SOME CURIOUS METHODS EMPLOYED BY SECRET POISONERS
THE strange and curious methods employed by poisoners to accomplish
their deadly purpose, form an interesting study to students of human
nature. The poisoner generally sets to work on a preconceived and
carefully thought-out plan, which he proceeds to carry out with all the
cunning he possesses. The methods that can be employed to introduce a
poisonous substance into the human body are necessarily limited; and
although they are varied at times according to the ingenuity in which
the deed is planned, we find the poisoner with all his craft shows but
little originality, and the modes used in ancient times are repeated
down through the centuries to the present day.
There seems little doubt that the earliest method employed by man was
the poisoned weapon.
The use of the poisoned arrow-head by primitive man goes back to a
period of remote antiquity. Among the cave remains of the palæolithic
period, arrow-and spear-heads of bone have been found marked with
depressions for containing poison, and this method of introducing
poison seems to have been practised by most of the aboriginal races.
Arrow poisons were well known to the Greeks and their word "toxicon"
signified a poisonous substance into which the arrow-"toxon" was
dipped. Homer alludes to the use of poisoned arrows in the "Odyssey,"
and Ovid mentions the bile and blood of vipers as being employed to
poison weapons. The Scythians and the tribes of the Caucasus were
reputed to use Viper poison mixed with the serum of human blood that
had decomposed. The Celts and the Gauls, according to Pliny, dipped
their arrow-heads in hellebore juice; and down to the seventh century
we find poisoned weapons were commonly used in Europe.
During the Middle Ages until the sixteenth century, the poisoned
dagger or sword formed the favourite weapon of the assassin, and the
preparation of the blade for this purpose was brought almost to a fine
art in Spain. It is recorded that Lorenzo de Medici was stabbed with a
poisoned dagger; and the Duke de Biscaglia, the second husband of the
famous Lucrezia Borgia, nearly fell a victim to the assassin's knife on
the steps of St. Peter's.
Of all other methods employed by poisoners, the administration of
the lethal dose through the medium of food or drink seems ever to
have been the favourite. The poisoned wine or cake recurs with a
somewhat monotonous frequency in the history of the poisoner, from
the earliest times down to the present day. Women especially seem to
have been attracted by this mode of poisoning, a fact probably due
to their control and direction of domestic matters, which rendered
the introduction of a poisonous substance into food or drink an easy
matter. Occasionally they have fallen victims to their own evil
designs, as instanced in the case of Rosamond the wife of Helmichis,
King of Lombardy, in the year 575. Wishing to rid herself of her
husband, she gave him a cup of poisoned wine on coming from his bath.
The king drank part of it, and suspecting its nature from the strange
effect it produced, he insisted she should drink the remainder, with
the result that both died shortly afterwards.
The Hindoos have an ingenious method of using powdered glass as a
lethal agent, either by mixing it with sherbet or some kind of food. In
such cases the substance acts by its irritant action on the stomach or
intestines, while at the same time, if successful, no trace of poison
can be discovered in the bodily organs.
A celebrated case in which this agent was used occurred in India
in 1874, when the Gaekwar, or reigning prince of Baroda was tried
for attempting to kill his political resident, Colonel Phayre, by
administering powdered glass to him in sherbet.
The Gaekwar was tried before a court consisting of three Indian princes
and three English judges, and was defended by the late Mr. Serjeant
Ballantine. The princes returned a verdict of "Not proven," while the
judges decided that he was guilty, with the result that the Gaekwar was
deposed.
The sweetmeat was a favourite form employed to administer poison
during the Middle Ages. Such confections were usually handed round to
the guests after a meal in Italy. Princes and nobles frequently used
this method of ridding themselves of an enemy; and if the plot failed
in the first instance, they were always ready to try it again, for,
as Cæsar Borgia is stated to have once exclaimed, "what has failed
at dinner-time will succeed at supper-time." Catherine de Medici
introduced this method into France, and her Florentine perfumers were
said to be adepts in mixing arsenic with sweetmeats.
The poisoned flowers of mediæval romance, and poisoned gloves and
boots, which figure so often in legend and story as lethal media, we
must dismiss as mere fables of an age when the historian drew largely
on his imagination.
The "poison ring," with its carefully concealed tiny spike, which was
intended to penetrate the flesh of the victim, might perhaps have set
up blood-poisoning, as would a similar wound if inflicted by a rusty
nail.
The use of rings with secret receptacles to contain poisons we have
already mentioned. Among the gems in the British Museum there is an
onyx which has been hollowed out to form a receptacle for poison. The
face of the stone is engraved with the head of a horned faun. To take
the poison, it was only necessary to bite through the thin shell of the
onyx and swallow the contents.
When the gold deposited by Camillus in the Capitol was taken away, it
is recorded that the custodian responsible for it "broke the stone of
his ring in his mouth," and died shortly afterwards.
The poisoners of the seventeenth century not content with introducing
poison into wine and other drinks, sought to improve on this method, by
preparing the 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 who made a speciality of this
art, and, it is said, received a comfortable income therefrom; but he
fitly ended his days by being broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679.
According to a contemporary writer, his secret method consisted in
cramming a toad with arsenic, placing it in a silver goblet, and, after
pricking its head, crushing it in the vessel. While this operation was
being performed, certain charms were uttered.
"I know a secret," stated Belot, "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."
And yet Belot's powers were believed in, and he enjoyed a substantial
reputation in his day.
His boasting is on a par with that of the magician Blessis, who
flourished about the same period. He declared to the world that he had
discovered a method of manipulating mirrors in such a way that any one
who looked in them received his death-blow!
The stories of the "poisoned shirt," which was a favourite medium with
the poisoners of the seventeenth century, are not, however, without a
substratum of fact.
The tail of the shirt was prepared by soaking it in a strong solution
of arsenic or corrosive sublimate. The object was to produce a violent
dermatitis, with ulceration about the perineum and neighbouring parts,
which should compel the victim to keep his bed. Medical men would then
be summoned in due course, and would probably judge the patient to be
suffering from syphilis, and administer mercury in large quantities.
The fatal dose could then be introduced at leisure.
The notorious La Bosse left on record her method of preparing the
"poisoned shirt." The garment was first to be washed, and the tail
then soaked 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. "The effect," she concludes, "it should produce on the wearer
is a violent inflammation and intense pain, and that when one came to
examine him, one would not detect anything."
The Duke of Savoy is said to have succumbed to the effects of a
poisoned shirt of this kind.
Some time ago Dr. Nass, a French medical man, made some interesting
experiments, with a view to testing the truth of these stories. He
carefully shaved a portion of the left lumbar region of a guinea-pig,
and gently rubbed the skin with a paste containing arsenic, in the
proportion of one in ten. He repeated this 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, as is usual after arsenical poisoning.
This experiment does not, of course, actually prove the effect of a
shirt impregnated with arsenic being worn in direct contact with the
skin, but it shows that arsenic may be introduced into the body by
simple, gentle friction on an unbroken skin, and that the poisoned
shirt theory was possible.
The administration of poison in the form of medicine is another method
which has often been criminally employed. In France, the enema was at
one time frequently made use of for introducing arsenic, corrosive
sublimate, and opium into the system. The poisoner's aim, in such
cases, was to attribute the fatal effects which followed to disease.
Within recent years a curious case was tried at the Paris Court of
Assizes, in which a lady was charged with attempting to poison 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 dilation 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
concensus 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 strange method, which said to have been employed by the Borgias, and
was afterwards used in France, was a combination of arsenic with the
secretions or products of decomposition of an animal to which it had
been administered. The poison was prepared by cutting open a pig, and
well sprinkling the carcase with arsenic or other poison. Then it was
left to putrefy, after which the liquids that ran from the decaying
mass were collected, and these formed the finished poison.
* * * * *
As science advances, opening up fresh fields for research and poisons
of a still more deadly nature are revealed, so the chemist sets to work
to discover methods for their certain detection, and thus renders the
poisoners' fiendish work more difficult.
It is well to remember that even the most deadly poisons have their
proper use, and in skilled hands prove valuable instruments in
combating many diseases that afflict suffering humanity.
THE END
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
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Corrections.
The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.
p. 19:
And incident which happened to the army led by Mark Antony
An incident which happened to the army led by Mark Antony
p. 24:
the view of destorying the effects
the view of destroying the effects
p. 33:
violent pain and vomitting,
violent pain and vomiting,
p. 33:
as the poision was called, at his bidding.
as the poison was called, at his bidding.
p. 40:
and was arrested at Liége
and was arrested at Liège
p. 45:
ARSENIC has, perhaps, been more frequently used than any other
poison for criminal puposes.
ARSENIC has, perhaps, been more frequently used than any other
poison for criminal purposes.
p. 60:
supposed by the early Greeks to have orginated from the foam of the
dog Cerberus.
supposed by the early Greeks to have originated from the foam of the
dog Cerberus.
p. 65:
to which in many ways it is closely alied,
to which in many ways it is closely allied,
p. 82:
In was then taken downstairs,
It was then taken downstairs,
p. 84:
The symptoms appeared at a time whch would
The symptoms appeared at a time which would
p. 85:
The narcotic properities of the poppy
The narcotic properties of the poppy
p. 106:
as a medium for getting rid of h r niece.
as a medium for getting rid of her niece.
p. 108:
poisons herself with prussic acid of unheard-of strength,
poisons herself with prussic acid of unheard of strength,
p. 112:
in connection with the initals "E. S.,"
in connection with the initials "E. S.,"
p. 113:
and 1·6 grain of strychinne
and 1·6 grain of strychnine
p. 118:
but on seccond thoughts he cut the address
but on second thoughts he cut the address
p. 119:
was also a slight clue, as it it a substance
was also a slight clue, as it is a substance
p. 122:
Th eHindoos have an ingenious
The Hindoos have an ingenious