covered.
+
+On December 17, 1917, an account is reported of an air-raid on Calais,
+where the Germans dropped a number of small boxes bearing instructions
+in English to the effect that they contained soup-powder. Directions
+were given to dissolve the powder in water and to add to it a pint of
+boiling liquid. Several deaths resulted from using these packets, and an
+analysis proved that they contained an extremely virulent poison.
+
+On February 20, 1918, if was reported from Southend that when a raiding
+Gotha passed over the town the previous Monday night, a curious patter
+was heard on the roofs of some houses in the district. In the morning a
+number of sweets about the size of small eggs were found in the roadway
+and gardens, believed to have been dropped from the enemy aeroplane.
+They were handed to the medical officer of health for Southend, who
+reported that he had discovered traces of arsenic in the sweets found on
+the public footpath.
+
+On July 29, 1917, a sensation was caused in America by an announcement
+made by the Attorney-General, that expert examination had disclosed the
+presence of tetanus germs in court plaster which was believed to have
+been distributed by German agents, and he essayed to warn the public to
+avoid using plaster of that description. The New York State Health
+Department published a statement that specimens of such plaster sold by
+pedlars had been sent to the State laboratory for examination.
+Despatches had been received from Western and Southern areas of the
+United States, reporting epidemics of anthrax in herds in the same
+region, after the use of such plaster recommended for cuts and other
+injuries to cattle.
+
+Poison was used extensively in various ways by the German forces,
+although frequently where wells were said to have been poisoned, our men
+drank from them freely without any bad results. On the other hand it was
+not uncommon in some cases to find, left behind in trenches, large tins
+of cocoa and other tempting commodities which on analysis proved to be
+contaminated.
+
+The use of bacteriological methods was also not neglected by the enemy,
+and it was stated in a despatch from Washington on July 9, 1917, that
+the Germans, before evacuating the territory west of St. Quentin,
+inoculated the French inhabitants, men, women and children, with
+tuberculosis bacilli. The _New York World_ commissioned Dr. Theodore C.
+Beebe, a pathologist, of Boston, in charge of the American Ambulance
+Hospital at Neuilly, to make an independent investigation of this
+matter. Dr. Beebe, in his report, states that while there was no way to
+obtain indubitable proof of the allegation, the evidence pointed to the
+belief that the Germans made a deliberate attempt to spread tuberculosis
+throughout France under the pretence of vaccinating the inhabitants to
+protect them from smallpox which they said was sweeping over the
+country. Dr. Beebe pointed out that only those persons vaccinated
+developed tuberculosis, while unvaccinated children and older persons,
+although suffering from pneumonia and other diseases, showed no trace of
+it. He found these inoculations were never made until a month or six
+weeks before the Germans were evacuating the place; in other words, when
+it became apparent to the Germans that they were forced to retreat. Of
+course only an examination of the serum at the time of the inoculation
+would determine whether it contained tuberculosis bacilli or not; that
+of course was impossible, but the investigator concluded that the facts
+he had ascertained led him to the belief that the charge brought against
+Germany of having committed this most horrible crime was true.
+
+On March 30, 1917, it was reported that a discovery had been made of a
+plot to kill the cavalry horses within the British lines. This was to
+have been done by bacteriological cultures introduced into the food or
+by making a wound inside the horse’s nostril with a contaminated wire.
+This plot, which was discovered in time, was part of the German plan of
+retirement, but was fortunately found out and frustrated before any
+casualties occurred.
+
+In the latter part of June 1918 some sensation was caused in London by a
+story that was circulated of a mysterious man who was distributing
+chocolate sweets broadcast. At that time most of the conductors of
+omnibuses were women. Suspicions were aroused when two of these women,
+after accepting chocolates from a male passenger, who was said to have
+been well dressed, became ill. Two omnibus girls and a tramway girl who
+accepted some sweets in the same way, handed them over to the
+Metropolitan Police, and the authorities were placed on the watch; in
+almost every case the sweets were offered by the man when he was in the
+act of descending.
+
+At Cedar’s Road, Clapham, the same man gave a tramway conductress a box
+containing five chocolates. The man is reported to have said, “You won’t
+taste any more like this for years to come.” The girl, having been
+warned by a police notice posted in the tramway depot, did not eat any
+of them. Several cases were reported from the East End, and several
+chocolates were found on omnibus seats after passengers had left. The
+object of the mysterious individual not having achieved its effect, his
+operations eventually ceased, and nothing further was heard of the
+matter.
+
+Probably the only case on record of the use of a poison gas in an
+attempt to murder, was reported from Germany in November 1922, when two
+men were charged at Leipzig with attempting to kill a man called
+Scheidemann at Cassel on Whit-Sunday. They carefully charged glass
+syringes with cyanogen gas, and secreting them in their pockets, they
+awaited the coming of their victim, and discharged the poison gas in his
+face. Scheidemann eventually recovered, and the two men were convicted
+of an attempt to kill him.
+
+During the Napoleonic Wars the curious suggestion was made by Perceval
+that the Allies could bring the French to their knees by prohibiting the
+importation to the Continent of cinchona bark and other valuable drugs.
+“The suggestion,” says a writer of the time, “is well worthy of the
+statesman. To bring the French to reason by keeping them without
+rhubarb, and exhibiting to mankind the awful spectacle of a nation
+deprived of natural salts! Without castor oil they might for some months
+be able to carry on a lingering war, but could they do without bark?
+Will the people live under a Government where antimony cannot be
+procured? Will they bear the loss of mercury? Depend upon it they will
+soon be brought to their senses, and the cry of ‘Bourbon and Bolus’ be
+raised from the Baltic to the Mediterranean!”
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+                    CRIMINAL POISONING WITH BACTERIA
+
+
+The exploitation of pathogenic bacteria for criminal purposes has not
+been neglected by the poisoner, but owing to ignorance on the one hand,
+and the difficulty of obtaining the material on the other, it has led to
+failure even with the most cunning. The person with sufficient
+scientific knowledge to prepare cultures is not as a rule one with
+criminal instincts, and the clumsy handling of such deadly material
+would lead to certain detection if used by one who did not understand
+it.
+
+One of the most remarkable cases on record occurred in Petrograd in
+1911, when a man named Patrick O’Brien de Lacy, said to have been a
+lineal descendant of the Irish kings, was accused of having procured the
+death of his brother-in-law, an official in the Ministry of the
+Interior, his father-in-law, General Buturlin, and his mother-in-law, in
+order to inherit a large amount of money of which rumour said they were
+possessed.
+
+From his youth upwards O’Brian de Lacy is said to have been a
+ne’er-do-well. Having left a Russian school without finishing his
+education, he frequented the London Polytechnic, and also studied naval
+architecture, but all the plans he founded upon his technical knowledge
+were nullified by the defeat of the Russian navy at Tsushima and other
+events. He first married a lady of excellent family, who, being herself
+married, agreed to divorce her husband in order to espouse him. He then
+entangled her in all his own financial difficulties, spent her money,
+and obtained power of attorney to transact her business. Finally, making
+the acquaintance of a Mdlle Buturlin, he divorced his first wife as she
+divorced her first husband. Then he sought out a Dr. Panchenko and
+conspired with him to poison the lady before pledging his troth to her
+at the altar. After his second marriage, O’Brien is said to have laid
+his plans to remove every human obstacle that stood between him and his
+father-in-law’s wealth with extraordinary cunning, and these he
+endeavoured to carry out by inoculating them with the germs of deadly
+diseases which included cholera and diphtheria. He arranged his scheme
+even to the smallest detail, and if there is such a thing as a genius in
+crime, this most extraordinary man was typical of it.
+
+Having to employ a medical man to carry out his designs, like Romeo he
+selected a needy practitioner named Panchenko, before whose eyes he
+dangled a dazzling reward. Money was the magnet to attract Panchenko,
+and O’Brien de Lacy offered him, it is said, 10,000 roubles to compass
+the death of his brother-in-law, 50,000 roubles to dispose of his
+father-in-law, and 500,000 roubles if he put a speedy end to his
+mother-in-law, who was the richest of the family.
+
+In 1910 the younger Buturlin died at Petrograd after a week’s illness.
+He was an employee of the Ministry of the Interior, and symptoms during
+his illness or signs after death suggested foul play. Old General
+Buturlin, who arrived from Vilna before the funeral, stopped the
+interment of his son’s body and demanded a post-mortem.
+
+His widow endorsed this demand, both surmising neglect on the part of
+the physician, but on investigation it was concluded that
+blood-poisoning was the cause of death.
+
+By a curious coincidence, on the same day, a man named Bobroff called on
+the Chief of the Secret Police. He told him he was a book-keeper and
+that a comrade of his named Petropavlovsky possessed proofs that young
+Buturlin’s death was caused by Dr. Panchenko, who had also designs on
+the life of the General with a view to inheriting property.
+Petropavlovsky’s story is a very curious one and may be given in his own
+words:—
+
+
+“A conscience is the only possession I can call my own, and it has
+driven me here to denounce my unique benefactress. She is my landlady,
+Madame Muraviova, who allows me a room in her flat, and has been very
+kind to me. She is the mistress of Dr. Panchenko, with whom she has been
+huggermuggering of late in suspicious ways. The door and walls being
+thin, I have heard snatches of conversation, which I have pieced
+together, and I find they point to Dr. Panchenko as the instrument of
+young Buturlin’s death and O’Brien de Lacy as the employer of that
+instrument. The penniless Dr. Panchenko often journeyed to Vilna, where
+O’Brien de Lacy resides, and always returned with a fat purse and high
+hopes. Madame Muraviova, too, babbled about her improving prospects,
+saying she was shortly coming into 300,000 roubles.
+
+“One day in April, Dr. Panchenko left for Kronstadt, where
+plague-stricken dogs are studied, and after his return he talked of
+little else. Soon afterwards young Buturlin, Panchenko, and O’Brien de
+Lacy went on the spree together. The next thing I noticed was that
+Panchenko was weeping and sobbing. I entered the common sitting-room,
+and found him beside himself with excitement while his paramour was
+burning heaps of papers. She spoke first, saying that she had been
+scolding him for visiting a diphtheria patient without disinfecting
+himself. In an aside to Dr. Panchenko she asked, ‘Did you do it
+properly?’ He answered, ‘Well, I squirted two full doses, although one
+would have been enough.’”
+
+
+After this revelation, Dr. Panchenko was interrogated by the police, and
+he stated, that he treated the deceased for loss of energy and injected
+a certain remedy, but knew nothing of the cause of death. He had made
+O’Brien de Lacy’s acquaintance in the train, and subsequently had
+business dealings with him. De Lacy was then asked for an explanation by
+the police, and he stated that his relations with the doctor were purely
+commercial, and he affirmed that he could not possibly benefit by young
+Buturlin’s death. The police, however, attached so much importance to
+the story of the informer that they arrested Panchenko and O’Brien de
+Lacy.
+
+It was while in prison awaiting trial that Panchenko broke down and
+revealed the full story in the following words:—
+
+
+“Patients were brought to me occasionally by a friend named Raffoff, who
+acted as a tout, receiving a share of the profits. One day he introduced
+me to O’Brien de Lacy. We adjourned to a private room in a restaurant,
+where, in Raffoff’s presence, he asked me if I would perform a certain
+illegal operation for 1,500 roubles. I assented. O’Brien de Lacy seemed
+pleased, and gave me 100 roubles. I asked him to visit me in my own
+study. I was a physician of the St. Petersburg district of the Northern
+Railway.
+
+“Subsequently O’Brien intimated that he would prefer to talk with me
+without a witness. I acquiesced. He told me he had just become a
+bridegroom, and the operation he really wanted was to have his future
+brother-in-law made away with. For this service he would pay 10,000
+roubles. After that it would be necessary to remove the father-in-law.
+For that riddance I would be paid 50,000 roubles, and lastly, the old
+man’s divorced wife must be launched into eternity. For this job he
+would not grudge 500,000 roubles. He impressed upon me the necessity of
+extreme circumspection, and advised me to begin with young Buturlin, to
+whom he proposed I should administer cholera germs on bread, buttered
+and covered with caviare. Death by cholera, he explained, would evoke no
+surprise at a moment when that epidemic was making havoc in Petrograd.
+Therefore he had much to say in favour of cholera germs, and informed me
+that young Buturlin was using anti-cholera subcutaneous injections.
+
+“By this time I had extracted 2,000 roubles from O’Brien de Lacy. At
+last he introduced me to Buturlin, on the ground that we were interested
+in founding a sanatorium, but I was to whet his curiosity about a
+certain drug and get him as a patient. Then, instead of the drug, I was
+to inject some poison or other, and having done the job, to abstain
+sedulously from writing or telegraphing, as a kinsman of his, Count
+Roniker, who had been charged with murder in Warsaw, had been tripped up
+by a telegram. The plan was successful; I treated young Buturlin,
+substituting diphtheria toxin for the other drug.
+
+“I received the germs from a chemist, who believed my story that it was
+required for experiments on rabbits. I injected two large doses into the
+victim’s thigh. Later, I learned he was very ill, and, being conscience
+smitten, I wired for O’Brien de Lacy, who was furious that the telegram
+should have been sent. He exclaimed, ‘You may as well give yourself up
+now.’ I visited young Buturlin after this, and learned from his own lips
+that he had had high fever and sharp pains, but was now much better. The
+other physician who was called in did not diagnose the malady. Then I
+read of Buturlin’s death in the papers. It occurred exactly as had been
+calculated, seven days after the injection. When I read that the day of
+the burial would be announced later, I knew it boded evil.
+
+“Meanwhile, General Buturlin arrived and demanded a post-mortem. O’Brien
+de Lacy supported the demand, convinced that the examination would be
+fruitless. I, too, was of the same opinion, because throats are never
+analysed during such investigations, and few symptoms of diphtheria
+infection would be visible in the throat.”
+
+That is Dr. Panchenko’s last definitive story, to which he added that
+Muraviova was innocent, having had no inkling of his crime. Muraviova
+herself asseverated her innocence, affirming that her relations with
+Panchenko were pure. She accepted material help from him, but deprecated
+the luxury in which he maintained her. He, however, assured her that he
+would soon inherit a large sum.
+
+
+The trial of the prisoners began in Petrograd at the end of January
+1911, and excited intense public interest. Bobroff, the book-keeper, who
+gave away the secret to the Chief of Police, was first examined and
+adhered to his original story. A servant of the Buturlins related how
+Dr. Panchenko visited Buturlin for the first time, saying, “Let’s get
+the treatment over before your wife returns.” After that he came twice
+daily until the fourth day, when the patient fell ill. When his
+condition grew serious, Buturlin sent for the doctor, but Panchenko was
+not to be found. A chance physician had to be summoned, but produced no
+improvement. Nose-bleeding, vomiting, and sharp pains ushered in the
+agony, during which the dying man said, “Three months long they were at
+me to have the injections, but I refused as though I had a presentiment
+of what was coming.”
+
+The Court asked the experts to answer the question, “What caused
+Buturlin’s death?” and asked them to bear in mind Panchenko’s admission
+that he had injected diphtheria toxin, when he made the following
+statement:—
+
+
+“On May 16 I visited Buturlin, and injected a pure drug from a phial. I
+repeated the injection on the following day. Before my evening visit to
+Buturlin on the same day I broke the necks of the two drug-phials in my
+own lodging that nobody should notice it. Having emptied the contents, I
+filled the phials with diphtheria poison by means of a paper funnel,
+plugged them with wadding, and, putting them into my waistcoat-pocket,
+set out for Buturlin’s. Before starting I gulped down vodka for courage.
+
+“I got to Buturlin’s about eight or nine in the evening, with trembling
+in my legs and throbbing waves of darkness filling my eyes and fitfully
+blotting out my sight. I had been wont to break off the necks of the
+phials in Buturlin’s presence, first putting them in a handkerchief to
+avoid cutting my fingers. That is why he could not notice that this time
+the necks were already snapped off. I made two incisions in Buturlin’s
+body, injecting each time the contents of one phial of the diphtheria
+poison. Each vessel held about two cubic centimetres, but as the effects
+of the diphtheria poison had not been tested on human beings, I injected
+two phials full in order to be quite sure of a deadly issue. As soon as
+I had finished the business my face was ghastly, and I quivered in every
+limb. I was in dread that Buturlin might discern my state. Pulling
+myself together, and mastering my failing voice, I asked him whether it
+hurt. He answered, ‘Not at all.’ I then left for home, and threw the
+phials into the street. The livelong night I could not close an eye.
+Conscience-ache racked me ruthlessly.”
+
+
+Panchenko’s career, as revealed at the trial, certainly shows him to be
+one of the most diabolical characters ever connected with medicine and
+possibly the worst ever known.
+
+He was sent by the Red Cross Society to Harbin during the War, and was
+then dismissed for irregularities, after which he introduced himself to
+the then Premier as a schoolmate of the Premier’s brother, and received
+an appointment as physician to a railway company.
+
+One witness recounted how a certain banker resolved to poison his own
+uncle, and had recourse to Panchenko, who initiated his friend Dreyden
+in the scheme. The latter used the information as a lever to extort
+blackmail, but the police, being hand in glove with the banker, sent
+Dreyden away.
+
+Panchenko next edited a periodical entitled _Life’s Mysteries_, which
+was suppressed. Despatched to Paris for the purpose of advertising a
+certain drug, Panchenko met a Russian officer bound for Abyssinia, who
+asked him for a potent poison for suicidal purposes in case he should be
+taken prisoner there. For forty francs Panchenko furnished prussic acid,
+and the officer swallowed it and died. Panchenko now assured the Court
+that what he supplied was not poison, but only magnesia, and that in any
+case he had confessed since to a Russian priest in Paris, who comforted
+him by saying, “The officer would have committed suicide anyhow, my
+son.”
+
+To another witness Panchenko propounded a plan for coming into a
+heritage of two million roubles by “removing” two persons who stood in
+the way.
+
+Circumstantial evidence was next offered by experts in the culture of
+various toxins. Dr. Heinrich, assistant director of the laboratory of
+plague cultures, spoke of Dr. Panchenko visiting the laboratories,
+requesting cholera endotoxin, and excusing himself from the obligation
+of writing his name in the visitors’ book on the ground of haste. Dr.
+Panchenko received two tubes of endotoxin. One had a label that a dose
+is mortal for certain animals. Some months later Dr. Panchenko revisited
+the laboratory, and asked for more cholera endotoxin. Dr. Heinrich gave
+it, but warned him of its deadly effects.
+
+Dr. Panchenko informed the Court that he gave this liquid to O’Brien de
+Lacy for twenty-five roubles.
+
+Professor Zabolotny explained the nature of the effects of various
+cultures, and deposed that he gave diphtheria toxin to Dr. Panchenko,
+whose object was stated to be the study of its action on the nervous
+system.
+
+A professor, named Zdrjekoffsky, of the Institute of Experimental
+Medicine, deposed that Dr. Panchenko, early last year, had asked him for
+diphtheria toxin.
+
+“I gave him, I forget whether one or two phials of diphtheria toxin,
+each containing thirty or forty cubic centimetres. I explained to Dr.
+Panchenko the action of this toxin and the minimum dose that would cause
+death.”
+
+A criminal called Logatcheff, with whom Panchenko had shared a cell, and
+who was escorted to court by two soldiers, deposed that Panchenko had
+repeated to him in gaol the whole story of how he had poisoned Captain
+Buturlin. He said De Lacy had offered him 550,000 roubles to poison
+Captain Buturlin and the latter’s father, General Buturlin, and mother,
+and told him he went to Kronstadt, to the Zabolotny Institute of
+Experimental Medicine to obtain toxins. Panchenko had described
+experiments which he had made on a guinea-pig at an hotel, adding that
+he afterwards threw the body into the street.
+
+De Lacy, while denying that he married for money, made the following
+statement: “It is true that at one time I was afraid that the general
+would dispose of his fortune in his will in such a manner that my wife
+would receive only a fourteenth part. I certainly thought this unjust,
+but I reasoned as follows: The general is sure to live for a long time,
+and three years will suffice for me to induce him to enter into all my
+undertakings, including that of the steamboats. Then his whole capital
+will be at my disposal.”
+
+Continuing, he said that he was not aware of the total amount, but he
+knew that a sum of £300,000 was deposited in foreign banks.
+
+At the end of this remarkable case, after a trial which lasted nearly
+three weeks, O’Brien de Lacy and Dr. Panchenko were found guilty, the
+latter with extenuating circumstances. The woman Muraviova was
+acquitted. De Lacy was sentenced to penal servitude for life and
+Panchenko to fifteen years’ penal servitude.
+
+Another case of attempted murder with pathogenic organisms occurred
+about ten years ago, when a Hungarian artist was tried with attempting
+to murder his wife by means of typhoid and cholera germs. The cholera
+medium in his possession was found to have lost all activity by having
+been kept too long, while the typhoid culture, though quite a virulent
+one, failed to kill the victim. The discovery of his crime was made
+through his attempts to obtain cultures from a private laboratory and
+demanding virulent strains, but so far, cases of this kind have been
+extremely rare, and the risk of failure is so great that criminals so
+inclined are likely to think twice before venturing to attempt life by
+this method.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV
+                             POISON HABITS
+
+
+           Opium—Morphine—Chloroform—Ether—Chlorodyne—Cocaine
+
+There is a very peculiar property attached to certain poisons,
+especially those possessing narcotic properties—that is, they are
+capable of forming the most enslaving habits known to mankind. Thousands
+of people to-day are enchained in the slavery of the poison habit in one
+form or another and very few are ever successful in wresting themselves
+free when once it has been contracted. The habit is often formed in a
+most insidious manner. It is usually begun by taking some narcotic drug
+to relieve pain or induce sleep. In a short time the original dose fails
+to produce the desired effect, it has to be increased, and afterwards
+still further increased, until the victim finds he cannot do without it,
+and an intense craving for the drug is created. By and by the stupefying
+action affects the brain, the moral character is sapped, and the
+unfortunate being is at last ready to do anything to obtain a supply of
+the drug that is now his master.
+
+This is not an overdrawn picture, but one of which instances are
+constantly to be met with. The enslaving habit of alcohol, when once
+contracted, is too well known to need description. Opium probably comes
+next in the point of influence it exerts over its victims, and only a
+very small percentage ever free themselves from the habit when it is
+once contracted. In most instances, as stated, it is taken in the first
+place to relieve some severe pain, as instanced in De Quincey’s case. He
+says, in his _Confessions of an Opium-Eater_: “It was not for the
+purpose of creating pleasure, but of mitigating pain in the severest
+degree, that I first began to use opium as an article of daily diet.”
+Like others, he was compelled to increase the dose gradually, until at
+last he consumed the enormous quantity of 320 grains of the drug a day.
+He graphically describes the struggle he first had to reduce the daily
+dose, and found that to a certain point it could be reduced with ease,
+but after that point, further reduction caused intense suffering.
+However, a crisis arrived, and he writes, “I saw that I must die if I
+continued the opium. I determined, therefore, if that should be
+required, to die in throwing it off. I apprehend at this time I was
+taking from 50 or 60 grains to 150 grains a day. My first task was to
+reduce it to 40, to 30, and as fast as I could to 12 grains. I
+triumphed; but think not my sufferings were ended. Think of me, as one,
+even when four months had passed, still agitated, writhing, throbbing,
+palpitating, shattered; and much perhaps in the situation of him who has
+been racked.”
+
+Other cases are commonly met with in this country, where opium-eaters
+take on an average from 60 to 80 grains of the drug a day. The smallest
+quantity which has proved fatal in the adult is 4½ grains; in other
+cases much larger quantities have been taken with impunity. Guy states
+that recovery once took place after no less than eight ounces of solid
+opium had been swallowed.
+
+Morphine, the chief alkaloid of opium, is also abused by many, and is
+swallowed as well as used by hypodermic injection. Its action is very
+similar to that of opium. It has been recently stated on good authority
+that in Chicago—that city of hurrying men and restless women—over
+thirty-five thousand persons habitually take subcutaneous injections of
+morphine to save themselves from the pains and terrors of neuralgia,
+insomnia, and nervousness. Dr. Van Dyke has recently stated that “no
+country suffers more from the narcotic drug evil than the United States.
+It is estimated that there are more than 1,500,000 addicts, many of them
+boys and girls.”
+
+To a delicate woman one grain of this drug has proved fatal, yet, under
+the influence of habit, a young woman has been known to take from 15 to
+20 grains daily. A man in a good position, and head of a large
+commercial house, contracted the habit of taking morphine from a
+prescription that had been given to him containing four grains of the
+drug. As the habit grew, he would have the medicine prepared by four
+different chemists daily, and swallow the contents of each bottle for a
+dose, until he took on an average over 24 grains a day. This being put a
+stop to by his friends, he commenced to take chloroform, which he would
+purchase in small quantities until he had collected a bottleful, and
+then he would drink it, usually mixed with whisky. He eventually had to
+be placed under restraint.
+
+A remarkable account of the sensations experienced when under the
+influence of morphine was recorded by Dr. Albert Herschmann who, after
+taking six grains of the drug, seated himself at his desk and wrote
+notes of his sensations as death approached, which were found
+afterwards.
+
+
+“This morphine” he wrote, “has put me in a condition of absolute mental
+painlessness. It is now 7.17 p.m. and if I did not know that I had taken
+sufficient poison to warrant results, I could not notice it from my
+condition.
+
+“Aside from fluttering heart action and contracted eye pupils, and
+moderate drowsiness, I feel no results.
+
+“Still, I cannot make up my mind to swallow the cyanide, and have lit a
+cigar, awaiting further increase of drowsiness, and hope to be soon able
+to coax myself into the inevitable.
+
+“7.42 p.m.—I am here yet, hesitating to take this cyanide. My thoughts
+become blurred from the morphine, and a sensation of supreme quietude
+reigns in me. If it was not for my beloved wife, who has just ’phoned, I
+would go on waiting, but I am afraid of too long a delay because a
+lapsing into unconsciousness might result in my being saved by medical
+assistance. Ten more minutes, and then the end by cyanide.
+
+“I am in no manner kept in suspense—just pleasantly and curiously
+watching developments. Queerly enough, my only wish is that I had an
+additional handkerchief, so that I could dispose of the surplus
+perspiration, it being close and my skin clammy from the morphine
+effects.”
+
+Then the signature, “Dr. A. J. H.”
+
+
+Chloroform when swallowed is very similar in its effects to alcohol,
+from which it is in fact prepared. It first excites and then causes a
+condition of stupefaction, and although it does not injure the stomach
+tissues and the liver to the same extent as alcohol, the taking of it
+almost invariably ends in death. Some of its victims drink the liquid
+diluted, and others inhale it.
+
+A case of a well-educated man is recorded who acquired the habit of
+drinking chloroform. It was known to his friends, and he did not deny
+it, but no one saw him take it, until it was eventually discovered that
+he first secretly added it to his whisky bottle, then diluted this
+mixture with a small quantity of water and swallowed it at a draught.
+Its property seemed to accentuate the intoxicating power of the alcohol.
+Every effort was made to break him of the habit, without success,
+without avail, and he eventually poisoned himself.
+
+Another case of chloroform-drinking occurred in the East End of London.
+The victim was a young chemist’s assistant, who had been in the habit of
+taking the drug since he was fourteen years of age. According to his own
+admission, he did not at first take it to alleviate pain, but began it
+as an experiment before he had been in his first situation a month. He
+got beyond the control of his parents, who notified the chemists in the
+district, and when unable to obtain it there, he called on various
+medical men and endeavoured to obtain chloroform by false pretences. He
+was able to swallow considerable quantities, and it was stated that he
+took enough in an hour to kill six people.
+
+One who was addicted to this terrible habit, states that he began by
+“inhaling a small quantity, which was followed by a perfectly delicious
+state of semi-unconsciousness in which one lost sight of all discomfort
+and all things external. But this state is very transient and passes
+rapidly. The quantity has to be increased and increased until existence
+becomes a perfect misery. The whole moral fibre and character is swiftly
+ruined. Nausea is constant, dyspepsia and kindred troubles follow; and
+the victim becomes haggard and thin. For the two hours of
+semi-unconsciousness induced in this way, twenty-two hours are spent in
+unimaginable misery.”
+
+The quantity of chloroform used by those accustomed to it in this way is
+said to be astonishing. One victim, a woman, is known to have bought
+sixteen ounces a day, and inhaled it from a blanket. Such a story sounds
+incredible, as a teaspoonful is sometimes sufficient to kill a strong
+person.
+
+Some years ago the habit of taking ether became common, especially in
+Ireland, Scotland and the eastern parts of England. Its action is
+similar to chloroform, but it is slower in its effect. It first produces
+exhilaration, and, as with chloroform, when swallowed mixed with whisky,
+produces intense excitement, amounting almost to mania. The habit, when
+formed, is almost more terrible than chloroform, and the victim has to
+resort to several doses a day.
+
+Some years ago, in the North of Ireland, it was stated on good authority
+that the population of one large district were almost entirely ether
+drunkards. Its consumption has now greatly diminished, probably owing to
+the increase in price which occurred at the time of the war, which would
+put it out of the reach of many of its victims.
+
+Chlorodyne, which generally contains both morphine and prussic acid in
+its composition, is also much abused, especially by women. Some women
+have been known to consume as much as two ounces a week of this
+preparation.
+
+During the past few years the increase in the taking of cocaine has
+probably surpassed all other poison habits. Cocaine is an important
+alkaloid, prepared from the dried leaves of the _Erythroxylon Coca_ and
+other varieties of the coca plant that grow in the northern parts of
+Peru and Bolivia. For a considerable period before the active principle
+was discovered, the leaves of the plant were much used by natives of
+these countries and travellers, who chewed them on account of their
+stimulating effect, much the same as tobacco, but it was not until 1860
+that the active principle cocaine was discovered by Niemann.
+
+Its chief use in medicine is as a local anæsthetic, especially for the
+eye. The discovery of this valuable property was due to Eckstein, who,
+in 1870, pointed out that the most delicate operations could be
+performed painlessly on the eye after its injection.
+
+The effect of cocaine taken by inhalation, injection or by the mouth
+unfortunately became too well known. At one time it was largely used as
+an ingredient in the preparations, used like snuff, commonly recommended
+and sold for influenza colds. The habit, once induced, led to the use of
+stronger preparations, until the victim found he had become enchained by
+a habit that enslaved him to such an extent it would seem impossible to
+break. More subtle than other poisons, cocaine appears to sap completely
+the moral strength of its victims. Slowly and surely it deadens the
+sensibilities until death is sought as a relief in the end.
+
+During the past few years, and since the beginning of the war, the
+consumption of cocaine in one form or another has enormously increased
+in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Recent cases that have been
+brought to light in the police courts, show only too plainly the
+terrible condition to which the victims of this habit are reduced. The
+cocaine habit may be compared to a human being gradually enclosed in the
+coils of a serpent, that slowly winds itself round the body with
+increasing pressure, to the terror of its victim, until it reaches a
+vital part, which ends in death.
+
+Rarely is there any permanent breaking of the coil when once it starts.
+In most cases the simple inhalation is the beginning, and in the case of
+this poison it is not used as much to relieve pain as for the
+pleasurable sensation that is produced. From inhalation, the victim of
+the habit, finding the effects weaken, passes to the hypodermic
+injection, which is more rapid and more powerful in its action. As the
+coils of the serpent tighten, all moral sense and character seem
+gradually blotted out, and the whole individual physiologically is
+altered.
+
+Fatalities have resulted from inhaling cocaine through the nose as well
+as by injecting it under the skin, and when it is stated that
+three-quarters of a grain has been known to cause death it can readily
+be imagined how easily a lethal dose can be taken.
+
+The subtlety of the habit lies in its very simplicity. Exhilaration
+follows much more rapidly than after alcohol and is followed just as
+speedily by the deepest depression.
+
+To such an extent has the cocaine habit increased, that recently the
+Government found it necessary to introduce fresh legislation dealing
+with the traffic in poisonous narcotic drugs, and the “Dangerous Drugs
+Act” was passed, and became law in 1920. Stringent though this statute
+is, it has not stopped the traffic in cocaine and opium. A great amount
+of smuggling and illicit traffic in the drug is carried on in the
+underworld of London, Paris and New York, and though the drug is costly,
+a ready market is found for it. This traffic has been found rife in
+certain clubs of a low class, conducted by unscrupulous men whose
+precautions as to secrecy have been ingeniously conceived. The greatest
+cunning has been exercised in bringing it from the Continent, where it
+is chiefly manufactured, into Great Britain. A hollow cane containing a
+glass phial, which, when concealed by a screwed silver top looked like
+an ordinary walking-stick, was one method discovered a short time ago.
+Another and still more artful device was discovered by the Custom-House
+authorities on the landing of a passenger at an East Coast port. As his
+appearance aroused suspicion a search was made, and he was found to be
+wearing a truss, the bulb end of which was hollow, and filled with
+cocaine.
+
+In another case, where a man was arrested in the West End and charged
+with being in possession of nearly five ounces of cocaine, it was found
+that he had brought the drug from Germany, and concealed it in cavities
+he had skilfully cut out in the heels of his shoes, and had afterwards
+covered with leather.
+
+During the war, which increased the nervous tension of the individual to
+a hitherto unknown degree, thousands of Canadian and American troops
+passed through London on their way to and from the fighting fronts, and
+many of the men provided potential victims for the trafficker in
+poisons. Many of these men who fell into bad hands were drugged with
+opium in the form of cigarettes and then robbed.
+
+In proof of this statement, on July 19, 1916, seven men were charged at
+Marlborough Street Police Court with being concerned in selling cocaine
+to soldiers. The prosecuting solicitor for the Commissioner of Police
+said that the evil had grown to such dimensions in London that it was
+necessary for steps to be taken to check it. The use of cocaine in this
+country had increased enormously, and the habit appeared to have been
+brought here with soldiers from across the seas. Since the war began it
+had been sold in the streets in small boxes each containing a grain; it
+was offered to soldiers in particular, who were told to use it like
+ordinary snuff on account of its exhilarating effect. The habit grew and
+grew till it produced symptoms of intoxication, the moral and physical
+senses were clouded, and insanity and death resulted. The number of
+persons engaged in this abominable traffic was very large. The case
+having been proved against the men by several members of the Military
+Police, they were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
+
+The efforts of the police to stop the traffic revealed the existence of
+what is practically an organization for the sale of the drug. The chief
+agents are men, mostly of foreign nationality and the worst possible
+type. They sell it, often adulterated with boric acid in small
+quantities, at enormous profit. Women sell it to other women, one acting
+as a carrier, being in the possession of a number of boxes of the drug,
+and the other undertaking actually to sell it in single boxes. The price
+of cocaine sold illegally in the West End of London a year or two ago
+was at the rate of £10 an ounce, and as it became more difficult to get,
+owing to the restrictions, the price increased. A bottle containing two
+and a half ounces was said to have been sold for £100.
+
+In the autumn of 1922 there arrived at Hong-Kong a Japanese steamer,
+which was boarded by Revenue officers. A passenger who was a Japanese
+subject was arrested, and a quantity of his belongings, which included
+four cases of furniture, were seized. On examining the furniture,
+consisting of two sofas and four arm-chairs, which were cut open, there
+was found hidden in the upholstery 2,400 ounces of morphine and 2,500
+ounces of cocaine. The quantity of morphine concealed in the furniture
+would provide 2,100,000 maximum doses, according to the _British
+Pharmacopœia_, and the quantity of cocaine was equal to 4,375,000 doses.
+
+Legislation can play its part, but it will never eradicate the traffic
+until the supply is stopped at its source. So far as we know, Germany
+and Switzerland are the chief sources of origin. Nearly all the cocaine
+sold in London is smuggled into this country either by Chinese or
+foreigners, and it is stated that before it gets into the hands of the
+actual victim, quite a number of persons have made substantial profits
+out of it. In most cases it has been traced to Limehouse and the region
+of the London Docks or other seaports, where Continental steamers land,
+on the East Coast, and latterly to some of the big seaports like Cardiff
+and Newcastle.
+
+These narcotics are rarely alluded to by those who traffic in them by
+their proper names. As is well known, cocaine is generally alluded to as
+“snow” or “C”; heroin is “H”; opium is alluded to as “Chandoo” or “Pop.”
+
+Some young women conceive the idea that drug-taking renders them more
+mysterious and fascinating; indeed, vanity plays a considerable part
+with many at the beginning, and human curiosity impels the victim to go
+on. The beginner cannot conceive the after-effect. The entire moral
+character appears to be sapped and rendered inert, the victims sink down
+unknown to themselves to the lowest depths of depravity and degradation,
+all restraint is lost, and they become a prey to those who may use them
+for any evil purpose at will.
+
+Confirmed drug-takers cannot be cured by persuasion, argument or
+attempted coercion, but they will have the drug or they will die, and
+the only way of dealing with them and preventing the drug habit, is to
+prevent its importation into the country.
+
+Insomnia is a frequent cause of the formation of a poison habit, and for
+this purpose chloral hydrate is capable of producing more serious
+results than any other drug of its class. The fact that it accumulates
+in the system, and that the dose needs constantly to be increased,
+always renders its use dangerous in unskilled hands. Many gifted men
+have fallen victims to the habit, among others Dante Rossetti, who
+seldom was without a bottle of the narcotic near him. Latterly,
+sulphonal and veronal, drugs derived from coal tar, possessing hypnotic
+properties, have been largely taken; and antipyrine, also a popular
+remedy for headache, is capable of forming a pernicious and dangerous
+habit. The practice of self-dosing with drugs of this description cannot
+be too strongly deprecated. In all cases they should only be taken when
+ordered by a medical man.
+
+Some people form a curious habit of taking one drug till at last they
+become imbued with the idea that that only, and nothing else, will have
+any effect on them. The only remedy Thomas Carlyle would ever take,
+according to the late Sir Richard Quain, who was his medical adviser,
+was “Grey Powder.” “Grey Powder,” he states, “was his favourite remedy
+when he had that wretched dyspepsia from which he suffered, and which
+was fully accounted for by the fact that he was particularly fond of
+very nasty gingerbread. Many times I have seen him, sitting in the
+chimney corner, smoking a clay pipe and eating this gingerbread.” Oliver
+Goldsmith also laboured under the confirmed belief that the only
+medicine that would have any effect on him was “James’ Powder.” He
+doctored himself with this favourite nostrum whenever he felt unwell,
+and believed it to be a cure for all his ills.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+                       HASHISH AND HASHISH-EATERS
+
+
+Hashish, or Bhang, is the native name applied to the dried flowering
+tops of the Indian hemp, from which the resin has not been removed.
+
+This plant, cultivated largely in India, is now considered to be the
+same, botanically, as the _Cannabis sativa_ of European cultivation; but
+there is great difference in their medicinal activity, that growing in
+India being much more powerful. Ganja is the native name for one part of
+the plant, and Sidhi for another part, which is much poorer in resin.
+The resinous principle is called _churrus_ or _charas_, and the entire
+plant, cut during inflorescence, dried in the sun and pressed into
+bundles, is called _bhang_.
+
+The method of using it in India is chiefly for smoking in combination
+with tobacco. For this purpose, a plug of tobacco is first placed at the
+bottom of the bowl of the pipe, on the top a small piece of hashish, and
+over this a piece of glowing charcoal. Another way is to knead the drug
+with the tobacco by the thumb of one hand and working it in the palm of
+the other, till they are thoroughly incorporated.
+
+In India both ganja and churrus are used for smoking, but not bhang or
+sidhi. In India the habit of smoking ganja becomes part of a man’s life.
+Under ordinary circumstances he has his smoke daily when his day’s
+labour is over, and during the interval when he cooks his evening meal.
+Under extraordinary circumstances he takes it to sustain him in the
+midst of severe or prolonged exertion. It does not (as in opium smoking)
+affect his appetite, but enables the poorest to partake with a heartier
+appetite of their somewhat uninviting fare. It does not affect the
+digestion or interfere in the slightest degree with bodily or mental
+health, and the habit does not grow on the votary. Ganja-smoking appears
+to be only injurious when indulged in to excess by those who lead
+sedentary lives.
+
+Simple infusions of the leaves and flowering tops are also much used for
+drinking purposes by old and young in India, the alcoholic form being a
+most active and dangerous intoxicant.
+
+The drug is said to have been used in China as early as the year 220, to
+produce insensibility when performing operations. The Persians employed
+it in the Middle Ages for the purpose of exciting the pugnacity and
+fanaticism of the soldiers during the wars of the Crusades.
+
+In 1803 Visey, a French scientist, published a memoir on hashish, and
+attempted to prove that it was the nepenthe of Homer; there is little
+doubt, however, that the use of the drug was known to Galen.
+
+Silvestin de Lacy contends that the word assassin is derived from
+“hashishin,” a name given to a wild sect of Mohammedans who committed
+murder under its influence.
+
+The Chinese herbal, _Rh-ya_, which dates from about the fifth century
+B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the one
+producing seeds and the other flowers only. Herodotus states that hemp
+grows in Scythia both wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians made
+garments from it which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He also
+describes “how the Scythians exposed themselves as in a bath” to the
+vapour of the seeds thrown on hot coals.
+
+The hemp occurs in several forms and is known under various names. Bhang
+consists of the entire plant dried and mixed with a few fruits and is of
+a dark green colour. It has a peculiar odour but little taste. Mixed
+with flour or incorporated with sweetmeat it is called hashish. It is
+also smoked or taken infused in cold water. Ganja consists exclusively
+of the flowering shoots of the female plant, having a compound or
+glutinous appearance, and is brownish-green in colour. Majún is a term
+applied to a sweetmeat or confection, of which Indian hemp is the basis,
+but it may contain nux vomica, opium, cantharides, or frequently datura
+seeds, according to the purpose for which it is intended, whether as an
+aphrodisiac or a criminal excitant or deliriant.
+
+Of the many curious experiences that have been written describing the
+effects of hashish, perhaps the most accurate is that given by Gautier,
+in which he relates his own experience of the drug.
+
+“The Orientalists,” he states, “have, in consequence of the interdiction
+of wine, sought that species of excitement which the Western nations
+derive from alcoholic drinks.” He then proceeds to state how a few
+minutes after swallowing some of the preparation, a sudden overwhelming
+sensation took possession of him. It appeared to him that his body was
+dissolved, and that he had become transparent. He clearly saw in his
+stomach the hashish he had swallowed, under the form of an emerald, from
+which a thousand little sparks issued. His eyelashes were lengthened
+indefinitely, and rolled like threads of gold around ivory balls, which
+turned with inconceivable rapidity. Around him were sparklings of
+precious stones of all colours, changes eternally produced, like the
+play of a kaleidoscope. He every now and then saw his friends who were
+around him disfigured as half men, half plants, some having the wings of
+the ostrich, which they were constantly shaking. So strange were these
+that he burst into fits of laughter, and, to join in the apparent
+ridiculousness of the affair, he began by throwing the cushions in the
+air, catching and turning them with the rapidity of an Indian juggler.
+One gentleman spoke to him in Italian, which the hashish transposed into
+Spanish. After a few minutes he recovered his habitual calmness, without
+any bad effect, and only with feelings of astonishment at what had
+passed. Half an hour had scarcely elapsed before he again fell under the
+influence of the drug. On this occasion the vision was more complicated
+and extraordinary. In the air there were millions of butterflies,
+confusedly luminous, shaking their wings like fans. Gigantic flowers,
+with chalices of crystal; large peonies upon beds of gold and silver
+rose and surrounded him with the crackling sound that accompanies the
+explosion in the air of fireworks. His hearing had acquired new power;
+it was enormously developed. He heard the noise of colours. Green, red,
+blue, yellow sounds reached him in waves—a glass thrown down, the
+creaking of a sofa, a word pronounced low, vibrated and rolled within
+him like peals of thunder. His own voice sounded so loud that he feared
+to speak lest he should knock down the walls or explode like a rocket.
+More than five hundred clocks struck the hour with fleeting silvery
+voice, and every object touched gave a note like the harmonica or the
+Æolian harp. He swam in an ocean of sound, where floated like aisles of
+light some of the airs of “Lucia di Lammermoor” and the “Barber of
+Seville.” Never did similar bliss overwhelm him with its waves; he was
+lost in a wilderness of sweets; he was not himself; he was relieved from
+consciousness, that feeling which always pervades the mind; and for the
+first time he comprehended what might be the state of elementary beings,
+of angels, of souls separated from the body. All his system seemed
+infected with the fantastic colouring in which he was plunged. Sounds,
+perfume, light, reached him only by minute rays, in the midst of which
+he heard mystic currents whistling along. According to his calculation,
+this state lasted about three hundred years, for the sensations were so
+numerous and so hurried one upon the other, that a real appreciation of
+time was impossible. The paroxysm over, he was aware that it had only
+lasted a _quarter of an hour_.
+
+Another interesting account of the strange hallucinations produced by
+the drug is related by Dr. Moreau, who, with two friends, experimented
+with hashish.
+
+
+“At first,” he states “I thought my companions were less influenced by
+the drug than myself. Then, as the effect, I fancied that the person who
+brought me the dose had given me some of more active quality. This, I
+thought to myself, was an imprudence and the involuntary idea presented
+itself that I might be poisoned. The idea became fixed; I called out
+loudly to Dr. Roche, ‘You are an assassin; you have poisoned me!’ This
+was received with shouts of laughter, and my lamentations excited mirth.
+I struggled for some time against the thought, but the greater the
+effort the more completely did it overcome me, till at last it took full
+possession of my mind. The extravagant conviction now came uppermost
+that I was dead, and upon the point of being buried; my soul had left my
+body. In a few minutes I had gone through all the stages of delirium.”
+
+
+These fixed ideas and erroneous convictions are apt to be produced, but
+they only last a few seconds, unless there is any physical disorder.
+
+
+“The Orientalist, when he indulges in hashish retires into the depth of
+his harem; no one is then admitted who cannot contribute to his
+enjoyment. He surrounds himself with his dancing girls, who perform
+their graceful evolutions before him to the sound of music; gradually a
+new condition of the brain allows a series of illusions, arising from
+the external senses, to present themselves. The mind becomes overpowered
+by the brilliancy of gorgeous visions; discrimination, comparison,
+reason, yield up their throne to dreams and phantoms which exhilarate
+and delight.
+
+“The mind tries to understand what is the cause of the new delight, but
+it is in vain. It seems to know there is no reality.”
+
+
+Hardly two people experience the same results from hashish. Upon some it
+has little effect, while upon others, especially women, it exerts
+extraordinary power. While one person says he imagined his body endowed
+with such elasticity that he fancied he could enter into a bottle and
+remain there at his ease, another fancied he had become the piston of a
+steam engine; under the influence of the drug the ear lends itself more
+to the illusion than any other sense. Its first effect is one of intense
+exhilaration, almost amounting to delirium; power of thought is soon
+lost, and the victim laughs, cries and sings or dances, all the time
+imagining he is acting rationally. The second stage is one of dreamy
+enjoyment followed by a dead stupor.
+
+Of the ordinary physical effects of hashish, the first is a feeling of
+slight compression of the temporal bones and upper parts of the head.
+The respiration is gentle, the pulse is increased, and a gentle heat is
+felt all over the surface of the body. There is a sense of weight about
+the fore part of the arms, and an occasional slight involuntary motion,
+as if to seek relief from it. There is a feeling of discomfort about the
+extremities, creating a feeling of uneasiness, and if the dose has been
+too large the usual symptoms of poisoning by Indian hemp show
+themselves. Flushes of heat seem to ascend to the head, even to the
+brain, which create considerable alarm. Singing in the ears is
+complained of; then comes on a state of anxiety, almost of anguish, with
+a sense of constriction about the chest. The individual fancies he hears
+the beating of his heart with unaccustomed loudness; but throughout the
+whole period it is the nervous system that is affected, and in this way
+the drug differs materially from opium, whose action on the muscular and
+digestive systems is most marked.
+
+It is a remarkable fact that Indian hemp fails to produce the same
+intoxicating effects in this country that it does in warmer climates,
+and whether this is due to the loss of some volatile principle or
+difference in temperature it is not yet determined. But would-be
+experimentalists in the effects of hashish would do well to remember
+that it may not be indulged in with impunity, and most authorities agree
+that the brain becomes eventually disordered with frequent indulgence in
+the drug even in India. It further becomes weakened and incapable of
+separating the true from the false; frequent intoxication leads to a
+condition of delirium, and usually of a dangerous nature; the moral
+nature becomes numbed, and the victim at last becomes unfit to pursue
+his ordinary avocation. It is stated by those who have had considerable
+experience in its use, that even during the dream of joy there is a
+consciousness that all is illusion; there is at no period a belief that
+anything that dances before the senses or plays upon the imagination is
+real, and that when the mind recovers its equilibrium it knows that all
+is but a phantasm.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI
+                           POISONS IN FICTION
+
+
+Poison mysteries have ever been a favourite theme with writers of
+fiction; but unfortunately the scientific knowledge of novelists is as a
+rule of a very limited description, and the effects attributed by them
+to certain drugs are often as fabulous as the romances of olden times.
+They tell us of mysterious poisons of untold power, an infinitesimal
+quantity of which will cause instantaneous death without leaving a trace
+behind. They describe anæsthetics so powerful that a whiff from a bottle
+is sufficient to produce immediate insensibility for any period desired.
+In fact, novelists have a pharmacopœia of their own. After all, why
+should we question the effects of the drugs of their imagination, and
+attempt to analyse them in the prosaic test tube of modern science; for
+take away the marvels and the mysteries and you kill the romance. The
+novel performs its mission if it succeeds in interesting and amusing us,
+and the story-teller has accomplished the object of his art when he is
+successful in weaving the possible with the impossible, so that we can
+scarce perceive it.
+
+That master of fiction, Dumas, gives us an instance of this in his
+ever-fascinating adventures of the _Count of Monte Cristo_. Nothing
+seems impossible to this extraordinary individual, and incident after
+incident of the most romantic nature crowd one upon another throughout
+the story; yet it is all so beautifully blended by the wonderful
+imagination of the author that it enthrals us to the end. The Count, who
+is supposed to have studied the art of medicine in the East, has always
+a remedy at hand for every emergency, from hashish, in which he is a
+profound believer, to his mysterious stimulating elixir, described as
+“of the colour of blood, preserved in a phial of Bohemian glass.” A
+single drop of this marvellous fluid, if allowed to fall on the lips,
+will, almost before it reaches them, restore the marble and inanimate
+form to life. His pill-boxes were composed of emeralds and precious
+stones of huge size, and their contents consisted of drugs whose effects
+were beyond conception. His knowledge of chemistry and toxicology is
+equally astonishing, as instanced in the conversation he holds with
+Madame de Villefort, who, for nefarious purposes, desires to improve her
+knowledge of poisons. Monte Cristo discourses on the poisonous
+properties of brucine, a drug rarely used in England, but largely
+employed in France.
+
+
+“Suppose,” says the Count, “you were to take a millegramme of this
+poison the first day, two millegrammes the second day, and so on. Well,
+at the end of ten days you would have taken a centigramme: at the end of
+twenty days, increasing another millegramme, you would have taken three
+hundred centigrammes; that is to say, a dose you would support without
+inconvenience, and which would be very dangerous for any other person
+who had not taken the same precautions as yourself. Well then, at the
+end of the month, when drinking water from the same carafe, you would
+kill the person who had drunk this water, without your perceiving
+otherwise than from slight inconvenience that there was any poisonous
+substance mingled with the water.”
+
+
+The Count thus explains the doctrine of immunity from a poison, by
+accustoming the system to its effect in small doses for a length of
+time, a process which is actually possible with some drugs, but not with
+all. His satirical description of the bungling of the common poisoner,
+as compared to the fine subtlety and cunning he advocates, is also worth
+quoting:
+
+
+“Amongst us a simpleton, possessed by the demon of hate or cupidity, who
+has an enemy to destroy, or some near relation to dispose of, goes
+straight to the grocer’s or druggist’s, gives a false name, which leads
+more easily to his detection than his real one, and purchases, under a
+pretext that the rats prevent him from sleeping, five or six pennyworth
+of arsenic. If he is really a cunning fellow he goes to five or six
+different druggists or grocers, and thereby becomes only five or six
+times more easily traced; then, when he has acquired his specific, he
+administers duly to his enemy or near kinsman a dose of arsenic which
+would make a mammoth or mastodon burst, and which, without rhyme or
+reason, makes his victim utter groans which alarm the whole
+neighbourhood. Then arrive a crowd of policemen and constables. They
+fetch a doctor, who opens the dead body, and collects from the entrails
+and stomach a quantity of arsenic in a spoon. Next day a hundred
+newspapers relate the fact, with the names of the victim and the
+murderer. The same evening the grocer or grocers, druggist or druggists,
+come and say: ‘It was I sold the arsenic to the gentleman accused,’ and
+rather than not recognize the guilty purchaser, they will recognize
+twenty. Then the foolish criminal is taken, imprisoned, interrogated,
+confronted, confounded, condemned, and cut off by hemp or steel; or, if
+she be a woman of any consideration, they lock her up for life. This is
+the way in which you northerners understand chemistry.”
+
+
+And so he endeavours to incite a woman, who is already anxiously
+contemplating a series of terrible crimes.
+
+The recital of the ingenious experiments of the Abbé Adelmonte is a
+piece of clever construction, as the quotation will show.
+
+
+“The Abbé,” said Monte Cristo, “had a remarkably fine garden full of
+vegetables, flowers and fruit. From among these vegetables he selected
+the most simple—a cabbage, for instance. For three days he watered this
+cabbage with a distillation of arsenic; on the third, the cabbage began
+to droop and turn yellow. At that moment he cut it. In the eyes of
+everybody it seemed fit for table, and preserved its wholesome
+appearance. It was only poisoned to the Abbé Adelmonte. He then took the
+cabbage to the room where he had rabbits, for the Abbé Adelmonte had a
+collection of rabbits, cats and guinea-pigs, equally fine as his
+collection of vegetables, flowers, and fruit. Well, the Abbé Adelmonte
+took a rabbit and made it eat a leaf out of the cabbage. The rabbit
+died. What magistrate would find or even venture to insinuate anything
+against this? What _procureur du roi_ has ever ventured to draw up an
+accusation against M. Majendie or M. Flourens, in consequence of the
+rabbits, cats and guinea-pigs they have killed. Not one. So, then, the
+rabbit dies, and justice takes no notice. This rabbit dead, the Abbé
+Adelmonte has its entrails taken out by his cook and thrown on the
+dunghill; on this dunghill was a hen, who, pecking these intestines,
+was, in her turn, taken ill, and dies next day. At the moment when she
+was struggling in the convulsions of death, a vulture was flying by
+(there are a good many vultures in Adelmonte’s country); this bird darts
+on the dead bird and carries it away to a rock, where it dines off its
+prey. Three days afterwards this poor vulture, who has been very much
+indisposed since that dinner, feels very giddy suddenly whilst flying
+aloft in the clouds, and falls heavily into a fish-pond. The pike, eels,
+and carp eat greedily always, as everybody knows—well, they feast on the
+vulture. Well, suppose the next day, one of these eels, or pike, or carp
+is served at your table, poisoned as they are to the third generation.
+Well then, your guest will be poisoned in the fifth generation, and die
+at the end of eight or ten days, of pains in the intestines, sickness,
+or abscess of the pylorus. The doctors open the body, and say, with an
+air of profound learning, ‘The subject has died of a tumour on the
+liver, or typhoid fever.’”
+
+
+After attempting to kill half the household with brucine, Madame de
+Villefort changes her particular poison for a simple narcotic,
+recognized by Monte Cristo (who in this instance frustrates the murder)
+as being dissolved in alcohol. The name of the latter poison is not told
+us by the novelist, but on the doctor’s examination of the suspected
+liquid we read, “He took from its silver case a small bottle of nitric
+acid, dropped a little of it into the liquor, which immediately changed
+to a blood-red colour.”
+
+Perhaps the most curious method of poisoning ever used in fiction is
+that introduced by James Payn in his novel called _Halves_. The poisoner
+uses finely chopped horsehair as a medium of getting rid of her niece.
+In this way she brings on a disease which puzzles the doctor, until one
+day he comes across the would-be murderess pulling the horsehair out of
+the drawing-room sofa, which causes him to suspect her at once. This
+ingenious lady introduced the chopped horsehair into the pepper pot used
+by her victim.
+
+The inimitable Count Fosco, whom Wilkie Collins introduces into _The
+Woman in White_, was supposed to possess a remarkable knowledge of
+chemistry, although he says, “Only twice did I call my science to my
+aid,” in working out his plot to abduct Lady Glide. His media were
+simple: “A medicated glass of water and a medicated bottle of smelling
+salts relieved her of all further embarrassment and alarm.” This genial
+villain waxes eloquent on the science of chemistry in his confession.
+“Chemistry,” he exclaims, “has always had irresistible attractions for
+me from the enormous, the illimitable power which the knowledge of it
+confers. Chemists—I assert it emphatically—might sway, if they pleased,
+the destinies of humanity. Mind, they say, rules the world. But what
+rules the mind? The body (follow me closely here) lies at the mercy of
+the most omnipotent of all potentates—the chemist. Give
+me—Fosco—chemistry; and when Shakespeare has conceived Hamlet, and sits
+down to execute the conception—with a few grains of powder dropped into
+his daily food, I will reduce his mind, by the actions of his body, till
+his pen pours out the most abject drivel that has ever degraded paper.
+Under similar circumstances revive me the illustrious Newton. I
+guarantee that when he sees the apple fall he shall _eat it_, instead of
+discovering the principle of gravitation. Nero’s dinner shall transform
+Nero into the mildest of men before he has done digesting it, and the
+morning draught of Alexander the Great shall make Alexander run for his
+life at the first sight of the enemy the same afternoon. On my sacred
+word of honour it is lucky for society that modern chemists are, by
+incomprehensible good fortune, the most harmless of mankind. The mass
+are worthy fathers of families, who keep shops. The few are philosophers
+besotted with admiration for the sound of their own lecturing voices,
+visionaries who waste their lives on fantastic impossibilities, or
+quacks whose ambition soars no higher than our corns.”
+
+In _Armadale_ the same novelist introduces us to a poisoner of the
+deepest dye in the person of Miss Gwilt. This fair damsel, whose auburn
+locks seemed to have possessed an irresistible attraction for the
+opposite sex, was addicted to taking laudanum to soothe her troubled
+nerves, and first tried to mix a dose with some lemonade she had
+prepared for her husband’s namesake and friend, whom she wished out of
+the way. This attempt failing, and a second one, to scuttle a yacht in
+which he was sailing, proving futile also, he was finally lured to a
+sanatorium in London where she had arranged for him to be placed in a
+room into which a poisonous gas (presumably carbonic acid) was to be
+passed. At the last moment she discovers her husband has taken the place
+of her victim, and in revulsion of feeling she rescues him, and ends her
+own life instead in the poisoned chamber. According to the story, the
+medical investigation which followed the tragedy ended in discovering
+that she had died of apoplexy; a fact which, had it occurred in real
+life, would not have redounded to the credit of the medical men who
+conducted it.
+
+The heroine of Benson’s novel, _The Rubicon_, poisons herself with
+prussic acid of unheard-of strength, which she discovers _among some
+photographic chemicals_.
+
+Miss Helen Mathers, in one of her novels, _The Sin of Hagar_, a story
+warranted to thrill the soul of “Sweet Seventeen,” makes some
+extraordinary discoveries which will be new to chemists. For instance,
+she tells us of strychnine that actually _discolours_ a glass of whisky
+and water. One of the characters, a frisky old dowager, professes to be
+an _amateur_ chemist, and this lady, we are gravely informed by the
+novelist, “detects the presence of the strychnine in the glass of whisky
+and water _at a glance_.”
+
+But Miss Mathers has still another poison, whose properties will
+doubtless be a revelation to scientists, and it is with this marvellous
+body the “double-dyed villainess” of the story puts an end to her woes.
+For convenience she carries it about with her concealed in a ring, and
+when at last she decides on committing suicide, we are told “she simply
+placed the ring to her lips, a strange odour spread through the room,
+and she instantly lay dead.”
+
+Even the experienced writer of sensational fiction may often go beyond
+the point of probability into impossibility when describing the use of
+poisons. In a story recently published, a well-known novelist describes
+a burglar who is caught by a policeman slipping out of a house in the
+night. A terrible struggle ensues, with the result that they rolled
+struggling into the gutter, the policeman shouting for assistance. The
+burglar’s right hand flies to his jacket pocket, then swiftly to the
+face of his captor who almost instantly relaxes his hold and becomes
+unconscious. It is revealed afterwards that the prisoner had smashed in
+his fingers a small capsule which released an asphyxiating gas; this
+must indeed have been of great potency to be enclosed in a capsule to be
+held between the fingers and render an individual insensible in a few
+seconds. The effect of the gas, too, must have been terrible, as we are
+told that the constable remained asleep in the front garden till eight
+o’clock in the morning. The nearest policeman was unable to move him,
+but he had to be removed in an ambulance and when brought to the station
+was thought to be intoxicated until the divisional sergeant pronounced
+that _he had been gassed_.
+
+Certainly, the novelist has exceeded the scientist in producing a gas
+that would have proved invaluable during the Great War.
+
+A final instance of the poison of fiction may be quoted from a recently
+published novel in which the heroine, a houri of the East, is abducted
+by a fierce renegade Englishman and carried off into the desert.
+
+She escapes from him, however, by the aid of a wonderful ring she wears,
+described by the novelist as “a great hollow jewel of ancient gold set
+with a green diamond.” It contained, we are told, “a poisonous drug of
+which two or three grains in coffee finished off the lady’s abductor and
+drugged _fifty_ others, and so she escaped.”
+
+On the stage, “poisoning” has gone somewhat out of fashion with modern
+dramatists, although it was a common thing in years gone by for the
+villain of the play to swallow a cup of cold poison in the last act, and
+after several dying speeches to fall suddenly flat on his back and die
+to slow music. The death of Cleopatra, described by Shakespeare as
+resulting from the bite of a venomous snake, is like no clinical
+description of the final effects of death from the bite of any known
+snake.
+
+Beverley, in “The Gamester,” takes a dose of strong poison in the fifth
+act, and afterwards makes several fairly long speeches before he
+apparently feels the effects, and finally succumbs. The description of
+the death of Juliet, which Shakespeare, in all probability, conceived
+from reading the effects that followed the drinking of morion or
+mandragora wine, is an accurate description of death from that drug. The
+use of this anodyne preparation to deaden pain dates from ancient times,
+and it is stated it was a common practice for women to administer it to
+those about to suffer the penalty of the law by being crucified. We have
+another instance of the fabulous effects ascribed to poisons by the
+early playwrights, in Massinger’s play, “The Duke of Milan.” Francisco
+dusts over a plant some poisonous powder and hands it to Eugenia.
+Ludovico approaches, and kisses the lady’s hand but twice, and then dies
+from the effects of the poison.
+
+Sufficient eccentricities of this kind in fiction might be enumerated to
+fill a volume, but we must forbear. It is perhaps hardly necessary to
+state that the lady novelist is the greatest sinner in this respect, and
+that stranger poisons are evolved from her fertile brain than were ever
+known to man.
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II
+                            POISON MYSTERIES
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+   THE MYSTERY OF LAWFORD HALL—THE STRANGE CASE OF ELIZABETH FENNING
+
+
+In the spring of the year 1780, the quiet hamlet of Little Lawford in
+Warwickshire, situated about three miles from Rugby, was the scene of a
+tragedy which aroused great interest not only in the immediate locality,
+but throughout the country.
+
+At that time there lived at Lawford Hall Sir Theodosius Boughton, a
+young baronet who had not yet attained his majority, together with his
+mother, his only sister and her husband, Captain Donellan, a half-pay
+officer.
+
+The career of the latter gentleman, who plays an important part in the
+story, had been an eventful one. In 1757 he was gazetted as a subaltern
+in the 39th Regiment, then stationed in Madras on foreign service. There
+he entered the East India Company’s service and joined in an expedition
+against Masulipatam in 1758, and was wounded in action after the taking
+of that place. Trouble, however, arose over the question of certain loot
+that had been taken from the merchants; Donellan was court-martialled,
+sentenced to be discharged from the service, and returned to England.
+
+On his return his ambition was to shine as a beau in society. Dress and
+gaming are said to have occupied his whole attention, and he eventually
+became Master of the Ceremonies at the Pantheon, in Oxford Street,
+London, then a fashionable resort for dancing much frequented by
+Society.
+
+Here, it is probable, he met and wooed Miss Boughton, whom he married,
+and a year after the couple came to live at Lawford Hall with Lady
+Boughton. At this time young Sir Theodosius was finishing his education.
+After leaving Eton he had lived for a couple of years with a tutor, and
+then came home to Lawford to settle down with his family.
+
+He was a young fellow of high spirits and fond of outdoor sports, but
+like other young men of his class at that time he was inclined to live a
+fast life, and this had told more or less upon his health.
+
+From the time of his residence at home, for some reason or other, he did
+not get on well with his brother-in-law, Captain Donellan, and the
+latter appears to have adopted a patronizing attitude towards the young
+man while living in his house. According to his father’s will Sir
+Theodosius did not come into his property, which was worth about £2,000
+a year, until he was twenty-one, and meanwhile he was under the
+guardianship of Sir Edmund Wheeler, an old friend who lived eight miles
+away from Lawford. According to the will, should he die before attaining
+his majority, his sister, Mrs. Donellan, was to benefit largely from the
+estate.
+
+Matters had gone thus for nearly two years when Sir Theodosius, as the
+result of his former gay life, became unwell and placed himself under
+the care of an apothecary in Rugby.
+
+Donellan, who became aware of this, talked a good deal to various
+friends, remarking that the young man was ruining his health, that his
+life was not worth a year’s purchase, and that he could not possibly
+live if he did not take more care.
+
+The young baronet, however, appeared in good health and spirits, but the
+conditions of life became so unpleasant at the Hall that he at length
+decided to go and stay with a friend in Northampton until he came of
+age.
+
+About five o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon, August 29, 1780, Sir
+Theodosius, accompanied by several of his menservants, set off down to
+the river on a fishing expedition. During his absence a dose of medicine
+in the form of a draught was delivered at the Hall from Mr. Powell, the
+apothecary, which was to be taken by the young man the first thing on
+the following morning. The bottle was taken upstairs and placed on a
+shelf in his bedroom. Soon after Sir Theodosius had set out, his mother,
+Lady Boughton, and Mrs. Donellan went into the grounds to take the air
+and remained in the garden some hours. About seven o’clock they were
+joined in their walk by Captain Donellan, who remarked that he had been
+fishing with Sir Theodosius, and that he was afraid if he stayed out so
+long in the damp he would take cold. Sir Theodosius, however, returned
+home all right, somewhat later and, after having supper, retired to bed.
+
+At six in the morning a servant called him, and he got out of bed and
+spoke to him. An hour later his mother went into his bedroom to remind
+him about taking his medicine. He asked her to give it to him, and she,
+taking it from the shelf, poured the contents into a cup and gave it to
+him. He swallowed about half and complained that it tasted so nauseous
+he would be unable to retain it. He handed the cup back to his mother
+who smelt it and was struck with the powerful smell of bitter almonds,
+but gave it back to him again. Sir Theodosius then swallowed the
+remainder and lay down, but in a few minutes he was taken very ill with
+vomiting. On his becoming more composed Lady Boughton left him for about
+ten minutes, thinking he would sleep. On returning to his room she found
+him collapsed and foaming at the mouth. Struck with alarm at his
+condition she sent a servant for the apothecary and to call Captain
+Donellan. The latter came in a few minutes, and on his entering the room
+Lady Boughton exclaimed: “Here is a terrible affair, I have given my son
+something that was wrong instead of what the apothecary sent. I am sure
+it would have killed a dog.” Donellan replied, “Why the devil did Mr.
+Powell send such a medicine? Where is the bottle?” Lady Boughton pointed
+to it on the mantelpiece and Donellan at once took it up, poured some
+water into it, shook and rinsed it and emptied the contents into a basin
+of dirty water standing near.
+
+Astonished at his action Lady Boughton said, “Good God, what are you
+doing? Let everything remain just in the same place until Mr. Powell the
+apothecary arrives.” Donellan made no reply, but took an empty phial
+which had contained a previous draught which was also standing on the
+same shelf and rinsed that out in the same way, then, calling a servant,
+ordered her to take the basin away, in spite of Lady Boughton’s
+remonstrance.
+
+Meanwhile Sir Theodosius lay dying, and expired in about thirty minutes.
+
+Some time elapsed before Mr. Powell arrived, and he was taken up to the
+room by Donellan, who explained to him that Sir Theodosius had been out
+late fishing the previous night, and had no doubt taken cold, which had
+caused his death. He made no mention of the effect of the draught, but
+told him the young man had died in convulsions. The apothecary
+apparently offered no solution as to the cause of death and left the
+house.
+
+The same morning that Sir Theodosius died Donellan wrote to Sir William
+Wheeler, his guardian, informing him of his death, and stating that he
+had been under the care of Mr. Powell, of Rugby, for a similar complaint
+to that which he had had at Eton. Within a day or two, however, rumours
+of foul play became current and Sir William Wheeler communicated these
+to Donellan and insisted that to allay public suspicion a post-mortem
+examination should be made. He named a Dr. Rattray and two surgeons,
+Messrs. Wilmer and Snow, whom he desired to conduct the examination.
+These gentlemen were accordingly sent for and arrived at Lawford Hall on
+Monday evening, September 4. They were received by Captain Donellan,
+who, after some conversation, showed them to the room. The body of the
+unfortunate young man being in an advanced state of decomposition, the
+doctors showed reluctance to proceed with the autopsy, and after a
+cursory examination they left the Hall without coming to any
+satisfactory conclusion, nothing having been said to them by Donellan of
+any suspicion of foul play.
+
+Donellan then wrote to Sir William Wheeler stating that the doctors had
+fully satisfied the family, but Sir William was still dissatisfied, and
+on hearing that no actual post-mortem had been made, insisted that two
+other surgeons, viz. Messrs. Bucknell and Snow, should examine the
+remains. On their arrival, however, Donellan again circumvented their
+intentions and the body was duly interred. This increased the rumours
+instead of dispelling them, and eventually the coroner of the district
+was informed of the case and he decided to hold an inquiry.
+
+The inquest lasted three days, and on the last day Donellan addressed a
+letter to the coroner in which he stated that Sir Theodosius used to
+procure arsenic to kill rats, and frequently bought as much as a pound
+at a time, also that he used to make large quantities of Goulard Water.
+
+This was to account for the suspicion of poisoning which was now rife.
+After hearing the evidence the coroner ordered that the body should be
+exhumed. On Saturday morning, September 9, the body was removed from the
+vault and placed in the churchyard. About five hundred people had
+collected to witness the gruesome sight, which in those days was
+conducted in public. When all was ready a Mr. Bucknill, a young surgeon,
+put on a wagoner’s smock frock that had been dipped in vinegar, and with
+a napkin that had been soaked in vinegar tied over his mouth and nose,
+opened the body, which was duly inspected by the doctors present and
+reinterred.
+
+As a result of the inquest Captain Donellan was arrested and charged
+with the wilful murder of his brother-in-law by poisoning him with
+arsenic.
+
+The trial, which excited intense interest throughout the country on
+account of the social position of the persons involved, took place at
+the Warwick Assizes on March 30, 1781, before Mr. Justice Buller.
+
+Six counsel, headed by Mr. Howarth, appeared for the Crown, and the
+prisoner was represented by Mr. Newnham and two juniors. The case mainly
+depended on the medical evidence, a review of which forms an interesting
+picture of the state of medicine and toxicology of the time.
+
+The first witness was Mr. Powell, the apothecary, of Rugby, who was
+treating Sir Theodosius at the time of his death. He swore that the
+draught he sent the baronet was quite harmless and consisted of rhubarb
+and jalap, spirit of lavender, nutmeg water and simple syrup.
+
+Dr. Rattray, of Coventry, the next medical witness, described the visit
+he paid to Lawford Hall at the wish of Sir William Wheeler with the
+other surgeons. The reason they did not proceed with the post-mortem, he
+stated, was that they thought it too late, and that so long after death
+nothing could be discovered. He was present when the body was opened in
+the churchyard, and from its appearance he was now of the opinion that
+poison was the cause of death.
+
+Mr. Wilmer, a surgeon, described some experiments he had made with
+laurel water. He gave an ounce to a young greyhound and to his great
+surprise it died immediately. He next gave a pint and a half to a mare
+and in a few moments she went into convulsions and died in fifteen
+minutes. He believed that an ounce of laurel water was enough to kill a
+strong man. Dr. Ash, a physician of Birmingham, next gave his opinion
+that the young man had died from the effects of poison.
+
+Further medical evidence was given by Dr. Parsons, Professor of Anatomy
+at Oxford University. He stated he believed that Sir Theodosius had been
+poisoned by laurel water which had been given to him instead of the
+purgative draught.
+
+Important evidence was given by a female servant named Mary Lines, who
+stated that Captain Donellan had a still, which he kept in his own room
+and which he used for distilling rose water.
+
+A gardener at the Hall, named Amos, who was next called, said Captain
+Donellan brought the still to him two or three days after Sir Theodosius
+died. It was full of wet lime at the time and he asked him to clean it
+for him. He mentioned that the lime was used for killing fleas.
+
+For the defence Mr. John Hunter, the famous surgeon, of London, was
+called to give evidence and said he had dissected some thousands of
+subjects. The symptoms he had heard described were not conclusive that
+the baronet had taken poison. He had never known in his practice of
+laurel water being given to a human being. From the description he had
+heard of the appearance of the body, he should not have drawn the
+inference that death had resulted from poison. Apoplexy or epilepsy
+would produce similar symptoms to those he had heard described, but he
+would not swear that the deceased man died a natural death.
+
+The judge in summing up commented on the doubt Mr. Hunter seemed to have
+in giving evidence, and the failure of counsel to get from him a
+conclusive opinion. On the other hand five medical men were agreed that
+death had been due to the draught, and that the draught had been laurel
+water. How did the poison get into the medicine bottle? Why also did the
+prisoner rinse out the empty bottles and see they were taken away and
+destroyed in the face of the suspicious circumstances attending the
+death? The evidence concerning the still was also important, as it
+proved the prisoner had a knowledge of its use and he often used it for
+distilling rose and lavender waters. The deceptive way in which the
+prisoner had acted was also likely to arouse suspicions as well as his
+endeavour to prevent an examination of the body.
+
+The jury after a few minutes’ consideration found the prisoner “Guilty,”
+and the judge pronounced sentence of death. The prisoner’s body
+afterwards to be delivered to the surgeons and be dissected and
+anatomized. “The prisoner,” says a contemporary writer, “neatly dressed
+in black, was driven in a coach to the gallows and was hanged.”
+
+Thus ended the brilliant Captain Donellan, the much envied beau of
+London Society in George the Third’s time.
+
+
+A strange case that happened early in the nineteenth century was that of
+Elizabeth Fenning.
+
+On April 11, 1815, this girl, who was engaged as cook to a law stationer
+in Chancery Lane, was tried at the Old Bailey before the Recorder on a
+charge of having poisoned her employer, Mr. Olebar Turner, his wife and
+his father, Robert Gregson Turner. The girl, who was only twenty years
+of age, had been employed as cook in Mr. Turner’s house for six weeks,
+and on March 21 had made some yeast dumplings for dinner.
+
+The dumplings were brought to the table and partaken of by the three
+persons. A few minutes after eating a portion of one, Mrs. Turner was
+taken ill with violent pains and vomiting, and shortly afterwards the
+two men, who had also eaten of the dumplings, were seized with pains in
+the same manner. Mr. Marshall, a surgeon, was sent for several hours
+afterwards, and all three persons, after some time, recovered. The girl
+herself and a young apprentice in the house had also eaten of the
+dumplings and were affected in the same way.
+
+Mr. Turner said he suspected arsenic had been put in the food and made a
+search next morning. In the kitchen he found a brown dish in which the
+dumplings had been mixed, with what appeared to be some remnants of the
+food still adhering to it. He put some water into the dish and stirred
+it, and found in a few minutes a white powder or sediment fell to the
+bottom, which he kept and handed to the surgeon.
+
+He knew that arsenic was kept in a drawer in his office in two wrappers
+labelled “Arsenick, Deadly Poison” and was used for killing mice. The
+drawer was always unlocked. He had last seen the packet of arsenic in
+the drawer on March 7, and it was now missing. He had noticed that the
+knives they had used to cut the dumplings had turned black.
+
+He had charged the girl with putting something in the dumplings, and she
+had replied it was not in the dumplings but in the milk that was used to
+make them which had been brought to her by Sarah Peer, a fellow-servant.
+Mr. John Marshall, the surgeon who was called in, said he found the
+family suffering from symptoms that would be produced by arsenic, and
+the prisoner was also ill in the same way. He had examined the remnants
+found in the dish by Mr. Turner and washed them with a tea-kettle of
+warm water and then decanted it. He found half a teaspoonful of white
+powder left. After washing it a second time he found it was arsenic.
+Arsenic would turn the knives black. He had examined the remains of the
+yeast used and the flour employed in making the dumplings, but found no
+trace of arsenic.
+
+The girl, in her defence, swore she was quite innocent of the whole
+charge.
+
+The jury found her guilty and she was sentenced to death.
+
+The result of the trial excited public interest in London, and caused an
+outburst of popular feeling, the general opinion being that the evidence
+was insufficient to prove the girl guilty. The Prince Regent was
+petitioned, also the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State, and
+several meetings of influential persons were held, agitating for a
+remission of the sentence. The girl, however, was executed at Newgate on
+July 26, 1815, exclaiming, “I die innocent, but God will convince you by
+a circumstance this day.” In 1834 the man Turner died in the workhouse,
+but confessed before his death that he had put the arsenic into the
+dumplings and falsely sworn away the girl’s life.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+                       THE CASE OF MADAME LAFARGE
+
+
+The story of Madame Lafarge, who was tried in France for the murder of
+her husband in 1840, is a strange and romantic one.
+
+Marie Fortunée Cappelle was the daughter of a captain in the Imperial
+Artillery. Her parents died during her childhood, and she was placed in
+the care of an aunt, who, at the earliest opportunity, determined to
+relieve herself of the burden of her support by negotiating a marriage
+for her. While still a girl, through the instrumentality of a
+matrimonial agent in Paris, an alliance was arranged between Marie
+Cappelle and one Monsieur Charles Lafarge, who was a widower and an
+ironmaster of Glandier.
+
+The marriage, which was purely a commercial transaction, took place in
+Paris on August 15, 1839, after which Lafarge and his young wife set out
+for his old and gloomy seigneurial château at Glandier.
+
+From statements made afterwards, Madame Lafarge became disgusted with
+her husband’s brutality before the honeymoon was over. After they
+reached their own house, however, they were reconciled, and there seemed
+to be every possibility of their spending a happy wedded life together.
+
+Besides the newly married pair, there lived in the château the mother
+and sister of Lafarge. His chief clerk, Denis Barbier, was a frequent
+visitor there, and was apparently at liberty to walk through the place
+without restriction.
+
+In a very short time Madame Lafarge discovered that both she and her
+relatives had been deceived as to the position of her husband, and that
+instead of being a man of considerable fortune, he was straitened for
+means. On his representations she bestowed upon him all her fortune, and
+even wrote letters at his dictation to some of her wealthy friends,
+asking them to aid him to find money to develop a new method he claimed
+to have discovered for smelting iron. With these letters of
+introduction, Lafarge set out for Paris in December, 1839, to raise
+money to start his new project.
+
+While he was away, his wife had her portrait drawn by an artist in
+Glandier, and determined to send it to her absent husband. She therefore
+packed it in a box, with some cakes made by his mother, together with an
+affectionate letter, and despatched them to Paris. This box, which
+contained nothing but the five small cakes, the portrait, and the
+letter, was packed and sealed by Madame Lafarge in the presence of
+several witnesses.
+
+When it reached Paris and was opened by Lafarge, it contained only _one
+large cake_, after partaking of which he was suddenly taken ill, and was
+eventually compelled to return home, where he arrived on January 5,
+1840. His sickness continued and increased in severity, and nine days
+afterwards he died.
+
+Shortly after his death his mother and friends, who were well aware how
+the widow disliked them and also her husband, who had made her life so
+unhappy, at once imputed the cause of death to poison administered by
+his wife in the cake she had sent to Paris, and Marie Cappelle Lafarge
+was arrested on suspicion.
+
+When the house of the deceased man was searched, certain diamonds were
+found which were supposed to have been stolen from the Vicomtesse de
+Léotaud by Madame Lafarge before her marriage.
+
+The unfortunate woman was therefore charged with the double crime of
+theft and murder.
+
+Though arrested in January, 1840, the trial of Madame Lafarge did not
+commence till July 9 of the same year, and the charge of theft was first
+proceeded with in her absence, and she was found guilty.
+
+While this judgment was still under appeal, she was brought to trial on
+the graver charge.
+
+The evidence for the prosecution went to prove that the illness of
+Lafarge commenced with the eating of the cake received from his home. As
+already stated, when the box arrived in Paris the seals had been broken,
+the five cakes had disappeared, and _a single cake “as large as a
+plate”_ had been substituted for them. It was alleged by the prosecution
+that this single cake had been prepared by Madame Lafarge, and secretly
+placed in the box; but no evidence could be brought to prove that she
+ever tampered with the box after it had been sealed. Lafarge’s clerk,
+Denis Barbier, made a clandestine visit to Paris after the box had been
+despatched, and he was with Lafarge when it arrived in Paris, yet no
+notice seems to have been taken of this suspicious fact. It transpired,
+it was he who first threw out hints on his master’s return that he was
+being poisoned by arsenic, and told a brother employé that his master
+would be dead within ten days. There was ample proof, however, that
+there was a considerable quantity of arsenic in the house at Glandier.
+It was found that Madame Lafarge had purchased some in December, stating
+she required it for destroying rats; Barbier also stated in evidence
+that Madame had requested him to procure her some arsenic. He bought
+some, but did not give it to her. It was further stated that Madame
+Lafarge was seen to stir a white powder into some chicken broth which
+had been prepared for her husband, the remains of which, found in a
+bowl, were said by the analyst to contain arsenic.
+
+The medical men who conducted the post-mortem examination gave it as
+their deliberate opinion that the deceased man had been poisoned by
+arsenic, of which poison they professed to have found considerable
+quantities. The friends of the accused then submitted the matter to
+Orfila, the famous French toxicologist, who, on giving his opinion of
+the methods and manner in which the analysis had been carried out, said
+that owing to the antiquated and doubtful methods of detection employed
+by the medical men, it was probable they _fancied_ they had found
+arsenic where there was none. Thereupon the prosecution asked Orfila to
+undertake a fresh analysis himself, which he consented to do, and, on
+making a careful examination of the remains, stated he discovered just a
+minute trace of arsenic.
+
+This apparently sealed the doom of the accused woman, and served to
+strengthen the bias of the jury.
+
+But now another actor appeared in the drama in the person of Raspail,
+another distinguished French chemist, who from the beginning had watched
+the case with interest.
+
+On September 17, 1840, a young barrister knocked at the door of
+Raspail’s apartment in Paris at eleven o’clock at night. Exhausted by
+thirty-six hours in a postchaise—for he had come straight from Tulle
+where the trial of Madame Lafarge was being held—he handed the following
+note to the chemist—
+
+
+“I am innocent and most unlucky. I am suffering and make appeal to your
+science and your heart.... M. Orfila has arrived and I have refallen
+into the abyss. My hope, Monsieur, is in you. Lend the aid of your
+knowledge to an unfortunate victim of calumny. Come and save me while
+all others abandon me.—MARIE LAFARGE.”
+
+
+The writer was an utter stranger to Raspail at this time, but though he
+had reached the age of forty-six years and was in indifferent health, he
+decided to sacrifice his night’s rest and at 2 a.m. was posting as hard
+as horses could carry him on the southern high road to the scene of the
+trial. When he arrived at Limoges he was in a high state of fever and
+took a room to rest for an hour. The rumour reached him there that
+Madame Lafarge had been acquitted, so he remained the night and the next
+day posted on another fifty miles and arrived at Tulle just an hour too
+late. Madame Lafarge had been found guilty and condemned to penal
+servitude for life.
+
+It was then that Raspail wrote to the presiding judge the words so often
+quoted: “Give me anything you like—your own armchair—and I will find
+arsenic in it.”
+
+Raspail has left a long description of his interview with Madame Lafarge
+whom he then saw. After asking to be allowed to examine the three plates
+with arsenical deposits that had passed through Orfila’s hands, he asked
+to be allowed to test the reagents left at Tulle by Orfila. The reply
+was made that “M. Orfila left all his reagents with M. Bories, a
+pharmacist, except his potash, his zinc, and the nitrate of potash by
+means of which he obtained the deposit on the third plate.”
+
+“Supposing,” continues Raspail, “I had acted like Orfila (as he did on
+another occasion), applying the pretty expression of ‘ignorant crowd’ to
+the host of reagents obtained from local pharmacists and bringing from
+Paris a nitrate of potash capable of revealing a poison where no other
+reagent could find an atom, what would the Advocate-General have said?
+Would he not at once have required that the phial of nitrate from Paris
+should be examined by the experts present?”
+
+Raspail then took the zinc wire with which Orfila had experimented to
+the shop where the toxicologist had procured the article, and he found
+on analysis that the _zinc itself_ contained _more arsenic_ than Orfila
+had detected by his examination. Orfila had used Marsh’s test, which is
+infallible so long as the reagents used are free from arsenic
+themselves.
+
+As already related, Raspail reached Tulle too late to give evidence at
+the trial, and the unhappy Marie Cappelle Lafarge, after a trial lasting
+sixteen days, had been found guilty and condemned to imprisonment for
+life with hard labour, and exposure in the pillory. Raspail, however,
+would not let the matter rest, and at once set to work to save the
+condemned woman. He informed Orfila that the zinc he had used was
+already contaminated with arsenic, and at length got him fairly to admit
+his error and join with him in a professional report to the authorities
+to that effect.
+
+After being imprisoned for twelve years, in the end, the sentence on
+Madame Lafarge was reduced to five years in the Montpellier house of
+detention, after which the Government sent her to the Convent of St.
+Rémy, from whence she was liberated in 1852, but only to end her
+wretched life a few months afterwards.
+
+There appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ for 1842 a careful examination
+of this interesting case from a legal point of view, in which the writer
+states that the strongest evidence indicated Denis Barbier and not
+Madame Lafarge as the perpetrator of the crime. It was proved that this
+man lived by forgery, and assisted Lafarge in some very shady
+transactions to cover the latter’s insolvency. He was further known to
+harbour a deadly hatred for Madame Lafarge. He was with his master in
+Paris when he was seized with the sudden illness, and it transpired that
+out of the 25,000 francs the ironmaster had succeeded in borrowing from
+his wife’s relatives, only 3,900 could be found when he returned to
+Glandier. On his own statement he was in the possession of a quantity of
+arsenic, and he was the first to direct suspicion against his master’s
+wife. Yet all these facts appear to have been overlooked in the efforts
+of the prosecution to fasten the guilt on the unfortunate woman. That
+Lafarge died from the effects of arsenical poisoning there seems little
+doubt, but by whom administered has never been conclusively proved, and
+the tragedy remains among the poison mysteries still unsolved.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+                       THE CASE OF MADELINE SMITH
+
+
+The case of Madeline Smith, who was charged with causing the death of
+L’Angerlier by the administration of arsenic at Glasgow in 1857, excited
+universal interest at the time. Owing to the social position of the
+lady, the trial was a _cause célèbre_, and the circumstances of the case
+were of an extraordinary character.
+
+Miss Smith, who was a young and accomplished woman, and who resided in a
+fashionable quarter of Glasgow, got entangled with a French clerk named
+Pierre Emile L’Angelier. L’Angelier died very suddenly in an
+unaccountable manner, and suspicion falling on Madeline Smith, who was
+frequently in his company, she was arrested and charged with the crime.
+The Crown case was, that she poisoned her lover so that she might be
+betrothed to a personage of high social standing. That L’Angelier died
+on March 23 from the effects of arsenic was amply proved, but while
+suspicious acts were alleged against the accused woman, no direct
+evidence was adduced to show that she administered the drug. The worst
+point against her was the fact of her having possession of the poison;
+and irrespective of two previous purchases of coloured arsenic, for
+which she had given false reasons, it was proved that the accused had
+purchased one ounce, as she said “to kill rats,” on March 18, only five
+days before the death of L’Angerlier. The arsenic sold was coloured with
+indigo, according to the regulations. When charged with the crime, and
+required to account for the poison, she replied that she had used the
+whole of it to apply to her face, arms, and neck, diluted with water,
+and that a school companion had told her that arsenic was good for the
+complexion. From the post-mortem examination and subsequent analysis
+_eighty-eight_ grains of arsenic were found in the stomach and its
+contents. Dr. Christison, the greatest toxicological expert of the time,
+was called, and stated he knew of no case in which so much as
+eighty-eight grains of arsenic had been found in the stomach after
+death.
+
+This was made a turning point of the defence, and it was contended that
+so large a dose of arsenic could not have been swallowed unknowingly,
+and, therefore, suicide was indicated. The jury accepting this view of
+the case, returned a verdict of “not proven,” and Madeline Smith was
+liberated, the trial having lasted ten days.
+
+Some interesting particulars concerning the subsequent life of this lady
+were published some time ago. After the trial she decided to go abroad;
+but before starting she is said to have married a certain mysterious
+individual named Dr. Tudor Hora. With him she lived for many years in
+Perth, but few people ever saw her, and the doctor always declined to
+divulge his wife’s maiden name. He kept a small surgery, and is said to
+have been in receipt of about £400 a year from an unnamed source. Some
+years after, believing that his wife had been recognized, he bought a
+practice at Hotham, near Melbourne, and they sailed for Australia.
+Shortly after their arrival, Mrs. Hora left her husband and remained
+absent from Melbourne until his death. Soon afterwards she married
+again, but it is said her second marriage was not by any means a happy
+one. She remained unknown, and sought no society. She was an excellent
+musician, and spent most of her time reading and playing. She had no
+children, and died at the age of fifty-five.
+
+Six years after the trial of Madeline Smith a case was tried at the
+Chester Assizes, in which a woman named Hewitt or Holt was charged with
+poisoning her mother. Although the symptoms of irritant poisoning were
+very clearly marked, the country practitioner who attended the woman at
+the time certified that the cause of her death was due to
+gastro-enteritis. Eleven weeks after she had been buried, the body was
+exhumed and examined. An analysis revealed the presence of _one hundred
+and fifty-four grains_ of arsenic in the stomach alone. The possession
+of a considerable quantity of arsenic was brought home to the accused,
+and also direct evidence of its administration, and she was found
+guilty. This case is interesting from the fact of proof being obtained
+of the administration of so large a dose of arsenic, and if it had
+occurred before the trial of Madeline Smith it might have demolished her
+counsel’s main line of defence.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+                           THE BRAVO MYSTERY
+
+
+Antimony has been a frequent medium with criminal poisoners, including
+Dove, Smethurst, Pritchard and others, but there is probably no trial in
+which antimony has figured that caused more interest than the “Bravo
+Mystery” of 1876.
+
+The story of this case begins with the marriage of Mr. Bravo, a young
+barrister of about thirty years of age, to Mrs. Ricardo, who was then a
+wealthy widow and a lady of considerable personal attractions. After the
+marriage, which followed a very short acquaintance, the couple went to
+reside at Balham. According to a statement made by Mrs. Bravo, she
+informed her husband before the marriage of a former lover, and there is
+little doubt that it rankled in Mr. Bravo’s mind, and he frequently
+taunted his wife with the fact. He was a strong, healthy, and temperate
+man, but appears to have been both weak and vain in character. On
+Tuesday, April 18, 1876, after breakfast at his own house at Balham, he
+drove with his wife into town. On their way, a very unpleasant
+discussion took place. Arriving in town he had a Turkish bath, lunched
+with a relative of his wife’s at St. James’s Restaurant, and walked on
+his way home to Victoria Station with a friend and fellow-barrister,
+whom he asked out for the following day. He arrived home about half-past
+four. Shortly after his return, Mr. Bravo went out for a ride, in the
+course of which his horse bolted and carried him a long distance, and he
+got back to his home very tired and exhausted. At half-past six he was
+noticed leaning forward on his chair, looking ill, and with his head
+hanging down. He ordered a hot bath, and when getting into it he cried
+out aloud with pain, putting his hand to his side. The bath did not
+appear to relieve him much, and he seemed to be suffering pain all
+through dinner, but appeared to avoid attracting the attention of his
+wife and Mrs. Cox, her companion, who dined with him.
+
+The food provided during the dinner was partaken of more or less in
+common by all three, but this was not the case as regards the wine. Mr.
+Bravo drank Burgundy only, while Mrs. Bravo and Mrs. Cox drank sherry
+and Marsala. The wine drunk by Mr. Bravo had been decanted by the butler
+some time before dinner; how long he could not say, but he noticed
+nothing unusual with it.
+
+The wine was of good quality, and Mr. Bravo, who was something of a
+connoisseur, remarked nothing peculiar in its taste, but drank it as
+usual. If he had Burgundy for luncheon he finished the bottle at dinner;
+but if not, as on the day in question, the remains of the bottle were
+put away in an unlocked cellaret in the dining-room. The butler could
+not remember whether any Burgundy was left on this day or not; but,
+however, none was discovered.
+
+This cellaret was opened at least twice subsequently to this, and prior
+to Mr. Bravo’s illness, once by Mrs. Cox and once by the maid.
+
+Mr. Bravo seems to have eaten a good dinner, although he was evidently
+not himself from some cause or other. It was said he was suffering from
+toothache or neuralgia, and had just received a letter that had given
+him some annoyance.
+
+The dinner lasted till past eight o’clock, after which the party
+adjourned to the morning-room where conversation continued up to about
+nine o’clock.
+
+Mrs. Bravo and Mrs. Cox then retired upstairs, leaving Mr. Bravo alone,
+until Mrs. Cox went to fetch Mrs. Bravo some wine and water from the
+dining-room.
+
+Mrs. Bravo remained in her room and prepared for bed and drank the wine
+and water brought to her by Mrs. Cox, who remained with her.
+
+The housemaid, on taking some hot water to the ladies’ room as was her
+usual custom at half-past nine, was asked by Mrs. Bravo to bring her
+some more Marsala in the glass that had contained the wine and water. On
+her way downstairs to the dining-room, the girl met her master at the
+foot of the stairs. He looked “queer” and very strange in the face, but
+did not appear to be in pain, according to her statement. He looked
+twice at her, yet did not speak, though it was his custom, but passed
+on.
+
+Mr. Bravo was alone after the departure of his wife and Mrs. Cox until
+the time when he passed the housemaid at the foot of the stairs. He
+entered his wife’s dressing-room, and the maid Mrs. Bravo’s bedroom. In
+the dressing-room, according to Mrs. Cox’s statement, Mr. Bravo spoke to
+his wife in French, with reference to the wine. This had frequently been
+the subject of unpleasant remarks before; but Mrs. Bravo had no
+recollection of the conversation on this occasion.
+
+After leaving his wife in her room, Mr. Bravo went to his own bedroom
+and closed the door. The maid left Mrs. Bravo’s bedroom and met her
+mistress in the passage partially undressed and on her way to bed. Mrs.
+Bravo and Mrs. Cox entered their bedrooms and the former drank her
+Marsala and went to bed.
+
+In about quarter of an hour Mr. Bravo’s bedroom door was heard to open,
+and he shouted out, “Florence! Florence! Hot water.” The maid ran into
+Mrs. Bravo’s room, calling out that Mr. Bravo was ill. Mrs. Cox, who had
+not yet undressed, rose hastily and ran to his room. She found him
+standing in his night-gown at the open window, apparently vomiting, and
+this the maid also saw. Mrs. Cox further stated that Mr. Bravo said to
+her, “I have taken poison. Don’t tell Florence” (alluding to his wife);
+and to this confession on the part of Mr. Bravo, Mrs. Cox adhered. After
+this, Mr. Bravo was again very sick, and some hot water was brought by
+the maid. After the vomiting he sank on the floor and became insensible,
+and remained so for some hours. Mrs. Cox tried to raise him, and got
+some mustard and water, but he could not swallow it. She then applied
+mustard to his feet, and coffee was procured, but he was also unable to
+swallow that. Meanwhile a doctor, who had attended Mrs. Bravo, and who
+lived at some distance, was sent for. Mrs. Bravo, who was aroused from
+sleep by the maid, and who seems to have been greatly excited, insisted
+on a nearer practitioner being sent for, and in a short time a medical
+man, living close by, arrived on the scene. The doctor found Mr. Bravo
+sitting or lying on a chair, completely unconscious, and the heart’s
+action almost suspended. He had him laid on the bed, and then
+administered some hot brandy and water, but was unable to get him to
+swallow it. In about half an hour another medical man arrived, and was
+met by Mrs. Cox, who said she was sure Mr. Bravo had taken chloroform.
+Both doctors came to the conclusion that the patient was in a dangerous
+state, and endeavoured to administer restoratives. Realizing the
+critical nature of the case, Dr. George Johnson, of King’s College
+Hospital, was sent for. Meanwhile Mr. Bravo was again seized with
+vomiting, mostly blood, and the doctors came to the conclusion he was
+suffering from some irritant poison. About three o’clock he became
+conscious and able to be questioned. He was at once asked, “What have
+you taken?” But from first to last he persisted in declaring, in the
+most solemn manner, that he had taken nothing except some laudanum for
+toothache. In reply to other questions, asking him if there were any
+poisons about the house, he replied there was only the laudanum and
+chloroform for toothache, some Condy’s Fluid, and “rat poison in the
+stable.” Mr. Bravo did not lose consciousness again until the time of
+his death, which occurred fifty-five and a half hours after he was first
+taken ill.
+
+At an early period his bedroom was searched, but nothing was found but
+the laudanum bottle, and a little chloroform and camphor liniment which
+had been brought from another room. There were no remains of any solid
+poison in paper, glass, or tumbler, and nothing to indicate any poison
+had been taken. The post-mortem examination showed evidence of great
+gastric irritation, extending downwards, but there was no appearance of
+any disease in the body, or inflammation, congestion or ulceration. It
+was left therefore to the chemical analysis to show what was the
+irritating substance which had been introduced into the body, and supply
+a key to part of the mystery. The matters which had been vomited in the
+early stage of Mr. Bravo’s illness had been thrown away; but on
+examination of the leads of the house beneath the bedroom window, some
+portion of the matter was found undisturbed, although much rain had
+fallen and the greater part must have been washed away. This was
+carefully collected and handed to Professor Redwood for analysis. From
+this matter he extracted a large amount of antimony. Antimony was also
+discovered in the liver and other parts of the body, and it was
+concluded that altogether nearly forty grains of this poison must have
+been swallowed by the unfortunate man. How he came to swallow this
+enormous dose, whether the design was homicidal or suicidal, there was
+not the slightest evidence to show, or where the antimony was obtained.
+The whole affair was shrouded in mystery, and a mystery it remains.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+                          THE RUGELEY MYSTERY
+
+
+Strychnine is one of the active principles extracted from nux vomica,
+the singular disk-like seed of the _Strychnos Nux vomica_, a tree
+indigenous to most parts of India, Burma, Northern Australia, and
+other countries. Nux vomica was unknown to the ancients, and is said
+to have been introduced into medicine by the Arabs, but there is very
+little reliable record of it until the seventeenth century, when the
+seeds were chiefly used for poisoning animals and birds. Strychnine
+was discovered in 1818 by Pelletier and Caventou, and was first
+extracted from St. Ignatius’ bean, another species of strychnos in
+which it is present to the extent of about 1·5 per cent. Very soon
+afterwards it was extracted from nux vomica, which, being very
+plentiful, is now the chief source of the drug. It is extremely bitter
+in taste, and may be distinctly detected in a solution containing no
+more than one-six-hundred-thousandth part. For a considerable time
+after its discovery, the detection of strychnine in the body after
+death was a matter of great uncertainty, especially when only a small
+quantity had been administered; but now it is possible to detect the
+presence of one-five-thousandth part of a grain, and that even after
+some time has elapsed. It has been used for criminal purposes by
+several notorious poisoners, notably by Dove, Palmer, and Cream, but
+the symptoms produced are so marked, and its presence so clearly
+indicated, that detection now is almost certain.
+
+Among the celebrated trials of the last century was that of Dr. Palmer,
+who was charged with the wilful murder of John Parsons Cook, at Rugeley,
+in 1855. A special Act of Parliament was passed in order to have this
+case tried in London, where it was brought before Lord Chief Justice
+Campbell, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell, at the Central
+Criminal Court, on May 14, 1856. The Attorney-General, Mr. E. James,
+Q.C., with several other counsel, conducted the prosecution, and Palmer
+was defended by Mr. Serjeant Shee, Messrs. Grove, Q.C., Gray and
+Kenealy.
+
+The accused, who was a country doctor, had carried on a medical practice
+in Rugeley, a small town in Staffordshire, for some years. Becoming
+interested in racing he made his practice over to a man named Thirlby, a
+former assistant, and shortly afterwards made the acquaintance of John
+P. Cook over some betting transactions. Cook was a young man of good
+family, about twenty-eight years of age, and was intended for the legal
+profession. He was articled to a solicitor; but after a time, inheriting
+some property worth between twelve and fifteen thousand pounds, he
+abandoned law and commenced to keep race-horses. Meeting Palmer at
+various race-meetings, they soon became very intimate. In a very short
+time Palmer got into difficulties, and was compelled to raise money on
+bills. Things went from bad to worse, until he at last forged an
+acceptance to a bill in the name of his mother, who was possessed of
+considerable property. In 1854 he owed a large sum of money, and in the
+same year his wife died, whose life, it transpired, he had insured for
+£13,000. With this money he bought two race-horses; but in his betting
+transactions he lost heavily, and then commenced to borrow money from
+Cook, whose name he also forged on one occasion on the back of a cheque.
+He insured his brother’s life for £13,000, and very shortly after _he_
+died, the amount being also paid to Palmer. This money soon went, and at
+length he had two writs out against him for £4,000.
+
+In the meanwhile, Cook had been more successful than his friend in his
+racing ventures, and had won a considerable amount with a race-horse
+called Polestar. Polestar was entered for the Shrewsbury races on
+November 14, 1855, and Cook and Palmer went there and stayed with some
+friends at the same hotel in that town. On the evening of the races they
+were drinking brandy-and-water together. Cook asked Palmer to have some
+more, and the latter replied, “Not unless you finish your glass.” Cook,
+noticing that he had some still left in his tumbler, said, “I’ll soon do
+that,” and finished it at a draught. On swallowing it he immediately
+exclaimed, “There’s something in it burns my throat.” Palmer took up the
+glass and said, “Nonsense, there is nothing in it,” and called the
+attention of the others standing by. Cook then suddenly left the room,
+and was seized with violent vomiting. This became so bad that he soon
+had to be taken to bed, and appeared to be very seriously ill. Two hours
+later a medical man was sent for, who at once prescribed an emetic, and
+then a pill. He obtained relief from these, and by the morning the
+vomiting had ceased, and he was much better, though he still felt very
+unwell. They returned to Rugeley together, Cook taking rooms at an hotel
+directly opposite Palmer’s house. Cook was still confined to his room,
+and during the next few days was constantly visited by Palmer, and after
+each visit it was noticed the sickness commenced again. On one occasion
+Palmer had some broth prepared, which he specially wished Cook to take.
+The latter tried to swallow it, but was immediately sick. It was then
+taken downstairs, and a woman at the hotel, thinking it looked nice,
+took a couple of tablespoonsful of it, but within half an hour she was
+taken seriously ill and was obliged to go to bed, her symptoms being
+exactly like those of Cook when first taken ill at Shrewsbury. Three
+days afterwards a neighbouring doctor was called in, Palmer telling him
+that Cook was suffering from a bilious attack. Palmer then went off to
+London, his business being to try and arrange about the settlement of
+some debts that were pressing. From the time he left, it was noticed by
+the doctor that Cook’s condition rapidly improved and in a day or two he
+was able to leave his bed and be up and dressed. On Palmer’s return to
+Rugeley he at once went to see Cook and during the rest of his illness
+was constantly with him. On the evening of his return he also called on
+a surgeon’s assistant, with whom he was acquainted, and purchased from
+him three grains of strychnine. Cook was taking some pills which had
+been prescribed by the doctor and which had done him good. They were
+ordered to be taken at bed-time, and the box containing them was in his
+room. He was visited by Palmer about eleven o’clock the same night, and
+up to that time he was apparently well. After Palmer had left, about
+twelve o’clock the whole house was aroused by violent screams proceeding
+from Cook’s room. The servants rushed in and found him writhing in great
+agony, shouting “Murder!” He was evidently suffering intense pain, and
+soon was seized with convulsions. Palmer was at once sent for, and on
+his arrival Cook was gasping for breath, and hardly able to speak. He
+ran back to procure some medicine, which on his return he gave him, but
+the sick man at once threw it back. The attack gradually passed off, and
+by the morning he was somewhat better, but very weak. The same day
+Palmer visited a chemist he knew in the town, and purchased six grains
+of strychnine. During the afternoon a relative of Palmer’s, who was also
+a medical man, arrived on a visit to Rugeley, and he was taken to see
+Cook, and in the evening a consultation was held by the three medical
+men. They agreed to prescribe some medicine for the patient in the form
+of pills, which were prepared, and in the course of the evening were
+handed to Palmer, who was to administer the dose the last thing at
+night.
+
+About half-past ten Palmer gave Cook two of the pills, settled him
+comfortably for the night, and went home. At ten minutes to eleven Cook
+roused the house with a frightful scream, calling out, “I’m going to be
+ill as I was last night.” Palmer was sent for, and brought him two more
+pills, which he said contained ammonia, and gave them to Cook. Very
+shortly afterwards convulsions set in, which were followed by tetanus,
+and the unfortunate man died in a few minutes in great agony.
+
+The deceased man’s relatives were communicated with, and his
+father-in-law soon arrived in Rugeley. On Palmer being questioned about
+Cook’s affairs, he said that he held a paper drawn up by a lawyer, and
+signed by Cook stating that, in respect of £4,000 worth of bills, he
+(Cook) was alone liable, and Palmer had a claim for that amount against
+the estate. This, with other matters, aroused suspicion, and it was
+decided to hold a post-mortem examination on the body to ascertain the
+cause of death. Palmer was present at the examination and by his
+deliberate act the fluid contents of the stomach were lost. What
+portions of the body were recovered for analysis he did all he could to
+prevent from reaching the analysts. When the jars, etc., were being sent
+to London for examination by the Government analyst, he intercepted
+them, and offered the post-boy £10 to upset the conveyance and break
+them.
+
+The evidence offered at the trial was almost entirely circumstantial,
+and the medical testimony was very conflicting. It was supposed, in the
+first instance, Palmer had administered tartar emetic to his victim, but
+that for the fatal dose strychnine was used. It was proved Palmer had
+purchased strychnine under suspicious circumstances on the morning of
+the day on which Cook died, and could not account for the purchase of
+it, or state what he had done with it. The symptoms appeared at a time
+which would correspond to the interval that precedes the action of
+strychnine, being developed over the entire body and limbs in a few
+minutes, suddenly and with violence. None of the pills could be obtained
+for analysis.
+
+Dr. Taylor, who made the analytical examination, was unable to find any
+trace of strychnine in the portions submitted to him, but he found half
+a grain of antimony in the blood; but judging from the clinical symptoms
+before death he believed Cook died from the effects of strychnine. The
+great point in the case was, did the tetanic symptoms, under which the
+deceased man died, depend on disease or poison? Doctors Brodie,
+Christison and Todd, and other eminent authorities of the time agreed
+that when taken as a whole they were not in accordance with any form of
+disease, but were in perfect accordance with the effects of strychnine.
+On the other hand, medical men called for the defence testified that
+tetanus might be caused by natural disease, and the deceased might have
+died from angina pectoris or epilepsy. In spite of the absence of
+confirmatory chemical evidence and proof of the presence of strychnine
+in the body, after one hour and seventeen minutes’ deliberation, the
+jury returned a verdict of “Guilty,” and Palmer was sentenced to death,
+the trial having lasted twelve days.
+
+The rigid and fixed condition of the limbs is a marked feature after
+poisoning by strychnine. In the Horsford case, in which a farmer named
+Walter Horsford was convicted of the murder of his cousin Annie Holmes,
+at St. Neots, in 1897, 3·69 grains of strychnine were recovered from the
+internal organs, after the body was exhumed, _nineteen days_ after
+death. Even then, rigidity was very marked, especially in the lower
+limbs and fingers. The same rigidity was remarked by Dr. Stevenson in
+the case of Matilda Clover, who was poisoned by Neill Cream with
+strychnine in 1891. In this case, the body had been buried _from October
+until May_, and the rigidity in the limbs and fingers was still
+maintained. Dr. Stevenson stated that usually when persons are suffering
+from strychnine poisoning, they are very apprehensive of death. He had
+known a woman say, “I am going to die” before any intimation of symptoms
+had occurred. The first apprehension is, that some terrible calamity is
+about to take place.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+                       THE CASE OF DR. PRITCHARD
+
+
+The remarkable case of Dr. E. W. Pritchard, of Glasgow, who was arrested
+and charged with murdering his wife and mother-in-law in that city in
+the year 1865, excited great interest at the time. The respectable
+position occupied by the accused man in Glasgow, and the practice as a
+physician which he had been enabled to attain in the course of his six
+years’ residence there, awakened an unusual degree of attention in the
+public mind when the fact of his apprehension became known. The
+excitement was strengthened by the mystery invariably attached to the
+prosecution of all criminal inquiries in Scotland.
+
+It transpired that for some time previous to her decease, Mrs. Pritchard
+had been in a delicate state of health, and her mother, Mrs. Taylor,
+wife of Mr. Taylor, a silk weaver, of Edinburgh, had gone to Glasgow to
+nurse her during her illness. Mrs. Taylor took up her abode in the house
+of Dr. Pritchard, and ministered to her daughter’s comfort; but while so
+engaged she became ill, and died suddenly, about three weeks previous to
+the day on which the accused man was apprehended. The cause of death was
+assigned to apoplexy, and as the lady was about seventy years of age no
+suspicions were aroused, and the body was conveyed to Edinburgh and
+buried in the Grange Cemetery.
+
+Circumstances closely following on this, however, awakened grave
+suspicions. Mrs. Pritchard died shortly after her mother, and a report
+was circulated that she had succumbed to gastric fever. The family grave
+at the Grange cemetery was fixed on as the place of interment, and
+arrangements were made for the funeral without delay. The body was taken
+to Edinburgh by rail, and Dr. Pritchard accompanied it to the house of
+his father-in-law, where it was to await interment. The deaths of the
+two ladies occurring within so short an interval of each other, coupled
+with certain hints which they had received, set the police on the alert,
+and while Dr. Pritchard was absent in Edinburgh they instituted
+inquiries, which led to a warrant being issued for his apprehension. On
+his return to Glasgow, previous to the day fixed for the funeral, he was
+arrested at the railway station in Queen Street and conveyed to the
+police station.
+
+Meanwhile the authorities had transmitted to Edinburgh information of
+what had been done, and at the same time had issued a warrant for a
+post-mortem examination on the body of Mrs. Pritchard. This was
+entrusted to Professor Douglas Maclagan, assisted by Drs. Arthur Gamgee
+and Littlejohn. The result of the post-mortem proved that death had not
+resulted from natural causes, and a subsequent examination disclosed the
+presence of minute particles of antimony in the liver.
+
+The case now assumed a grave and mysterious aspect, and the authorities
+resolved to carry the investigations further. The next step was to order
+the exhumation of the body of Mrs. Taylor. This having been effected,
+the internal organs were submitted to analysis by Professor Maclagan,
+Dr. Littlejohn, and Professor Penny, of Glasgow, who, after a protracted
+examination, reported that the death of Mrs. Taylor, like that of her
+daughter, was due to poisoning by antimony. On these facts being
+elicited, Dr. Pritchard was fully committed on the charge of murdering
+Jane Taylor, his mother-in-law, and Mary Jane Pritchard, his wife.
+
+The trial opened on July 3, 1865, at the High Court of Justiciary,
+Edinburgh, before the Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Ardmillan, and Lord
+Jerviswoode, the Solicitor-General prosecuting for the Crown, while the
+prisoner was defended by Messrs. A. R. Clark, Watson and Brand.
+
+Evidence was given that Mrs. Pritchard was first taken ill in the
+October of 1864, with constant vomiting, often accompanied by severe
+cramp. After being treated by her husband for some time, and getting no
+better, at her own request a Dr. Gardiner was called in, and her mother,
+Mrs. Taylor, came from Edinburgh to nurse her.
+
+While on this visit to her daughter, Mrs. Taylor, on February 24, 1865,
+complained of feeling unwell. The next day she was found insensible,
+sitting on her chair in her daughter’s room, and died the same night.
+From this time, Mrs. Pritchard got gradually worse, and died within
+three weeks afterwards.
+
+Mary McLeod, a girl who had been in the service of the prisoner,
+admitted that he had familiar relations with her, and that this fact was
+known to Mrs. Pritchard. The doctor had also made her presents, and told
+her he would marry her if his wife died.
+
+Dr. Paterson, a medical practitioner, of Glasgow, who was called in to
+see Mrs. Taylor, stated Pritchard told him the old lady was in the habit
+of taking Batley’s solution of opium, and a few days before her death
+she had purchased a half-pound bottle. When he saw her, he was convinced
+her symptoms betokened that she was under the depressing influence of
+antimony, and not opium. He therefore refused to give a certificate of
+death.
+
+Pritchard eventually signed the certificate himself, stating the primary
+cause of death had been paralysis and the secondary cause apoplexy. He
+further certified Mrs. Pritchard’s death as due to gastric fever.
+
+It was proved on the evidence of two chemists, that Pritchard was in the
+habit of purchasing tartarated antimony in large quantities, and also
+Fleming’s tincture of aconite.
+
+Dr. Maclagan, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of
+Edinburgh, was called to give the result of the chemical examination of
+the various organs of the body of Mrs. Pritchard, which had been
+retained for analysis. Antimony, corresponding to one-fourth of a grain
+of tartar emetic, was found in the urine, in small quantities in the
+bile and the blood, and as much as four grains in the whole liver.
+Evidence of the presence of antimony was also found in the spleen,
+kidney, muscular substance of the heart, coats of the stomach and
+rectum, the brain and uterus.
+
+Antimony was also detected in various stains on linen and articles of
+clothing, which had been worn by Mrs. Pritchard during her illness.
+
+From these results Dr. Maclagan concluded that Mrs. Pritchard had taken
+a large quantity of antimony in the form of tartar emetic, which caused
+her death, and that from the extent to which the whole organs and fluids
+of the body were impregnated with the drug, it must have been given in
+repeated doses up to within a few hours of her decease.
+
+The result of the chemical examination of the various organs of the body
+of Mrs. Taylor, which was exhumed for this purpose, revealed the
+presence of 0·279, or a little more than a quarter of a grain of
+antimony in the contents of the stomach. Antimony was also found in the
+blood, and 1·151 grain was recovered from the liver.
+
+Dr. Penny, who made an independent analysis, found distinct evidence of
+antimony in the liver, spleen, kidney, brain, heart, blood, and rectum,
+but no trace of morphine or aconite. He also came to the conclusion that
+Mrs. Pritchard’s death had resulted from the effects of antimony.
+
+Antimony was found mixed with tapioca contained in a packet discovered
+in the house, also in a bottle containing Batley’s solution of opium
+found in the prisoner’s surgery.
+
+Dr. Littlejohn, surgeon to the Edinburgh police, who was present at the
+post-mortem examination of both women, gave his opinion that Mrs.
+Pritchard’s death had been due to the administration of antimony in
+small quantities, and that continuously. In Mrs. Taylor’s case he
+believed some strong narcotic poison had been administered with the
+antimony.
+
+This opinion was further endorsed by Dr. Paterson. Evidence was offered,
+that Pritchard had been in the habit of purchasing large quantities of
+Batley’s solution of opium, which the manufacturers swore contained no
+antimony. For the defence it was urged that there was no proof whatever
+that poison had been administered by the prisoner, who had always lived
+on affectionate terms with his wife, and that the motive suggested was
+of the most trifling nature; that the stronger suspicion pointed to the
+maidservant, Mary McLeod, on whose uncorroborated statements the chief
+evidence against the prisoner lay. The senior counsel for the prisoner
+(Mr. Clark) concluded his address by stating that the Crown had admitted
+there were but two persons who could have committed the crime—the
+prisoner and Mary McLeod. Mary McLeod’s hand had been found in
+connection with every one of the acts in which poison was said to have
+been administered in the food. The case against the prisoner seemed to
+depend on a series of suspicions and probabilities, and not upon legal
+proof, and upon these grounds he asked for a verdict of acquittal.
+
+The summing up of the Lord Justice-Clerk occupied three hours and twenty
+minutes, on the conclusion of which the jury retired to consider their
+verdict. After an absence of fifty-five minutes they returned with the
+following verdict, “The jury unanimously find the prisoner guilty of
+both charges as libelled.”
+
+Dr. Pritchard was thereupon sentenced to death, and was executed at
+Glasgow on July 28, 1865.
+
+There can be little doubt that he fully deserved his fate.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+                         THE CASE OF DR. LAMSON
+
+
+The only case on record in which the active principle of aconite has
+been used for the purpose of criminal poisoning is that of Dr. Lamson,
+who suffered the extreme penalty of the law for administering the drug
+to Percy Malcolm John, and thereby causing his death. The story is
+remarkable for the cold-blooded way in which the murder was carried out.
+
+George Henry Lamson, a surgeon in impecunious circumstances, had a
+reversionary interest, through his wife, in a sum of £1,500, which would
+come to him on the death of his brother-in-law, Percy Malcolm John. The
+latter, a sickly youth of eighteen years of age, was paralysed in his
+lower limbs from old-standing spinal disease.
+
+At the beginning of December, 1881, Lamson went down to the school where
+John had been placed as a boarder, and had an interview with him in the
+presence of the head master, professing at the same time a kindly
+interest in the youth and his health. During the interview he produced
+some gelatine capsules, one of which he offered to the head master in
+order that he might see how easily it dissolved in the mouth, and
+another he filled with a white powder presumed to be sugar and gave to
+his brother-in-law. Directly after seeing him swallow it he took his
+departure. Within a quarter of an hour, the boy became unwell, saying he
+felt the same as when Lamson had given him a quinine pill on a former
+occasion, also adding “My skin feels all drawn up and my throat
+burning.”
+
+Violent vomiting soon set in, and he became unable to swallow. This was
+rapidly followed by delirium, and in three hours and three-quarters
+death ensued.
+
+A post-mortem examination was ordered, and the organs of the body,
+together with the remainder of the capsules, and various pills and
+powders found in the boy’s room which had been sent to him at different
+times by Dr. Lamson, were sent for analysis. Meanwhile from information
+received by the police from another quarter Lamson was arrested and
+charged with the murder of his brother-in-law.
+
+The trial began on March 9, 1882, before Mr. Justice Hawkins, the
+Solicitor-General, Mr. Poland, appearing for the prosecution, and Mr.
+Montagu Williams and others for the defence.
+
+The Solicitor-General in his opening speech stated, that the post-mortem
+on the body revealed the fact, that the only sign of disease was the
+old-standing curvature of the spine and evidence of paralysis in the
+lower extremities. There was much, however, that called for remark in
+the condition of the stomach and other organs. The conclusion that the
+medical men came to was, that there was no natural cause to account for
+death, but that the state of the stomach indicated that death had
+resulted from poison—not what was called a local irritant poison, but
+some vegetable poison which had acted upon the nerves and other centres.
+
+Dr. Stevenson, who, together with Dr. Dupré, had conducted the analysis,
+gave evidence, and began by stating that he had received besides the
+organs of the body, certain packets of pills, powders, sugar, etc.
+Working in collaboration with Dr. Dupré, he applied a modification of
+Stas’s process to the liver, spleen and kidneys, and the result obtained
+was an alkaloidal extract which contained a trace of morphine, and when
+placed on the tongue gave a faint sensation like that produced by
+aconitine. The contents of the stomach, treated by the same process,
+also revealed an alkaloidal extract which when tasted produced the same
+faint sensation as that of aconitine. “When placed on the tongue,” he
+continued, “the contact caused a burning sensation which extended to the
+lip, although the extract did not touch the lip. The character of the
+sensation was a burning and a tingling, a kind of numbness. It is
+difficult to describe. It produced a salivation, a desire to expectorate
+and a sensation at the back of the throat as if it were swelling up, and
+this was followed by a peculiar seared feeling as if a hot iron had been
+drawn over the tongue, or some strong caustic placed upon it.
+
+“The effect of aconitine is a burning feeling extending down towards the
+stomach. It is a sickening feeling peculiar to this substance. I have
+never found it in any other alkaloid, and I have tasted a great number.
+
+“With a portion of the alkaloidal extract,” Dr. Stevenson proceeded, “I
+made an experiment. I dissolved it and injected it beneath the skin of a
+mouse. The animal was obviously affected in two minutes. From that time
+onward it exhibited symptoms of poisoning and died in thirty minutes
+from the time of the injection of the substance. I then made a similar
+experiment with Morson’s preparation of aconitine, procured specially
+for this purpose. I dissolved it in the same solution that I had used
+for the extract and operated with it on the mouse in the same manner.
+The effect was indistinguishable from that of the extract.”
+
+This same experiment was repeated with extracts made from the different
+organs, and each time the same result was obtained. On analysis of the
+vomit an alkaloidal extract was again obtained. Dr. Stevenson applied
+this to his tongue and found it had a very powerful result, the effect
+lasting markedly for six and a half hours. On an injection being made
+into the back of a mouse it was severely affected in two and a half
+minutes and death resulted in fifteen minutes. “Parallel results,” he
+stated, “were obtained with aconitine. In my judgment the vomit
+contained a considerable quantity of aconitine. Approximately, it was
+not less than one-seventh and not more than one-fourth of a grain. There
+has only been one fatal case that I know of in which aconitine has
+caused the death of a human being, and the quantity that proved
+fatal—the quantity that actually caused death—was known not to be less
+than one-thirteenth of a grain.”
+
+Dr. Stevenson then described the results of the analysis of the various
+powders, pills, etc., that had been handed to him. In the sweetmeats,
+cake and sugar he found no trace of poison at all. He then turned to the
+quinine powders, of which there were fourteen. “My attention,” he said,
+“was called to one by Dr. Dupré. It was a little different in colour, as
+also were two others, and was obvious to the trained eye. An analysis of
+one revealed 0·83 gr. of aconitine and 0·93 gr. of quinine.” On testing
+one of the pills also, he came to the conclusion that it contained 0·45,
+or nearly half a grain of aconitine.
+
+The capsules were handed to the judge, who remarked that the half grain
+took up barely one-tenth of the space in the capsule.
+
+In the course of the trial it transpired that the prisoner had become
+possessed of aconitine a few days before the crime was committed. On the
+11th of November he had been to a chemist in Oxford St., and had a
+prescription made up consisting of atropine and morphine. On the 16th he
+called again and asked for a grain of digitalin, saying it was for
+external use. The liquid in the bottle was found to be discoloured, and
+the assistant, fearing it might be impure, refused to supply it. A few
+days later Dr. Lamson called again and asked for some aconitine. The
+assistant, knowing this was a poison of a very dangerous character,
+declined to supply it and advised him to go where he was better known.
+
+Dr. Lamson then went on November 24th to a firm of chemists in the city
+and asked for two grains of aconitine. Asked for his name, he wrote
+George H. Lamson, Bournemouth, and the name being in the Medical
+Directory, he was duly supplied with the required amount. When the name
+of Dr. Lamson appeared in the newspapers in connection with the death of
+Percy John, the assistant who had supplied the poison drew the attention
+of his employers to the circumstance, and the police were communicated
+with.
+
+Mr. Montagu Williams, for the defence, urged that the results of Dr.
+Stevenson’s and Dr. Dupré’s experiments were consistent with other
+causes and suggested that the extracts which were so fatal to the mice
+might contain certain animal poisons, the result of decomposition. He
+contended that it had been admitted that very little was known of
+aconitine, and that therefore these tests were not to be relied upon.
+The proper verdict, he submitted, would be the Scottish one of “Non
+Proven,” and as that was not possible in England, the prisoner was
+entitled to an acquittal. He reminded the jury of the weak state of the
+boy’s health, and the general expectation that he would not live long.
+
+The judge, in summing up, said the question for the jury to decide was
+whether they were satisfied the deceased came to his death by poison,
+and if so whether the poison was administered by the prisoner. It was
+for the prosecution to prove the guilt of the prisoner, and if they
+failed to do so the case was at an end. The trial lasted for six days,
+and after the summing up, the jury retired, returning after an absence
+of twenty-five minutes, with a verdict of “Guilty.” The judge then
+pronounced sentence of death on Lamson, which was duly carried out on
+August 28, 1882.
+
+According to evidence at the trial, it is probable that Lamson had made
+several previous attempts on the boy’s life with aconitine in the form
+of pills and powders, which he had given him under the pretence of
+prescribing for his ailments. The money to which he was entitled on the
+death of John doubtless supplied the motive for the crime.
+
+Lamson, as a medical man, no doubt knew that there was no chemical test
+for aconitine, and that it would not be likely to be detected during the
+post-mortem. In fact, there was nothing to show after the autopsy that
+the cause of death was not natural, and it was only the few words
+uttered by the dying boy, alluding to his sensations, which gave the
+clue to the scientific investigators.
+
+The difficulty of proving the presence of a rare vegetable alkaloid in
+the body after death was, no doubt, duly considered by Lamson when he
+fixed on aconitine as the medium for his evil design, but science proved
+the master of the criminal, and the evidence of the instrument by which
+the crime was committed was proved indisputably.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+                          THE PIMLICO MYSTERY
+
+
+Chloroform belongs to the class of neurotic poisons which act on the
+brain, and produce loss of sensation. It is a colourless, heavy and
+volatile liquid, having a peculiar ethereal odour which cannot be easily
+mistaken, and a sweet pungent taste when diluted. For producing
+insensibility it requires both careful and experienced administration,
+and more lives have been lost by carelessness in using than from the
+noxious character of the drug.
+
+The stories that appear from time to time, of persons who have been
+rendered unconscious simply by waving a chloroformed handkerchief before
+the face, usually emanate from the fertile brain of some imaginative
+journalist. As an internal poison chloroform has rarely been used,
+although there are many cases on record where persons have accustomed
+themselves to drinking chloroform, until they have been able to swallow
+it in very large quantities. The one recorded instance in which it was
+alleged to have been used internally for the criminal destruction of
+life was in the remarkable case known as the “Pimlico Mystery.”
+
+The trial of Adelaide Bartlett, for the wilful murder of her husband by
+administering chloroform to him, was held before Mr. Justice Wills at
+the Central Criminal Court on April 12, 1886, and lasted for six days.
+The case attracted considerable attention and interest throughout, which
+culminated in a dramatic scene at the close, and the acquittal of the
+accused woman. The strange relations which existed between Mrs. Bartlett
+and her husband, with whose murder she was charged, the yet more strange
+relations between her and the man who in the first instance was included
+in the accusation, together with the exceptional circumstances of his
+acquittal and his immediate appearance in the witness-box, formed a case
+of peculiar dramatic interest.
+
+Thomas Edwin Bartlett was a grocer, having several shops in the suburbs
+of London, and at the time of his death was forty years of age. In 1875
+he married a young French girl named Adelaide Blanche de la Tremoille,
+who was a native of Orléans, whom he met at the house of his brother.
+After the marriage he sent her to a boarding-school at Stoke Newington,
+and she lived with her husband only during the vacation. At a later
+period she went to a convent school in Belgium, where she remained for
+about eighteen months, after which she rejoined her husband, and settled
+down to live in London. During Christmas of 1881 she gave birth to a
+stillborn child, which so affected her that she came to the resolution
+that she would have no more children. Some four years later Mr. Bartlett
+and his wife made the acquaintance of the Rev. George Dyson, a young
+Wesleyan minister, who soon became on terms of great social intimacy,
+visiting and dining with them frequently. The admiration for their
+friend seems to have been common to both husband and wife. In 1885 Edwin
+Bartlett made a will, leaving all he possessed to his wife, and making
+Mr. Dyson and his solicitors his executors. Shortly afterwards the
+Bartletts removed to furnished apartments in Claverton Street, Pimlico,
+where they apparently lived on good terms, and were still frequently
+visited by their friend Mr. Dyson.
+
+On December 10, in the same year, Mr. Bartlett became seriously ill.
+Peculiar symptoms developed, which excited the curiosity and surprise of
+the medical man called in to attend him. The state of his gums suggested
+to the doctor that the illness was due to mercury, which in some way was
+being administered to him, and he complained of nervous depression and
+sleeplessness. He appeared to be gradually recovering from this, but on
+December 19 Mr. Bartlett himself suggested that a second doctor should
+be called in, lest, as he put it, “his friends should suspect, if
+anything happened to him, that his wife was poisoning him.” The cause
+for this was put down to some ill-feeling which had formerly existed
+between Mrs. Bartlett and her husband’s father. A second practitioner,
+therefore, was called in, and the patient, on December 26, though still
+weak, was practically well and went out for a drive.
+
+The next day Mrs. Bartlett asked Mr. Dyson, who was constantly calling
+at the house, to procure for her a considerable quantity of chloroform,
+which she told him she had used before on her husband for some internal
+ailment of long standing, and that this internal affection had upon
+previous occasions given him paroxysms. She further expressed a belief
+that he might die suddenly in one of these attacks. Dyson seems meekly
+to have yielded to her request, and obtained three different lots of
+chloroform, in all six ounces, from various chemists, giving the reason
+that he required it for taking out grease spots, and placed it all
+together in one bottle. Two days after, he met Mrs. Bartlett on the
+Embankment and handed her the chloroform.
+
+During his illness, Mr. Bartlett had slept on a camp bedstead in the
+front drawing-room, his wife occupying a sofa in the same room. On
+December 31 he was apparently in good health, and about half-past ten
+o’clock in the evening, Mrs. Bartlett told the servant she required
+nothing else and retired with her husband for the night. At four o’clock
+in the morning the house was aroused by Mrs. Bartlett, and it was
+discovered her husband was dead in bed.
+
+The statement made by the lady was, that when her husband had settled
+for the night she sat down at the foot of the bed with her hand resting
+upon his feet. She dozed off in her chair, but awoke with a sensation of
+cramp, and was horrified to find her husband’s feet were deathly cold.
+She tried to pour some brandy down his throat, and then found he was
+dead. She then aroused the household. The first person who entered the
+room was the landlord, who noticed a peculiar smell that reminded him of
+chloric ether. The doctor was promptly sent for, but from external
+examination could find nothing to account for death. The only bottle
+found was one that contained a drop or two of chlorodyne. A post-mortem
+examination was held, and the stomach showed evidence of having
+contained a considerable quantity of chloroform. There was no internal
+disease or growth, the organs being quite healthy, and nothing to
+account for death beyond the chloroform, which the medical men concluded
+must have been the cause of death.
+
+The coroner’s inquiry resulted in a verdict of wilful murder against
+Adelaide Bartlett and George Dyson, and they were both arrested.
+
+At the trial, the Crown decided to offer no evidence against Dyson, and,
+after being indicted and pleading “Not guilty,” he was discharged by the
+judge to be called as a witness.
+
+A brilliant array of counsel were engaged on the case, Sir Charles
+Russell had charge of the prosecution, while the defence of Mrs.
+Bartlett was entrusted to Sir Edward Clarke, and that of Mr. Dyson to
+Mr. Lockwood.
+
+Dyson’s examination occupied nearly the whole of the second day of the
+trial, during which he detailed the form of the intimacy between Mrs.
+Bartlett and himself. He related how he procured the chloroform and
+disposed of the bottles after hearing the result of the post-mortem by
+throwing them away on Wandsworth Common while on his way to preach at
+Tooting. He was in the habit of kissing Mrs. Bartlett, and usually
+called her Adelaide. He had had conversations with Mr. Bartlett on the
+subject of marriage, and had heard him express the opinion that a man
+should have two wives, one to look after the household duties, and
+another to be a companion and confidante. He had told Mr. Bartlett he
+was becoming attached to his wife, but the latter seemed to encourage
+it, and asked him to continue the intimacy. He did not mention the
+matter of having procured the chloroform for Mrs. Bartlett until he had
+heard the result of the post-mortem.
+
+The medical man called in to attend Mr. Bartlett during his illness
+described the condition in which he found him, and his recovery from the
+illness. He also gave an account of a very extraordinary statement,
+which was made to him by Mrs. Bartlett after the death of her husband.
+It was as follows. At the age of sixteen years she was selected by Mr.
+Bartlett as a wife for companionship only, and for whom no carnal
+feeling should be entertained. The marriage compact was, that they
+should live together simply as loving friends. This rule was faithfully
+observed for about six years of their married life, and then only broken
+at her earnest and repeated entreaty that she should be permitted to be
+really a wife and a mother. The child was stillborn, and from that time
+the two lived together, but their relations were not those of matrimony.
+Her husband showed great affection for her of an ultra-platonic kind,
+and encouraged her to pursue various studies, which she did to please
+him. He affected to admire her, and liked to surround her with male
+acquaintances, and enjoy their attentions to her. Then they became
+acquainted with Dyson. Her husband conceived a great liking for him, and
+threw them together. He requested them to kiss in his presence and
+seemed to enjoy it, and gave her to understand that he had “given her”
+to Mr. Dyson. As her husband gradually recovered from his illness he
+expressed a wish that they should resume the ordinary relations of man
+and wife, but she resented it. She therefore sought for some means to
+prevent his desire, and for this purpose she asked Dyson to procure the
+chloroform.
+
+On the night of his death, some conversation of this kind had taken
+place between them, and when he was in bed she brought the bottle of
+chloroform. She gave it to him, informing him of her intention to
+sprinkle some upon a handkerchief and wave it in his face, thinking that
+thereby he would go peacefully to sleep. He looked at the bottle and
+placed it by the side of the low bed, then, turning over on his side,
+apparently went to sleep. She fell asleep also, sitting at the foot of
+the bed, with her arm round his foot; she heard him snoring, then woke
+again, and found he was dead.
+
+Dr. Stevenson, who made the analysis, gave evidence as to finding eleven
+and a quarter grains of pure chloroform in the stomach of the deceased,
+but, judging from the time that had elapsed and the very volatile nature
+of the liquid, a large quantity must have been swallowed. No other
+poisons were found. The jury, after deliberating nearly two hours,
+returned a verdict of “Not guilty,” and Mrs. Bartlett was acquitted.
+
+There was no evidence to prove that chloroform had been administered to
+Mr. Bartlett, and it was suggested that he had awoke, and by mistake
+swallowed some of the contents of the bottle.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+                           THE MAYBRICK CASE
+
+
+On July 31, 1889, one the most remarkable poisoning cases on record was
+tried before Mr. Justice Stephen, at the Liverpool Assizes. The trial,
+which lasted eight days, excited the keenest interest in the locality
+and throughout the country, especially as the principal actors in the
+tragedy were people of good social position and well known. The accused,
+Mrs. Florence Maybrick, wife of a Liverpool merchant, was charged with
+causing the death of her husband by administering arsenic to him.
+
+About the end of April, 1889, Mr. James Maybrick, who lived at
+Grassendale, near Liverpool, was seized with a peculiar illness, of
+which the main symptoms consisted of a rigidity of the limbs and a
+general feeling of sickness which quite prostrated him, and eventually
+confined him to bed. The local medical man who was called in to attend
+him, attributed the cause to extreme irritability of the stomach and
+treated him accordingly. Becoming puzzled by the persistent sickness and
+the rapidly increasing weakness of his patient, he called a physician in
+consultation. From this time he grew considerably worse and severer
+symptoms set in, which caused the doctors to suspect the cause was due
+to some irritant poison. This was confirmed by the discovery that
+arsenic had been placed in a bottle of meat-juice that was being
+administered to the sick man. At the instance of the physician called in
+consultation, trained nurses were placed in charge, and a close watch
+kept on the patient, but without avail, and he died on May 11.
+
+From statements made to the police, suspicions were aroused, Mrs.
+Maybrick was arrested, and eventually charged with the wilful murder of
+her husband.
+
+From evidence given at the trial, it transpired that the relations
+between husband and wife had not been of the most cordial character for
+some time. There were frequent disagreements, and just before Mr.
+Maybrick was taken ill there had been a serious quarrel, resulting from
+his wife’s relations with another man. The lady resented the accusation,
+and a separation was contemplated. The fatal illness then intervened,
+during the first portion of which Mrs. Maybrick nursed her husband. A
+letter addressed to her lover, which she had given to a nursemaid to
+post, was opened by the girl and handed to Mr. Maybrick’s brother,
+trained nurses were called in and the sick man placed in their sole
+charge. This letter, which formed one of the strongest pieces of
+evidence against the accused, revealed the connection between Mrs.
+Maybrick and her lover, and conveyed the intelligence to him that her
+husband was “sick unto death.” Evidence was also given by the servants
+of fly-papers having been seen in process of maceration in water in Mrs.
+Maybrick’s bedroom. The trained nurses also gave evidence concerning the
+suspicious conduct of Mrs. Maybrick in tampering with the medicines and
+meat-juice which were to be administered to the patient. These
+suspicions culminated in the discovery of arsenic in a bottle of
+meat-juice by one of the medical attendants. Considerable quantities of
+arsenic were found by the police in the house, including a packet
+containing seventy-one grains, mixed with charcoal, and labelled “Poison
+for cats.”
+
+The analytical examination was conducted by Dr. Stevenson and Mr. Edward
+Davis, a Liverpool analyst, who discovered traces of arsenic in the
+intestines, and 0·049 of a grain of arsenic in the liver, traces of the
+poison being also found in the spleen. Arsenic was also found in various
+medicine bottles, on handkerchiefs, in bottles of glycerin, and in the
+pocket of a dressing-gown belonging to the accused. Dr. Stevenson stated
+that he believed the body of the deceased at the time of death probably
+contained a fatal dose of arsenic.
+
+The scientific evidence adduced at the trial was of a very conflicting
+character. On one hand, the medical men who attended the deceased, and
+the Government analyst, swore they believed that death was caused from
+the effects of arsenic; while on the other, Dr. Tidy, who was called for
+the defence, stated as an expert that the quantity of arsenic discovered
+in the body did not point to the fact that an overdose had been
+administered. He believed that death had been due to gastro-enteritis of
+some kind or other, but that the symptoms and post-mortem appearances
+distinctly pointed away from arsenic as the cause of death. Dr.
+Macnamara, ex-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, also
+stated that in his opinion Mr. Maybrick’s death had not been caused by
+arsenical poisoning and that he agreed with Dr. Tidy that the cause was
+gastro-enteritis, unconnected with arsenical poisoning. For the defence,
+it was also urged that the deceased man had been in the habit of taking
+arsenic in considerable quantities for some years. In support of this,
+witnesses were called to prove that he had been in the habit of taking a
+mysterious white powder, and that while living in America, he frequently
+purchased arsenic from chemists, who knew he was in the habit of taking
+it. A negro, who had been in the service of the deceased in America,
+also deposed to seeing him take this white powder in beef tea.
+
+Sir Charles Russell, in his speech for the defence, stated that Mr.
+Maybrick had been in the habit of taking arsenic for many years, and was
+a man who prided himself on his knowledge of medicine. What was more
+likely than that he should have had a supply of that poison in the
+house, and that he had ultimately dosed himself to death with it?
+
+After the last witness for the defence had left the box, Sir Charles
+Russell held a rapid consultation with Mrs. Maybrick. A glance of
+dissatisfaction crossed his face as he turned to the judge and asked if
+the prisoner might make a statement. The judge replied in the
+affirmative and the accused woman rose to her feet, and in a low voice
+broken by emotion read the following plea from a written paper she held
+in her hand, amid the breathless silence of those in court:—
+
+
+“My Lord, I wish to make a statement, as well as I can, about a few
+facts in connection with the dreadful and crushing charge against me—the
+charge of poisoning my husband and father of my dear children. I wish
+principally to refer to the fly-paper solution. The fly-papers I bought
+with the intention of using the solution as a cosmetic. Before my
+marriage, and since for many years, I have been in the habit of using
+this wash for the face prescribed for me by Dr. Graves, of Brooklyn. It
+consisted, I believe, principally, of arsenic, tincture of benzoin,
+elder-flower water, and some other ingredients. This prescription I lost
+or mislaid last April, and as at the time I was suffering from an
+eruption on the face, I thought I should like to try and make a
+substitute myself. I was anxious to get rid of this eruption before I
+went to a ball on the 30th of that month. When I had been in Germany
+among my young friends there, I had seen used a solution derived from
+fly-papers soaked in elder-flower water, and then applied to the face
+with a handkerchief well soaked in the solution. I procured the
+fly-papers and used them in the same manner, and to avoid evaporation I
+put the solution into a bottle so as to avoid as much as possible the
+admission of the air. For this purpose I put a plate over the
+fly-papers, then a folded towel over that, and then another towel over
+that. My mother has been aware for a great many years that I have used
+arsenic in solution. I now wish to speak of his illness. On Thursday
+night, May 9, after the nurse had given my husband medicine I went and
+sat on the bed beside him. He complained to me of feeling very sick,
+very weak and very restless. He implored me then again to give him a
+powder which he had referred to earlier in the evening, and which I
+declined to give him. I was over-wrought, terribly anxious, miserably
+unhappy, and his evident distress utterly unnerved me. As he told me the
+powder would not harm him, and that I could put it in his food, I then
+consented. My Lord, I had not one true or honest friend in the house. I
+had no one to consult, no one to advise me. I was deposed from my
+position as mistress of my own house, and from the position of attending
+on my husband, and notwithstanding that he was so ill, and
+notwithstanding the evidence of the nurses and the servants, I may say
+that he missed me whenever I was not with him; whenever I was out of the
+room he asked for me, and four days before he died I was not allowed to
+give him a piece of ice without its being taken out of my hand. I took
+the meat-juice into the inner room. On going through the door I spilled
+some of the liquid from the bottle, and in order to make up the quantity
+spilled I put in a considerable quantity of water. On returning into the
+room I found my husband asleep. I placed the bottle on the table near
+the window. As he did not ask for anything then, and as I was not
+anxious to give him anything, I removed it from the small table where it
+attracted his attention and put it on the washstand where he could not
+see it. There I left it. Until Tuesday, May 14, the Tuesday after my
+husband’s death, till a few moments before the terrible charge was made
+against me, no one in that house had informed me of the fact that a
+death certificate had been refused—or that there was any reason to
+suppose that my husband had died from any other than natural causes. It
+was only when a witness alluded to the presence of arsenic in the
+meat-juice that I was made aware of the nature of the powder my husband
+had been taking. In conclusion, I only wish to say that for the love of
+our children, and for the sake of their future, a perfect reconciliation
+had taken place between us, and on the day before his death I made a
+full and free confession to him.”
+
+
+It was evident from Sir Charles Russell’s manner when he rose to make
+his final appeal that Mrs. Maybrick had made her statement against his
+wish, but he still fought valiantly in her cause, and urged that if it
+had not been for the act of infidelity on her part there could be no
+motive assigned in the case, and surely, he declared, there was a wide
+difference between the grave moral guilt of unfaithfulness and the
+criminal act involved in the deliberate plotting, by such wicked means,
+the felonious death of her husband. He closed his eloquent and brilliant
+appeal by putting two questions to the jury:—
+
+1. Was there clear, safe and satisfactory unequivocal proof that death
+was in fact caused by arsenical poisoning?
+
+2. Had the accused woman administered that poison, if to the poison the
+death of her husband was due?
+
+On the eighth day of the trial the judge summed up the evidence and the
+jury retired at 3.15, and had barely been absent thirty-eight minutes
+when they returned to the court with the verdict of “Guilty.”
+
+On being asked by the clerk if she had anything to say, Mrs. Maybrick
+replied “I have been found guilty, but excepting my moral fault I am not
+guilty.” The judge then passed sentence of death.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  [_Copyright._
+
+  BOTTLE OF MEAT JUICE AND A BOTTLE CONTAINING MEAT JUICE AND WATER
+    EXHIBITED IN THE MAYBRICK CASE.
+]
+
+The sentence aroused considerable feeling and the country was divided
+into two parties, one protesting that Mrs. Maybrick was innocent, and
+the other that she was guilty. An agitation was at once made for a
+reprieve, which ended in a respite being granted and the sentence being
+commuted to penal servitude for life.
+
+For some years afterwards efforts were continually made to secure Mrs.
+Maybrick’s release, and successive Home Secretaries investigated the
+circumstances of the case, but always decided the conviction must stand.
+Sir Charles Russell frequently affirmed his belief in Mrs. Maybrick’s
+innocence, and attributed the jury’s verdict to his remarks upon the
+moral aspect of the case, and even after he became Lord Chief Justice of
+England he stated his personal belief that she was not guilty.
+
+The late Lord Moulton, who was an eminent scientist as well as a great
+lawyer, took a deep interest in this case, and in a letter to the
+writer, written in 1899, stated:
+
+
+“The point of interest was one of evidence as to the cause of death. I
+have always been of opinion that—taking into consideration the fact that
+the deceased was an arsenic-eater—there was no evidence that he was
+poisoned. The weight of the medical testimony was in favour of that
+view, but that was not the main point. In my opinion the testimony for
+the prosecution entirely failed to support the onus which lay upon it.
+The witnesses could not point out anything inconsistent with
+non-poisoning.”
+
+
+“This case,” says Sir William Willcox, “is interesting from the fact
+that the proof of fatal poisoning rested on the presence of 0·049 grain
+of arsenic in the liver, the minimum fatal dose being about two grains.”
+
+Whether Mrs. Maybrick did actually administer arsenic to her husband
+_with intent to kill him_ she alone could tell. On her own confession
+she admitted having given him a certain white powder for which he
+craved, of the nature of which, however, she said she was ignorant.
+There can be no doubt this powder was arsenic. If she did not know the
+powder was arsenic and did not give it with intent to kill him, then
+surely such a web of circumstantial evidence has never before been woven
+round one accused of having committed a terrible crime.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+                      THE LAMBETH POISON MYSTERIES
+
+
+Towards the close of the year 1891 and the early part of 1892, public
+interest was excited by the mysterious deaths of several young women of
+the “unfortunate class” residing in the neighbourhood of Lambeth. The
+first case was that of a girl named Matilda Clover, who lived in Lambeth
+Road. On the night of October 20, 1891, she spent the evening at a
+music-hall in company with a man, who returned with her to her lodgings
+about nine o’clock. Shortly afterwards she was seen to go out alone, and
+she purchased some bottled beer, which she carried to her rooms. After a
+little time the man left the house.
+
+At three o’clock in the morning the inmates of the house were aroused by
+the screams of a woman, and on the landlady entering Matilda Clover’s
+room, she found the unfortunate girl lying across the bed in the
+greatest agony. Medical aid was sent for, and the assistant of a
+neighbouring doctor saw the girl, and judged she was suffering from the
+effects of drink. He prescribed a sedative mixture, but the girl got
+worse, and, after a further convulsion, died on the following morning.
+The medical man whose assistant had seen her on the previous night, gave
+a certificate that death was due to delirium tremens and syncope, and
+Matilda Clover was buried at Tooting.
+
+A few weeks afterwards a woman called Ellen Donworth, who resided in
+Duke Street, Westminster Bridge Road, is stated to have received a
+letter, in consequence of which she went out between six and seven in
+the evening. About eight o’clock she was found in Waterloo Road in great
+agony, and died while she was being conveyed to St. Thomas’s Hospital.
+Before her death she made a statement that a man with a dark beard and
+wearing a high hat had given her “two drops of white stuff” to drink. In
+this case a post-mortem examination was made, and on analysis both
+strychnine and morphine were found in the stomach, proving that the
+woman had been poisoned.
+
+These cases had almost been forgotten, when some six months afterwards,
+attention was again aroused by the mysterious deaths of two girls named
+Alice Marsh and Emma Shrivell, who lodged in Stamford Street. On the
+evening of April 11, 1892, a man, whom one of the girls in her dying
+testimony called “Fred” and whom she described as a doctor, called to
+see them, and together they partook of tea. The man stayed till 2 a.m.,
+and during the evening gave them both “three long pills.”
+
+Half an hour after the man left the house, both girls were found in a
+dying condition. While they were being removed to the hospital Alice
+Marsh died in the cab, and Emma Shrivell lived for only six hours
+afterwards. The result of an analysis of the stomach and organs revealed
+the fact that death in each case had been caused by strychnine.
+
+There was absolutely no evidence beyond the vague description of the man
+for the police to work upon, and this case, like the others with which
+at first it was not connected, seemed likely to remain among the
+unsolved mysteries; when by the following curious chain of
+circumstances, the perpetrator of these cold-blooded crimes was at last
+brought to justice.
+
+Some time after the deaths of the two girls Marsh and Shrivell, a Dr.
+Harper, of Barnstaple, received a letter, in which the writer stated
+that he had indisputable evidence that the doctor’s son, who had
+recently qualified as a medical practitioner in London, had poisoned two
+girls—Marsh and Shrivell—and that he, the writer, required £1,500 to
+suppress it. Dr. Harper placed this letter in the hands of the police,
+with the result that on June 3, 1892, a man named Thomas Neill, or Neill
+Cream, was arrested on the charge of sending a threatening letter. He
+was brought up at Bow Street on this charge several times, during which
+it transpired that in the preceding November a well-known London
+physician had also received a letter, in which the writer declared that
+he had evidence to show that the physician had poisoned a Miss Clover
+with strychnine, which evidence he could purchase for £2,500, and so
+save himself from ruin.
+
+Neill Cream was remanded, and in the meanwhile the body of Matilda
+Clover was exhumed, and the contents of the stomach sent to Dr.
+Stevenson, one of the Government analysts, for examination. He
+discovered the presence of strychnine, and came to the conclusion that
+some one had administered a fatal dose to her.
+
+An inquest was then held on the body of Matilda Clover, with the result
+that Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, was committed on the charge of wilful
+murder.
+
+The man’s lodgings were searched after his arrest, and a curious piece
+of paper was discovered, on which, written in pencil in his handwriting,
+were the initials “M. C.” and opposite to them two dates, and then a
+third date, viz. October 20, which was the date of Matilda Clover’s
+death. On the same paper, in connection with the initials “E. S.,” was
+also found two dates, one being April 11, which was the date of Emma
+Shrivell’s death. There was also found in his possession a paper bearing
+the address of Marsh and Shrivell, and it was afterwards proved that he
+had said on more than one occasion that he knew them well.
+
+In his room a quantity of small pills was discovered, each containing
+from one-sixteenth to one-twenty-second of a grain of strychnine, also
+fifty-four other bottles of pills, seven of which contained strychnine,
+a pocket medicine case, and a bottle containing one hundred and
+sixty-eight pills, each containing one-twenty-second of a grain of
+strychnine. These, it is supposed, he obtained as an agent for the
+Harvey Drug Co., of America. It was found he had purchased a quantity of
+empty gelatine capsules from a chemist in Parliament Street, which there
+is little doubt he had used to administer a number of the small pills in
+a poisonous dose.
+
+Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, was tried for the wilful murder of Matilda
+Clover at the Central Criminal Court before Mr. Justice Hawkins, on
+October 18, 1892, the trial lasting five days.
+
+It transpired that Cream, who had received some medical education and
+styled himself a doctor, came to this country from America on October 1,
+1891, and on arriving in London first stayed at Anderton’s Hotel, in
+Fleet Street. Shortly afterwards he took apartments in Lambeth, and
+became engaged to a lady living at Berkhampstead.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  [_Copyright._
+
+  STETHOSCOPE AND POCKET MEDICINE CASE CARRIED BY NEILL CREAM.
+]
+
+He was identified as having been seen in the company of Matilda Clover,
+and also by a policeman as the man who left the house in Stamford Street
+on the night that Marsh and Shrivell were murdered.
+
+Dr. Stevenson, who made the analysis of the body of Matilda Clover on
+May 6, 1892, stated in his evidence that he found strychnine in the
+stomach, liver, and brain, and that quantitatively he obtained
+one-sixteenth of a grain of strychnine from two pounds of animal matter.
+He also examined the organs from the bodies of Alice Marsh and Emma
+Shrivell. He found 6·39 grains of strychnine in the stomach and its
+contents of Alice Marsh, and 1·6 grain of strychnine in the stomach and
+its contents, also 1·46 grain in the vomit, and 0·2 grain in a small
+portion of the liver of Emma Shrivell.
+
+The jury, after deliberating for ten minutes, returned a verdict of
+guilty, and Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, as he was otherwise known, was
+sentenced to death. He was executed on November 15, 1892.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+                    SOME POISON MYSTERIES IN FRANCE
+
+
+For centuries past poison has played a prominent part in love intrigues
+which form so common a feature in French life. Such crimes are generally
+incited by jealousy or the desire to remove some obstacle that obstructs
+the path of the ardent lover. A typical case of this character and one
+which caused a great sensation at the time, occurred at Bordeaux in
+1906, when Madame Canaby was tried for attempting to poison her husband.
+Monsieur and Madame Canaby were people of good position and well known
+in Bordeaux society. The arrest of the lady, therefore, caused
+considerable interest. The story is somewhat remarkable. Early in 1906
+Monsieur Canaby was taken ill with influenza, and on the 27th of that
+month his cook called at a pharmacy in the city with a prescription
+which contained a large quantity of aconite and digitalin, two very
+powerful poisons. The prescription was signed by a “Dr. Gaube.” The
+pharmacist, who happened to be the uncle of Madame Canaby, knew that his
+niece and her husband were friendly with Dr. Gaube, who lived some
+distance away from Bordeaux. His natural surprise at the large quantity
+of the powerful poisons ordered was somewhat allayed by a note which
+accompanied the prescription, stating that Dr. Gaube required the
+poisons for experimental purposes. M. Fouries, the pharmacist, then
+wrote a note to his niece, whom he had not seen for three years,
+explaining that although he had dispensed this prescription he could not
+in future deliver such dangerous drugs by a messenger. He further
+cautioned the servant, saying, “Be careful; there is enough there to
+poison thirty men!”
+
+On May 1 M. Erny, the pharmacist who usually dispensed for Madame
+Canaby, received a prescription for one gramme of digitalin, signed by
+Dr. Gaube, also accompanied by a note similar to that presented to M.
+Fouries. This was followed by another prescription on May 4 for one
+gramme of aconitine and five centigrams of digitalin. Five days
+afterwards a third prescription was presented for one gramme of
+potassium cyanide and one gramme of digitalin, both of which are
+extremely virulent poisons. The pharmacist’s suspicions now being
+aroused, he refused to dispense the last prescription, and on May 11 he
+called on Dr. Guérin, whom he knew to be attending M. Canaby, and showed
+him the prescription. The following day Dr. Guérin called in four
+physicians, and after a consultation it was decided to remove M. Canaby
+to a private hospital under the charge of Dr. Villar. Here, carefully
+watched, M. Canaby gradually made some progress toward recovery.
+
+Meanwhile, the doctors submitted the prescriptions to Dr. Gaube, who at
+once pronounced them forgeries and lodged a complaint with the Procureur
+of the Republic. A police inquiry followed, and a search was made in the
+Canabys’ house, which resulted in the discovery of a large number of
+empty bottles which had formerly contained Fowler’s Solution of Arsenic.
+An analysis being made of the hair of M. Canaby, it revealed the
+presence of arsenic to the extent of forty milligrams per kilo, and in
+hair from his beard twenty-six milligrams.
+
+The arrest of Madame Canaby quickly followed, and she was committed for
+trial on the charge of attempting to poison her husband. The motive for
+the cause was assigned to an intimacy Madame had formed with a Monsieur
+Rabot, a friend of the family.
+
+At the trial M. Canaby, still weak and ill, was brought to the Court and
+strongly affirmed his wife’s innocence. He stated his belief that a
+discharged servant had by means of anonymous letters instigated the
+prosecution. He ascribed the presence of arsenic in his beard to patent
+medicines which he had been in the habit of taking in large doses. M.
+Rabot, whose intimacy with Madame Canaby had given rise to some scandal,
+denied that any improper relations existed between him and the lady. The
+onus of proving the case then rested with the medical men who had been
+in attendance on M. Canaby. Beyond a few explanations, however, they
+declined to say anything, stating that they could not say more without
+betraying the secrets of their patients, which professional usage
+forbade.
+
+The President of the Court informed Dr. Villar, the chief medical
+witness, that his refusal to speak would probably tell against the
+prisoner.
+
+“I will ask her to release you from your pledge,” continued the
+President.
+
+“I want the truth to be told; I don’t want anyone to keep silence on my
+account,” broke in Madame Canaby.
+
+“So now you can speak,” remarked the President.
+
+“Not at all,” replied the doctor. “No one can release us from our pledge
+of secrecy, and certainly not Madame Canaby, who was not our patient.”
+
+“But every good citizen under pain of punishment is bound to disclose
+any criminal act that is known to have been committed by another,” said
+the President sharply.
+
+“On the contrary,” replied the witness, “the law punishes those who
+violate professional secrecy and did so recently in Paris. Even if we
+know an accused person guilty, we would refuse to speak.”
+
+For the defence, evidence was adduced that M. Canaby was in the habit of
+taking a certain patent medicine that contained arsenic. Of the three
+experts who were called to give an opinion on the writing of the
+prescriptions, one declared the writing resembled that of M. Rabot,
+while the others averred that it was unquestionably that of Madame
+Canaby, who had attempted to disguise her hand.
+
+Madame herself declared that the poisons when received had been handed
+to her by a fair young man, who came presumably from Dr. Gaube, but as
+to his identity she could trace nothing.
+
+In the end, Madame Canaby was acquitted on the charge of attempting to
+poison her husband, but was found guilty of forging medical
+prescriptions, by which poison was fraudulently obtained by her. For
+this she was sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment and a fine of a
+hundred francs.
+
+Another strange case, the motive for which can only be assigned to a
+disordered brain, happened in Varennes, a village near Saint
+Amand-Montroud. In April, 1905, a well-to-do farmer named Gilbert died
+suddenly, and six months afterwards his wife expired in a similar
+manner. In September of the following year, another farmer in the same
+district, called Renaud, died very suddenly, and within a month his wife
+succumbed to a mysterious illness. In the meantime, one of their farm
+labourers also died from an unexplained cause, and a young man, who was
+steward of a neighbouring château, together with his little daughter,
+was likewise fatally attacked. No suspicions of foul play were
+apparently aroused until a considerable time afterwards, when Madame
+Pallot, a villager, found a small cheese on her window-sill, which she
+took to be a present from a neighbour. She ate some of it with her
+lunch, and in less than three hours she was dead.
+
+The origin of the cheese, which on analysis proved to be strongly
+impregnated with arsenic, was traced to a young married woman named
+Jeanne Gilbert, the daughter of the farmer Renaud and the
+daughter-in-law of M. and Mme Gilbert, all of whom had died in a similar
+manner. She was arrested and charged with the murder of Madame Pallot.
+
+M. Bouillot, a pharmacist of Saint Amand, was able to prove from his
+poison register that Jeanne Gilbert had bought arsenic by the half pound
+from him, stating that she required it for poisoning rats on the farm,
+and she might have had two pounds of the poison in her possession at one
+time. Jeanne at first stoutly denied that she had purchased the arsenic,
+and declared she did not even know the pharmacist. Even when confronted
+with the _juge d’instruction_ she continued her denials, but the
+pharmacist had been careful to make her sign his register on the
+occasion of each purchase. The judge required her to sign her name, with
+the result that the identity of the writing was at once established.
+
+When compared, the dates of sales and the deaths of the woman’s
+relatives practically corresponded. She subsequently admitted the
+purchases of the arsenic, but adhered to her original assertion that she
+used it for destroying rats. Altogether, it is suspected that Jeanne
+Gilbert poisoned no fewer than eleven persons.
+
+The most extraordinary feature of the case was that she appeared to have
+no possible motive for committing these terrible crimes, as she was
+comfortably settled in life. Her parents were in good circumstances, and
+she could expect no advantages to accrue from their deaths, or that of
+her future mother-in-law and the other persons she is believed to have
+poisoned. The only explanation offered is the statement of her husband
+that her mind may have been affected by an illness after which he had
+noticed that she sometimes acted strangely.
+
+A more recent case which excited great interest throughout France was
+that of Henri Girard, who died in prison while awaiting trial. About
+1909 this individual, who passed as an insurance agent, was living at
+Montreuil-sous-Bois. Well educated, of good appearance, and apparently a
+cultured man with a leaning towards music, literature and science, he
+soon became popular among a wide circle in the district in which he
+lived and also in Paris. Among his acquaintances was a wealthy man named
+Pernotte, who after some persuasion consented to have his life insured
+in two different companies for a total sum of £8,400, which was to be
+payable to Girard in case of Pernotte’s death.
+
+A short time afterwards all the members of Pernotte’s family were
+stricken with typhoid fever, but in the course of time they recovered
+and went away for a holiday. On their return, however, as M. Pernotte
+was still feeling weak, his friend Girard, who claimed to have some
+medical knowledge and was interested in science, gave him a hypodermic
+injection which he said would speedily put him on his feet again.
+Pernotte died soon afterwards, and the physicians who examined the body
+declared that death resulted from poisoning.
+
+Girard, it was afterwards discovered, made an entry in his diary at this
+time as follows: “Poisons; prepare bottle, tubes, rubber gloves; buy
+microbe books.”
+
+Police inquiries were set on foot and disclosed the fact that Girard at
+this time was studying bacteriology, and had actually bought cultures of
+typhoid bacilli, and a selection of toxic organisms and poisons were
+found at his house.
+
+Meanwhile Girard calmly took possession of the £8,400 for which he had
+insured the life of M. Pernotte.
+
+He appears to have been a man possessed of the most extraordinary power
+of attraction for both men and women; his manners are said to have been
+charming, and the courtly tone of his conversation gave him the name
+among his acquaintance of “Gentleman Girard.”
+
+Once his intimate friends came within the sphere of his magnetic
+personality they seem to have surrendered their wills entirely to his.
+
+In 1913 he became very friendly with a M. Godel, and the latter agreed,
+at the suggestion of Girard, to take out a joint life insurance for
+£8,000. In case of the death of one, the money was to go to the
+survivor. M. Godel after lunching one day with Girard was taken ill with
+typhoid fever; he eventually recovered, but becoming suspicious, he
+refused to see Girard again, to which decision he no doubt owed his
+life.
+
+Girard was mobilized during the war and served in the automobile service
+in Paris where he made the acquaintance of a soldier called Delmas.
+Delmas became very friendly with Girard, and, after having signed bills
+in favour of the insurance agent, also took ill and developed typhoid
+fever. He was sent, however, to a military hospital and recovered.
+
+It is stated that Girard was experimenting with microorganisms and had
+bought quantities of typhoid cultures from wholesale druggists. At this
+time, too, he fitted up a bacteriological laboratory in the house of a
+woman with whom he lived at Neuilly.
+
+Finding that his efforts in using pathogenic organisms had proved so
+uncertain in effects, he next turned his attention to the study of
+poisonous fungi, and used the resulting poison on his next victim, a M.
+Duroux, a post office employee, whose life, as in the previous cases, he
+had insured for a large sum without the latter’s knowledge.
+
+Having invited him to dine at his house, it was said that he took the
+opportunity of placing the poison in his food. The servants, it is
+alleged, were told not to wash up, and they say that Girard and one of
+his mistresses washed the plates and knives and forks in a bath full of
+antiseptic solution. Duroux, however, was none the worse. Girard’s
+notebook at this time shows the following entry: “Mimiche
+Dinner—mushrooms,” opposite the dates May 10 and 11, 1917. The dinner
+took place on May 14. In December of the same year Duroux twice went to
+a café with Girard and each time was taken violently ill afterwards.
+
+The next victim was a Madame Monin, a widow, with whom Girard became
+very intimate. Having taken out four insurance policies on her life, he
+then decided to poison her. He persuaded her to come to the house of his
+future wife, a Mlle Drouhin, to see some hats, and while Mme Monin was
+so engaged, Girard offered her some refreshment and wine was brought
+into the room. The hat having been selected, the lady partook of a glass
+of wine handed to her by Girard, which is said to have contained a
+poison he had prepared from fungi specially for this purpose.
+
+It acted very rapidly, as the unfortunate lady was taken ill in the
+street almost directly afterwards, and after being taken by two
+policemen to her home, she died three hours later. A post-mortem
+examination revealed the fact that she died from mushroom poisoning.
+Girard, however, was bold enough to make a claim on the insurance
+policies, but owing to the refusal of one of the companies to pay £400,
+the amount of one policy which he had taken out with them on the life of
+Mme Monin, he was arrested.
+
+It was then discovered that two other insurance companies had already
+handed over to Girard or his accomplices over £800 without inquiries.
+Girard, as agent, having secured the business in each case, had
+according to custom been paid the first premium as his commission.
+
+After his arrest, on his house being searched, in his laboratory, which
+was completely equipped, were found a considerable number of poisons and
+a number of glass jars containing typhoid cultures and other organisms.
+Inquiries revealed other mysterious cases on which Girard had operated
+back to 1913, and brought to light another, of a man whom he had invited
+to dinner and who had died after drinking an apéritif which had been
+offered to him by Girard.
+
+The preliminary legal investigation into this remarkable series of
+crimes lasted nearly three years, and in the end Girard was sent before
+the Chamber of Criminal Indictment, but before the trial took place at
+the Paris Assizes death had cheated the guillotine. Girard died in
+prison after he had made, it is said, a full confession of his crimes.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+                           THE HORSFORD CASE
+
+
+Towards the close of the year 1897, a widow, called Mrs. Holmes, was
+living with her three children at Stonely, near Kimbolton. She had a
+cousin named Walter Horsford, a well-to-do young farmer who occupied a
+farm at Spaldwick, about twelve miles away, and who frequently came to
+Stonely to visit her.
+
+A romantic attachment eventually sprang up between them, which resulted
+in a too intimate acquaintance.
+
+After a while Horsford’s affection began to wane, and in the end he
+married another lady. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Holmes left Stonely and
+took up her residence at St. Neots.
+
+About December of the same year she wrote a letter to Horsford,
+informing him of her condition, a piece of news which appears to have
+greatly upset him, as he was in fear the information might reach his
+wife.
+
+On December 28 he called at a chemist’s shop in Thrapstone, a
+neighbouring town, and asked for a shilling’s worth of strychnine, some
+prussic acid, arsenic, and carbolic acid, which he stated he required
+for poisoning rats. The chemist, to whom he was a stranger, requested
+him to bring a witness, which he did, and the chemist’s poison register
+was duly signed by Horsford and a man who introduced him. He took the
+poisons, which consisted of ninety grains of strychnine, one pound of
+arsenic, and some prussic acid and carbolic acid, away with him.
+
+About a week afterwards Mrs. Holmes received a letter from Horsford. It
+was taken in by her daughter, who recognized his handwriting, and the
+envelope is also supposed to have contained two packets of strychnine.
+
+On the evening of January 7, 1898, Mrs. Holmes retired to bed,
+apparently in her usual health, about half-past nine. The only other
+persons in the house were her daughter Annie, her son Percy, and her
+infant. The daughter noticed that her mother took a glass of water
+upstairs with her, which was an unusual circumstance. On going to her
+mother’s bedroom shortly afterwards, she found her suffering great pain,
+and she saw the glass, now almost empty, standing on a chest of drawers.
+
+Percy Holmes ran out and called in the assistance of some neighbours,
+and then went for a doctor. When medical aid arrived, the unfortunate
+woman was in convulsions and died shortly afterwards.
+
+The day after her death the police searched the house, but failed to
+find any trace of poison, and an inquest was held on January 8, which
+Horsford was summoned to attend.
+
+In his evidence before the coroner, he swore that he had neither written
+to nor seen the deceased woman. The medical evidence proved that death
+was caused by strychnine.
+
+The inquest was adjourned for a week, and in the meanwhile Mrs. Holmes
+was buried. From information received by the police, a further search
+was made in the house, with the result that two packets were discovered
+under the feather bed in Mrs. Holmes’s bedroom. One packet of
+buff-coloured paper was found to contain about thirty-three grains of
+strychnine in powder, on which was written the words, “One dose. Take as
+told,” in Horsford’s handwriting. On the second packet, the contents of
+which had been used, was written, “Take in a little water. ’Tis quite
+harmless. Will come in a day or two.” This was also in Horsford’s
+writing. A letter was also found downstairs, presumably from Horsford,
+saying he would come over on Friday to make arrangements, and that he
+did not wish to write any more letters, as he did not want his wife to
+know.
+
+On January 10 Walter Horsford was arrested on the charge of perjury
+committed at the inquest, and it was resolved to have another
+examination made of the body of the deceased woman. On examination of
+further documents and letters discovered by the police, the charge of
+wilful murder was added to corrupt perjury against Horsford, and he was
+committed for trial.
+
+The trial began on June 2, 1898, at Huntingdon, before Mr. Justice
+Hawkins, and lasted five days.
+
+Evidence was given by Dr. Stevenson, scientific analyst to the Home
+Office, who stated that he had received and analysed the contents of the
+stomach of the deceased woman. He extracted 1·31 grains of strychnine,
+which was a dose fatal to an adult. He detected no other poison. The
+buff-coloured paper marked “One dose. Take as told,” contained 33¾
+grains of strychnine, and the other paper which presented the appearance
+of having had the powder shaken out, had a few minute crystals of
+strychnine adhering. In each case it was the pure alkaloid.
+
+On January 26 he made an examination of the exhumed body of Mrs. Holmes.
+The fingers and lower limbs were rigid. This was an unusual condition
+nineteen days after death. He had observed one case like it before, and
+that was the case of Matilda Clover, who was poisoned by Neill Cream. He
+removed the brain, spinal cord, heart, lungs, spleen and both kidneys
+and found strychnine in all the organs analysed. There was no appearance
+of disease in the vital organs. There could not have been less than 7
+grains taken, more likely 10 or 12 grains. 1·31 grain would be an
+absolutely fatal dose for an average adult. In cases of strychnine
+poisoning, death occurs about half an hour after the beginning of the
+symptoms, and they come on about twenty minutes after the poison has
+been taken. Six hours is the extreme limit. The mind of a person
+suffering from strychnine poisoning would be very apprehensive of death.
+Death was caused in one of two ways—suffocation, by the muscles of the
+chest becoming fixed, or after a spasm of exhaustion. He could imagine
+no more terrible death.
+
+He had examined some Dover’s Powder found in the workbox of Mrs. Holmes,
+but found no trace of strychnine.
+
+He further stated that if strychnine were poured off a paper he would
+expect to find a few crystals adhering to the surface of the paper. If a
+person took strychnine in water the greater part would go down to the
+bottom of the glass as sediment. What was drunk would be the portion
+floating on the top.
+
+Mr. Anderson, the medical practitioner called in to attend Mrs. Holmes,
+described her condition when he saw her. His opinion was that she was
+suffering from tetanus caused by strychnine poisoning. The convulsions
+were of a tetanic character and the spasms succeeded each other in rapid
+succession.
+
+A specialist in handwriting was then called, who said that having
+compared the letter from Horsford in which he spoke about the
+“arrangements” with the two papers marked “Take in a little water. ’Tis
+quite harmless” and “One dose, take as told,” he came to the conclusion
+they were in the same handwriting, and in his opinion the handwriting
+was natural and there had been no attempts to disguise it.
+
+Mr. Wild, for the defence, said there was no proof that the prisoner
+administered the poison and there was no motive for the crime. What
+evidence was there that the prisoner ever sent poison to the deceased?
+Everything in the case, he contended, depended upon the handwriting, and
+he urged that some of the handwriting produced as that of the prisoner
+was utterly unreliable.
+
+The judge, in summing up, told the jury that if anyone wilfully caused
+another to take a deadly poison, whether intending to kill or not, and
+death resulted thereby, it was murder.
+
+The question of handwriting was of vital importance, and it had not been
+shown that there was any single other soul in the neighbourhood who was
+interested in the deceased woman’s death, or who wrote in a hand like
+that of the prisoner. He enjoined them to remember these things and to
+deal with the case according to the evidence, and return the verdict
+which the evidence compelled them.
+
+The jury returned at 1.20 p.m., after deliberating for twenty minutes,
+with a verdict of “Guilty,” and sentence of death was passed.
+
+Horsford was hanged at Cambridge Gaol on June 28, 1898, and before he
+died made a full confession of his crime.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+                       AMERICAN POISON MYSTERIES
+
+
+One of the most carefully planned murders by means of poison in modern
+times was investigated at the trial of Roland B. Molineux, who was
+charged with causing the death of Mrs. Catherine J. Adams in New York in
+1899.
+
+On November 10, 1898, Mr. Henry C. Barnett, a produce broker, who was a
+member of the Knickerbocker Athletic Club, one of the most prominent
+social organizations in New York, received by post at the club a sample
+box of Kutnow’s Powder. He was in the habit of taking this and similar
+preparations for simple ailments, and soon after receiving the box he
+took a dose of its contents. He became ill immediately afterwards, and
+was thought to be suffering from diphtheria. That he had a slight attack
+of this disease there is little doubt, as the fact was proved from a
+bacteriological examination made by his medical attendant. He left his
+bed earlier than the doctor advised, and died presumably of heart
+failure.
+
+The contents of the box, however, were examined, which led to the
+discovery that the powder had been tampered with and mixed with cyanide
+of mercury, and although Mr. Barnett had died from natural causes, it
+seemed clear that an attempt had been made to poison him by some one who
+knew he was in the habit of taking this powder. The investigation,
+however, does not appear to have been carried further.
+
+The next chapter in the story occurred in connection with a Mr. Harry
+Cornish, who occupied the position of physical director to the
+Knickerbocker Athletic Club.
+
+A day or two before Christmas in the same year, a packet directed to him
+was delivered by post at his address. It contained a box in which, on
+opening, he found at one end a silver article for holding matches and
+toothpicks; at the other end was a bottle labelled “Emerson’s
+Bromo-seltzer,” and between the two was packed some soft tissue paper.
+
+Mr. Cornish was at first under the impression that some one had sent him
+the packet as a present. After removing the articles from the box, he
+threw it and the wrapper into his wastepaper basket, but on second
+thoughts he cut the address from the wrapper and kept it.
+
+The bottle, labelled “Bromo-seltzer,” which is a saline preparation well
+known in America, was sealed over the top and bore the usual revenue
+stamp. After tearing off the outside wrapper, Mr. Cornish placed the
+bottle and the silver holder on his desk.
+
+On the following Sunday he remarked to his aunt, Mrs. Catherine Adams,
+that he had received a present. Mrs. Adams and her daughter, Mrs.
+Rogers, joked him about it, saying he must have some admirer, and was
+afraid to bring his present home, as the sender’s name was probably on
+it. On Tuesday night Mr. Cornish took the bottle and the silver holder
+home with him, and presented them to Mrs. Rogers, saying they were no
+use to him and she might have them.
+
+The next morning Mrs. Adams complained of a headache, and her daughter
+suggested a dose of the Bromo-seltzer. Mr. Cornish was present, and
+mixed a teaspoonful of the preparation from the bottle with a glass of
+water, and gave it to his aunt. After drinking it she at once exclaimed,
+“My, how bitter that is!”
+
+“Why, that’s all right!” said Mr. Cornish, as he took a drink from the
+glass.
+
+A few moments afterwards Mrs. Adams collapsed, and died within a short
+time. Mr. Cornish was seized with violent vomiting, which doubtless
+saved his life, and he recovered.
+
+A post-mortem examination revealed the fact that Mrs. Adams had died
+from cyanide poisoning, and on the bottle of Bromo-seltzer being
+analysed the contents were found to have been mixed with cyanide of
+mercury.
+
+For a long time the affair seemed a complete mystery, and the police
+investigations appeared likely to be fruitless. Then the particulars of
+the death of Mr. Barnett, who was Chairman of the House Committee of the
+Knickerbocker Club, were brought to light; and connecting them with the
+fact that Mr. Cornish was also a prominent member of the club, and had
+received the bottle of Bromo-seltzer by post in the same manner, it
+seemed highly probable that both the poisoned packets which contained
+cyanide of mercury had been sent by the same person.
+
+Further examination proved that the bottle used was not a genuine
+Bromo-seltzer one, and that the label had been removed from a genuine
+bottle and carefully pasted on that sent to Mr. Cornish.
+
+A firm of druggists in Cincinnati then came forward and stated that, as
+far back as May 31, 1898, they had received a written application signed
+“H. C. Barnett” for a sample box of pills, and another similar
+application on December 21, 1898, which was signed “H. Cornish.”
+
+Both these applications were found to be in the same handwriting, which
+was also strikingly similar to the address on the packet sent to Mr.
+Cornish, which he had fortunately kept. The address given by the
+applicant who called himself “H. C. Barnett,” was 257, West Forty-second
+Street, New York, a place where private letter-boxes are rented for
+callers. The address given by the applicant signing himself “H.
+Cornish,” was a similar place at 1,620, Broadway, in the same city. From
+these facts it seemed evident that an attempt had been made to poison
+both Barnett and Cornish by some one who knew them, and the poisoner had
+concealed his identity by employing the names of his intended victims.
+
+The nature of the poison used, cyanide of mercury, was also a slight
+clue, as it is a substance which is not used in medicine and must in all
+probability have been specially prepared for the purpose by some one
+with a knowledge of chemistry.
+
+At the coroner’s inquest, which began on February 9, 1899, certain facts
+were elicited that tended to bring suspicion on Roland B. Molineux, who
+was also a member of the Knickerbocker Club and well acquainted with
+Barnett and Cornish. He was also known to have quarrelled with the
+latter. At the close of the inquest Molineux was arrested and removed to
+the Tombs prison.
+
+Owing to legal technicalities in the original indictment, which charged
+him with the murder of both Mr. Barnett and Mrs. Adams, he was twice
+liberated, and then for the third time arrested.
+
+The trial of Molineux for the murder of Mrs. Adams was a memorable one,
+and lasted nearly three months. It began on November 14, 1899, at the
+Central Criminal Court, New York, and was not concluded till February
+11, 1900.
+
+The evidence was entirely circumstantial. Most of the experts in
+handwriting who were examined declared that the address on the packet
+sent to Mr. Cornish was in Molineux’s handwriting, and that he had also
+written both applications to the druggists in Cincinnati. Further,
+Molineux was engaged as a chemist to a colour factory in which cyanide
+of mercury was used, which would enable him either to make or procure
+that special poison, from which only three other fatal cases had been
+recorded.
+
+No witnesses were called for the defence, and the jury found Roland B.
+Molineux guilty of “murder in the first degree,” which, according to
+American law, is murder with premeditation.
+
+
+In January, 1911, a mysterious case that for some time baffled the
+united exertions of the police occurred in Cumberland, Maryland, U.S.A.
+On Christmas Eve of 1910, the night before their wedding, a Mr. Trigg
+and Miss Grace Loeser, who were well known in Maryland, were found
+sitting together in an upright position on a sofa in the drawing-room of
+Miss Loeser’s home, both apparently dead. An hour before they were thus
+discovered, Mrs. Loeser had seen them sitting exactly in the same
+position, full of life and animation and talking over the arrangements
+for their wedding on the following day.
+
+Returning an hour later, she found them still both sitting in the same
+position but lifeless. Nothing was found in the room to indicate the
+cause of death.
+
+Before the ghastly discovery Mrs. Loeser had heard them laughing and
+talking in the drawing-room; then she heard the telephone bell ring, and
+heard her daughter go to it and speak to a friend at the other end of
+the wire about the final arrangements for the wedding.
+
+A doctor who was immediately summoned and examined the bodies, noticed
+that the lips of both the man and the woman were burned, and in the
+mouth of the man was found a piece of chewing-gum, which he believed
+might contain poison. According to the doctor, Mr. Trigg had apparently
+taken poison and then kissed his fiancée and poisoned her in doing so.
+
+A post-mortem examination was held and revealed traces of potassium
+cyanide in the organs of both young people, but how the poison came to
+be swallowed there was nothing to indicate, beyond the fact that the
+tongues of both were burned and there was a larger quantity of the
+poison found in the stomach of Trigg.
+
+The chewing-gum habit is very common in America and a package of it with
+one stick missing and the wrapper on the floor, was found in Mr.
+Loeser’s bedroom. The questions that arose were: was the chewing-gum the
+cause of death, and had they divided the one stick missing from the
+packet between them, and if the gum was poisoned why had they thus
+decided to take their lives?
+
+Mrs. Loeser protested against the theory of suicide as being beyond all
+reason, as both young people were absolutely devoted to one another and
+had never even quarrelled.
+
+A younger sister of Miss Loeser’s, to whom Mr. Trigg is said to have
+first paid attentions before he became engaged to Grace Loeser, in
+giving evidence said that she also had symptoms of cyanide poisoning.
+She was upstairs when Trigg came to the house that afternoon, and the
+first she knew of the tragedy was her mother screaming. She swore that
+she had no poison in her possession, and had never heard of hydrocyanic
+acid before her sister’s death.
+
+Mrs. Loeser when brought to the court to give evidence, was practically
+in a state of collapse, but she swore that no poison of any kind was
+kept in the house and that both her daughters were on friendly terms.
+
+Dr. Foard, the medical man first called in, described how he found the
+young couple sitting upright together on the sofa; the woman was
+breathing stertorously, with her teeth clenched and the pupils of her
+eyes dilated. A slight froth issued from her lips, all of which, said
+the doctor, were symptomatic of hydrocyanic acid or cyanide poisoning.
+
+Dr. Broadrup, another medical practitioner, corroborated Dr. Foard’s
+statements. When he visited the house he was called upstairs to see Miss
+May Loeser, who was in her room, and when he got there he found the
+bedroom was full of a strong odour of gas.
+
+The evidence went to prove that Trigg at the last moment did not wish to
+carry out the marriage with Miss Loeser, and it was suggested that he
+may have poisoned her with the chewing-gum, only swallowing a small
+portion himself in the belief that he would easily have survived the
+effects.
+
+At the coroner’s inquiry, it was stated that cyanide of potassium was
+found in the chewing-gum, and the jury returned a verdict that both
+persons had died of cyanide poisoning “administered in an unknown
+manner.”
+
+
+Another mysterious case which aroused great interest in America,
+concerned the death of a millionaire pork-packer, and the arrest of his
+wife, on the charge of attempting to murder her husband.
+
+This lady is said to have begun life as a country waif; at the age of
+twenty she became a waitress and married the man whom she was accused of
+attempting to murder. It appears that the marriage was bitterly opposed
+by the husband’s family on account of her social position, which placed
+a stumbling-block between them and the position they aspired to attain,
+and since the marriage her brother-in-law was said to have been her
+greatest enemy.
+
+It was alleged, that the wife not only made her husband ill by giving
+him small doses of poison by placing it in his medicine, but also in the
+water that she gave him to drink during the night in his sick-room.
+
+The chief witness against the accused was the nurse who attended her
+husband during his illness. She said that despite the wife’s lowly
+origin she was greatly beset by social ambitions. She wished to shine in
+the best Virginia society, and her husband stood in the way. She had
+always showed considerable animus against her husband’s family, and told
+the nurse that when he died, she was to search his pockets and get the
+keys, especially those of his despatch box, as she did not want the
+family to get them.
+
+The nurse said the accused consulted two fortune-tellers, and informed
+her, that both of them told her that her husband could not live until
+Christmas. She showed little attention to him while he was ill, and he
+had complained to her that the water given to him to drink had an
+unusual taste; he said it made him sick, and when she drank a glass of
+the water in the room, to see if it was all right, she too became ill.
+
+Suspicions being aroused, the sick man was removed to a hospital, which
+his wife declared was a plan of the family to get her husband out of her
+influence.
+
+According to the prosecution, the wife’s motive for getting rid of her
+husband was her admiration for a shop-assistant in the town in which
+they resided, and this man was called as a witness for the prosecution.
+From his account the lady must have conceived an extraordinary
+infatuation for him, loading him with presents such as fur-lined coats,
+silver cigar boxes, embroidered vests, dressing-gowns and other things
+of considerable value.
+
+It transpired later that, owing to the suspicions of the family, they
+arranged for a female detective to be employed in the house as a nurse.
+This person was instructed to win the confidence of the wife and
+endeavour to find out what was wrong.
+
+At the trial she declared, that while in the house the accused had
+offered her a thousand pounds to give her husband a poisoned pill. She
+also stated that the accused frequently cried and made no secret that
+she wished “that man would die,” and declared again and again, every
+time she received news from the bedside that he was worse, that she was
+the happiest of women and prayed night and morning that she should be
+awakened in the morning by a telephone call announcing that her husband
+was dead.
+
+She once asked her, “How much would you take to do it?” “I told her,”
+continued the detective, “that I was a poor woman, but said I would do
+it for a thousand pounds if she prepared the poison.” She replied, “I
+haven’t a thousand pounds, but I could get the poison, and if you will
+give it to him I will give you two hundred pounds in cash, and when he
+is dead and the estate comes to me I will give you the other eight
+hundred.”
+
+The detective said she agreed to this but insisted on a promise in
+writing, so that she could demand the eight hundred pounds afterwards.
+The accused said she would be afraid to give anything in writing, for it
+might fall into the hands of her brother-in-law and would certainly
+delight him, but she afterwards promised to do so and said, “I will get
+the poison and I will meet you outside the hospital at eleven o’clock
+to-morrow morning and bring it with me. You are on night watch and you
+can put it in his medicine when he is half asleep; or if you don’t want
+to do that, just leave his medicine by the bedside and tell him when the
+time comes to take it. He will take the poison himself.” She asked her
+to let her know the instant her husband died, so that she could get
+possession of her husband’s body.
+
+A doctor who was called, stated that the accused had bought an ounce of
+sugar of lead from him, and afterwards came to him for a solution of
+arsenic, which he refused.
+
+For the defence, counsel asserted that the husband had suffered from
+severe pains for some months and called in his medical man, who said
+that his condition was consistent with ptomaine poisoning.
+
+After a trial lasting more than a fortnight the jury considered for over
+twenty-four hours, but were unable to agree; they were then discharged,
+and the case collapsed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+                      THE SOUTHWARK POISON MYSTERY
+
+
+In the last week of July, 1902, a girl named Maude Marsh, about twenty
+years of age, was admitted as a patient into Guy’s Hospital suffering
+from internal inflammation and vomiting. She was placed under treatment,
+and in a few weeks’ time her condition so improved that she was
+discharged from the institution. She was employed as a barmaid at The
+Crown, a licensed house in the Borough High Street. There she passed as
+the wife of the proprietor, with whom she lived. About a month after her
+return to The Crown she was again seized with a similar illness, and was
+attended by a local medical practitioner and also seen by a medical man
+from Croydon who had visited her at her father’s request. The former was
+told by the sick girl that the doctor at Guy’s Hospital thought she was
+suffering from peritonitis, but after visiting her several times he came
+to the conclusion she was suffering from inflammation of the stomach and
+bowels. On calling to see his patient on the afternoon of October 22,
+the doctor was told she had died two or three hours earlier. He refused
+to give a certificate and insisted on a post-mortem examination. The
+examination failed to reveal the cause of death, and the doctor removed
+certain internal organs and submitted them for analysis. In consequence
+of the report he received, he then communicated with the police.
+
+On October 25 South London was gaily decorated in honour of the State
+procession of the King and Queen, and the streets were thronged with
+people. Shortly before the royal procession was due to pass through the
+Borough High Street, two detectives entered The Crown public-house,
+which was festooned with flags, and passed into the bar. A notice on the
+wall announced seats to let to view the pageant, and the windows were
+already filled with sightseers, who took no notice of the two men who
+had entered so quietly.
+
+Behind the bar was the landlord, a small, dark-complexioned man with
+prominent cheek-bones and sallow skin.
+
+“Are you George Chapman?” asked one of the detectives.
+
+“Yes,” was the reply.
+
+“I am an inspector of police and wish to speak to you quietly.”
+
+Chapman motioned the detectives towards the billiard-room at the rear
+and the three men entered together.
+
+“Maude Marsh, who has been living with you as your wife, has been
+poisoned with arsenic,” said Detective-Inspector Godley at once.
+
+“I know nothing about it; I do not know how she got the poison. She has
+been in Guy’s Hospital for the same sort of sickness,” replied Chapman.
+
+Chapman was asked to accompany the inspector to the police station,
+where he was detained pending inquiries, and at 10.15 that night he was
+formally charged with the wilful murder of Maude Marsh.
+
+When the accused man quietly took his place in the dock at the police
+court the following morning, no one could imagine that the curtain was
+about to be withdrawn from a series of murders which for sheer
+heartlessness are almost unprecedented in the annals of crime.
+
+The only witness was Inspector Godley, who gave but sufficient evidence
+to obtain a remand pending the inquest. He stated that from inquiries he
+had made, he had found that Chapman was the only person who had fed the
+girl, and that he would not allow anyone else to give her food or to go
+into the kitchen when it was being prepared. He found five books, all
+dealing with medicine, in the possession of the accused, and also some
+white powders which had not yet been analysed. Arsenic, however, had
+been discovered in a portion of the viscera which had been removed from
+the body of Maude Marsh at the time of the post-mortem. The doctor who
+had attended Chapman’s former wife during her fatal illness had been
+called in to attend Maude Marsh, and he had noticed that both women had
+displayed the same symptoms. Chapman was then remanded.
+
+Meanwhile, a further examination of the body was made by Dr. Stevenson,
+the official analyst to the Home Office, the result of which was given
+at his next appearance before the magistrate. He stated that he found no
+evidence of natural disease to account for death.
+
+“Was arsenic suggested to you as the cause of death?” asked the
+solicitor who prosecuted on behalf of the Treasury.
+
+“Yes, but I suggested to the other doctors present I did not think
+arsenic had been the cause,” replied Dr. Stevenson. “I attributed it to
+another metallic poison, antimony, which I found in the stomach and its
+contents, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, the brain and elsewhere in
+the following quantities:—
+
+               _Metallic Antimony_
+                  In the stomach            0·23 grains.
+                   „ „   abdomen            5·99    „
+                   „ „   liver              0·71    „
+                   „ „   kidneys            0·14    „
+                   „ „   brain              0·17    „
+                                            ————
+                                     Total  7·24 grains.
+               _Tartar Emetic._
+                  In the stomach            0·64 grains.
+                   „ „   abdomen           16·64    „
+                   „ „   liver              1·98    „
+                   „ „   kidneys            0·39    „
+                   „ „   brain              0·47    „
+                                           —————
+                                     Total 20·12 grains.
+
+“In every organ and tissue that I examined I found some antimony,” added
+Dr. Stevenson.
+
+He further stated that two grains of antimony had been known to produce
+fatal results in a very weak person, but in the case of an ordinary
+person, fifteen grains would kill. In the case of repeated doses three
+grains taken at a time might be expected to result in death. From the
+position of some of the antimony he thought a dose was taken within a
+few hours of death. Dr. Stevenson said he received from the police over
+thirty articles, including pills and ordinary medicines, and analysed
+them, but found neither arsenic nor antimony in any but one. This bottle
+was apparently empty when he received it, but he found there were a few
+drops of a liquid in it and looking into it he saw a little bit of white
+powder sticking to the side. He rinsed the bottle out with water and
+then analysed it and found the water contained both bismuth and
+antimony.
+
+At this stage the case was adjourned; meanwhile the coroner’s inquest on
+the body of Maude Marsh was concluded, which resulted in a verdict of
+wilful murder against Chapman.
+
+When he was brought before the magistrate for the tenth time on December
+31, 1902, the Counsel for the Treasury had the sensational announcement
+to make that Chapman had since his last appearance been further charged
+with the murder of two other women, viz. Mary Isabella Spink (or
+Chapman) on Christmas Day, 1897, and Bessie Taylor (or Chapman) on
+February 13, 1901.
+
+These two women, said the counsel, had lived with him for some time
+prior to their deaths. It had also been discovered that the prisoner’s
+real name was Severino Klosowski, and that he had assumed the name of
+George Chapman since coming to live in England. He was a Polish Jew and
+had studied medicine and surgery in Warsaw.
+
+The story of Klosowski’s life is an extraordinary one. He was born in
+1865 and educated at a military school in Poland. Afterwards he became a
+male nurse in a hospital at Warsaw and learned something of medicine. In
+1888 he emigrated to England and obtained work in a small barber’s shop
+in Whitechapel Road, London. After he had been in London about twelve
+months, he married a woman named Lucy Baderski, who was then living. At
+one time they went to America, but she returned alone, and does not
+appear to have lived with him again.
+
+In 1895 he left Whitechapel and was next heard of in a barber’s shop at
+Tottenham, where he was recognized by a hairdresser’s traveller who had
+known him in Warsaw. He next started a small shop on his own account,
+and at this time was living with a girl called Annie Chapman, whose name
+he afterwards adopted. His business failing, he again took a situation
+in Church Lane, Leytonstone, where he earned thirty shillings a week.
+While living at Leytonstone in 1895 he became acquainted with a Mrs.
+Spink, whose husband deserted her. Klosowski, or Chapman, as he now
+called himself, became on intimate terms with Mrs. Spink, and after a
+time he informed a Mr. Ward with whom he lodged that he and Mrs. Spink
+were going to be married. One day in October, 1895, they went out, and
+on their return stated that the wedding had taken place, and afterwards
+lived together as husband and wife.
+
+Mrs. Spink had about £560, which was vested in a trust deed, and while
+she lived with Chapman some £250 had been advanced to her by the
+trustee. In 1897 the balance was handed over to the couple and they left
+London for Hastings, where Chapman purchased a barber’s business in
+George Street.
+
+About February, 1897, Chapman’s affection for his wife seemed to wane,
+as he is said to have treated her cruelly, and she complained of his
+treatment to people they knew. Then she became ill, suffering from
+irritation of the stomach, which resulted in great weakness and
+depression. In April of that year Chapman is known to have purchased an
+ounce of tartar emetic (tartarated antimony) from a chemist in Hastings.
+In August they left Hastings and took a beerhouse called The Prince of
+Wales in Bartholomew Square, St. Luke’s, London. Mrs. Chapman, who had
+been better for a time, again became ill with the same symptoms, and her
+husband is said to have recommenced his ill-treatment of her. As she
+grew worse, a Dr. Rogers was called in to see her. Here a Mrs. Doubleday
+came upon the scene, and she noticed that Chapman frequently felt his
+wife’s pulse, and was much occupied in consulting medical books. He
+prepared her food and also her medicine, sending every one out of the
+room while he did it. She suffered terrible pain with vomiting and
+diarrhœa and finally died on Christmas Day, 1897. The doctor appears to
+have had no suspicion of poison and gave a certificate that the cause of
+death was phthisis.
+
+After her death Chapman advertised for a barmaid and eventually engaged
+a woman named Bessie Taylor in that capacity. She came from Cheshire and
+had been in a situation as housekeeper at Peckham before coming to
+Chapman at Easter in 1898. She told a friend she was going to be married
+before going to live with Chapman at The Prince of Wales. In August,
+1898, they left London and went to live at Bishop Stortford, where
+Chapman took an inn called The Grapes. In March, 1899, the couple again
+returned to London, Chapman first becoming tenant of The Monument, a
+public-house in Union Street Borough, and afterwards removing to The
+Crown in High Street. A Miss Painter, a friend of Bessie Taylor’s, who
+called to see her at The Crown, noticed that Chapman treated her with
+indifference and once even threatened her with a revolver. Calling to
+see her on another occasion some time later, Miss Painter found she was
+very ill and was troubled with persistent vomiting. Chapman attended to
+her, cooking her food and feeling her pulse.
+
+In January Dr. Stoker, a local practitioner, was called in to see the
+sick woman, and he attended her until her death in February, 1901. The
+doctor had no suspicion she had been poisoned and certified the cause of
+death as intestinal obstruction, vomiting and exhaustion. The bodies of
+both women were exhumed under an order from the Home Secretary, and an
+analysis was made in each case by Dr. Stevenson.
+
+The analysis of various organs removed from the body of Mary Isabella
+Spink revealed the presence of antimony in all the viscera examined:—
+
+          In the stomach    0·08 grains
+           „  „  intestines 1·15 „
+           „  „  liver      2·42 „
+           „  „  kidneys    0·18 „
+                            ————
+                 Total      3·83 grains of tartarated antimony
+
+Dr. Stevenson remarked on the amazing preservation of the body after
+being interred for five years. He found the head and features were so
+well preserved that they were as little altered as though only buried a
+day. This he attributed to the preservative properties of antimony,
+which in sufficient quantity practically mummified the body. He could
+find no case like this on record, and he regarded it as unique. There
+was no indication of phthisis, the cause of death being gastro-enteritis
+caused by the administration of antimony.
+
+The analysis of the body of Bessie Taylor also revealed the presence of
+antimony in the following quantities:—
+
+  In the stomach and its contents  0·32 grains
+   „  „  intestines   „     „     23·43 „
+   „  „  liver                     4·55 „
+   „  „  kidneys                   0·82 „
+                                  —————
+         Total                    29·12 grains of tartarated antimony.
+
+Taylor’s body was also in a remarkably good state of preservation after
+being buried twenty-one months, and showed no appearance of recent
+disease, but signs of acute non-ulcerative gastro-enteritis set up by
+antimony were evident.
+
+It was about eighteen months after Bessie Taylor’s death that Chapman
+engaged Maude Marsh as a barmaid at The Monument public-house, and her
+illness and death, the story of which closely resembles that of the
+other women with whom Chapman had consorted, has been already related.
+
+He was committed for trial on December 19, 1902, and was arraigned
+before Mr. Justice Grantham at the Old Bailey on March 16, 1903.
+
+For the defence the counsel for the prisoner urged the absence of motive
+for the crimes, and although he admitted that antimony had been found in
+the bodies of the three women, he asked if the methods of science were
+absolutely conclusive? There was, he contended, room for mistake unless
+such evidence was accompanied by corroborative evidence of the most
+powerful kind. There was no proof that Chapman had antimony in his
+possession since 1897, and his behaviour had been that of an innocent
+man.
+
+The Solicitor-General, Sir Edward Carson, in his reply, said that
+although the prisoner was indicted only with regard to Maude Marsh’s
+death, the cumulative evidence of the two earlier murders was perhaps
+the most fatal testimony. One woman after another was betrayed and
+abandoned, and all poisoned in the same way and with the same poison.
+Each received the same “attention” on Klosowski’s part during their
+fatal illnesses. As to motive, the history of the man was one of
+unbridled, heartless, cruel lust. If a man were proved a murderer, one
+need not look for motive, but if motive were wanted in this case, it was
+easily to be found.
+
+The judge, in summing up, said the case was unique from three points of
+view, viz. legally, chemically and medically. Chemically, it was unique
+by reason of the discovery which it enabled Dr. Stevenson to make of the
+power of antimony to preserve the tissues of the body in almost a
+perfect state of embalmment; from the legal point of view, because it
+was the first time the antecedents of a prisoner had been investigated
+in the way they had been in this case.
+
+Medically, it was a sad reflection that a man who had only been a
+hairdresser’s assistant should be able to defy the doctors of this
+country, and for years carry on a practice of this kind without the
+slightest fear of being found out. The only question for the jury to
+determine was by whom the antimony was administered.
+
+After a consultation of ten minutes, the jury returned a verdict of
+guilty, the foreman adding “We are all agreed.” Klosowski, or Chapman,
+was then sentenced to death, and paid the penalty of his crimes at
+Wandsworth Gaol on April 7, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+                      SOME IRISH POISON MYSTERIES
+
+
+A curious case with many unusual features was investigated at Armagh in
+June, 1905, when two women named Pearson and Black were charged with
+murdering Alice Pearson, aged seventy-four, the mother-in-law of the
+former and mother of the latter, insurance benefits being alleged as the
+motive for the crime.
+
+The case came to be investigated through the statement of one of the
+women while she was in gaol. Sarah Pearson, one of the accused, was
+arrested in Montreal while in prison, and made a confession of the
+crime, implicating herself, her husband and her sister-in-law. She said
+she bought three pennyworth of strychnine in Armagh and mixed it with
+mashed potatoes and eggs. When her mother-in-law was eating the meal she
+said that it tasted sour and she did not like it. Both she and her
+sister had also partaken of the food.
+
+Evidence went to prove that systematic attempts were made to kill the
+old woman for the sake of the little money, some forty pounds, which she
+possessed; that Pearson and Black had first tried metallic mercury, but
+eventually put strychnine into the meal of potatoes and eggs which
+caused her death. According to the evidence of a witness, one of the
+accused women came to his house and said she had seen “Old Alice’s
+ghost,” and added that her husband had dreamed that his mother was going
+to die.
+
+The analyst who made an examination of the organs said that he
+discovered two hundred and ninety-six grains of pure metallic mercury in
+the body and had not been able to trace any record of a case where
+mercury in such large quantities had been found in any human body. The
+mercury, however, was not the cause of death and did not act as a poison
+while in a metallic state. He found one-seventh of a grain of strychnine
+in the stomach, liver and kidneys and there was little doubt that
+strychnine had been the cause of death.
+
+The jury found Sarah Pearson guilty and she was sentenced to death.
+
+
+Perhaps one of the most curious defences to a charge of poisoning that
+has ever been put forward in court, was that advanced in a case which
+was tried in Ireland, where a woman was charged with murdering her
+husband.
+
+The victim was a farmer who was taken ill after eating a supper prepared
+by his wife, which consisted of a poached egg. He died, apparently from
+the effects of strychnine poisoning, the following morning.
+
+A week later one of his daughters, a child of three, also died from the
+effects of strychnine poisoning after drinking some milk. A post-mortem
+examination was made on both bodies, and led to the discovery of half a
+grain of strychnine in the stomach of each.
+
+At the trial, the counsel for the defence declared that he could satisfy
+the jury that no human hand was laid upon the egg eaten, from the moment
+it was broken in the pan until it reached the deceased man. He contended
+that the poison had _fallen from the rafters_, and _accidentally dropped
+on the egg_, portions of which he could prove the accused woman had also
+eaten. Her husband before he died had expressed this view, and it was
+proved that some strychnine to poison rats had been placed on the floor
+of the loft immediately above the kitchen, and some of it had fallen
+from the rafters on to the egg as it was being removed from the fire to
+the table. Although the Crown contended this accident could not have
+happened, the jury found the accused not guilty, and she was discharged.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+                           THE DEVEREUX CASE
+
+
+In 1905 a poisoning case of an unusual character was disclosed at the
+Central Criminal Court. On April 13 of that year the attention of the
+police was called to a large tin trunk that was found in a warehouse in
+Kensal Rise. Round the trunk was a strap and an endeavour had been made
+to seal it with wax. The lock was forced and the lid opened, and in it
+was found another covering consisting of a number of pieces of wood
+wedged tightly together, over which had been placed a mixture of glue
+and boric acid, which made the box absolutely air-tight.
+
+On the wood covering being removed, three human bodies were discovered
+beneath, which appeared to be those of a woman and two children. The
+result of a post-mortem examination and analysis of the organs showed
+that all three had been poisoned with morphine. More than sufficient of
+the poison had been administered to the woman for the purpose of taking
+her life, and sufficient was found in the bodies of the children to
+achieve the same result.
+
+The body of the woman was identified as that of Beatrice Ellen Maud
+Devereux, the wife of Arthur Devereux, a chemist who lived at Milton
+Avenue, Harlesden, and the children were found to be her twin boys.
+
+The Devereuxs were married in London in 1898, and had three children,
+the twin boys being born at Stroud, where the family had moved in 1902.
+In 1904 they returned to London, where Devereux became manager of a
+pharmacy at Kilburn.
+
+In December Devereux took a flat at 60 Milton Avenue, Stonebridge Park,
+stating that he wanted it only for six months. There was another flat in
+the house which the landlord, at his request, left empty.
+
+On the afternoon of January 28, Devereux made arrangements for one of
+the boys to go to a day school in the neighbourhood and on the evening
+of the same day Mrs. Devereux was out shopping with her mother. They
+parted near Milton Avenue, and she was never seen alive again by anyone
+outside her own family. At the end of the following week Devereux
+appears to have decided to dispose of a number of things in the house,
+including a perambulator and women’s clothing. He gave out that his wife
+and the twins were away in the country, and arranged for himself and the
+other boy to go into lodgings in the Harrow Road. His belongings were
+removed by a local firm, who at the same time undertook to warehouse for
+him a large trunk which he said contained boxes of chemicals.
+
+Shortly after this, Devereux obtained a situation with a chemist in
+Coventry, giving himself a reference in the name of Taylor. Mrs.
+Devereux’s mother, not having heard from her daughter for a considerable
+time, and finding the house in Milton Avenue empty, communicated with
+the police, which led to inquiries and the discovery of the trunk at the
+depository.
+
+Devereux was arrested at Coventry and brought to London on April 13. He
+made the following statement to the police:—
+
+
+“I, Arthur Devereux, hereby declare that one evening towards the end of
+January or the beginning of February last, after having been out for a
+few hours with my child Stanley, I returned to find my wife and twins
+lying dead on their beds, evidently, to my mind, having died from
+poisons taken or administered. Rather than face an inquest I decided,
+with a recent trial fresh in my mind, to conceal the bodies in a trunk
+which I had had in my house for the past two years. This I proceeded to
+do at once. I missed some poisons—chloroform and morphine—which I always
+kept in my writing-desk after leaving my last situation, in the event of
+my wishing to end my own life rather than face starvation. The room
+smelt strongly of chloroform, so I concluded that my wife had
+administered it to herself and the children, and probably also the
+morphine. I had had a violent quarrel with her before going out, also
+many times quite recently and during the past twelve months.”
+
+
+The autopsy revealed no signs of disease in any of the bodies, and death
+was supposed to have been caused by asphyxiation.
+
+Sir Thomas Stevenson, who examined the organs, said that he found
+altogether in the internal organs, 1·12 grains of morphine. In the case
+of the children he found morphine in small quantities which could not be
+accurately determined, but he believed it to be originally a fatal dose.
+In his opinion all three of the persons had died of morphine poisoning.
+There was no evidence of chloroform having been given.
+
+After the police inquiry Devereux was committed for trial on the capital
+charge, and the case was tried at the Central Criminal Court on July 27,
+1905.
+
+The trial lasted for four days, the prisoner being defended by Mr.
+Elliott, who urged that he was a man of weak mind, and that, confronted
+by a crisis, was not likely to act like an ordinary person. He commented
+on the fact that Devereux had left traces of himself behind in London on
+going to Coventry, which showed him if not as a cunning criminal, at
+least as one who was free from the stain of murder. He also commented on
+the lack of motive for the crime.
+
+Mr. Matthews, who prosecuted for the Crown, endeavoured to reconstruct
+the tragedy as he conceived it to have happened, and fixed it as
+occurring on the night of Sunday, January 29. He suggested that at
+supper time morphine was introduced into the food of the unsuspecting
+Mrs. Devereux and children, and on their going up to bed in a drowsy
+condition, Devereux could have easily administered chloroform to make
+assurance doubly sure. There was no evidence that the prisoner was
+insane.
+
+The judge, in summing up, referring to the gruesome nature of the case,
+said there was a strong body of evidence against the prisoner. After
+only twelve minutes’ consideration, the jury returned with a verdict of
+guilty, and Devereux was sentenced to death.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+                            THE CRIPPEN CASE
+
+
+In 1883 an American named Hawley Harvey Crippen came to England to
+attend various hospitals for the purpose of seeing operations. He was
+born at Coldwater, Michigan, U.S.A., in 1862, where he was educated at
+the Homœopathic College at Cleveland, and took a degree as Doctor of
+Medicine. After being in England some months, he returned to the States
+as an assistant to a Dr. Porter, of Detroit, but later he specialized in
+the eye and ear, and after his marriage he went to live in New York.
+
+It was here in 1893, after the death of his wife, he first met Cora
+Turner, whom he eventually married, and removed to Saint Louis, where he
+started practice as a physician and optician. Cora Turner was the
+daughter of a Russian Pole and a German mother, and her real name was
+Makamotsky. A woman of extravagant tastes, who delighted in jewellery
+and dress, she seems to have been fascinated by Crippen. Possessing a
+fine voice, it was her ambition to go on the operatic stage, and
+Crippen, at this time having been offered a post as physician to
+Munyon’s Remedies Company, removed to New York, where he paid for the
+training of his wife’s voice; but when it was completed, it was found
+she had no chance of singing in opera.
+
+Crippen was transferred by the Company first to Philadelphia and then to
+Toronto, where he managed Munyon’s business. About 1900 he was sent to
+England in charge of the Company’s branch, but leaving them he became
+physician to what was known as the Drouet Institute. He left the
+Institute to become medical adviser to a company known as “The Aural
+Treatment and Sovereign Remedy Company.” This also appears to have
+failed, and he went back to Munyon’s Remedies Co., where he acted as
+manager till he took on the business as agent. At the same time he was
+running a business called the “Gayle Teeth Specialists Company,” in
+which he had a partner named Rylands, but the head-quarters of his
+“Aural Remedies” was at Craven House, Kingsway. Here a Miss Ethel Le
+Neve was employed as a typist and clerk, and to her Crippen seems to
+have confided his domestic trials and found in her a sympathizer.
+
+When the Crippens came to London they took a house at 39 Hilldrop
+Crescent, Kentish Town, where Mrs. Crippen had the assistance of a
+charwoman to help her in the housework. After they had settled down,
+Mrs. Crippen wanted to go on the music-hall stage, and her husband paid
+a fee on several occasions so that she might have a trial turn at minor
+music halls. In spite of an attractive personality, elaborate dresses,
+and a pleasant, clear voice, she could not get a sympathetic hearing,
+proving that she had no stage talent whatever. She was known on the
+stage as Belle Elmore, and being bitterly disappointed at her inability
+to get engagements, she became nervous and irritable and subject to fits
+of violent temper.
+
+Crippen’s domestic infelicities were commonly known to his friends,
+before whom his wife would openly abuse him, often for the most trivial
+occurrences. His home affairs went from bad to worse, and his wife gave
+him continual uneasiness and trouble. On several occasions she
+threatened to leave him and go off with another man with whom she had
+become intimate.
+
+On January 31, 1910, in the afternoon, Crippen called upon two friends
+and invited them to his house for the evening to have a game of cards.
+They agreed, and came to dinner, Mrs. Crippen preparing the meal and
+helping to serve it, there being no servant present. Apparently husband
+and wife were on quite good terms, and their guests departed about one
+o’clock in the morning, leaving Crippen and his wife alone in the house.
+
+This was the last time Mrs. Crippen was seen alive.
+
+On February 2 there was a meeting of the Committee of the Music Hall
+Ladies’ Guild, of which Mrs. Crippen was the honorary treasurer, and a
+regular attendant, but this time she did not put in an appearance. To
+explain her absence, Miss Le Neve came to the meeting, bringing with her
+two letters. One was addressed to Miss May, the secretary of the Guild,
+and stated the illness of a near relative had called Mrs. Crippen to
+America at a few hours’ notice, and tendering her resignation. This was
+signed “Belle Elmore, per pro H. H. C.”
+
+The other letter, which was addressed to the Committee of the Music Hall
+Ladies’ Guild, was similar in purport, and repeated her resignation of
+the honorary treasurership, and enclosed a cheque-book and deposit-book
+for the immediate use of her successor. The letter concluded by saying,
+“I hope some months later to be with you, and in the meantime wish the
+Guild every success.” This was also signed “Belle Elmore,” although the
+letter was obviously in her husband’s writing.
+
+The reading of the letters took the members of the Committee by
+surprise. A few days afterwards a friend of Mrs. Crippen, who was very
+fond of her, met Dr. Crippen and asked him more particularly about his
+wife’s journey, but could gain nothing very definite in reply. Shortly
+afterwards this lady again saw Crippen, who informed her that he had
+that morning heard from his wife who stated she had been rather ill,
+having something the matter with her lungs.
+
+About the last week in February, there was a dinner given by the Music
+Hall Artists’ Benevolent Fund. Dr. Crippen attended it, accompanied by
+Miss Le Neve, and it was noticed that she was wearing a brooch that
+several persons recognized as one they had often seen Mrs. Crippen
+wearing. During dinner, a lady member of the Guild asked Crippen some
+details of his wife’s whereabouts, and he told her that she was then up
+in the mountains in the wilds of California.
+
+As time went on her friends still continued to make inquiries about her
+mysterious disappearance, and on March 21 a letter was received by Mr.
+and Mrs. Martinetti from Crippen, in which he said he had been upset by
+serious news about his wife, having received a cable that she was
+dangerously ill with double pneumonia. A day or two later, meeting Mrs
+Martinetti, he said he was expecting a cable at any time saying his wife
+was dead. On March 23 he sent a telegram to Mrs. Martinetti saying he
+had heard his wife was dead. Three days later he inserted an
+announcement of the death in the _Era_ and gave notice to his landlord
+that he would be leaving the house in Hilldrop Crescent on June 24.
+
+Mrs. Crippen’s friends still continued puzzled about her mysterious
+disappearance and her supposed death, and a Mr. Nash, who was connected
+with the music-hall profession, on returning from America, where he had
+been on a visit, interviewed Crippen. He was evidently dissatisfied with
+Crippen’s replies to his questions respecting the disappearance of his
+wife, and he went to Scotland Yard, placing his suspicions before
+Inspector Dew.
+
+After exhaustive inquiries with a view if possible of finding Mrs.
+Crippen or some trace of her, the inspector decided to see Crippen
+himself, and to find out if he could obtain some information. He called
+at Hilldrop Crescent on July 18, about 10 in the morning, and saw Miss
+Le Neve, who was there with a young French servant girl. The inspector
+asked where he could find Crippen, and Miss Le Neve was unable to give
+him any information, but she gave him his business address at Albion
+House in Oxford Street. Inspector Dew went there and saw Crippen, and
+asked him what light he could throw on the supposed death of his wife.
+Crippen replied, “Well, I suppose I had better tell the truth. All my
+stories about her illness and death are untrue; so far as I know she is
+not dead at all.”
+
+He then made a long detailed statement to the inspector, which he
+committed to writing and signed.
+
+In this statement, which began with an account of his career from the
+time he was born, he said that his wife had often threatened to leave
+him, saying she would go out of his life and he would never hear from
+her again. On the night that their friends came to dinner they had a
+quarrel after they left, and she said, “I shall leave you to-morrow and
+you will not hear from me again.”
+
+
+“She told me,” he stated, “that I was to arrange to cover up any scandal
+from our mutual friends; I went to business next morning and on
+returning home between five and six o’clock I found she had gone. I then
+wrote the letters to the Guild secretary, and realizing this would not
+be sufficient to explain her not coming back, I added she was ill with
+pneumonia and afterwards that she had died in California.
+
+“When my wife went away I cannot say whether she took anything with her.
+She took some of her jewellery, I know, but she left her rings behind. I
+do not know what clothes she took away. It is true that I was at the
+Benevolent Fund dinner at the Criterion with Miss Le Neve, and she wore
+the brooch left behind. She also wore my wife’s furs. After I told them
+my wife was dead, Miss Le Neve and I went to Dieppe for five days. My
+belief is that my wife has gone to Chicago to join Bruce Miller, a man
+whom she knew and who, I believe, had speculated and made money.”
+
+
+Crippen signed this statement and Inspector Dew said, “That is all very
+well, but your wife has got to be found,” and suggested an advertisement
+in the newspapers and discussed with Crippen the form of it. They drew
+up an advertisement between them, as follows:—
+
+
+“Makamotsky. Will Belle Elmore communicate with H. H. C. or authorities
+at once. Serious trouble from your absence. Twenty-five dollars for
+communicating her whereabouts to ——”
+
+
+The address was left open for Crippen to decide upon.
+
+On Crippen’s invitation, Inspector Dew made a search of the house in
+Hilldrop Crescent, but found nothing of a suspicious nature. The next
+morning Crippen arrived at his place of business a little earlier than
+usual, and his clerk remarked on his worried appearance. Crippen said
+that he had been bothered, as there was a little scandal. He told him
+that he was going away, and that if anything happened to him the clerk
+must deal with the letters. He then sent him out to purchase a suit of
+boy’s clothes, and about 11.30 Miss Le Neve came to the office, where
+she changed her clothes for the boy’s suit purchased by the clerk, and
+left the office without anyone noticing her, disguised as a boy. Crippen
+then saw the manageress of Munyon’s Company and asked her to change him
+a cheque for £37, showing his pass-book at the Charing Cross Bank, where
+he had a balance to that amount. He produced a cheque signed Belle
+Elmore, the account being in their joint names, and the manageress gave
+him cash in exchange.
+
+This occurred on July 9, and from that date Crippen and Miss Le Neve
+disappeared. On July 11 Inspector Dew again went to Hilldrop Crescent to
+have a further interview with Crippen and Miss Le Neve, and found they
+had gone. He then began a systematic search of the premises, and on the
+13th his suspicions were aroused by something he saw on the floor
+leading to the cellar. He decided to examine it more carefully, and
+finding some bricks which appeared to be loose, he decided to take up
+the floor. The result was, that he discovered what were obviously human
+remains, and sent for the divisional sergeant of police. The remains
+were as far as possible uncovered, but not removed, and on July 14 they
+were examined by Mr. Pepper, at whose request they were removed to the
+mortuary for closer examination. The remains having been buried in
+quicklime were found to be in a fairly good state of preservation, most
+of the internal organs, such as the heart, the spleen, intestines and
+stomach being intact. The extraordinary part of the matter was, that no
+bones were found, and the head, hands and feet were missing. It was
+apparent that the individual who had carried out the evisceration had
+done everything possible to prevent identification as regards the body.
+Some things, however, were forgotten, such as portions of articles of
+clothing, and some hair done up in curling pins, some strands of which
+were fully eight inches long, proving they belonged to a female.
+
+Another point noticed was, that the hair had been bleached. The articles
+of clothing showed the arm-piece of a suit of pyjamas, and separately,
+the right back portion of the jacket of a similar suit, with the maker’s
+name on it. The woman’s clothing consisted of a camisole. The name on
+the pyjamas was discovered to be the same as on those which Crippen wore
+and which were found in his box.
+
+Following this discovery, a warrant was issued on July 16 for the arrest
+of Crippen and Miss Le Neve.
+
+The scene now changes to the Atlantic. On July 20 the steamship
+_Montrose_ sailed from Antwerp bound for Quebec, and among the
+passengers who embarked at that port were a Mr. Robinson and his son.
+They mixed freely with the passengers on the ship, but circumstances
+arose when they were a few days out, to cause the captain to make
+particular observation of the son, and from certain characteristics, he
+began to doubt his sex. Communicating his suspicions to two of the
+passengers, they soon confirmed his belief that Mr. Robinson junior was,
+in fact, a girl.
+
+Suspecting something was wrong, on July 22 the captain sent a wireless
+message asking the police to follow and board his ship, as he was
+convinced that Mr. Robinson and his son were the Dr. Crippen and Ethel
+Le Neve who were being sought for by the police. It was probably the
+first time that wireless telegraphy had been used in connection with
+suspected criminals.
+
+The day after the receipt of the message, Inspector Dew and Sergeant
+Mitchell sailed from Liverpool in the s.s. _Laurentic_, which overtook
+the _Montrose_ at sea. During the voyage, Crippen had become very
+friendly with the quartermaster of the ship, and a couple of days before
+the vessel was due at Quebec, the quartermaster gave him a hint that the
+Canadian police were on his track. It is said an arrangement was made
+between them, in order to avoid the police on landing, that Crippen
+should be concealed among the cargo, and at an appointed hour there
+should be a splash in the water as if some one had fallen or jumped
+overboard, while in the cabin a tell-tale message was to be found. It
+was thought that no one would think of searching the cargo for the
+missing man, and thus the fugitive was to get clear away, Miss Le Neve
+in the meanwhile being advised of an address where she might join him
+afterwards if all went well.
+
+All Crippen’s arrangements, however, were upset by Inspector Dew
+boarding the s.s. _Montrose_ at Farther Point, Quebec. The inspector saw
+Crippen pacing the deck near the captain’s cabin. “Good morning, Dr.
+Crippen,” he remarked. “Good morning, Mr. Dew,” replied Crippen. Dew
+then told him he would be arrested for the murder and mutilation of his
+wife, Cora Crippen, in London, on February 2. Miss Le Neve, who was
+still dressed in her suit of boy’s clothes, was also arrested. A written
+card, evidently intended for Miss Le Neve, was found on Crippen. It was
+in his handwriting and said that he could not stand the horrors he had
+gone through. There was nothing bright ahead and he had made up his mind
+to jump overboard that night.
+
+Crippen and Miss Le Neve were brought back to England by Inspector Dew
+on the s.s. _Megantic_, and they landed at Liverpool on August 27, and
+were taken to London. A great crowd had assembled at Euston Station,
+where the prisoners had a hostile reception, being greeted with groans
+and hisses. On August 29 they were charged at Bow Street, and committed
+for trial at the Central Criminal Court, one on the charge of murder,
+and the other as being accessory after the fact.
+
+At the trial of Crippen it transpired that on January 19 he had
+purchased at a pharmacy in New Oxford Street five grains of hyoscine
+hydrobromide, for which he signed the poison register, stating it was
+required for making homœopathic preparations. At this shop Crippen had
+previously purchased a number of drugs such as cocaine, morphine, and
+mercury, and was well known there. He had also written prescriptions
+which had been prepared for him.
+
+Mr. Augustus Pepper, surgeon to St. Mary’s Hospital, gave the result of
+his examination, and in his opinion, he concluded that the remains were
+undoubtedly those of a woman, adding that the person who removed the
+various organs showed considerable dexterity. The remains were buried
+very soon after death, and approximately they had been in the ground
+from four to eight months. On a portion of the body found there was a
+scar, the result of an operation which it was discovered Mrs. Crippen
+had undergone some time ago. This was important as evidence of
+identification. He had examined the hair which was found in the curler,
+and said that the longest was eight inches long and the shortest two and
+a half inches. It showed signs of having been artificially dealt with,
+and was partially bleached, but the natural colour of the hair was
+probably a dark brown. The very lightest portion was a pale yellow.
+
+Dr. Marshall, who assisted Mr. Pepper, stated that there was no evidence
+at all that suggested the remains were those of a male. What little
+evidence there was pointed to their being those of a female. He was of
+the opinion that the scar was the result of an operation, and his
+impression was there were also marks of stitches.
+
+Dr. B. H. Spilsbury, pathologist of St. Mary’s Hospital, who was called
+for the prosecution, stated he had made a microscopical examination of
+this piece of skin, and confirmed the opinion that it was undoubtedly an
+old scar which had been stretched.
+
+Dr. W. H. Willcox, senior analyst to the Home Office, gave evidence as
+to the examination of the organs of the body found. He stated that he
+had tested the extracts he had made from the organs physiologically, and
+in each case got complete paralysis of the pupil of the eye. He also
+made chemical tests in the case of the liver and intestine, and he
+concluded that hyoscine was present, corresponding approximately to
+one-thirtieth of a grain in the whole stomach. He also found an amount
+of alkaloid corresponding to one-fortieth of a grain in the whole of the
+kidney, and an amount corresponding approximately to one-seventh of a
+grain in the intestines, and in the liver approximately an amount of
+one-twelfth of a grain. He believed the alkaloid found to be hyoscine,
+and the total amount to be two-sevenths of a grain approximately. In his
+opinion there must have been present in the whole body more than half a
+grain, and the probable fatal dose of hyoscine hydrobromide would be
+from one-quarter to one half a grain. It was not commonly prescribed,
+and was chiefly used in sedatives in such conditions as mania and
+meningitis, in doses from one two-hundredth to one hundredth of a grain.
+He was of the opinion it had been administered by the mouth and not as
+an injection, because of the large amount found in the intestines. He
+believed the cause of death was poison by hyoscine or a salt of
+hyoscine.
+
+The counsel for the prisoner suggested that alkaloidal substances
+resembling atropine or hyoscamine had been met with in decomposed meat,
+but Dr. Willcox negatived the suggestion.
+
+Dr. Luff, scientific adviser to the Home Office, said he had followed
+Dr. Willcox’s tests in evidence, and he agreed that the poison found was
+undoubtedly hyoscine. During seventeen years’ experience he had always
+tested for animal alkaloids in toxicological cases, and before that he
+had conducted a long series of investigations for animal alkaloids, but
+only on one occasion had he come across them, and that was in some
+putrefied meat. It was quite impossible that hyoscine could be mistaken
+for an animal mydriadic alkaloid under Vitali’s test.
+
+Mr. Tobin, who defended Crippen, contended that the alkaloid found by
+Dr. Willcox in the remains might have been traced to an animal alkaloid
+produced after death as the result of putrefaction. He dwelt on the fact
+of the lack of motive Crippen had for the suggested crime; and that
+although he had purchased five grains of hyoscine hydrobromide, he had
+signed his name in the poison register, although there was no need for
+him to have done so. He bought the drug in January when he was still
+agent for Munyon’s Remedies, for the purpose of making it into a liquid
+and using it in the form of the tiny homœopathic tablets which he sold
+in bottles of three hundred each, to patients. He said that although no
+obligation rested upon Dr. Crippen to go into the witness-box, he chose
+to go of his own accord, and he would call him.
+
+Crippen was taken through the story of his life by the examining
+counsel, and coming to the question of his purchase of drugs he said he
+always made up the preparations he sold, and had bought considerable
+quantities of different poisons, such as aconite, belladonna and _Rhus
+tox_. He had frequently used hyoscine in making his homœopathic
+preparations in extremely minute doses. He admitted purchasing the
+hyoscine and explained how he used it, by first dissolving it in
+alcohol, then saturating a certain amount of small disks or tablets, two
+of which would equal ¹⁄₃₆₀₀th part of a grain. He used it in nervous
+diseases.
+
+Crippen, examined by the Lord Chief Justice, said he took no steps to
+find out where his wife had gone to, up to July 8. For three hours he
+stood the fire of cross-examination by Mr. Muir, the leading counsel for
+the Crown, and from beginning to end appeared to be utterly devoid of
+emotion or anything in the least approaching it, nor did he ever lose
+his self-possession or show the slightest sign of being ruffled.
+
+During the trial Mr. Bruce Miller, whose name had been mentioned by
+Crippen in connection with his wife, was called, and swore that he had
+not seen Mrs. Crippen since she left America in 1904.
+
+The Lord Chief Justice, in his summing up of the case, impressed upon
+the jury that they must be satisfied by the whole of the evidence that
+the Crown had made out their case, and if not, the prisoner was entitled
+to the benefit of the doubt. The crime of murder charged against Crippen
+was that he wilfully and intentionally killed his wife by poison, and
+then mutilated the body and buried the remains in the cellar at 39
+Hilldrop Crescent, in order to conceal his crime. There was no question
+here of suggesting that it was by some other means or by some other
+method or agency that Crippen had caused the death of his wife, and it
+involved two questions: first, whether the remains found in the house
+were those of the body of Cora Crippen; if they were not, there was an
+end of the case; if they were the remains of this woman, then it was a
+question, was her death occasioned by the wilful act of her husband?
+These were the two issues upon which the jury must concentrate their
+attention.
+
+After exactly half an hour’s absence the jury returned and declared they
+unanimously found the prisoner guilty of wilful murder, and Crippen was
+sentenced to death.
+
+The following morning the trial of Miss Le Neve took place, she being
+indicted upon the charge of being accessory after the fact of the wilful
+murder of Cora Crippen. No witnesses were called for the case, and after
+some formal proceedings the jury found a verdict of acquittal.
+
+The case was brought before the Court of Criminal Appeal, but the appeal
+was dismissed, and Crippen was executed at Pentonville Prison on
+November 23, 1910. It is said he made no confession of his crime.
+
+Thus ended the trial of one who was described by Lord Alverstone as an
+extraordinary man. Throughout the trial he never showed a symptom of
+concern or trace of emotion or fear; he appeared to be never at a loss
+for a word or explanation, and showed remarkable self-possession all
+through, the only argument his counsel could adduce in his defence. But
+after all this is one of the salient characteristics of poisoners. In
+Crippen’s case we have a man possessing some medical knowledge; who had
+deliberately chosen a little-known poison to carry out his evil design.
+He had probably prepared and planned the deed at least a fortnight
+before it was committed, and then eviscerated the remains of his victim
+to try and baffle the ablest investigators. He evidently thought his
+escape from justice sure. But the Nemesis which dogs the footsteps of
+all poisoners followed those of Crippen, and he made three fatal
+mistakes. First in burying a portion of the suit of pyjamas belonging to
+himself with the remains; second, although he destroyed the major parts
+of the body to prevent identification, he left the very remains which
+contained traces of the poison by which he murdered his victim; and
+third, and most remarkable of all, he forgot to remove the portion of
+the body containing the scar, which ultimately established beyond all
+doubt the identity of the remains as those of Cora Crippen, his wife.
+
+This case is noteworthy as being the first on record in which hyoscine
+was used for criminal poisoning in this country. The presence of the
+alkaloid was clearly demonstrated, although the remains had been buried
+for six months.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+                       THE MYSTERY OF THE SEDDONS
+
+
+There have been few cases in the history of poisoning where a man and
+his wife have been charged on the capital charge, therefore the trial of
+Frederick Henry Seddon and Mary Anne, his wife, on the charge of
+murdering Elizabeth Barrow at 63 Tollington Park, N., on September 14,
+1911, is one of some interest. The mysterious circumstances connected
+with the case are also somewhat out of the ordinary, as the evidence
+largely was of a circumstantial character.
+
+In 1901 Seddon, who was a superintendent of canvassers for an industrial
+insurance company, was living with his wife and three children at 63
+Tollington Park, and on July 26, 1910, a Miss Eliza Mary Barrow, a woman
+of 49 years of age, came to lodge with them. She appears to have been a
+person of a somewhat strange temperament. She was very deaf, and had in
+her charge a small boy named Ernest Grant, an orphan of some people with
+whom she formerly lived. Miss Barrow was the possessor of a considerable
+sum of money, amounting to about £4,000, part of which was invested in
+stocks, and she was also the owner of some leasehold property. She had a
+curious, but not unusual, characteristic of hoarding gold and notes to a
+large amount in a cash-box, which she kept in a box in her room. There
+was probably £400 in gold and a considerable number of five-pound notes,
+said to be at least thirty-three, kept in this cash-box.
+
+All this property disappeared by September 14, 1911, and on that date
+there appeared to be little cash left in her possession. All the
+property had found its way into the hands of the Seddons, which included
+£600 of India stock, the leasehold property and some £200 in cash as
+well. During October both Seddon and his wife were dealing with
+five-pound notes which undoubtedly belonged to Miss Barrow, and which
+had been in her cash-box. On the day when the India stock and leasehold
+property were transferred, Mrs. Seddon changed two five-pound notes,
+endorsing them with a false name and address. Six other notes were also
+paid into Seddon’s banking account.
+
+According to Seddon, the money had been transferred to him by agreement
+with Miss Barrow, and he was to give her an annuity of a pound a week in
+exchange for the interest on it. He said that he had a verbal agreement
+with her by which he was bound to pay her an annuity of £72 a year in
+addition to the rooms in the house, in return for the property of the
+India stock.
+
+On September 1 Miss Barrow became ill, from what her medical adviser
+diagnosed as epidemic diarrhœa, and this continued for at least eight or
+nine days, after which she began to improve and seemed to be getting
+better. While she was ill, Mrs. Seddon was the only one who attended to
+her, with the exception of Seddon, who was known to have gone into her
+room on September 11, when she made a will, appointing him as her sole
+executor and trustee. Mrs. Seddon saw after the cooking of Miss Barrow’s
+food and did everything necessary for her, and no servant went near the
+apartment.
+
+On the night of the 13th she became rapidly worse, but the doctor was
+not called in until about six o’clock in the morning of the 14th, when
+she died. Seddon saw the doctor and obtained a certificate to the effect
+that death was due to epidemic diarrhœa, and two days afterwards the
+funeral took place. There were some significant facts with regard to
+what happened after her death. No relative was present at the funeral,
+nor were they informed of her death until September 20.
+
+After the funeral there was some inquiry from one of the relatives, a
+Mr. Wonderahe, who had an interview with Seddon. His suspicions being
+aroused that all was not well, he communicated with the authorities, and
+inquiries were instituted, which resulted in an order being given for
+the exhumation of the body on November 15. A post-mortem examination was
+made, and it was found that Miss Barrow died from the effects of
+arsenic, the poison being widely distributed throughout her body. The
+doctor had not prescribed arsenic in his treatment during her illness,
+and as Seddon and his wife were the only two people who had come near
+her during the period, they were arrested and charged with the crime.
+
+How the poison was obtained, and who administered it were the paramount
+questions at the trial.
+
+During Miss Barrow’s illness no one else appeared to have entered her
+bedroom but the man and his wife, and yet the quantity of arsenic found
+in the body was so large, that it was found even in the hair and nails.
+Shortly after Miss Barrow’s death, Seddon was seen by two of his
+colleagues to be in possession of considerable sums of money, including
+£200 in gold and also jewellery. He bought shares in a Building Society,
+which he paid for in cash, and made several payments amounting to £150
+in gold.
+
+A chemist at Crouch Hill stated, that a girl he had since identified as
+Seddon’s daughter, purchased from him a packet of six arsenical
+fly-papers; she asked for arsenical papers and not the “sticky” ones.
+
+A doctor who treated Miss Barrow in August, 1911, said she was then
+suffering from congestion of the liver, and at the end of the month had
+an attack of asthma, but the symptoms were not severe, and she made no
+complaint of pain or sickness. The doctor who was called in to attend
+her on September 2 had attended the Seddons for some years. He found her
+suffering from sickness and prescribed for her. On the 13th the symptoms
+of the illness had returned, but he did not consider her condition
+critical. The following day Seddon came to see him and said Miss Barrow
+was dead, and he gave a certificate that death was due to epidemic
+diarrhœa, but he never prescribed arsenic in any form for her during her
+illness.
+
+Dr. Spilsbury, who conducted the post-mortem examination, stated that
+the body was in an abnormal state of preservation, and after witnessing
+tests made by Dr. Willcox, he was of the opinion that death was due to
+acute arsenical poisoning, which meant poisoning by one or more large
+doses of arsenic. He had found no sign of internal disease, and in this
+particular case he could find no external or internal indication of
+chronic arsenical poisoning.
+
+Dr. Willcox, who made the analysis for the Home Office, said he found
+arsenic in all the remains and tissues, the largest proportion being in
+the stomach, intestines, liver and muscles; there was arsenic in the
+skin, heart and nails, and it was distributed throughout the body. He
+agreed with Dr. Spilsbury as to the cause of death. He estimated that
+there was in the remains 2·01 grains of arsenic, and that would indicate
+to him that more than that amount had been taken. There might have been
+an amount of five grains taken within three days of death. In his
+opinion the fatal dose was given within two or three days of death,
+probably two days. Two grains of arsenic would be a poisonous dose, and
+might be enough to kill an adult person, and two or three such doses
+within a short period of time would be fatal.
+
+Dr. Willcox said he had heard a suggestion in this case that carbonate
+of bismuth contained arsenic. He had made an analysis of some and found
+a very faint trace of about one in a million, so at least two
+hundredweight of bismuth carbonate would be required to give two grains
+of arsenic.
+
+He made an analysis of the arsenical fly-papers and found arsenic in a
+quantity varying from 3·8 to 6 grs. per paper. If the paper was actually
+boiled in water for some minutes, practically all the arsenic would be
+got out, and he had obtained 6·6 grs. by boiling one, 6 grs. from
+another and 3 grs. from another. In his opinion the 2·01 grs. he found
+in Miss Barrow’s body would be sufficient to kill an adult person.
+
+A considerable point was made by the counsel for the prosecution in the
+cross-examination of Dr. Willcox as to the finding of arsenic in the
+tips of the hair. Counsel remarked, that one of the most important
+subjects of investigation before the Royal Commission of inquiry into
+arsenical poisoning, was the presence of arsenic in the hair and the
+length of time it must have taken before it reached the hair tips.
+Counsel said that the fact that arsenic was found in the tips of Miss
+Barrow’s hair proved that it must have been given for a period extending
+over two or three months. Dr. Willcox said that it need not mean that
+arsenic was being taken continuously, but some might have been taken a
+year or more previously, and in the present case he was inclined to the
+opinion that there had been one fatal dose given in the last three days
+before death.
+
+Mr. Marshall Hall, who defended Seddon, submitted that there was not
+sufficient evidence to give to the jury, and suggested the case was
+absolutely a unique one. In all other cases of poisoning there was some
+direct tracing of the poison, and in the cases of some men who had been
+tried previously, such as Lamson and Cream, there had been medical
+knowledge in the possession of the prisoners, but in this case there
+were two people charged on circumstantial evidence and it could not be
+said which of them did it. Beyond the evidence of the chemist who said
+he had sold Margaret Seddon certain fly-papers, there was no proof of
+any poison being in the possession of either party. Mrs. Seddon said
+that she herself bought some fly-papers in consequence of the request
+from Miss Barrow, that something should be done to mitigate the nuisance
+of flies in the room. She remembered that on one occasion, the contents
+of four saucers were emptied into one which was placed on the washstand
+in the room.
+
+Seddon was then called to give evidence and stated that Miss Barrow had
+asked him about reinvesting her money, as she was losing capital, and he
+suggested an annuity, which she agreed to in exchange for her India
+stock and the lease of her property. He denied ever handling the
+fly-papers which came to his house and beyond giving her a little brandy
+the last night when she was very ill, he had never given her anything to
+eat or drink. He had not the smallest suspicion at that time that she
+was fatally or dangerously ill. He declared he had never purchased
+arsenic in his life in any shape or form, and swore that he had never
+either administered or instructed the administration of it.
+
+Mrs. Seddon, who also went into the box, said there were a great many
+flies in Miss Barrow’s room, and Miss Barrow asked her to get some
+fly-papers, “Not the sticky ones, but those you wet.” She herself bought
+them at the shop of a neighbouring chemist and took four on being told
+she could get them at a reduced price. The papers were shown to Miss
+Barrow and placed in a saucer in her room with water on them. During
+Miss Barrow’s illness, she waited upon her, and on one occasion, only,
+did Mr. Seddon give Miss Barrow any medicine. She had never bought a
+fly-paper until she bought these, and she had never sent her daughter
+for anything of the kind. She began by putting them in saucers singly,
+two on the mantelpiece and two on the chest of drawers. Then there was
+an accident, she remembered, and she emptied them into a soup-plate and
+repeatedly moistened them if they were going dry.
+
+Mr. Justice Bucknill, in summing up, said if the prisoners were guilty,
+it was a crime which had been carefully thought out and carefully
+committed in secret. The history of great poisoning cases showed that
+the poisoner did not poison in open daylight, in the presence of other
+persons. It was a secret crime, done in the dark, and if this particular
+crime was proved against these people there could be no doubt as to its
+being an abominable one, and that the love of gold led to it.
+
+The question to answer was, what was the cause of Miss Barrow’s death? A
+considerable amount of arsenic had been found in the body; how did it
+get there? There was no direct evidence that Seddon had ever been seen
+to handle a fly-paper or the water in which one had been soaking. In
+view of the medical evidence it ought not to be difficult to decide that
+Miss Barrow died from arsenical poisoning, and it was for the jury to
+decide whether that arsenic was administered by the prisoners or either
+of them.
+
+After considering for an hour and five minutes, the jury found Seddon
+guilty and his wife “Not Guilty.” Before sentence was passed upon the
+man, he read a long statement in which he again denied that he was
+guilty of the crime. Seddon was condemned to death and his wife was
+acquitted, and he suffered the extreme penalty of the law on April 18,
+1912.
+
+The verdict was much discussed in the Press, and some ten thousand
+persons, including Mrs. Seddon, assembled in Hyde Park and presented a
+petition at the Home Office to get the verdict set aside. The Court of
+Criminal Appeal was asked to quash the conviction, but the judges said
+they saw no reason to say the verdict was wrong or unreasonable.
+
+In November, 1912, Mrs. Seddon made a remarkable statement in the Press
+which was published in the _Weekly Dispatch_ of November 17. In it she
+stated, that Seddon committed the crime, that she saw him give the
+poison to Miss Barrow, that on the fatal night he deliberately
+substituted for the medicine the water from the fly-papers and white
+precipitate powder and gave it to Miss Barrow. She continued:—
+
+
+“Soon afterwards she breathed her last and I threatened to call the
+police, but he pointed his revolver at my head and told me if I informed
+on him he would blow my brains out. He had always slept with a loaded
+revolver under his pillow. It was Seddon who told me about the flies in
+Miss Barrow’s bedroom and asked me to buy the fly-papers. He would not
+let me arrange them in the room but took them himself. Late that night
+Miss Barrow complained to me about the medicine tasting funny. Something
+made me look round. I found a saucer that I had not put there. It was
+damp, and I put my finger to it and then on my tongue. It tasted very
+queer. On the night of her death Seddon went out to a theatre; several
+times during that evening Miss Barrow had called out “I am dying,” and I
+told my husband this when he came in, but he laughed. Later on he went
+to the bedroom and I followed him. Miss Barrow begged him to send for
+the doctor, but he refused; I left the room for a few minutes. On coming
+back Seddon did not notice me standing near the doorway. I saw that the
+doctor’s medicine had been put on one side, and my husband was mixing
+water from fly-papers and white precipitate powder which was to make the
+mixture look like that sent by the doctor. Then I saw him approach the
+bed and give Miss Barrow several doses.”
+
+
+Sir William Willcox, commenting on this case,[9] said it was of interest
+because arsenic was found in all the organs of the victim, Miss Barrow,
+and a computation of the total amount of arsenic in the body was made by
+a determination of the arsenic present in each organ. The corpse was
+actually weighed for this purpose, as well as the individual organs. A
+fatal poisonous dose of 2 gr. was proved to be present in the body. For
+the purpose of this analysis the electrolytic Marsh-Berzelius test was
+used for the first time in determining quantitatively the amount of
+arsenic in each organ.
+
+Footnote 9:
+
+  Presidential Address before the Harveian Society, Jan. 11, 1923.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+                    THE DALKEITH COFFEE POISON CASE
+
+
+In the early part of February, 1911, a Mr. Charles Barrett Hutchison and
+his wife, in celebration of their silver wedding day, gave a whist and
+supper party to some friends at their house at Bridgend, Dalkeith, near
+Edinburgh.
+
+There were four tables in the room, eighteen people being present, and
+at midnight supper was served. Coffee was taken to the ladies in the
+drawing-room, and on Mrs. Hutchison tasting it she called to her son
+John, who had been pouring it out in the dining-room, that there was
+something wrong. Mr. Hutchison and a Mr. Alexander Clapperton, a grocer
+and wine merchant of Musselburgh, were among those who were drinking the
+coffee and smoking in the dining-room. Shortly after drinking it, one of
+the party began to experience a peculiar sensation and to have a
+disagreeable dryness in the throat. Then it was discovered that most of
+the ladies in the drawing-room were also in great distress, and in a
+short time every one who had partaken of the coffee became ill, and the
+results threatened to become serious.
+
+One of the guests hurried for assistance, and medical men soon arrived
+and did what they could to aid the sufferers. Mr. Hutchison’s eldest
+son, John, who had been a dispenser, mixed an emetic of mustard and
+water, which gave the sufferers a certain amount of relief and then he
+motored to Edinburgh for further assistance. Mr. Hutchison, who had been
+assisted to bed, passed away shortly after the doctor’s arrival, and his
+friend, Mr. Clapperton, died about three hours afterwards. Practically
+the whole of the party of eighteen were affected with greater or lesser
+severity, but only the host and his friend succumbed.
+
+The coffee had come from the shop of Mr. Clapperton, one of the victims,
+and although samples of it were subjected to analysis, no trace of
+poison could be found. The sugar and milk were also examined without
+result, but clear traces of arsenic were discovered by the analyst in a
+portion of the prepared coffee that had not been consumed. It was
+evident that the quantity of arsenic introduced must have been very
+large to have affected so many people, but where had it come from? That
+was the mystery. The poison books of the chemists in Dalkeith and
+Musselburgh were examined by the police, but all arsenic sold during the
+previous twelve months was satisfactorily accounted for. All kinds of
+theories were adduced. One brought forward was, that the coffee had been
+prepared in an old urn which might have absorbed the poison from the
+metal, but the vessels in which the coffee was made were examined and
+not a trace of arsenic was found, and so the mystery remained unsolved
+for over a fortnight.
+
+The police still continued their inquiries beyond the neighbourhood, and
+eventually at Musselburgh it was found, that a bottle of arsenic was
+missing from a chemist’s shop which had apparently been surreptitiously
+removed. It then appeared that John James Hutchison had been an
+assistant to the chemist from whose shop the bottle was missing. This,
+coupled with the fact, that it was he who had carried the poisoned
+coffee from the kitchen to the dining-room in his father’s house, led to
+the issue of a warrant for his arrest.
+
+It was then found that John Hutchison had left Bridgend for Edinburgh,
+ten miles distant, very early in the morning. He was recognized at
+Waverley Station, Edinburgh, at nine o’clock entering a south-bound
+express for Newcastle and King’s Cross, and on Wednesday a letter dated
+from an hotel in the Strand reached one of his friends. It contained a
+passage saying, that the writer intended to throw himself into the
+Thames off Waterloo Bridge.
+
+Inquiries meanwhile proved that he had been speculating on the Stock
+Exchange, and his speculations in oil and copper proving unfortunate, he
+was heavily in debt.
+
+When the inspector, armed with a warrant, arrived at the hotel in London
+to which he had been traced, he found that he had left. All trace of him
+was lost for a time, but a description being issued, it was discovered
+that he had travelled to Southampton and taken a boat to the Channel
+Islands. Passing through Guernsey, he travelled to Jersey, where he
+stayed a night and returned to Guernsey again. To a boarding-house in
+the latter island he was traced by the local police and recognized from
+a photograph that had been sent to them. The police sergeant found him
+in a sitting-room alone, and after charging him made the arrest. When in
+the passage leading from the room, Hutchison suddenly darted upstairs,
+followed by the sergeant. He made for his bedroom, and as he opened the
+door he drew his hand out of his trousers’ pocket and put a phial to his
+lips before the sergeant could interfere.
+
+A doctor was sent for, and although emetics were administered, he died a
+few minutes after his arrival, or about ten minutes after taking the
+fatal draught. He gave no information to the sergeant, except saying in
+the room below, that he would prove he was not Hutchison. He had taken
+his room in the hotel under the name of Henderson, but from papers and
+other documents found in his possession there was no doubt he was John
+James Hutchison, of Dalkeith.
+
+The poison by means of which he had committed suicide turned out to be
+prussic acid, which he had probably had in his possession for some time.
+It is an extraordinary psychological problem how a young man of this
+type, apparently so much liked and popular among the people of the town
+where he lived, and said to be of a generous, kindly and gentle
+disposition could have perpetrated the deed. According to his friends,
+he was the last person in the world who would be thought likely to
+commit such a terrible crime.
+
+After the death of his father he had been perfectly collected, was the
+chief mourner at the funeral, and became the object of general sympathy.
+
+Extravagance and social ambition appear to have been his chief faults,
+but it is difficult to discover the motive which prompted him to the
+commission of a wholesale crime such as he attempted. The only
+conclusion that could be arrived at was, that it was the act of a man
+whose mind was unbalanced and distorted, as he had nothing to gain by
+his father’s death nor from any of the guests he attempted to poison.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+                        THE AGRA POISON MYSTERY
+
+
+One of the most remarkable cases of criminal poisoning in the annals of
+Indian justice was brought to light in December, 1912. There was living
+in Agra at that time, a Lieutenant Clark, who was an officer in the
+Indian Subordinate Medical Department, and his wife, Mrs. Clark, a lady
+of about fifty-five years of age. Both husband and wife were Eurasians.
+
+On the night of November 17, Mrs. Clark was found in the bedroom of
+their bungalow badly wounded and died shortly afterwards of her
+injuries. She had apparently been stabbed to death with a sharp
+instrument. Her husband informed the authorities that she had been
+murdered by a native, and suspicion fell upon a servant named Buddhu who
+was at one time employed by the Clarks.
+
+During the official inquiry which was called to investigate the matter,
+Miss Clark, the daughter of the victim, said she saw her mother sitting
+up in bed bleeding profusely from several wounds. The lamp was low in
+the room and she was unable to recognize any assailant. The whole affair
+seemed to be shrouded in mystery until the police brought to light a
+correspondence between Lieut. Clark and Mrs. Fulham, the wife of an
+Assistant Examiner of Military Accounts, who had died under suspicious
+circumstances in the previous October. This correspondence showed a
+connection between the deaths both of Mrs. Clark and of Mr. Fulham, and
+Lieut. Clark was arrested on November 29, and charged with the murder
+both of his wife and Mr. Fulham.
+
+Mrs. Fulham was also charged with the murder of her husband and Mrs.
+Clark, and Buddhu, the native servant, was also arrested. The latter
+offered to give evidence, and testified that Lieut. Clark had given him
+three powders that he was to place in Mrs. Clark’s tea, and promised him
+fifty rupees when he had done it. The witness took the powders and asked
+what they were for, and was told that they were aperient medicines. At
+the same time Clark threatened to throttle him if anything leaked out.
+He gave the powders as he was told, and then left the service of Lieut.
+Clark immediately.
+
+Miss Clark stated that her father was very violent with her mother at
+times and had been very intimate for some time with Mrs. Fulham. Mrs.
+Clark had objected to this and as a result quarrels had taken place.
+Twice, the daughter stated, her mother had been taken ill after a meal,
+and referring to one of these attacks in a diary Mrs. Clark kept, she
+wrote that the cook had put something in her tea.
+
+Mr. Harry Clark, a son, declared that he was aware that his mother was
+having poison given her and obtained possession of some of the powder
+and had it analysed by a surgeon, who said it was a “slow poison.” His
+mother had told him that she would be poisoned, and he tried to persuade
+her to go away with him, but she refused, without giving any reason.
+
+Major O’Meara, a civil surgeon in Agra, who examined the body of Mrs.
+Clark, was of the opinion that she had been attacked with a heavy weapon
+and that the blows had been deliberately given by a man. A second son of
+the accused stated that his father had told them that their mother had
+been given more than one dose of arsenic, but she proved poison-proof,
+so that he made no secret before his own family of his intention to get
+rid of his wife at the first opportunity.
+
+In one of the letters discovered, written by Mrs. Fulham to Clark, which
+was dated April 22, 1911, was the statement:
+
+
+“You are very thoughtful in sending me more powders; I was going to ask
+you for more, as I have only three left. I do not think these powders
+are having any effect. You say they must be given regularly and then you
+say you cannot administer them to ‘Mrs. C.’ as regularly as you would
+like to. She will need much more than that. Tell me plainly what you
+think.”
+
+
+An Assistant-Surgeon named Linton told how, when visiting Clark’s
+bungalow one evening, Harry Clark showed him a white powder and asked
+him whether it was poison. He tasted it and concluded it was a compound
+of arsenic, and told young Clark it was a poison and would be fatal in
+about twenty minutes.
+
+In a statement made by Mrs. Fulham that was read she explained her
+friendship with Clark, and said:
+
+
+“I believe Clark must have the power of hypnotism. He made me and my
+husband do whatever he wished. He won my affection completely from him.
+On arriving at Agra my husband was suddenly taken ill. Clark went on his
+bicycle and fetched Captain Dunn, who arrived just in time to see my
+husband expire. Clark once told me he had given his wife enough arsenic
+to kill ten men, but she recovered. My husband became very ill and
+paralysed and helpless, and died on October 10, 1911. Clark gave him
+several injections before fetching Captain Dunn, and used a hypodermic
+syringe filled with something from a small bottle.”
+
+
+From the evidence of these letters it was apparent that both the accused
+conspired in April, 1911, first to poison Mr. Fulham, the poison being
+sent to Meerut from Agra by Lieut. Clark, and that Mrs. Fulham wrote to
+Clark duly acknowledging the receipt of the poison, and sending him
+reports of its effect upon her husband. In one of her letters she
+alludes to an attempt to poison her husband with “Tonic Powders,” which
+were believed to be a name for a deadly alkaloidal poison which Clark
+had brought from Calcutta. Another preparation was twice tried
+previously, but was unsuccessful because Fulham refused to drink the tea
+in which it was placed because of its peculiar taste.
+
+Mrs. Fulham wrote to Clark on the subject, “This will take a hundred
+years to kill him.” Mr. Fulham became very ill and was taken to
+hospital, but recovered, and his wife wrote to Clark telling him how the
+attempts had failed and they must try to find another way.
+
+Fulham then went on a visit to Agra, where he was taken very ill after
+dinner and died shortly afterwards. Clark himself wrote the death
+certificate, stating that he died of “general paralysis of three months’
+standing.”
+
+In another letter from Mrs. Fulham to Clark on May 20, 1911, she stated:
+
+
+“I administered the powder you left. There was no result. I shall begin
+in earnest on Monday and inform you of the results.”
+
+
+On May 23 she said:
+
+
+“I again have news for you. I administered a full dose yesterday. Hubby
+returned the tea untasted. He said there was bad medicine in it. This
+shows that jalapine is readily tasted. The fates are against us. All our
+attempts are bitterly frustrated. I feel so disappointed, not so much on
+my account as on yours. What is the best plan of operation in the
+future?”
+
+
+On May 27 she wrote:
+
+
+“You assure me you are determined to win me at any cost. Come what may,
+I will help you to achieve that end.”
+
+
+On June 11 she said:
+
+
+“Hubby is very ill with symptoms of cholera. All blame masonic dinner,
+but you and I know. I cannot bear to see his suffering.”
+
+
+On June 27 she wrote:
+
+
+“A powder is hard to administer, as my husband takes no food prepared by
+me, and makes his own cocoa; but I am still doing my best.”
+
+
+Mr. Fulham’s little daughter, a child of ten, told the Court a pathetic
+story of how her father became ill after dinner on the day on which he
+died. He was previously quite well, but had dinner in the garden, her
+mother and herself taking the meal out to him. Afterwards her father
+complained of illness and went to bed. Lieut. Clark was there at the
+time. She went to see her father in his room later on and going into the
+dining-room afterwards, she saw Clark take a red box off a shelf and
+take out a glass needle. He opened a paper and poured out a white powder
+into a wineglass of water and filled the needle. She watched him then go
+into her father’s room and seem to push the needle into his heart, arm
+and shoulder. Shortly afterwards there was a funny gurgling noise from
+her father. She went to the bedside wondering what it could be, and
+found him lying on his back and the noise continued. He was breathing
+heavily and then he died. Clark came in and felt her father’s heart, but
+returned immediately to the dining-room and said to her mother, “Gone.”
+After that he went out on a bicycle to fetch Captain Dunn. When the
+latter arrived Clark pretended he did not know her father was dead and
+said he brought Captain Dunn to see how Fulham was.
+
+Lieut. Clark volunteered a statement in which he said that Captain Dunn
+was consulted when Mr. Fulham was brought to Agra and advised the
+injection of ether, digitalin and strychnine, which was to be kept handy
+and used immediately an attack was coming on. The injection he gave Mr.
+Fulham as described by the child was ten minims of this mixture. Half an
+hour later he made a second injection and then went off on his cycle to
+fetch Captain Dunn. The bottle was labelled “Hypodermic injection” with
+the prescription fully inscribed and it was kept in Mrs. Fulham’s room,
+where it remained until the time of her arrest. It had been stated that
+he purchased arsenic, atropine and cocaine from different chemists in
+Calcutta in 1911. He admitted he made these purchases to treat a patient
+suffering from rheumatism and neuralgia, and as they did not prove
+effective, he sent to Calcutta for five grains of gelsemine for another
+preparation which was harmless. This accounted for the whole of the five
+grains of gelsemine which he purchased in 1911. He bought fifty-four
+grains of gelsemine and other drugs in 1912, which he had used, and gave
+the names of the patients whom he had treated with the medicines in
+order to prove he habitually prescribed it for certain diseases.
+
+He also stated that he purchased 118 grains of cocaine in 1911 and
+described the disposal of it and also of the thirty grains of atropine,
+which he said he had used in a liniment.
+
+A letter from Mrs. Fulham to Clark was read, asking if the “new powders
+were tasteless?” since Mr. Fulham refused his food with the other
+powders. In a former letter she describes her husband’s frequency of
+vomiting and, after stating what the hospital doctors thought about his
+case, she added “but you and I know.”
+
+Mrs. Fulham, on being asked by the Court whether she wished to say
+anything about this matter, declared that she did not know what the
+powders she gave to her husband were composed of, but that Lieut. Clark
+told her that they would make her husband slightly ill, otherwise she
+would not have given them to him.
+
+Dr. Gore, Assistant-Chemist and Bacteriologist, stated that Clark came
+to his laboratory in October and asked him for some cholera cultures,
+saying that he wanted to use them on animals in order to test a cholera
+specific. He told Clark that animals did not get cholera, and therefore
+he did not give him any of the cultures. Finally he put him off with
+some harmless water organisms, as he thought to place cholera cultures
+in Clark’s inexperienced hands would be a most risky proceeding.
+
+On the Saturday before his wife’s death, Clark came to the laboratory
+again and asked for more cultures and said that he had tried them on
+fowls, cats and dogs which had contracted cholera and they had been
+cured by his specific.
+
+Major O’Meara, who made the autopsy on Mr. Fulham, stated that he found
+the remains in a remarkable state of preservation; it was well known
+that certain poisons, especially arsenic, assisted in the preservation
+of the body. He was certainly of the opinion that Mr. Fulham’s symptoms
+were compatible with chronic arsenical poisoning, probably given in
+small doses over a long period. Taking Mrs. Fulham’s statements in her
+letters to Clark into consideration, describing her husband’s condition,
+it would appear his whole nervous system and brain were wrecked, and
+following the administration of a powder, paralytic symptoms developed.
+Asked if a dose of any poison would produce such symptoms, Major O’Meara
+replied, “Yes, a certain group of poisons, one of which is atropine.” A
+mixture of atropine and cocaine would also produce symptoms of
+heat-stroke; he considered the fatal dose of gelsemine to be one-sixth
+of a grain, or less, if administered hypodermically, and would cause
+rapid death.
+
+According to the evidence of the analyst, he failed to find any alkaloid
+in the remains after making tests for strychnine, gelsemine and
+atropine, but he found slight traces of arsenic in the thigh bone.
+
+The investigation of Mr. Fulham’s death having been completed, two
+natives named Sukhia and Ram Lal were placed in the box and charged
+along with the other three prisoners.
+
+Buddhu, the native servant of the Clarks, then made a confession. He
+said that he had first worked for four months with Mrs. Fulham, when one
+day she spoke to him at her bungalow and said she would give him
+something to put in Mrs. Clark’s food and would pay him fifty rupees. He
+had refused to do it. Later on Lieut. Clark came into the lamp room in
+the hospital and took a lamp chimney from him, from which he made
+powdered glass. He made it into three powders and told him to give it to
+Mrs. Clark, for which he was promised fifty rupees. When Mrs. Clark
+became very ill Clark warned him to be careful not to put the powder in
+the children’s food. Ten days later Clark gave him a bottle and told him
+if he did not give it to Mrs. Clark he would drive him from the
+hospital, and on that day he poured the contents into his mistress’s
+tea, after which she was sick.
+
+Later Clark asked him to come to Mrs. Fulham’s bungalow, where he also
+met him, and after sending the other servants away, they both asked him
+if he would arrange to kill Mrs. Clark. Buddhu said he would tell them
+later and afterwards saw Sukhia and asked him if he could do anything.
+Sukhia replied, “I cannot do it for a hundred rupees, I want more.” He
+then took Sukhia to the Fulhams’ bungalow, where Clark was, and he and
+Mrs. Fulham conversed at length with Sukhia, who asked for payment
+before he did the work. Clark replied: “You will get the money when the
+work is done.”
+
+Eventually it was arranged to give Buddhu the money and let him pay
+Sukhia.
+
+At ten o’clock on the same night, Clark came to the hospital and showed
+Buddhu six sovereigns and ten rupees and asked if his fellows were
+coming to the bungalow. Buddhu replied, “When the moon goes down.”
+
+He met Sukhia and Ram Lal that night, together with another man named
+Mohan who brought a large knife, which Ram Lal took. Mohan kissed and
+worshipped the knife and then sharpened it on a stone.
+
+About one o’clock they all went to Clark’s bungalow. Buddhu waited on
+the verandah while the other four went in at the back door, which they
+tried to open, but a dog barked. They returned to the verandah, and
+again went towards Clark’s bedroom, but the dog was still barking. Just
+at that moment Clark rode up on his bicycle. The four men told him to
+look after the dog, and they would at once finish the work. Ram Lal
+opened the door, and Clark entered and took out the dog, which was shut
+up in the outhouse. Clark then rode off, telling the men to enter the
+house when he had gone. About half-past one the four men went in, Buddhu
+waiting outside. Shortly afterwards Ram Lal came out, saying he did not
+know which was Mrs. Clark and which was the daughter. Buddhu pointed out
+Mrs. Clark’s bed, and then the other two men brought in the lamp. Ram
+Lal and Sukhia stood behind the curtain, near the daughter’s bed, and,
+while Budhakanjore took the lamp, the other man gave the memsahib a
+heavy cut. Directly she shrieked, the man gave another cut, and she
+writhed and rolled over the bed.
+
+All the four men then left. Buddhu heard the daughter cry out, and then
+ran off. When he reached the main road the other four men demanded
+money. Buddhu took them to the hospital and told them to wait. He then
+went back to the bungalow, where he saw the daughter crying and Clark
+standing by. Buddhu told Sukhia not to worry about the money, as Clark
+would pay next morning. Ram Lal came to the hospital eight times in the
+morning for money. Buddhu told Clark, who asked him to take the men to
+Mrs. Fulham’s bungalow, but the same evening Sukhia still complained of
+not having been paid. Buddhu did not know what happened after that, as
+he was arrested.
+
+The trial of this extraordinary case took place at Allahabad, on March
+1, before the Chief Justice. Clark confessed that he was wholly and
+solely to blame, and that Mrs. Fulham was acting under his directions.
+He sent her the drugs and she gave them, under his influence.
+
+With respect to Mr. Fulham’s death he said:—
+
+“At first I intended making him sick by giving him small doses, so that
+he should have to leave the country. The last dose made him very ill and
+he was brought to Agra in a dying condition. I was sorry for his
+condition, that is why I killed him. I simply administered four drachms
+of antipyrine before dinner and this killed him. The injections I gave
+him after dinner were ether, digitalis, and strychnine, but the dose was
+too small to counteract the effects of the antipyrine. I gave him
+antipyrine because Fulham was a wreck and I wanted to finish him off.
+The injections were given only on the pretence of doing something for
+him. I knew they wouldn’t do any good.”
+
+The Chief Justice.—“I understand you intended to kill him. Did you kill
+him?”
+
+Clark.—“Yes, I took pity on his condition.”
+
+Mrs. Fulham was next questioned. In reply to the Chief Justice regarding
+the administering of the poison to her husband she said, that Clark
+suggested making him ill. She gave half or quarter doses because she
+dared not give the fatal dose. The heat-stroke suggestion came from
+Clark. Mrs. Fulham further said that she had no explanation to offer
+regarding her letter suggesting that Mrs. Clark must also be removed.
+Questioned regarding the incidents on the day Mr. Fulham died, she said
+she put nothing in his dinner, but saw Clark administer a dose of
+medicine before dinner. She also saw Clark give injections.
+
+At the conclusion of Mrs. Fulham’s statement, counsel for the
+prosecution said that Clark had admitted that he was criminally
+responsible for the death of Mr. Fulham, and it was for the jury to
+decide whether his story was true, or whether he had made the statement
+with a view to saving Mrs. Fulham. Regarding the latter, counsel
+reminded the jury of passages in her letters. The prosecution did not
+wish unduly to press the case against her, and he only asked the jury to
+act on the plain English wording of the letters. If the jury were
+satisfied that she had been a consenting party to the murder of her
+husband, they must also convict her.
+
+The four Hindus were found guilty of the murder of Mrs. Clark; Lieut.
+Clark and Mrs. Fulham were found guilty in both cases and were sentenced
+to be hanged. Mrs. Fulham’s sentence, however, was eventually commuted
+to penal servitude for life.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+                        A CORNISH POISON MYSTERY
+
+
+Towards the close of the year 1921 a man named Edward Black was living
+with his wife and stepdaughter, Marian, a girl of seventeen, at the
+village of Tregonissey, near St. Austell in Cornwall. Mr. and Mrs. Black
+were married in 1914, the latter being her husband’s senior by twenty
+years, and they had lived together fairly happily, though quarrels about
+money matters were frequent. Black carried on business as an insurance
+agent, and his affairs at this time were the reverse of prosperous.
+
+Mrs. Black had for some time been suffering from gastritis, for which
+Black had often given her medicine and was very insistent on her taking
+it. She complained more than once to a neighbour, that the medicine
+given by her husband always upset her and burned her throat.
+
+On October 31, 1921, Black, as was his custom, prepared the breakfast
+which consisted that morning of cake and bread-and-butter, and made the
+tea. Within an hour after partaking of the meal Mrs. Black was seized
+with vomiting and pain and was obliged to take to her bed. As her
+condition did not improve, a doctor was called in, but in spite of his
+efforts she died after an illness of eleven days.
+
+Before this happened, Black’s money troubles had come to a crisis, and
+following on discoveries made by the company for which he acted as
+agent, a warrant was issued for his arrest on a charge of issuing
+non-existent insurance policies.
+
+Three days before his wife died, Black disappeared, and after a search
+by the police he was finally traced to Liverpool. When arrested in that
+city he attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat, and had to be
+taken to a hospital.
+
+Meanwhile, the circumstances under which Mrs. Black had died appeared so
+suspicious that a post-mortem examination was ordered, followed by an
+analysis of the organs of the body. As a result of the investigation
+Black was charged at the inquest, which was deferred until he was
+sufficiently recovered to be brought from Liverpool, with the murder of
+his wife by the administration of arsenic.
+
+The trial took place at Bodmin Assizes on February 2, 1922, before Mr.
+Justice Rowlatt, Mr. Holman Gregory appearing for the prosecution and
+Mr. Pratt for the defence.
+
+Evidence was given by an assistant in a chemist’s shop in St. Austell,
+that on October 29, 1921, Black purchased two ounces of white arsenic,
+saying he wanted it to kill rats, and that although he was offered other
+preparations for this purpose, he insisted upon having the arsenic, and
+duly signed the poison register. Asked by the judge how much two ounces
+of arsenic would make, the witness replied, “About a heaped teaspoonful;
+it would be 960 grains,” upon which the judge observed that would amount
+to nearly five hundred fatal doses.
+
+Counsel for the prosecution said that the fatal dose of arsenic, which
+was about two grains, would just cover a threepenny bit. The effect upon
+a person who had swallowed arsenic would depend upon whether it was
+taken in a dry or liquid state; in liquid form on a empty stomach its
+effect would be very rapid.
+
+The doctor who attended Mrs. Black during her last illness stated that
+at the post-mortem examination, it was found that the heart was normal
+and that there was nothing to account for the rapid action he had
+noticed during her illness. Questioned as to the presence of arsenic in
+some empty medicine bottles which had been found in the house, he
+replied that it was a common thing to find arsenic in bismuth in spite
+of every precaution against impurity. The amount found in the bottle,
+however, was ¹⁄₂₀th of a milligram, a milligram being ¹⁄₆₅th of a grain.
+
+Mr. Webster, analyst to the Home Office, said he examined the stomach,
+intestines, liver, and one kidney of the deceased woman, together with
+6¾ fluid ounces of blood. He found arsenic in all the organs, the total
+amount being ¹⁄₁₇th of a grain, equivalent to ⅙th of a grain in the
+whole body. Slight traces of arsenic were found in the bottles and other
+articles found in the house and brought to him by the police, but that
+could not possibly account for the amount of arsenic found by him in the
+organs of the deceased woman. The traces of arsenic in these things were
+so small that they would not affect the system at all; to get a fatal
+dose from medicine containing that proportion it would require 1,300
+bottles.
+
+The amounts found were consistent with the taking of a poisonous dose,
+or a series of small doses which might produce poisonous symptoms. If
+such doses had been taken they had probably been well diluted. There was
+no direct evidence of an irritant poison to be seen in the walls of the
+stomach or the intestines. It was possible, however, for all the arsenic
+to have disappeared, even if a fatal dose had been taken. It would
+depend upon the time the patient lived, and a considerable quantity
+might have been vomited. He did not agree with the counsel for the
+defence, who urged that arsenic remained in the body indefinitely. In
+his opinion that was not the case; it was got rid of very quickly.
+Arsenic would remain in the hair and nails for a considerable period,
+but after a comparatively short time it could not be detected in the
+organs.
+
+Sir William Willcox, Consulting Medical Expert to the Home Office,
+described the symptoms of arsenical poisoning. He said that when a big
+dose was taken, death usually occurred in three days, but in some cases
+the arsenic damaged the organs of the body, and death might occur
+several days after the taking of the last dose. He had known cases in
+which some months had ensued before death. In his opinion the cause of
+death in this case was arsenical poisoning. He based his opinion not
+only on symptoms but on the analysis. He believed that no arsenic had
+been administered to Mrs. Black within five days of her death. She had
+not died from the direct effects of arsenical poisoning, but the cause
+of death was exhaustion coupled with poisoning of the vital organs.
+
+At the suggestion of the judge, Mr. Webster made three cups of tea, one
+with two grains of arsenic in it, one with one grain, and one with none,
+and these cups were handed to the judge and jury for their inspection.
+
+Evidence was given by Mrs. Black’s daughter, Marian, and by the
+neighbours, showing that Black had on different occasions administered
+medicine to his wife, and that she had frequently complained of it being
+“peppery” and of her dislike to taking it.
+
+Counsel for the defence urged the lack of motive for the crime, and
+suggested that death was due to gastritis, from which disease Mrs. Black
+was known to have suffered.
+
+On the second and last day of the trial, Black himself went into the
+witness-box, and denied, as he had previously done at the inquest, that
+he had ever had arsenic in his possession, or that he had purchased it
+at St. Austell on October 29. He also added that on October 31 his wife
+was not present at breakfast, but that it was taken up to her by Marian,
+the girl.
+
+The judge, in summing up the case, said that it was one of
+circumstantial evidence. As a rule in such cases one found motives
+included, but in this case there was none. There was no doubt that
+Black’s behaviour all through his wife’s illness was that of attention
+to her, and not either neglectful of her or hostile to her.
+
+The jury, after an absence of forty minutes, returned with a verdict of
+“Guilty.” Black was sentenced to death, and was executed at Exeter Gaol
+on March 24, 1922.
+
+
+In commenting on this case, in an address before the Harveian Society,
+Sir William Willcox stated:
+
+
+“it is interesting from the fact that although arsenic was present in
+appreciable amount in all the organs, the total amount found in them was
+considerably less than a possible fatal dose. The explanation of the
+small amount of poison in the body was clearly shown by the clinical
+history. The case was one of delayed arsenical poisoning, a considerable
+proportion of the arsenic having been got rid of by excretion in the few
+days which elapsed between the administration of the poison and the time
+of death.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+                           THE ARMSTRONG CASE
+
+
+In 1921 the little town of Hay in Breconshire became the centre of one
+of the strangest poison dramas of modern times. There were practising in
+the town two firms of solicitors, the head of one being Mr. Robert Rowse
+Armstrong, M.A., who had held a temporary commission as major during the
+war, and was Clerk to the Bench. The principal of the other was a Mr.
+Oswald Norman Martin, who, after demobilization had entered into
+partnership with Mr. Robert T. Griffith, who died in November, 1920,
+leaving Mr. Martin to carry on the practice.
+
+Mr. Martin was married on June 14, 1921, to Miss Davies, the daughter of
+a local chemist, and Major Armstrong was invited to the wedding
+reception and sent a present. Towards the end of September a parcel
+arrived at Mr. Martin’s house addressed to him in block letters,
+apparently to disguise the handwriting. It contained a box of Fuller’s
+chocolates that had come apparently direct from the makers. It was
+noticed, however, that the ribbon securing the box had been untied and
+retied in a different way, and anything that could lead to the
+identification of the shop where it had been bought had been taken away.
+The box was put on one side until October 8, when after a dinner party
+given by Mr. and Mrs. Martin, it was handed round the table, but only
+one person, Mrs. Gilbert Martin, a sister-in-law of the Martins, took
+anything from it. Later that evening she was taken ill with vomiting,
+and suffered from palpitation of the heart. After dinner, the box of
+chocolates was again put away and nothing more thought about it, until
+they were suspected of being the cause of the lady’s sudden seizure. The
+chocolates were then handed over to Dr. Hincks, of Hay, who sent them to
+London to be analysed. According to the report returned to him it was
+found that in two of the chocolates in the upper row some holes had been
+drilled about half an inch long, into each of which several grains of
+white arsenic had been placed and an attempt had then been made to fill
+up the ends of the holes with pieces of chocolate.
+
+About this time, it appears, Major Armstrong began to press Mr. Martin
+very frequently to come and have tea with him, and at length Mr. Martin
+agreed and went to Armstrong’s house about five o’clock on Wednesday
+afternoon, October 26. When he entered the drawing-room he noticed a
+three-tier cake-stand on which were apparently some buttered scones.
+Major Armstrong called for a cup of tea for him and handed to his
+visitor one of the buttered scones from the plate himself. He also had a
+piece of currant bread and butter which was on a plate and left the
+house at half-past six, but shortly after arriving home began to feel
+unwell. Towards evening he got worse and about nine o’clock violent
+vomiting set in which continued at frequent intervals throughout the
+night. He also had attacks of palpitation and diarrhœa. On Thursday
+morning the doctor was called in and he did not recover sufficiently to
+return to business until November 1. The following day he met Armstrong,
+who asked him if he was feeling better, and remarked, “It may seem a
+curious thing to say, but you will have another attack,” to which Mr.
+Martin replied, “I hope not.”
+
+During the following three or four weeks, Armstrong again repeatedly
+asked Mr. Martin to come to his house to tea and extended the invitation
+also to his office, and seemed particularly anxious that he should
+accept. About this time there was some business between the two
+solicitors about a sale of land, Mr. Martin acting for the purchaser and
+Mr. Armstrong for the vendor. There had been very considerable delay in
+completing the purchase and Mr. Martin had written, that unless the
+completion took place, his clients would have to rescind their contracts
+and demand the return of their deposits in each case.
+
+The completion had not taken place on October 20, and Mr. Martin wrote
+formally giving notice to rescind the contracts and demanding the return
+of the money paid on deposit and expenses, which amounted to about £456.
+Armstrong asked as a personal favour if this could not be postponed. Mr.
+Martin’s clients decided not to consider the suggestion, and thus the
+matter stood at the time.
+
+On December 5 Mr. Martin wrote on behalf of his clients to Armstrong’s
+firm, threatening that, unless he received a cheque for his clients’
+deposit by December 12, he would have to take proceedings.
+
+During Mr. Martin’s illness the doctor attending him took certain
+samples for analysis which were sent up to Dr. Willcox, who found in the
+specimens one-thirty-third of a grain of arsenic. Mrs. Martin, having
+mentioned to her mother about her sister-in-law’s illness after eating
+one of the chocolates, gave the remainder of the box to her, and she
+showed it to her husband, Mr. Davies, the chemist. In examining them he
+noticed that one had a little white powder scattered over one end, and
+that two of them certainly had been tampered with. He thought that they
+looked very suspicious and so he took them to Dr. Hincks, who sent the
+box with the remainder of the chocolates to London to be analysed, the
+result of which has been already stated.
+
+The police were then informed and commenced to make inquiries, with the
+result that detectives were called in from Scotland Yard and Armstrong
+was arrested.
+
+It was then found that Mr. Davies, the chemist in Hay, had sold
+Armstrong arsenic in considerable quantities in 1913 and 1921, which he
+said he required for making weed-killer, and following on what the
+police discovered they were led to investigate the cause of the death of
+Armstrong’s wife, which had occurred about twelve months previously.
+
+An order for exhumation of the body was given by the Home Office and the
+internal organs were sent to London for analysis. They were found to
+contain arsenic to the extent of three and one-fifth grains.
+
+While the charge of attempting to poison Mr. Martin was in process of
+being heard before the magistrates, Armstrong was charged with the
+murder of his wife.
+
+Mrs. Armstrong was forty-seven years of age when she died and had been
+married for about fifteen years. In 1919 she had first consulted Dr.
+Hincks, being troubled with neuritis in her left arm. After treating her
+for this complaint the doctor did not see her again for nearly twelve
+months, when he received a message from Armstrong to the effect that his
+wife was suffering from pneumonia. A day or two later he found she was
+suffering from delusions and that her mental condition was apparently
+bad. He called in a colleague and it became apparent to them that there
+was something additional to the mental trouble, as Mrs. Armstrong had
+been taken ill with vomiting and complained of severe pains and heart
+trouble. The doctors concluded she had better be removed to an asylum
+and she was taken to Barnwood, near Gloucester. She was there confined
+to bed and developed a sort of paralysis; she was treated with tonics,
+and one of these contained a small amount of solution of arsenic. Her
+condition improved and the doctor told Armstrong that she would be able
+to go home on January 11, and Armstrong went to the asylum and brought
+his wife back to Hay. On that day it was found that Armstrong had
+purchased a quarter of a pound of arsenic, and at one time in
+conversation with the doctor had asked him how much arsenic constituted
+a fatal dose. He also asked Dr. Hincks to visit his wife occasionally
+and a nurse was engaged to look after her.
+
+For about a month she seemed to be getting better, then in February the
+sickness and vomiting commenced again. The doctor thought it was a case
+of severe biliousness, but towards the end of February she got worse and
+died on the 22nd of that month. The doctor certified that she died from
+gastritis and heart disease and at that time had not the slightest
+suspicion of foul play.
+
+In 1919 Mrs. Armstrong made a will leaving some £2,419, which was drawn
+up by her husband and witnessed by two servants in the house.
+
+In a previous will made in 1917, Armstrong was to receive an annuity of
+fifty pounds a year, while the property was to be divided equally
+between his children, but two years later in the fresh will drawn up by
+her husband, she left all her property to him. It transpired afterwards
+that the second will was drawn up in Armstrong’s own writing and
+purported to be signed by two witnesses. Mrs. Armstrong was not present
+and the two servants who signed it at the request of Armstrong stated,
+that they did not know it was a will they were witnessing.
+
+To all appearances and in the opinion of her medical adviser Mrs.
+Armstrong had died a natural death, but on exhumation some ten months
+afterwards a sufficient amount of arsenic was found in the remains to
+poison her. Almost directly after his wife was buried and he had got the
+property in his possession, Armstrong went to the Continent, and
+immediately on his return at the end of April was talking about marriage
+to another lady. It was noteworthy that a packet containing white
+arsenic, not coloured, which chemists are bound by law to do before
+selling it, was carried by Armstrong in his pocket on the day on which
+he was arrested. Also that Mr. Martin was nearly fatally poisoned after
+taking tea with Armstrong, and that the amount of arsenic, one
+thirty-third of a grain, which was found in the specimen submitted for
+analysis pointed to the fact, that the amount he had taken a few days
+before was a little over three grains. It was also remarkable that after
+Armstrong had asked Dr. Hincks “What is sufficient arsenic to cause
+death?” and was told three grains, that was the exact amount that was
+found in a packet in his pocket.
+
+Chief Inspector Crutchett, of Scotland Yard, saw Mr. Armstrong at his
+office on December 31, and told him that he was investigating the sudden
+illness of Mr. Martin after taking tea with him on October 26. He also
+told him about the chocolates which were found to contain arsenic, and
+it was known that he had purchased arsenic on January 11, 1921. He asked
+him if he could account for his movements on October 26, and what became
+of the arsenic that was in his possession. Armstrong then made a
+statement that was taken down in writing, and which he signed. In it he
+stated, that he also partook of the buttered currant loaf and scones
+which he handed to Mr. Martin, who he knew had not been well before he
+paid the visit to his house. He acknowledged that he purchased arsenic
+in 1914, which he used for making a weed-killer consisting of caustic
+soda and arsenic which he found to be cheaper than what he could
+purchase. He was unable to throw any light on the finding of arsenic in
+Mr. Martin’s tests or on the cause of his illness after visiting his
+house. After signing the statement, Armstrong was arrested and was asked
+to empty the contents of his pockets on to a desk. Among the articles
+found in his possession was a small packet containing a white powder and
+two or three little pellets, rather heavy, which were in a small
+envelope, which also had the remains of some white powder. The small
+packet was found to contain 3¾ grains of white arsenic.
+
+At the magisterial inquiry, Mrs. Armstrong’s sister said that her sister
+was a believer in homœopathic medicines, and among them were arsenicum,
+nux vomica and liquorice, which she not only used for herself, but the
+household generally. The doctors who saw Mrs. Armstrong at the asylum
+and prescribed for her, had ordered her a mixture containing solution of
+arsenic, iron and ammonia citrate and nux vomica, the solution of
+arsenic being in five-minim doses. She had taken that medicine as a
+tonic up to October 4, but after that date had taken nothing which
+contained arsenic.
+
+Dr. Hincks, who had attended Mrs. Armstrong from 1919, described her
+complaint and condition; it was owing to her mental trouble that he
+advised her removal to the asylum, and at Armstrong’s request he
+consented to her return home. He saw her several times afterwards, but
+her physical condition grew worse and she became weaker every day. On
+February 16 he told her husband that her case was quite hopeless and
+later he heard she was dead. He gave a certificate that death was due to
+gastritis and heart disease. His opinion now was that all these
+conditions were due to the presence of chronic arsenical poisoning, and
+he thought the cause of death was due to the administration of arsenic.
+
+Dr. B. H. Spilsbury, who made the post-mortem on the body of Mrs.
+Armstrong after exhumation, said he found it in an unusually good state
+of preservation, allowing for the time which had elapsed since her
+death. It was a condition which was found in certain cases of arsenical
+poisoning, to which in his opinion her death was due. With reference to
+the mixture which was prescribed for her at the asylum and taken as a
+tonic for a period of some months, he stated that in that small quantity
+he would not expect to find any traces of arsenic in the body, with the
+possible exception of traces in the nails and hair.
+
+The official analyst to the Home Office, who had analysed the chocolates
+sent to Mr. Martin, said that he found the box contained thirty-two
+chocolates, two of which had the appearance of having been tampered
+with. A cylindrical hole nearly half an inch long had apparently been
+bored and filled with a white powder, and attempts had been made to seal
+it up with a covering of chocolate. The white powder was found on
+analysis to be arsenious oxide. He estimated that the amount in one
+chocolate was slightly more than two grains. The rest of the chocolates
+showed no trace of having been tampered with. He found arsenic in all
+the organs of Mrs. Armstrong’s body, the total being equivalent to 3·2
+grains, which led him to believe that she must have had a considerable
+amount of arsenic during the last few days of her life, and that her
+death was due to acute arsenical poisoning. A quantity amounting to a
+fatal dose must have been taken within twenty-four hours of her death.
+
+The analyst also made an examination of a number of bottles and packets
+found in Armstrong’s house, most of which contained arsenic either in
+solution or powder.
+
+Sir William H. Willcox, medical adviser to the Home Office, said the
+mixture that contained arsenic prescribed for Mrs. Armstrong at the
+asylum, could not have accounted for the arsenic found in her body.
+Arsenic taken thus for a month would be entirely eliminated, usually in
+ten days. The symptoms described in the illness of Mrs. Gilbert Martin
+after eating one of the chocolates, and those of Mr. Oswald Martin, were
+all consistent with acute arsenical poisoning. He was of the opinion
+that Mrs. Armstrong was suffering from the effects of an irritant poison
+when she was taken to the asylum in August, 1920, and on her return home
+the reappearance of these symptoms showed she was again suffering from
+arsenical poisoning. With respect to the distribution of the arsenic in
+the organs taken from the exhumed body, he had no doubt that a possibly
+fatal dose of two grains or more must have been taken within twenty-four
+hours of death. He had known of cases of suicide where a large dose or
+possibly two had been taken, but in this case there were obviously
+successive doses, giving rise to very painful symptoms, which were not
+in the least indicative of suicide. He did not believe it possible that
+she could have taken the doses herself within twenty-four hours of
+death, and he was confident that she was suffering from acute arsenical
+poisoning when she died.
+
+On this evidence Armstrong was committed to the Assizes on the charge of
+murdering his wife and of the attempt to murder Mr. Oswald Martin.
+
+Armstrong’s trial took place at the Hereford Assizes before Mr. Justice
+Darling, on April 31. The case for the Crown was conducted by Sir Ernest
+Pollock, K.C., and others, and Armstrong was defended by Sir Henry
+Curtis Bennett, K.C.
+
+The nurse attending Mrs. Armstrong said, that her husband frequently
+came into the bedroom the last few days of her illness when she was
+confined to bed. He was alone with her on several occasions and sat in
+the room when she went to her meals. She noticed that sickness occurred
+about twenty minutes after her patient had taken food. Mrs. Armstrong
+kept a chest of homœopathic medicines in the bedroom, but up to the
+Sunday before she died she was unable to get out of bed. She said she
+did not think it was possible that Mrs. Armstrong on February 13 could
+have got out of bed and got a packet or bottle out of the cupboard in
+the room; she had been told by the nurse who was previously in
+attendance on Mrs. Armstrong, that she was afraid that she might some
+time commit suicide, as she was certainly suffering from delusions.
+
+Chief Inspector Crutchett, who was present at the arrest of Armstrong,
+said he had no opportunity after December 31 of going back to the house,
+but the house had been searched and he was aware of a little drawer in
+the cupboard in the study. Sir Henry Curtis Bennett then told him that a
+small paper packet of white arsenic was found in that drawer by Mr.
+Matthews, Armstrong’s solicitor, his managing clerk and Dr. Chivers. The
+inspector declared there was no packet of white arsenic there when he
+searched the drawer. Counsel remarked that there were actual traces of
+arsenic in the drawer itself. In reply to the judge the inspector said,
+that had the packet been in the drawer when he searched he would have
+seen it.
+
+A feature of the scientific evidence given by Mr. Webster was the
+statement that he had never, in his experience of making analyses of
+organs taken from three to four hundred bodies, discovered such a
+quantity of arsenic as he did in the case of Mrs. Armstrong.
+
+Superintendent Weaver, who searched Armstrong’s study at his house, said
+that he had examined the little drawer of the bureau in which it was
+stated a packet of white arsenic was found after the police search. He
+distinctly remembered pulling out the drawer and placing it on the desk,
+and was positive there was no packet of white powder there.
+
+The counsel for the prisoner in addressing the jury, asserted that the
+suggestion that Mrs. Armstrong took arsenic herself, was infinitely
+stronger than the case made out against the prisoner, and called
+Armstrong as a witness to give evidence in his own defence.
+
+Armstrong gave a detailed account of his career and war service. He took
+his degree as Master of Arts at Cambridge University, and had held
+important and responsible positions, including that of Justices’ Clerk
+of Hay. He was a partner in the firm of Cheese & Armstrong until 1914,
+when Mr. Cheese died. He married in June 1907 and had three children. He
+held a commission in the Volunteer Forces of the R.E. until 1914 and was
+then gazetted captain. In June, 1918, he went to France, where he
+remained until October of that year and was demobilized in the spring of
+1919.
+
+Questioned about the second will in his own handwriting, he said the
+reason for his wife’s deciding to make a second will was, that she had
+come into some further property since the first will, owing to the death
+of her mother, and she wished to make a shorter and simpler one. He drew
+up the document at her request and with her full knowledge. He stated
+that he first became aware that there was something wrong with his wife
+on August 9, but he left her apparently in normal health when he went
+out in the morning; on coming back for lunch she surprised him by saying
+before the children she expected that he would have been arrested; she
+had done something to cause his arrest and had told the children they
+might never expect to see him again. This was the first time he had ever
+noticed any active delusions, and as the delusions did not diminish he
+saw Dr. Hincks and told him what had occurred. Discussing the matter
+with a friend, he had made the suggestion that it would not be safe to
+leave razors about near his wife, and as a matter of fact, he had
+removed them from the room and also his service revolver. He denied
+emphatically that there was any truth in the suggestion, that he had
+ever administered arsenic to his wife prior to her removal to Barnwood
+Asylum.
+
+Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, K.C., in his speech for the defence said:
+“This case is a most extraordinary one, because the prosecution set out
+to prove that in August, 1920, Armstrong started to administer arsenic
+to his wife; that in January, 1921, he continued, on her return from
+Barnwood Asylum, to administer poison to her; and that finally she died
+as the result of poison administered by him. They set out to prove that
+and in doing so, they had not been able to make any suggestion as to how
+Major Armstrong administered the poison, the time he administered it, or
+in what it was administered.”
+
+Dealing with the purchase of arsenic, counsel said Major Armstrong
+bought half a pound of arsenic coloured with charcoal in June, 1919. Six
+out of these eight ounces he had used for weed-killer, and the remainder
+was discovered in the cupboard in the library. He bought some in 1921,
+having forgotten that he still had a little left from 1919. He returned
+from abroad in May and went to the cupboard and found the packet with no
+string upon it, looking as though it had been opened. He divided it into
+two parts. One he used by dividing it into a number of tiny packets like
+the one found upon him. These little packets he used in a way advised by
+a chemical company, and he carried them in his garden coat. It so
+happened that on December 31, he had on that same garden coat and in one
+of the pockets he had, together with his business and private letters,
+that little packet of arsenic.
+
+What happened to the other half of that arsenic? Having separated those
+packets for safety, he put that other little packet, with the blue paper
+round it, in a little bottom drawer in his bureau which was not a
+key-drawer at all. On December 31 he was arrested. The next day he
+remembered this little packet and told Mr. Matthews his solicitor about
+it. Mr. Matthews went to the house and in the presence of the
+housekeeper, Miss Penn, opened the drawer, but there was no packet to be
+seen. They believed the police had found and taken it. Mr. Matthews then
+pressed the police for a list of things found in the house, and when he
+had got it, he found that the packet of arsenic was not mentioned. On
+February 9, therefore, he again went to the house, and going to the
+bureau pulled the drawer out bodily, and in putting his hand in to see
+if there might be a secret drawer, he found the packet of arsenic, which
+had been caught up at the back. “Thus,” said counsel, “the last quarter
+of a pound of arsenic bought by Armstrong was accounted for.”
+
+Armstrong, questioned as to what he did with the small packets of
+arsenic he was said to have made up, declared that he made these little
+packets simply by portioning out a small quantity with his penknife. He
+had used them all for killing weeds with the exception of the one that
+was found in his pocket with his letters when he was arrested. It was
+his custom to drive an old file into the ground over the root and then
+drop in the contents of the small packet of arsenic, so that it fell to
+the bottom or stuck to the side, and he did this to any dandelion root
+he wished to kill. He could not think how he used nineteen packets
+instead of twenty, as he was under the impression that he had used them
+all. When he was arrested and placed the contents of his pockets on the
+table, he did not know the remaining small packet of arsenic was there
+until he saw it and recognized it. When he saw it, he then remembered
+about the two ounces that he had left in the drawer of the bureau. He
+did not tell the police that they would find white arsenic in the
+bureau, but he realized that the finding of the packet had placed him in
+a awkward situation.
+
+Mr. Justice Darling questioned Armstrong very closely about the
+purchase, use and discovery of the white arsenic. He replied that
+previous to buying this quantity which he used for killing dandelions,
+he had never had white arsenic in his possession. He had used nineteen
+of the little packets on nineteen dandelion roots.
+
+“Did you notice what became of the dandelions, did they die?” asked the
+judge.
+
+“They did,” replied Armstrong.
+
+“That was very interesting, was it not?” remarked Mr. Justice Darling.
+“It was an interesting experiment to you who wanted to get rid of the
+weeds?”
+
+“When you saw the little packet and realized you had arsenic in your
+pocket, did you realize it was a fatal dose of arsenic not for a
+dandelion but for a human being?”
+
+“No,” replied Armstrong, “I did not realize that at all.”
+
+“But you had been making rather a study of arsenic?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“It appears now,” said the Judge, “that if every one of these little
+packets was the same as that found in your pocket it contained a fatal
+dose of arsenic.”
+
+Armstrong replied that he realized that now but did not do so at the
+time. He had not disclosed to the police that he knew the arsenic was in
+the drawer, as he thought it was certain they would find it.
+
+Dr. F. S. Toogood, who was called for the defence, said he was of the
+opinion that Mrs. Armstrong was suffering from chronic indigestion. He
+thought that up to the time of her removal to the asylum, she was not
+suffering from arsenical poisoning, and up to February 16 there was no
+evidence of anything consistent with it. In his opinion death was caused
+by arsenic taken about February 16, and if a dose was taken on that date
+it would account for the amount found in the body.
+
+Dr. Ainslie, of Hereford, who was present at the post-mortem, said that
+judging from the evidence of her last illness and that of the
+post-mortem, he was perfectly satisfied that Mrs. Armstrong had died
+after a large dose of arsenic which was taken about February 16 or 17.
+He expressed dissatisfaction over the preliminaries in the case of the
+test for Mr. Martin, and said that there might have been arsenic in the
+glass of which the bottle was made, as well as in the medicines with
+which Mr. Martin had been treated by Dr. Hincks. He was questioned on
+the subject of arsenic being found in bismuth, and agreed that two parts
+in one million was the amount allowed. He referred to the possibility of
+impurity in the supplies of bismuth from America available during the
+war.
+
+Dr. J. Steed, the last witness for the defence, said he believed that up
+to the time she was taken to the asylum, Mrs. Armstrong’s condition was
+undoubtedly due to some internal trouble, such as indigestion or a form
+of neuritis. He believed the cause of her death was the taking of one
+large dose of arsenic on February 16.
+
+Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, in his final address, alluded to the important
+point that had been made of the finding of the white arsenic in the
+bureau after Armstrong’s arrest. The evidence for the prosecution had
+been that Armstrong had always purchased coloured arsenic, and this
+discovery of white arsenic was of the highest importance. Supposing that
+packet of white arsenic, which undoubtedly was bought from Mr. Davies,
+the chemist in Hay, had not been found, the case would to a very large
+extent have been made to turn upon how Armstrong came to be in
+possession of white arsenic. He would have said: “I purchased it from
+Mr. Davies.” And the Attorney-General would have said: “That cannot be
+true, produce some of it. Davies has sworn that all the arsenic you
+purchased was coloured, and all we have found was coloured.” It would
+have been said: “It is all very well for you, Armstrong, to say that you
+were buying your arsenic openly in your own town. You must have gone
+outside to make a secret purchase of arsenic.” “And this is the
+important part of the discovery of the white arsenic,” concluded Sir
+Henry.
+
+The Attorney-General, replying on behalf of the Crown, admitted that the
+case for the prosecution had changed. This, he affirmed, was a poisoning
+case, and he doubted if in the history of the world the poisoned cup had
+been seen to be poisoned, and when administered had been known to have
+been poisoned. In the case of poisoners they would always find subtlety
+and an endeavour to cover up things that were sinister. He claimed that
+this case depended upon circumstantial evidence; the prosecution had
+endeavoured to be fair to the prisoner. The changes in the case were due
+to the fact that they now knew, as they did not know at the start, the
+defence would admit that Mrs. Armstrong died of arsenical poisoning; and
+they knew now, as they did not know before, that the defence was placing
+no reliance upon her having taken homœopathic medicines. He did not know
+before, as he now knew, that in August, 1920, Armstrong was possessed of
+two ounces of white arsenic, the balance of what he had bought in 1919.
+He was also unaware before, that in addition to the small packet that
+was found, he had some arsenic, approximately two ounces, which he had
+bought in 1920.
+
+The central feature of the case was the defence of suicide raised by
+Armstrong himself. One person, and one person alone, was constantly
+about Mrs. Armstrong in August, 1920, and again in January and February,
+1921. “Let me,” said the Attorney-General, “note a remarkable piece of
+evidence. When Armstrong was asked if he was alone with his wife, he
+replied, ‘Yes, I was alone with her. There was milk and soda in the
+room,’ and when asked ‘Did you ever put a cup to her lips, did you ever
+minister to her, you the devoted, loyal, faithful, loving husband?’ his
+reply was ‘No.’ Can this be believed?”
+
+With regard to the Martin case, the Attorney-General scouted the
+suggestion that the arsenic taken from Martin came from a dirty bottle
+or cork or from impure chemicals in his medicine. He believed the story
+of the twenty little packets made up to kill dandelions on the lawn was
+a falsehood.
+
+The judge, in summing up, carefully sifted the whole of the evidence
+that had been given. He stated that the question to be decided was, had
+the prosecution proved that Armstrong gave his wife the poison. “The
+case was a deeply interesting one, and he doubted if anyone had any
+recollection of so remarkable a case in its incidents. It had been said
+that this case depended upon circumstantial evidence, but circumstantial
+evidence was as good as any other, provided it was relevant and true.
+Circumstantial evidence going to prove the guilt of a person was this:
+‘One witness proves one thing and another witness proves another thing,
+and all these things prove to conviction beyond all reasonable doubt,
+but neither of them separately proves the guilt of the person.’ It
+should be remembered that Armstrong was arrested not on the charge of
+murdering his wife, but of attempting to murder Mr. Martin. Having been
+arrested for an attempt to murder Mr. Martin on December 31, only then
+was some one or other led to think ‘What about Mrs. Armstrong, what did
+she die of?’ The symptoms were very similar, so an order was obtained
+and the body was exhumed on January 2, and it was then found that there
+was still in that body a large dose of arsenic, more arsenic than those
+who were accustomed to dealing with these things had known in any
+exhumed body before. There was no proof that there was any arsenic in
+the cupboard in the bedroom, and there was evidence there was arsenic in
+the cupboard in the room downstairs. It was incredible, therefore, that
+a woman who was anxious to get better committed suicide, and had taken a
+large dose of arsenic two days previously. It was incredible that a
+woman in the condition in which she was, could get up with the intention
+of taking a dose of arsenic. Where had she got it from? She could not
+have taken the arsenic herself within twenty-four hours of death. If Dr.
+Spilsbury’s evidence was true that was practically impossible.”
+
+The jury after retiring for forty-eight minutes found Armstrong guilty
+on the charge of wilfully murdering his wife, and sentence of death was
+passed.
+
+The trial lasted ten days, and the dramatic production by Armstrong’s
+counsel of the packet of two ounces of white arsenic found by
+Armstrong’s solicitor, wedged at the back of the drawer of the bureau in
+Armstrong’s study six weeks after the police had searched and found
+nothing in that drawer, was very unexpected. This packet of arsenic
+became one of the outstanding features of the trial, and by the judge’s
+order the bureau was brought to a room adjoining the Court, where a test
+was made. Armstrong was instructed to place the packet of arsenic in the
+drawer where he stated it had been, and afterwards Mr. Matthews, the
+solicitor, demonstrated where he declared he had found it.
+
+An appeal was made to the Court of Criminal Appeal, when Sir Henry
+Curtis Bennett said that both Mr. Justice Darling and the
+Attorney-General had ridiculed the statement that Armstrong had made of
+his method of destroying dandelions. He would produce five witnesses to
+prove that, far from being incredible, it was not an uncommon custom to
+give dandelions arsenic in small doses in the same manner as Armstrong
+had described, when asked to account for the packet containing three and
+three-quarter grains that was found in his pocket. The court, however,
+ruled out any further evidence.
+
+The Lord Chief Justice remarked that a packet containing 3¾ grains of
+white arsenic was a very unusual thing to find in a solicitor’s pocket.
+Counsel observed that arsenic sufficient to kill three thousand persons
+could be bought for 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+Sir Henry Curtis Bennett’s speech in support of the appeal lasted twelve
+hours, and in the course of his argument he said: “Mrs. Armstrong went
+downstairs to get the arsenic; she knew where it was kept, and on
+February 16 she had gone downstairs and was teaching her little boy.”
+Both packets were in the cupboard in the room in which the boy was being
+taught. Armstrong stated that in May he went to the cupboard and found
+the packet in such a condition that it appeared to have been tampered
+with. He suggested that on the day and in the room where she was with
+the little boy, she took a fatal dose of arsenic from the cupboard. From
+the point of view of the defence, he argued, the finding of the arsenic
+in the bureau was extraordinarily lucky, for there was till then no
+evidence that Armstrong had any white arsenic at all. The purchase on
+January 11 was believed to be coloured arsenic, and if this had not been
+found with the chemist’s label, there would have been a stronger case,
+that in addition to the quarter-pound of coloured arsenic in January,
+Armstrong, from an unknown source and for an unknown purpose, had got
+white arsenic as well.
+
+The Lord Chief Justice consulted with his colleagues and said they were
+unanimously of the opinion that the appeal must be dismissed. Armstrong
+suffered the extreme penalty of the law and was hanged at Hereford.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+             SOME POISON ASPECTS OF THE ILFORD MURDER CASE
+
+
+The mystery surrounding the murder of Percy Thompson at Ilford caused
+considerable interest in this country towards the end of 1922. On the
+night of October 3rd, Percy Thompson, a city clerk, when returning from
+the theatre with his wife, was stabbed to death in a dark street near
+his home in Endsleigh Gardens, Ilford. His body was found propped up
+against a wall and by his side in a state of hysteria stood his wife. It
+was first thought by the doctor who had been called and made a brief
+examination in the street by the light of a match, that death was due to
+internal hæmorrhage. It was only when the body was taken to the mortuary
+that it was discovered that there were twelve or fourteen wounds in the
+neck and arms, and that the man must have been killed by an assailant
+armed with a knife or a stiletto. A few days later Frederick Bywaters, a
+young ships’ writer, was arrested and charged with the murder, together
+with Mrs. Thompson, the widow of the murdered man.
+
+The youth of both—the man was only twenty, and the woman twenty-seven
+years of age—who had apparently conspired together to carry out the
+crime, impressed the imagination of the public to an unusual degree.
+When the case came before the magistrates, the police produced an
+alleged confession made by Bywaters, according to which he stated he had
+become deeply attached to Mrs. Thompson, and attacked her husband
+“because he never acted like a man to his wife.”
+
+From a long series of letters which had passed between Bywaters and Mrs.
+Thompson which were produced in Court, the coroner, after consultation
+with the Home Office, decided that the body of Mr. Thompson should be
+exhumed and a post-mortem examination made. From the contents of the
+letters it appeared that Mrs. Thompson had for a considerable period,
+with the connivance of Bywaters, been attempting to put an end to the
+life of her husband.
+
+These extraordinary letters, which were read in court, contained
+allusions to several poisons and are noteworthy from a toxicological
+point of view, as there is mention of the use of powdered glass, which
+has rarely been employed for criminal purposes in this country.
+
+Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson were brought to trial at the Old Bailey, the
+man being charged with murdering Percy Thompson and conspiring and
+agreeing between June 1, 1921, and October 4, 1922, to murder him. Mrs.
+Thompson was further charged with administering poison to her husband
+between June 1, 1921, and October 4, 1922, and inciting to murder, also
+with soliciting and proposing to Bywaters, her fellow prisoner, to
+murder her husband and agreeing with him to murder her husband.
+
+According to the Solicitor-General, who opened the case for the Crown,
+although Bywaters’ was the hand that struck the blow, Mrs. Thompson’s
+was the mind that conceived the crime, and it was under her controlling
+influence that Bywaters murdered the man.
+
+The story as revealed at the trial was one of love and passionate hate,
+recorded in the letters of Mrs. Thompson to her lover, who, strangely
+enough, had preserved them, and thus stored up indisputable evidence
+against them both, of their nefarious plot against the life of the
+unfortunate man.
+
+“He complained that it tasted bitter, as if something had been put into
+it,” is an extract from one letter of Mrs. Thompson to Bywaters.
+
+“I am going to try the glass again occasionally when it is safe. I have
+an electric light globe this time” is from another.
+
+Again she wrote “I used the light bulb three times; the first time he
+found a piece, so I have given it up until you come home.”
+
+That Bywaters had been aiding her was evidenced in another letter in
+which she remarks, “I do not think we are failures in other things and
+we must not be in this. The dose was enough for an elephant, but you did
+not allow for the taste making a small quantity to be taken. I was
+buoyed with the hope of the light bulb and I used a lot of big pieces,
+but it had no effect.” ... “Would not the stuff make small pills coated
+with soap, and dipped in liquorice. Try while you are away.”
+
+In other letters many suggestions were made by the woman to encompass
+her husband’s death, and in one which is worth noting she alludes to a
+novel entitled “Bella Donna,” and quoted a passage which says
+“Digitaline is a cumulative poison, harmless if taken once; frequently
+repeated, it becomes deadly.” She referred constantly in other letters
+to this book. In another she asks “Have you thought of bichloride of
+mercury?”
+
+In a later letter allusion was made to aromatic tincture of opium which
+she said her husband had in his possession.
+
+In the cross-examination of Bywaters he stated that what Mrs. Thompson
+alluded to in the letter was simply quinine, and it was that to which
+she alluded when referring to the dose being enough for an elephant.
+
+Mrs. Thompson, giving evidence on her own behalf, denied ever having any
+of the poisons mentioned in her possession or using them.
+
+Mr. Webster, analyst to the Home Office, said he had examined the organs
+from the body of Percy Thompson which was exhumed and found traces of an
+alkaloid giving a reaction for morphine in the liver and kidneys, but no
+other poisonous substances whatever.
+
+Counsel recapitulated a remarkable list of the chemical substances that
+had been mentioned in this case which included hyoscine, cocaine,
+potassium cyanide, antimony tartrate, bichloride of mercury, digitalin
+and aromatic tincture of opium, all of which Mr. Webster had defined as
+poisons. Counsel, when referring to the allusion to ground glass, asked
+the analyst if he called that destructive and injurious, to which he
+replied in the affirmative if the powder was in fragmentary form.
+Administered as such it had been known to cause death. He further added,
+that ground glass if taken in any quantity might have a serious effect
+on the linings of the stomach and intestines. He found no evidence of
+any quantity having been taken in this case. Aromatic tincture of opium
+contained morphine and was used as a sedative to relieve pain.
+
+Dr. Spilsbury, who made the post-mortem examination, said he found no
+signs of poisoning or scars in the intestines. Asked “If glass was
+administered, would you necessarily expect to find indications of it in
+the organs?” he replied that he would not, and went on to explain that
+the administration of broken glass and powdered glass produced different
+results. Large fragments of glass might produce injury by cutting the
+wall of the gullet or intestines, and if not fatal, scars might be found
+afterwards.
+
+Given in powdered form, the immediate effect of powdered glass would be
+to produce innumerable minute injuries to the delicate membranes of the
+stomach and would result in illness. If the person recovered, the glass
+would disappear entirely, with the possible exception of the appendix,
+where it might lodge and remain for a long time. He found no indication
+of ground glass in the appendix in this case.
+
+The Solicitor-General asked: “Is the negative result of your examination
+consistent with glass having been administered?”—Dr. Spilsbury replied:
+“Some time previously, yes.”
+
+“Is it possible that large pieces would have passed through the system
+without injury to the organs or without leaving any signs behind?”—“It
+is possible,” was the reply.
+
+“Is the negative result of your examination also consistent with
+powdered glass passing through the system?”—“Yes.”
+
+Regarding the poisons, Dr. Spilsbury said he would not expect
+necessarily to find indication of them if they were administered a
+considerable time ago. Some poisons left no trace at any time; others
+produced an effect that might last a few days, or even a few weeks, but
+after that, there were few poisons which would leave indications, except
+those that were corrosive or irritant. Hyoscine and cocaine were not
+irritant poisons. Cyanide of potassium was irritant, but he doubted if
+it would leave any permanent damage.
+
+Counsel for the prisoner asked: “All that comes to this, that there is
+no trace whatever, post-mortem, of any glass having been
+administered?”—“That is so,” replied the witness.
+
+The judge, in summing up the case, said the question the jury would have
+to consider was, was it arranged between Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson that
+the murder should be committed. “If you think,” he continued, “that the
+letters of this woman are genuine and mean what they say, that would
+mean that she was inciting the man Bywaters to assist her in poisoning
+her husband. It might be that they found poisoning was no longer
+possible, and they might naturally turn their minds to some other means
+to effect their object. These letters form a very strong case, that the
+woman was writing to this man, asking him to assist her to remove her
+husband by the administration of poison. If they are accurate, she
+administered it, but the important part is that she was plotting and
+planning.”
+
+The jury returned a verdict of “Guilty,” and both prisoners were
+sentenced to death.
+
+This case is noteworthy from the fact that the evidence of attempted
+poisoning was entirely circumstantial. No one had ever seen Mrs.
+Thompson in the possession of the poisons mentioned in her letters, with
+the exception of the aromatic tincture of opium, and there was no
+evidence to prove that she had ever purchased them or administered them
+to her husband, beyond that contained in her letters.
+
+
+From this study of some of the more famous poison trials of the past
+hundred years, it is clearly demonstrated that the toxicologist and
+scientific chemist are the most formidable enemies of the criminal
+poisoner.
+
+It may be safely said, that the days have gone by when a person could
+administer a poison with intent to kill, without much fear of detection.
+
+In the course of the past century, as science has advanced and new
+poisonous substances have been discovered, the chemist has been able to
+find a means of detecting nearly every poison known to science. Even in
+those cases where the poisoner has been one with skilled knowledge, and
+had the means of choosing the most subtle weapon of its kind and
+selected it with the greatest cunning, chemical experts have yet been
+able to find and reveal the cause of death.
+
+The criminal poisoner, like other murderers, generally leaves some
+indelible traces that eventually prove his guilt. Such traces, as
+instanced in many cases, remain detectable even after the lapse of
+years. Thus the chance of successfully evading detection is gradually
+being reduced to a minimum, and as time goes on it is hoped that it will
+be brought to a practical impossibility.
+
+
+
+
+                                 INDEX
+
+
+ Abano, Petri de, 52
+
+ Aconite, 70
+
+ — how gathered, 72, 73
+
+ Act passed making poisoning high treason, 186
+
+ Agra poisoning case, the, 372
+
+ Agrippina, 35
+
+ Ainos of Japan, 22
+
+ Albany, Duke of, poisoned, 142
+
+ Alexander, Prince, mysterious death of, 108
+
+ Alexander the Great, 37
+
+ Alexander VI, Pope, death of, 133, 134
+
+ Alexipharmica, 42
+
+ Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie, 129
+
+ Algaroth’s powder, 98
+
+ “All Hallow E’en,” superstitions connected with, 214
+
+ Alraun, 67
+
+ American poison mysteries, 329
+
+ Andrew, Sir Euseby, strange case of, 171
+
+ Antidotes to poison, 41, 42
+
+ Antimony, 98
+
+ — cups, 99
+
+ — in human beings, 99
+
+ — preservative properties of, 342
+
+ Aqua Toffana, composition of, 125
+
+ Aquetta di Perugia, 126
+
+ Armstrong case, the, 385
+
+ Arrow poisons, 16
+
+ Arsenic, history of, 88
+
+ — against plague, 90
+
+ — as an amulet, 90
+
+ — contamination, risk of, 222
+
+ — eaters, 94
+
+ — — investigation of, 94
+
+ — for cosmetic purposes, 93
+
+ — in sweets, 94
+
+ — in wall-papers, carpets, and fabrics, 93
+
+ — use of in India, 89
+
+ — white, 89
+
+ Assay cups, 59
+
+ Atholl, Earl of, poisoned, 143
+
+
+ Bacon, Lord, on poisoning, 186
+
+ Bacteria, criminal poisoning with, 230
+
+ Banes, 16
+
+ Baroda, Gaekwar of, charged with poisoning, 108
+
+ Bartlett, Adelaide, trial of, 303
+
+ Bezoar stones, 60, 61, 62
+
+ Bhang, 248
+
+ Black case, the, 381
+
+ Blessis and his death mirrors, 199
+
+ Boiling alive, penalty for poisoners, 188
+
+ Borgia, Cesare, 129
+
+ — family, 128
+
+ — Lucrezia, 129
+
+ — poison, composition of, 140, 141
+
+ Borri, Giuseppe Francesco, 178, 179
+
+ Botulism, 219
+
+ Boughton, Sir Theodosius, poisoned, 265
+
+ Bouillon, Duchesse de, 160
+
+ Boyle, Robert, 97
+
+ Bravo case, the, 282
+
+ Brinvilliers, Marquise de, life and career of, 150
+
+ — — arrest and trial of, 156
+
+ Brittannicus poisoned, 35
+
+ Bull’s blood, 32
+
+ Bushmen, Australian, arrow poisons, 17
+
+ — African, arrow poisons, 17, 18
+
+
+ Calabar bean, 24
+
+ Canaby case, 318
+
+ Cantarella, La, 140
+
+ Carlyle and “Grey Powder,” 246
+
+ Carr, Robert, 104
+
+ Catharine de’ Medici, 146
+
+ Celts, poison used by the, 17
+
+ Cesare Borgia, 129
+
+ — — crimes of, 130
+
+ — — death of, 138
+
+ — — prepares a poison, 131, 132
+
+ _Chambre Ardente, La_, 149, 159, 160
+
+ Chapman, or Klosowski, case of, 337
+
+ Charms against poisons, 53
+
+ Chatillian, Cardinal, poisoned, 106
+
+ Chinese, poisons used by the, 38, 39
+
+ Chloral hydrate habit, the, 246
+
+ Chlorodyne habit, the, 242
+
+ Chloroform taking, 240, 241
+
+ Chlorpicrin, 225
+
+ Christison, 95
+
+ Cicuta, 31
+
+ Clark, Lieut., case of, 372
+
+ Cluny, Prior of, 145
+
+ Cocaine habit, the, 242
+
+ — and morphine, wholesale smuggling of, 245
+
+ — smuggling, 243
+
+ — — cunning methods employed in, 243
+
+ — traffic, 245
+
+ Condorcet, suicide of, 205
+
+ _Conium maculatum_, _see_ Cicuta
+
+ Cornelia and Serpi, 34
+
+ Corneto, Cardinal de, 132
+
+ Cornish poison mystery, A, 381
+
+ Cotta, Dr., 171
+
+ Council of Ten, 121
+
+ Cream, Neill, 314
+
+ — — his stethoscope and medicine case, 316
+
+ Crippen case, the, 350
+
+
+ D’Albret, Jeanne, 145
+
+ Dalkeith coffee poison case, the, 369
+
+ D’Annunzio and his “Pharmic Liberator,” 126
+
+ D’Astrées, Gabrielle, death of, 146
+
+ Devereux case, the, 347
+
+ Di-chlorethyl sulphide, 225
+
+ Dioscorides, poisons mentioned by, 32, 33
+
+ Di-phosgene, 225
+
+ Donellan, Capt., executed, 271
+
+ Draconites, 62
+
+ Dri, a Romany poison, 87
+
+ Dumas, his description of poisons, 255, 256
+
+ Dunbar, Earl of, poisoned, 144
+
+
+ Egyptians, poisons used by the, 28
+
+ Electrum, 62
+
+ Elizabeth, Queen, attempt to poison, 116
+
+ — — and Amy Robsart, 165
+
+ English surgeons experiment on criminals, 111
+
+ Essex, Earl of, poisoned, 106
+
+ Ether drinking, 242
+
+ Exali, 148
+
+
+ Fallopius, tests on criminals, 110
+
+ Fenning, Elizabeth, case of, 271
+
+ Fiction, poisons in, 254
+
+ Francis II, 145
+
+ Fresenius’ work on arsenic, 95
+
+
+ Ganja, 248, 249
+
+ Gas helmets, 224
+
+ — mustard, 225
+
+ — shells, 224
+
+ Geber, _see_ Jábir ibn Háyyan Gherian ware, 60
+
+ Gilbert, Jeanne, case of, 321
+
+ Ginseng root, 215
+
+ Girard, Henri, case of, 322
+
+ Glaser, 148
+
+ Gold leaf, suicide by, 38
+
+ Goldsmith and “James’ Powder,” 247
+
+ Greeks, poisons used by the, 28, 29
+
+ Gula, Babylonian poison goddess, 26
+
+
+ Hashish, 248
+
+ — antiquity of, 249
+
+ — effects of, 250, 251
+
+ — smoking, in India, 248
+
+ Hebrew poisons, 28
+
+ Hellebore, black, 74
+
+ Hemlock, 31, 74
+
+ Henbane, 75
+
+ Henrietta Anne of England, death of, 146, 147
+
+ Henry VIII apprehensive of poison, 103
+
+ Hermes Trismegistos, 28
+
+ Hewitt case, the, 280
+
+ Hindus, poison used by, 37
+
+ Hofrichter, Lieut., charged with poisoning, 193, 194
+
+ Horsford case, 291, 325
+
+ Hyoscine hydrobromide, 357
+
+ Hyoscyamus, 75
+
+
+ Ilford murder case, 401
+
+ Indians, North American, poisons used by, 21, 22
+
+ — Californian, poisons used by, 22
+
+ — Jivaro, of the Amazon, poisons used by, 21
+
+ — South American, poisons used by, 21, 22
+
+ Inoculation with tuberculosis bacilli, 227, 228
+
+ Irish poison mysteries, 345
+
+ Italian school of poisoners, 120
+
+
+ Jábir ibn Háyyan (Geber), 89
+
+ Japanese, poisons used by, 38, 39
+
+ Jean Douglas, Lady Glamis, charged and condemned, 142
+
+ John, King, and Maud FitzWalter, 101
+
+ John of Ragusa, a professional poisoner, 121
+
+
+ Kermes Mineral, 98
+
+ Kwang Su, Emperor, death of, 38
+
+
+ Lafarge, Madame, case of, 273
+
+ Lambeth poison mysteries, 314
+
+ Lamson, Dr., case of, 298
+
+ Laudanum, 81
+
+ La Vigoureux, 160
+
+ La Voisin, 149, 160
+
+ Lawford Hall, mystery of, 265
+
+ Leicester, Earl of, 105
+
+ “Leicester’s Cold,” 107
+
+ Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, attempt to poison, 178
+
+ Le Sage, 160
+
+ Locusta, 35
+
+ Louis XVIII, attempt to poison, 162
+
+ Love charms, 215
+
+ — philtres, 211
+
+ — — danger of, 212
+
+ — — native, 215
+
+ — — plants used in, 214
+
+ — — poison in, 215
+
+ — — strange ingredients composing, 213
+
+ Lucrezia Borgia, 129, 130
+
+ — — death of, 140
+
+ Luxembourg, Marshal de, 161
+
+
+ Macchiavelli, death of, 117
+
+ — his magic potion, 117
+
+ Malay poisons, 19
+
+ Mandrake, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68
+
+ Mantua, Marquis of, letters, 135
+
+ Mark Antony, 36
+
+ Marsh’s test for arsenic, 95
+
+ Maybrick case, the, 308
+
+ —, Mrs., her statement in court, 310
+
+ Mayerne, Sir Theodore Turquet de, 97
+
+ Medicine-men, 16, 24
+
+ Melampus root, 74
+
+ Mercury, history of, 96, 97
+
+ — as a charm, 98
+
+ — first used in treatment of syphilis, 97
+
+ Mescal buttons, 82
+
+ Methods employed by secret poisoners, 198
+
+ Molineux, Roland B., case of, 329
+
+ Moray, Earl of, poisoned, 142
+
+ Morphine taking, 239
+
+ Moulton, Lord, on the Maybrick case, 313
+
+ Muavi, 23
+
+
+ Nicander of Colophon, 42
+
+ — — — poisonous substances mentioned by, 43
+
+ Nigger Caeser’s cure for poison, 48
+
+
+ Opium, 76, 77
+
+ — eating, 79, 238, 239
+
+ — introduction into India of, 78
+
+ — smoking, 80
+
+ — use of in India, 80, 81
+
+ Orange, Prince of, attempt to poison, 205
+
+ Ordeal poisons, 23
+
+ Orfila, 95
+
+ — and the Lafarge case, 277
+
+ Orkney, Earl of, poisoned, 144
+
+ Orpiment, 88
+
+ Ovambos, arrow poison used by the, 18
+
+ Overbury, Sir Thomas, poisoning of, 103
+
+ Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of, 195
+
+
+ Palmer, execution of, 291
+
+ Parysatis, Queen, 36
+
+ Pearson and Black, case of, 345
+
+ Persians, poisons used by, 36
+
+ Petrograd case, 230
+
+ Phocion, 29
+
+ Phosgene, 224
+
+ Pigmies, Central Africa, arrow poison of the, 18
+
+ Pimlico mystery, the, 303
+
+ _Pocula emetica_, 99
+
+ Poison, definition of, 15
+
+ — duel between Court physicians, 36
+
+ — from a ceiling, 346
+
+ — gas, 223
+
+ — — attempted murder with, 229
+
+ — habits, 238
+
+ — in a wooden leg, 208
+
+ — in beer, 216, 217
+
+ — in chocolates, 222
+
+ — in cocoa, 221
+
+ — in foods, 219
+
+ — in glass, 222
+
+ — in honey, 220
+
+ — in the chalice, 114
+
+ — laws in ancient times, 40
+
+ — — in Italy, 40
+
+ — mysteries, in France, 318
+
+ — plots, 186
+
+ — — against Austrian officers, 193
+
+ — — against cavalry horses, 228
+
+ — — against Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 186
+
+ — — against Ministers of State, 189
+
+ — — against the Chief Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, 195
+
+ — — in Lima, 189
+
+ — — in Malta, 188
+
+ — rings, 203, 204, 207
+
+ — — a cardinal’s, 207
+
+ — — Cesare Borgia’s, 206
+
+ — — stories of, 207
+
+ — symptoms and signs of, 35
+
+ Poisoned bed, 209
+
+ — boots, 199
+
+ — candles, 182, 200
+
+ — chocolates given to ’bus girls, 228
+
+ — coins, 146
+
+ — court plaster, 227
+
+ — cup, 199
+
+ — flowers, 209
+
+ — lavender, 208
+
+ — robe, 201
+
+ — shirts, 200
+
+ — — test by Dr. Nass, 200
+
+ — slipper, 201
+
+ — soup-powder dropped by enemy aircraft, 226
+
+ — sweets dropped by enemy aircraft, 225, 226, 227
+
+ — torch, 208
+
+ — wine, 198
+
+ Poisoners of Rome, 122
+
+ Poisoning, dread of wholesale, 186
+
+ Poisonous grass as a defence, 87
+
+ — boot-blacking, 203
+
+ Poisons used by ancient and primitive races, 15
+
+ — concealed in flowers, 194
+
+ — dropped by aircraft, 225, 226
+
+ — in mythology, 27
+
+ — in warfare, 223
+
+ — preventive methods against, 49
+
+ — tried on criminals, 109
+
+ — used in France in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 162
+
+ Pontæus, a quack, challenges the physicians of Oxford, 111
+
+ Porta, Baptiste, on poisons, 122
+
+ _Poudre de succession_, 161
+
+ Pritchard, Dr., case of, 293
+
+
+ Raspail and the Lafarge case, 276
+
+ Ravenna, Cardinal-Archbishop of, 110
+
+ Reinsch’s test for arsenic, 95
+
+ Rhinoceros horn, 58
+
+ Robsart, Amy, mystery of the death of, 164
+
+ — — burial of, 166
+
+ — — inquest on, 167
+
+ Roman Poison Laws, 40
+
+ Rome, mysterious deaths by poison in, 34
+
+ Royal and historic poisoners, 101
+
+ Rugeley mystery, the, 287
+
+
+ Sainte-Croix, 150, 151
+
+ — — casket found after death of, 154
+
+ — — contents and letter in casket, 154
+
+ — — death of, 153
+
+ — — poisons used by, 155
+
+ Sassy bark, 23
+
+ Scotiney, Sir Walter de, 102
+
+ Scottish poison mysteries, 142
+
+ Scythians, poisons used by the, 17
+
+ Seddon case, the, 362
+
+ Seneca, 29
+
+ Sentence for poisoning, revision after twenty-five years of a, 91
+
+ Sheffield, Lord, 107
+
+ Signs of death from poison, 41
+
+ Sirani, Elisabetta, death of, 118
+
+ Slow poisons, 15
+
+ Slow and time poisons, 113
+
+ — — — — origin of the tradition about, 113
+
+ Smith, Madeline, case of, 279
+
+ Socrates, death of, 29
+
+ Soissons, Comtesse de, 160
+
+ Somali, poisons used by the, 18
+
+ Somerset, Countess of, 103
+
+ Southwark poison mystery, the, 337
+
+ Spara, Hieronyma and her crimes, 115, 126
+
+
+ Spiders, poison lore of, 87
+
+ Stas’ process, 95
+
+ State poison of the Greeks, 29
+
+ Stevenson, Dr., proves the presence of aconitine, 299
+
+ Suicides by poison, would-be, 92, 93
+
+ Superstitions connected with poisonous plants, 53
+
+ Sussex, Earl of, 107
+
+
+ Tariff for poisoning, 121
+
+ Tartar emetic, 99
+
+ Terra Sigillata, 49
+
+ — — how it was tested, 50
+
+ Theophrastus, poisons mentioned by, 33, 34
+
+ Theriaca, 42, 43, 44
+
+ — ceremony of compounding, 46
+
+ — Galen’s test of, 45
+
+ — importation to London of, 47
+
+ — Mithridates’, 44
+
+ — Philonium, 45
+
+ — of Andromachus, 45
+
+ — of Bologna, 46
+
+ — of Cairo, 47
+
+ — of Damocrates, 46
+
+ — of London, 47
+
+ — of Montpellier, 48
+
+ — of Venice, 46
+
+ — Zopyros’, 44
+
+ Thoth, 28
+
+ Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, 106
+
+ Toads, poison lore of, 84
+
+ — poisonous, principles extractedfrom, 84
+
+ Toadstone rings, 54
+
+ Toadstones, 54
+
+ Toffana, 122
+
+ Trial of venoms in 1432, 110
+
+ Trigg, Mr., and Miss Loeser, the mysterious case of, 332
+
+
+ Unicorn’s horn, 55, 56, 57
+
+ — — Coronation Chair of, 58
+
+ — — cups made of, 56
+
+ Upas-tree, 20
+
+
+ Visconti, Primi, 159
+
+
+ Westminster, Abbot of, poisoned, 102
+
+ Wheeldon trial, 190, 191
+
+ Willcox, Sir William H., on the Seddon case, 368
+
+ — — — — Black case, 384
+
+ Witch-doctors, 24
+
+ Witches’ hallucinations, 63
+
+ Women poisoners, 198
+
+ Wondreton’s commission to poison, 120
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ Page           Changed from                      Changed to
+
+   88 in Greece and Hungary.           in Greece and Hungary.
+      Dioscorides knew it in its later Dioscorides knew it in its
+      form                             latter form
+
+  224 poisons vapours, and they        poisonous vapours, and they
+      introduced the gas shell, of     introduced the gas shell, of
+      which                            which
+
+  322 become popular among a wide      became popular among a wide
+      circle in the district in which  circle in the district in which
+
+ ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+ ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78589 ***