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.