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Poison Romance and Poison Mysteries - Charles Thompson · Classic History Book Collection

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  Speaker 1: Prephecies Preface to first edition. In response to the wishes
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  Speaker 1: of many who read this work when it appeared in
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  Speaker 1: serial form, it is now reproduced with much additional matter,
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  Speaker 1: which I hope may prove of value to those interested
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  Speaker 1: in the fascinating subject of poisons and the study of toxicology.
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  Speaker 1: It has been my endeavor to collect, in the following
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  Speaker 1: pages the scattered fragments of historic and romantic lore connected
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  Speaker 1: with poisons from the earliest period, and to recount the
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  Speaker 1: stories of some notable poison mysteries of ancient and modern times.
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  Speaker 1: I am indebted to the works of doctor winter Blythe
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  Speaker 1: for many facts concerning the poisons of antiquity. C J. S. T.
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  Speaker 1: Eighteen ninety nine, Preface to new Edition. In presenting a
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  Speaker 1: new edition of this work to my readers, the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: has been taken to introduce several new chapters, one of
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  Speaker 1: which deals with the poison mystery which recently aroused such
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  Speaker 1: widespread interest in the United States. In response to suggestions,
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  Speaker 1: detailed accounts of the Horsford case and the Lambeth poison
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  Speaker 1: mysteries have also been added. C. J. S. T. End
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  Speaker 1: of Prephecies, Chapter one, Poisons of antiquity, long before the
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  Speaker 1: action of vegetable and mineral substances on human beings and
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  Speaker 1: animals was known. It is probable that poisonous bodies in
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  Speaker 1: some form were used by primitive man. When injured in
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  Speaker 1: battle by perhaps a flint arrow head or stone axe,
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  Speaker 1: he sought for something to revenge himself on his enemy.
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  Speaker 1: In his search after curative remedies, he also found noxious ones,
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  Speaker 1: which produce duced unpleasant effects when applied to the point
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  Speaker 1: of a weapon destined to enter the internal economy of
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  Speaker 1: an opponent. He doubtless also became aware that the spear
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  Speaker 1: points and arrow heads on which the blood of former
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  Speaker 1: victims had dried caused wounds that rapidly proved fatal owing
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  Speaker 1: to the action of what we now call septic poisons.
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  Speaker 1: This probably led to experiments with the juices of plants
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  Speaker 1: until something of a more deadly character was discovered. This
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  Speaker 1: was the very earliest age of poisoning, when pharmacy was
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  Speaker 1: employed for vicious or revengeful purposes. Thus we find that
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  Speaker 1: almost every savage nation and people has its own peculiar poison.
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  Speaker 1: In Africa, the seeds of Strophanthus hispidus or combe a
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  Speaker 1: most virulent poison are used for this purpose, while explorers
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  Speaker 1: tell us that the ancient Pygmy race of Central Africa
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  Speaker 1: employ a species of red ant crushed to a paste
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  Speaker 1: to tip their arrows and spears. The South American Indians
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  Speaker 1: poison their arrow heads with curari or urari produced from
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  Speaker 1: a species of Strychnos and other plants, while the Melas
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  Speaker 1: and hill tribes of India use aconite and other poisonous
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  Speaker 1: juices and extracts. The Antiaris toxicaria is also used as
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  Speaker 1: an arrow poison by the Melas. The bushmen of the
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  Speaker 1: South African district Kalahari use the juice of the leaf
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  Speaker 1: beetle Diamphidia and its larva for poisoning their arrowheads. Lewin,
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  Speaker 1: who calls the beetle Diamphidia simplex, found in its body
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  Speaker 1: besides inert fatty acids, a toxalboomin which causes paralysis and
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  Speaker 1: finally death. According to Berm, the poison from the larvae
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  Speaker 1: also belongs to the toxalbuomens, and Stark states that it
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  Speaker 1: causes the dissolution of the coloring matter of the blood
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  Speaker 1: and produces inflammation. A halo of mystery sometimes intermixed with romance,
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  Speaker 1: has hung about the dread word poison from very early times.
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  Speaker 1: In the dark days of mythology, allusions to mysterious poisons
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  Speaker 1: were made in legend and saga. Thus, a country in
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  Speaker 1: the far north was supposed to be ruled and dominated
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  Speaker 1: by sorcerers and kindred beings, all of whom were said
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  Speaker 1: to be children of the sun. Here dwelt Aites, Perces, Hecate, Media,
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  Speaker 1: and Circe. Hect was the daughter of Pursus and married
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  Speaker 1: to Aites, and their daughters were Medea and Circe. Aetes
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  Speaker 1: and Persis were said to be brothers, and their country
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  Speaker 1: was afterwards supposed to be colchless. To Hecatae is ascribed
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  Speaker 1: the foundation of sorcery and the discovery of poisonous herbs.
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  Speaker 1: Her knowledge of magic and spells was supposed to be unequaled.
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  Speaker 1: She transmitted her power to Medea, whose wonderful exploits have
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  Speaker 1: been frequently described and depicted, and who, by her magic arts,
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  Speaker 1: subdued the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece and assisted
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  Speaker 1: Jason to perform his famous deeds. Hecate's garden is described
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  Speaker 1: by the poets as being enclosed in lofty walls with
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  Speaker 1: thrice folding doors of ebony, which were guarded by terrible forms,
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  Speaker 1: and only those who bore the leavened rod of expiation
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  Speaker 1: and the concealed conciliatory offering could enter. Towering above was
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  Speaker 1: the temple of the dread Sorceress, where the ghastly sacrifices
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  Speaker 1: were offered and all kinds of horrible spells worked. Medea
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  Speaker 1: was also learned in sorcery and an accomplished magician. It
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  Speaker 1: is related that after her adventures with Jason, she returned
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  Speaker 1: with him to Thessaly. On their arrival, they found Aeson,
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  Speaker 1: the father of Jason, and Peleus, his uncle, who had
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  Speaker 1: usurped the throne, both old and decrepit. Medea was requested
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  Speaker 1: to exert her magical powers to make the old man
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  Speaker 1: young again, an operation she is said to have speedily
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  Speaker 1: performed by infusing the juice of certain potent plants into
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  Speaker 1: his veins. Some years after, Medea deserted Jason and fled
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  Speaker 1: to Athens, and shortly afterwards married Egeus, king of that city.
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  Speaker 1: Egeus had a son by a former wife named Theseus,
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  Speaker 1: who had been brought up in exile at length he
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  Speaker 1: resolved to return and claim his parentage. But Medea, hearing
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  Speaker 1: of this, and for some reason greatly resenting it, put
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  Speaker 1: a poisoned goblet into the hands of Eegius at an
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  Speaker 1: entertainment he gave to Theseus, with the intent that he
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  Speaker 1: should hand it to his son. At the critical moment, however,
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  Speaker 1: the king cast his eyes on the sword of Theseus
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  Speaker 1: and at once recognized it as that which he had
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  Speaker 1: delivered to his son when a child, and had directed
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  Speaker 1: that it should be brought by him when a man,
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  Speaker 1: as a token of the mystery of his birth. The
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  Speaker 1: goblet was at once thrown away, The father embraced his son,
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  Speaker 1: and Medea fled from Athens in a chariot drawn by
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  Speaker 1: dragons through the air. Circe's charms were of a more
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  Speaker 1: seductive and romantic character. She is said to have been
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  Speaker 1: endowed with exquisite beauty, which she employed to allure travelers
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  Speaker 1: to her territory. On their landing, she entreated and enticed
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  Speaker 1: them to drink from her enchanted cup. But no sooner
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  Speaker 1: was the draft swallowed than the unfortunate stranger was turned
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  Speaker 1: into a hog and driven by the magician to her sty,
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  Speaker 1: where he still retained the consciousness of what he had
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  Speaker 1: been and lived to repent his folly. Gula, the patroness
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  Speaker 1: of medicine and a divinity of the Acadians, was regarded
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  Speaker 1: by that ancient people as the mistress and controller of
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  Speaker 1: noxious poisons as far back as five thousand years b c.
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  Speaker 1: According to some authorities, the Hebrew word cassaf translated in
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament Scriptures as which meant poisoner. Scott states
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  Speaker 1: the witches of Scripture had probably some resemblance to those
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  Speaker 1: of ancient Europe, who, although their skill and power might
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  Speaker 1: be safely despised as long as they confined themselves to
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  Speaker 1: their charms and spells, were very apt to eke out
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  Speaker 1: their capacity for mischief by the us use of actual poison,
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  Speaker 1: so that the epithet of sorceress and poisoner were almost synonymous.
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  Speaker 1: The oldest Egyptian king, Mines and Attilus Philometer, the last
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  Speaker 1: king of Pergamus, were both learned in the knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the properties of plants. The latter monarch also knew something
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  Speaker 1: of their medicinal uses, and was acquainted with Henbane, Aconite, hemlock, Hellebore,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera. Other Egyptian rulers cultivated the art of medicine,
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  Speaker 1: and there is little doubt that probably through the priests,
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  Speaker 1: who were the chief practitioners of the art of healing,
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  Speaker 1: they gathered a considerable knowledge of the properties of many
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  Speaker 1: poisonous and other herbs. Prussic acid was known to the
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  Speaker 1: Egyptians and prepared by them in a diluted form from
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  Speaker 1: the peach and other plants. It is highly probable, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: that the priests had some rudimentary knowledge of the process
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  Speaker 1: of distillation and prepared this deadly liquid from peach leaves
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  Speaker 1: or stones by that method. The penalty of the peach
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  Speaker 1: is alluded to in a papyrus now preserved in the Louver,
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  Speaker 1: which points to the liquid being used as a death draft.
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  Speaker 1: The ancient Greeks, like the Chinese of today, looked upon
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  Speaker 1: suicide under certain conditions as a noble act, for which
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  Speaker 1: poison was the usual medium. Their death cup was mainly
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  Speaker 1: composed of the juice or extract of a species of
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  Speaker 1: hemlock called by them cicuta. The Chinese from remote times
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  Speaker 1: are supposed to have used gold as a poison, especially
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  Speaker 1: for suicidal purposes, and at the present day, when a
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  Speaker 1: high official or other individual puts an end to his life,
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  Speaker 1: it is always officially announced he has taken gold leaf,
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  Speaker 1: a curious phrase which probably has its origin in antiquity.
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  Speaker 1: Nicander of Colophon, a Greek physician who lived two four
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  Speaker 1: to one thirty eight b c. In his work on
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  Speaker 1: Poisons and their Antidotes, the earliest on the subject known,
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  Speaker 1: describes the effects of snake venom and the properties of
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  Speaker 1: opium henbanying Colchicum, cantharides, hemlock, aconite, tuxicum, probably the venom
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  Speaker 1: of the toad, bupretess, the salamander, the sea hare, the leech,
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  Speaker 1: u decomposed bull's blood, milk, and certain fungi, which he
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  Speaker 1: terms evil fermentations of the earth, and as antidotes for
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  Speaker 1: the same he mentions lukewarm oil, warm water, and mallow
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  Speaker 1: or linseed tea to excite vomiting. The same writer also
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  Speaker 1: made a rough classification of the poisons known in his
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  Speaker 1: time twenty two in all, and divided them into two classes, viz.
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  Speaker 1: Those which killed quickly and those which killed slowly. Of
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  Speaker 1: the minerals, arsenic antimony, mercury, gold, silver, copper, and lead
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  Speaker 1: were used by the Greeks. The antidote recommended in case
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  Speaker 1: of poisoning being hot oil, and other methods to induce
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  Speaker 1: vomiting and prevent the poison being absorbed into the system.
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  Speaker 1: Bull's blood is classed as a poison by various ancient writers,
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  Speaker 1: and it is recorded that uin Midas, king of Phrygia,
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  Speaker 1: Plutarch and Themisticles killed themselves by drinking bull's blood. It
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  Speaker 1: is probable that some strong poisonous vegetable substance, such as secuta,
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  Speaker 1: was mixed with the blood. Diascorides throws a further light
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  Speaker 1: on the poisons of antiquity in his great work on
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  Speaker 1: Materia Medica, which for fifteen centuries or more remained the
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  Speaker 1: chief authority on that subject. He mentioned catharides, copper, mercury, lead,
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  Speaker 1: and arsenic. Among the animal poisons are included toads, salamanders,
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  Speaker 1: poisonous snakes, a peculiar kind of honey, and the blood
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  Speaker 1: of the ox, probably after it had turned putrid. The
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  Speaker 1: sea hare is frequently alluded to by the ancient Greeks,
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  Speaker 1: and was evidently regarded by them as capable of producing
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  Speaker 1: a very powerful poison. Domitian is said to have administered
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  Speaker 1: it to Titus. It is supposed to have been one
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  Speaker 1: of the genus Aplecia among the gastropods, and is described
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  Speaker 1: by the old writers as a dreadful object which was
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  Speaker 1: neither to be touched nor looked upon with safety. Among
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  Speaker 1: the poisonous plants enumerated by Diascorides are the poppy, black
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  Speaker 1: and white hellebore, henbane, mandragora, hemlock, eliterin, and the juices
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  Speaker 1: of species of Euphorbia and Apuchinia. Medea is said to
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  Speaker 1: have been the first to introduce colchicum. The black and
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  Speaker 1: white hellebore were known to the Romans and used by
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  Speaker 1: them as an insecticide, and Pliny states that the Gauls
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  Speaker 1: used a preparation of arotrum to poison their arrows. Arsenic
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  Speaker 1: was employed by the Greeks as a caustic and for
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  Speaker 1: removing hair from the face, while copper, mercury and lead
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  Speaker 1: were used in their medical treatment. The study of poisons
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  Speaker 1: was forbidden for a long period, and Galen mentions the
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  Speaker 1: fact that only a few philosophers dared to treat the
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  Speaker 1: subjects in their works. In the East, poisons have been
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  Speaker 1: used from remote times, not only for the destruction of
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  Speaker 1: human life, but also for destroying animals, arsenic, aconite, and
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  Speaker 1: opium being employed by the Asiatics for these purposes. The
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  Speaker 1: Hindus have many strange traditions concerning poisons, some being attributed
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  Speaker 1: with the property of causing a lingering death, which can
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  Speaker 1: be controlled by the will of the poisoner, but this
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  Speaker 1: is doubtless more legendary than correct. One curious and mysterious
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  Speaker 1: substance mentioned by blythe and known in India as mucor phycomeses,
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  Speaker 1: is stated to be a species of fungi. When the
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  Speaker 1: spores are administered in warm water, they are said to
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  Speaker 1: attach themselves to the throat and rapidly develop and grow,
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  Speaker 1: with the result that in a few weeks all the
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  Speaker 1: symptoms of consumption develop and the victim is rapidly carried
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  Speaker 1: off by that fatal disease. The early Hebrews were also
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  Speaker 1: acquainted with certain poisons, the words rush and azema being
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  Speaker 1: used by them as generic terms. Arsenic was known to
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  Speaker 1: them as sa aconite as boshka, and ergot simply as song.
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  Speaker 1: The ancients attributed to poisonous properties to certain bodies simply
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  Speaker 1: on account of their origin being mysterious and obscure and
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  Speaker 1: Many of these errors and traditions have been handed down
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  Speaker 1: for centuries. As an instance of this, the belief that
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  Speaker 1: diamond dust possessed deadly poisonous properties seems to have existed
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  Speaker 1: until recent times. Many mysterious deaths in the Middle Ages
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  Speaker 1: were attributed to it. There is little doubt that death
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  Speaker 1: might be caused by the mere mechanical effect of an
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  Speaker 1: insoluble powder of this kind if it were possible to
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  Speaker 1: introduce it into the stomach in sufficient quantity. But powdered
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  Speaker 1: glass or sand would have the same effect as diamond
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  Speaker 1: dust viz. In causing violent irritation of the stomach. Yet
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  Speaker 1: some of these old traditions have a substratum of fact.
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  Speaker 1: The poisonous properties of the toad have long been regarded
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  Speaker 1: as fabulous, but recent investigation has proved that the skin
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  Speaker 1: of a species of toad secretes a poison similar in
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  Speaker 1: action to digitalis. The venom of the toad has had
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  Speaker 1: the reputation of possessing poisonous properties from a very early period,
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  Speaker 1: and was probably one of the earliest forms of animal
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  Speaker 1: poison known. The old tradition that King John was poisoned
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  Speaker 1: by a friar who dropped a toad into his wine
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  Speaker 1: was regarded as a ridiculous fable until some years ago,
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  Speaker 1: when it was discovered that the skin of the toad
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  Speaker 1: secretes a body, the active principle of which fhrinnin is
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: a poison of considerable power. One of the most curious
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: uses to which the toad has been put is recorded
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: on a medical diploma now in the library of Ferrara,
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  Speaker 1: which was granted to one Generoso Marini in sixteen forty two. Marini,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: having made application for a Ferrari's diploma in medicine, the
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  Speaker 1: judge in whom the power of granting such degrees was invested,
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  Speaker 1: ordered him to exhibit some efficient proofs of his capability
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  Speaker 1: to practice the medical art. Marini at once agreed to
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  Speaker 1: comply with their demand, and the result is recorded in
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  Speaker 1: his diploma, which was discovered by Citadella in the archives
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: of Ferrara, and is translated as follows. Having publicly examined
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and approved the science and knowledge of medicine of Signor
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Geroso Marini, and his possession of the wonderful secret called Orvietano,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: which he exhibited on the stage built in the center
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: of this our city of Ferra, in presence of its
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  Speaker 1: entire population, so remarkable for their civilization and learning, and
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  Speaker 1: in presence of many foreigners and other classes of people,
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  Speaker 1: we hereby certify that also in our presence, as well
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  Speaker 1: as that of the city authorities, he took several living toads,
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  Speaker 1: not those of his own providing, but from a great
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: number of toads which had been caught in fields in
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the locality by persons who were strangers to him, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: which were only handed to him at the moment of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: making the experiment. An officer of the court then selected
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  Speaker 1: from the number of toads, collected five of the largest,
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  Speaker 1: which the said Genero Sommarini placed on a bench before him,
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  Speaker 1: and in presence of all assembled spectators, he with a
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  Speaker 1: large knife, cut all the said toads in half. Then,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: taking a drinking cup, he took in each hand one
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  Speaker 1: half of a dead toad and squeezed from it all
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  Speaker 1: the juices and fluids it contained into the cup, and
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  Speaker 1: the same he did with the remainder. After mixing the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: contents together, he swallowed the hole, and then, placing the
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  Speaker 1: cup on the bench, he advanced to the edge of
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  Speaker 1: the stage, where for some minutes he remained stationary then
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he became pale as death, and his lens trembled, and
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: his body began to swell in a frightful and terrible manner,
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  Speaker 1: and all the spectators began to believe that he would
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  Speaker 1: never recover from the poison he had swallowed, and that
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: his death was certain. Suddenly, taking from a jar by
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  Speaker 1: his side some of his celebrated Orvietano, he placed a
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  Speaker 1: portion of it in his mouth and swallowed it instantly.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: The effect of this wonderful medicine was to make him
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: vomit the poison he had taken, and he stood before
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  Speaker 1: the spectator in the full enjoyment of health. Footnote. The
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: celebrated or Vietano was doubtless some preparation of antimony. End footnote.
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  Speaker 1: The populace applauded him highly for the indisputable proof he
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: had given of his talent, and he then invited many
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  Speaker 1: of the most learned of those present to accompany him
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  Speaker 1: to his house, and he there showed them his dispensary,
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  Speaker 1: as well as his collection of antidotes, and among them
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a powder made from little vipers, a powerful remedy for
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: curing every sort of fever, as he had proved by
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: different experiments he had made on people of quality and virtue,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: all of whom he had cured of the fever from
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: which they were suffering, et cetera. In consequence of the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: rare talent exhibited by Signor General Soomarini, and as a
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  Speaker 1: proof of our love and respect for his wisdom, we
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  Speaker 1: have resolved, by the authority placed in our hands publicly,
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  Speaker 1: to reward him with a diploma, so that he may
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: be universally recognized, applauded and respected. In witness thereof, we
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  Speaker 1: have set our hands and the public seal of the
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Municipality of Ferrara data in Ferrara con gandisimo a ploso
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: il Di twenty six Lugio, sixteen forty two Johannes Cajitanes
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Modoni indexapianum Civitats Ferrari Franciscu Saltami concillarios. But although the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: toad under certain conditions was credited with poisonous properties during
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, it was esteemed a valuable remedy for
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the plague, and was employed for that purpose in Austria
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  Speaker 1: as late as the year seventeen twelve. Kentarides or Spanish
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: fly was very commonly used as a poison in medieval times,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the usual method of administering being to chop it up
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and mix it with pepper. It is said to have
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: been the first poison tried on the unfortunate Sir Thomas Overbury,
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  Speaker 1: although his murderers finally finished him off with corrosive sublimate.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Poisoned rings are said to have been the invention of
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the Italians, who fashioned rings in which the poison was
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  Speaker 1: inserted in a receptacle where the jewel is usually set.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Attached to the inner part of the ring was a
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: sharp point which, when the hand of the wearer was grasped,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: scratched the flesh and injected the poison. Rings were also
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: used for carrying strong poisons secretly, such as arsenic or
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: corrosive sublimate, and in this manner many were enabled to
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: commit suicide after being imprisoned. Hyuscyamus, commonly called henbane, is
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: an herb which has been employed from remote times. Benedictus Crispus,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Archbishop of Milan, in a work written shortly before a. D.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Six eighty one, alludes to it under the name of
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Hyosciamus and Symphoniaca, and in the tenth century its virtues
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: are particularly recorded by Masser Floridus. In the early Anglo
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Saxon works, it is called henbell and sometimes belline. In
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: a French herbil of the fifteenth century, it is called
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: hanibane or henneben. From a very early period, it has
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: been employed as a sedative and anodyne for producing sleep,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: although simple hallucinations sometimes accompany its use. An old tradition
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: states that once on the refectory of an ancient monastery,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: the monks were served with henbane instead of some harmless root,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: in error by the cook. After partaking of the dish,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: they were seized with the most extraordinary hallucinations. At midnight,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: One monk sounded the bell from mattens, while others walked
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: in the chapel and opened their books but could not read.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Others sang roistering drinking songs and performed Mountebank antics, which
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: convulsed the others with uncontrollable laughter, and the pious monastery,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: for the nonce, was turned into an asylum. Certain stones,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: which were sold for large sums of money, were supposed
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to change color when brought near a poisonous substance, and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: they were consequently much sought after by high personages. The
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: horn of the unicorn was said to become moist when
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: placed near poisoned food. Bickman records his belief that several
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: slow poisons were known to the ancients, which cannot now
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: be identified. The Carthaginians also seemed to have been acquainted
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: with similar poisons, and, according to tradition, administered some to Regulus,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the Roman general. But we cannot endorse Bickmann's belief. An
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: incident which happened to the army led by Mark Antony
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: against the Parthians, and described by Plutarch, is said to
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: have been caused by aconite. At one time during the expedition,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the soldiers, being very short of provisions, sought for roots
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and potherbs, and met one that brought on madness and death.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: The eater immediately lost all memory and knowledge, busying himself
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: at the same time in turning and moving every stone
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he met with, as if he were on some important pursuit.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: The camp was full of unhappy men, stooping to the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: ground and digging up and removing stones, till at last
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: they were carried off by bilious vomiting. Whole numbers perished,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: and the Parthians still continued to harass them. Antony is
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: said to have frequently exclaimed oh the ten thousand, alluding
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to the army which Xenophon led in retreat both a
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: longer way and through more numerous conflicts, and yet led
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: in safety. Nine active or virulent poisons are mentioned by
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: most ancient writers on Indian medicine, many of which are
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: at present not identified. Most of them are apparently varieties
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: of aconite. Besides these, they employed Opium gunga, datura, roots
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of Nerium odorum and Gloriosa superba, the milky juices of
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Caloptopus gigantia and Euphorbia nerifolia, white arsenic orpiment, and the
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: poison extracted from the fangs of serpents. Most of the
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: older Sanskrit manuscripts are written on paper prepared with orpiment
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to preserve them from the ravages of insects. Varieties of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: datura yield atropine, a powerful poison. These plants were frequently
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: employed in India for putting a sudden end to domestic quarrels,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: and to this practice may be traced the origin of
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the custom of sati or widow burning, as the Brahmins
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: found from experience that by making a wife's life conterminus
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: with the husband's, the average husband lived considerably longer. It
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: is worthy of note that the diamond was celebrated as
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a medicinal agent by the Hindus, who prepared it by
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: roasting seven times and then reducing it to powder. It
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: was given in doses of one grain as a powerful
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: tonic end of Chapter one, Chapter two. Poisons and superstition.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Among the ignorant, poisons have ever been closely associated with superstition,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and thus we found in the dark ages, even among
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the more civilized nations of the West, a belief in
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the occult concerning those things, the action of which they
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: did not understand. To most of the poisonous herbs used
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: by the ancients, certain curious superstitions were attached. The mandrake,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: in particular, excited the greatest veneration. On this account, it
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: is supposed this plant is the same which the ancient
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Hebrews called dudaiem. That these people held it in the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: highest esteem in the days of Jacob is evident from
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the notice of his having been found by Reuben, who
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: carried it to his mother, and the inducement which tempted
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: leah to part with it proves the value then set
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: upon this remarkable plant. It was believed to possess the
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: property of making childless wives become mothers. Mandrake was among
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the more important drugs employed by the ancients for producing
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: anesthe Doses of the wine made from the root were
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: administered before amputating a limb or the application of the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: hot iron cattery. Pliny says, mandrake is taken against serpents,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and before cutting and puncture, lest they be felt. Sometimes
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the smell is sufficient. According to Apulius, half an ounce
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of the wine would make a person insensible, even to
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the pain of amputation. Lyman states it was this wine,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: mingled with myrrh, that was offered to the Savior on
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the cross, it being commonly given to those who suffered
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: death by crucifixion to allay in some degree their terrible agonies.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: In Shakespeare's time, mandrake still kept its place in public
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: estimation as a narcotic. Thus we have Cleopatra asking for
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the drug that she may sleep out this great gap
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: of time while her antony is away, and Iago, when
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: his poison became against to work in the mind of
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: the more exclaims, not poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: drowsy syrups of this world shall ever medicine thee to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: that sweet sleep. Some of the old names applied to
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the plant, such as semehomo and anthropomorphon, refer to the
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: appearance of the root, while the term love apples applied
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: to the fruit relates to their imaginary aphrodisiacal properties. It
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: is mentioned in the scriptures in connection with such episodes.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Josephus states Baras, supposed to be Mandrake, was capable of
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: expelling demons from those possessed. Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, is
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: said to have compared his lethargic hearers to those who
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: had eaten mandrake. The Escorides states that a drachma of
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: mandragora taken in a draft or eaten in a cake
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: causes infatuation and takes away the use of reason. The
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Greeks bestowed on it the name of Circium, derived from
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the which circe. They believed that when the man drake
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: was dragged up from the earth, it gave a dreadful
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: shriek and struck the daring person dead who had had
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the presumption to pull it up. The method of obtaining it, therefore,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: was by fastening the plant to the tail of a dog,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: who thus drew the root from the ground. The shriek
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be due to an evil spirit who
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: dwelt in the plant. The Romans also were very particular
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in the manner in which they obtained the root. Pliny
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: tells us that he who would undertake this office should
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: stand with his back to the wind, and before he
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: begins to dig, make three circles round the plant with
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the point of a sword, and then, turning to the west,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: proceed to take it up. The small roots, which are
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: much twisted and gnarled, sometimes bear a resemblance to the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: form of man, and this was turned to account by
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: some of the old German doctors, who fashioned them into
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: rude images and sold them as preventives of evil and danger.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: They called them a brunees. These images were regularly dressed
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: every day and consulted as oracles, and were manufactured in
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: great numbers. They were introduced into England in the time
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of Henry the Eighth and met with ready purchasers to
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: increase their value and importance. The roots were said by
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the venders to be produced from the flesh of criminals
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: which fell from the gibbet, and that they only grew
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: in such situations. Lord Bacon notices their use in the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: following paragraph. Some plants there are but rare that have
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: a morsy or downy root, and likewise that have a
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: number of threads like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: impostors make an ugly image, giving it the form of
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: a face at the top of the root, and these
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: strings to make a broad beard down to the foot.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Madame de Genlis states that the mandrake roots should be
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: wrapped in a sheet, for that then they will bring
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: increasing good luck. The plant is still used medicinally in China,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: where it is said to be largely taken by the Mandarins,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: who believe it will give them increased intellectual powers and
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: prolong their lives. From recent investigation, the activity of the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: mandrake root is proved to be due to an alkaloid
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: called mandragorine. The black hellebore, Malampas root or Christmas rose,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: another poisonous plant known to the ancients, was believed to
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: have magical properties. It was called after Malampus, a great
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: physician who flourished at Pylos about one hundred years after
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the time of Moses or about one thousand, five hundred
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: and thirty years before the birth of Christ. He is
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: reputed to have cured the daughters of Prtus, king of Argos,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: of mental derangement with hellebore. Plenty mentions that the daughters
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: of Curtis were restored to their senses by drinking the
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: milk of goats which had fed on hellebore black. Hellebor
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: root was used by the ancients to purify their homes
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: and to hallow their dwellings, and they believed that by
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: strewing it about it would drive away evil spirits. This
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: ceremony was performed with great devotion and accompanied with the
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: singing of solemn hymns. They also blessed their cattle in
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: the same manner with hellebor to keep them free from
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: spells of the wicked. For these purposes, it was dug
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: up with many religious ceremonies, such as drawing a circle
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: round the plant with a sword, then turning to the east.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: A humble prayer was finally offered up by the devote
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: to Apollo and Esclapius for leave to dig up the root.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: The flight of the eagle was particularly attended to during
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the ceremony, for when this bird approached near the spot
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: during the celebration of the rite, it was considered so
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: ominous as to predict the certain death of the person
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: who uprooted the plant. In the course of the year,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: others ate garlic previous to the right, which was supposed
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to counteract the poisonous effluvia of the plant. Discorides relates
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: that when Carnades, the Syrinac philosopher undertook to answer the
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: books of Zeno, he sharpened his wit and quickened his
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: spirit by purging his head with powdered hellibore. It is
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: recorded that the Gauls never went to the chase without
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: rubbing the point of their arrows with this herb, believing
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: that it rendered all the game killed with them. The
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: more tender it is of this plant, yuvanull sarcastically observed
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: misers need a double dose of hellebore. With several uncivilized
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: nations in Africa, the practice of compelling persons accused of
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: crime or witchcraft to undergo the ordeal of swallowing some
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: vegetable poison is still carried on for this purpose. Certain
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: tribes in Western Africa use the Klibar being, sometimes called
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the ordeal being, which contains a powerful poisonous principle called phisostigmine.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: It was customary at one time in old Klibar and
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the mouth of the Niger, where the plant grows, to
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: destroy it whenever found a few only being preserved to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: supply seeds for judicial purposes, and of these seeds the
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: store was kept in the custody of the native chief. Witchcraft, indeed,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: may be said to play the chief part in the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: daily life of all African natives, and to witchcraft they
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: attribute every ill that befalls them. Two classes of witchcraft
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: are supposed to exist, the one practiced secretly by evildoers,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: and the other practiced by the witch doctors with the
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: view of destroying the effects of the former. Witch doctors
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: are in fact the greatest power in the land. They
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: hold the lives of all in their hands and are
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: daily employed to satisfy the passions of their neighbors. According
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: to native ideas, says one who has had a long
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: experience among the native tribes, death or sickness never occurs
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: through natural causes, but is always the result of somebody's act.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Whenever anyone is accused of having practiced witchcraft or of
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: having committed any other crime, kalibarbin or muabbe is used
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: to decide the case. The taking of these is the
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: great trial by ordeal, and usually, except when the accuser
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: is a witch doctor, a accused and accuser have both
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: to submit to the test. Chiefs, however, may appoint a
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: deputy to undergo the ordeal in their stead. Nave consists
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: of a specially prepared drug, usually made by scraping the
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: wood of a certain tree known to the witch doctors.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: This is mixed with water and both parties swallow the decoction.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: In a very short time, the drug begins to act.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Vomiting sets in, followed by convulsions and death. Of course,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: in most cases the result depends on the dose given.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Sometimes both accuser and accused are seized with vomiting. In
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: that case the natives say that the medicine has been
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: badly prepared, and the operation is repeated. At other times,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: both die. In that case also the medicine was no good,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: But the trial cannot be renewed. As may be readily understood,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: when the guilt of one of the parties has been established.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: By his death, his property is at once looted, his
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: wife and children being killed. So great, however, is the
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: faith of the natives in the infallibility of the muave test,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: and they so fully believe that in case of innocence
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: they will be proof against the deadly effects of the drug,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: that they will never hesitate to submit themselves to the trial.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: In fact, they will frequently volunteer to go through it,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: and insist upon taking muave even when falsely accused. From
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: this account, it will be easily seen that the witch
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: doctor who prepares the muave can easily get rid of
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: any person he may wish. In some districts, the drug
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: used for the trial, instead of causing death when it
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: has not acted as an emetic, merely causes purging. But
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the result is the same as the man is at
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: once put to death. This is probably due to a
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: weaker decoction of the drug having been prepared. The same
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: traveler states, in many instances his own men have offered
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: to take moave in order to refute the slightest charge.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Trial by ordeal, which still survives in the Dark Continent,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: was practiced by other and more civilized nations in the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: early Christian era end of Chapter two, Chapter three. Royal
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: and historic poisoners. Poison appears to have been employed as
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: a political agent from a very early period of history,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: and numerous stories have been handed down of royal personages
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: who used this secret and deadly method of ridding themselves
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: of troublesome individuals and removing enemies from their path. They
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: also at times became the victims of jealous rivals by
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the same nefarious means. One of the earliest traditions we
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: have of this kind is that of Frisa, who poisoned
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the Qui Queen Statura during the reign of Ardazak SI's
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: second Memnon BC four five three fifty nine, by cutting
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: her food with a poisoned knife. The notorious Nero doubtless
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: resorted to the use of poison more than once, as
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: may be inferred from the story of the death of
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: his brother Britannicus, who it is said was poisoned by
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: his orders. Britannicus was dining with his brother and the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: imperial family, and as was the custom of the Romans,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: hot water was brought round by slaves to the table,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the water being heated to varied degrees to suit the
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: taste of the drinker. According to the story, the cup
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: of water handed to Britannicus proved to be too hot,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and he gave it back to the attendant slave, who
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: added cold water to it, which addition is supposed to
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: have contained the poison. For no sooner had he swallowed
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the draft than he fell back, gasping for breath. His mother,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Agrippina and Octavia, his sister, who were also at the table,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: became terror stricken. But Nero, unmoved, calmly remarked that he
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: often had such fits in his youth without danger, and
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: the banquet proceeded. It is thought probable that the poison
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: given was Prussic acid in some form. A curious superstition
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: existed in early times and is still entertained by the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: ignorant that if the body rapidly decomposes after a sudden death,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: it is to be attributed to the effects of poison.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: So when Britannicus died, it is recorded that the Romans
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: attempted to conceal his discolored face by means of paint.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: During the Roman period, poisoning was reduced to a fine art,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: and the skilled or professional poisoner obtained large amounts of
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: money for his services. The Borgia's favorite method of administration
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: a lethal dose was by means of a species of
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: hypodermic injection. The greatest craft and cunning used to be
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: exerted in order to introduce poison into the system, and
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: there are many old traditions concerning the subtle methods employed,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: although a number of these are doubtless more legendary than correct. Thus,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Tissault states that John, King of Castile owed his death
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: to wearing a pair of boots which were supposed to
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: have been impregnated with poison by a Turk. Henry the
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: sixth is said to have succumbed through wearing poisoned gloves,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and Louis fourteen and Pope Clement seven through the fumes
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: from a poisoned taper. King John is supposed to have
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: been poisoned by matter extracted from a living toad placed
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: in a Zvois sail bowl, while Pope Alexander the sixth
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: is said also to have fallen a victim to poison,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: after which, according to the chronicler, his body presented a
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: fearful spectacle. A document drawn up by Charles, King of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Navarre throws some light on this systematic manner in which
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: the poisoning of obnoxious persons was carried out in medieval times.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: It is in the form of a commission to one
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Wonderton to poison Charles the sixth, the Duke of Valois,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: brother of the king, and his uncles, the Dukes of Berry,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Burgundy and Bourbon. It runs, go thou to Paris. Thou
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: canst do great service. If thou wilt do what I
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: tell thee, I will reward thee well. There is a
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: thing which is called sublimed arsenic. If a man eat
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: a bit the size of a pea, he will never survive.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Thou wilt find it in Pampeluna, Bordeaux, Bayon, and in
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: all the good towns. Thou wilt pass at the apothecary shops,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: take it and powder it. And when thou shalt be
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: in the house of the King of the Count de Valois,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: his brother and the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: draw near, and betake thyself to the kitchen, to the larder,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: to the cellar, or any other place where thy point
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: can best be gained. And put the powder in the
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: soups meats or wines, provided that thou canst do it secretly,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: otherwise do it not. It is satisfactory to learn that
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: the miscreant, who was entrusted with this diabolical commission, was
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: detected in time and executed in thirteen eighty four. It
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: is related of Charles the Ninth, that, having suspected one
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: of his cooks of stealing two silver spoons, he resolved
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: to try the effect of bezoor, which at that time
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: was highly recommended as an antidote to poisons. So, thinking
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: a good opportunity had arrived for testing its properties, his
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: majesty administered to the un unfortunate cook first a large
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: dose of corrosive sublimate, and then a dose of the
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: reputed antidote. But the unlucky man fell a victim to
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: the experiment and died in great agony in seven hours,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: in spite of other efforts to save him. There is
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: an old tradition that King John also figured as a poisoner,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: and got rid of the unfortunate maud Fitzwalter by means
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: of a poisoned egg. The story is a romantic one
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: and is related by Hepworth Dixon in her Majesty's Tower.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: In the reign of King John, the White Tower received
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: one of the first and fairest of a long line
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: of female victims, in that of Maud Fitzwalter, who was
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: known to the singers of her time as Maud the Fair.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: The father of this beautiful girl was Robert Lord Fitzwalter
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: of Castle Byard on the Thames, one of John's most
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: powerful and greatest barons. Yet the King, during it is said,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: a fit of violence or temper with the Queen, fell
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: madly in love with the fair Maud. As neither the
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: lady herself nor her powerful sire would listen to his
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: disgraceful suit, the King is said to have seized her
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: by force at Dunmow and brought her to the tower.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Fitzwalter raised an outcry, on which the King sent troops
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: into Castle Baynard and his other houses, and when the
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: baron protested against these wrongs, his master banished him from
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the realm. Fitzwalter fled to France with his wife and
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: other children, leaving poor Maud in the tower, where she
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: suffered a daily insult in the King's unlawful suit. But
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: she remained abdurate and refused his offers. On her proud
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: and scornful answer to his overtures being heard, John carried
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: her up to the roof and locked her in the
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: round turret standing on the northeast endingle of the keep.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Maud's cage was the highest and chilliest den in the tower,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: but neither cold, solitude nor hunger could break her strength,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: and at last, in the rage of his disappointed love,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: the king sent one of his minions to her room
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: with a poisoned egg, of which the brave girl ate
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: and died bluff. King hal at one period of his life,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: was apprehensive of being poisoned, and it was commonly believed
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: that am Boleyn attempted to dose him. It is recorded
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: that the king, in an interview with young Prince Henry,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: burst into tears, saying that he and his sister, the
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Princess Mary, might thank God for having escaped from the
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: hands of that accursed and venomous Harlot, who had intended
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: to poison them. According to the French Chronicles, after the
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: death of Gaultier Guifart, Count Buckingham in the early part
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: of the twelfth cent centery, Agnes, his widow, became enamored
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: with Robert, Duke of Normandy, and attached herself in an
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: illicit manner to him, shortly after which time his wife,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Sibilly died of poison. Pope Alexander the sixth and his son,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: the Duke of Valentinois, employed Arsenic to carry out their
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: fiendish plans not only on their enemies, but on their
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: friends also. Thus perished by their hands the Cardinals of
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Capua and Modena, and Alexander himself by a cup intended
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: for Adrian, Cardinal of Cornetto, who had invited the Pope
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: to a banquet in the vineyard of Belvedere, was destroyed
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: instead of his host. Lucretia Borgia, famous in romance and
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: song for her poisoning propensities, was a daughter of Pope
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Alexander the sixth and sister of Cesar Borgia. She married
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Giovanni Skvortza, Lord of Pizarro, in furtiyeeen ninety three, but
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: being a woman of haughty disposition and evil temper, their
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: life was anything but a happy one, and after living
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: together for four years, Alexander dissolve the marriage and gave
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: her to Alphonso the second of Naples. Two years had
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: barely passed before her second husband was assassinated by hired
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Ruffians of Caesar Borgia, so Lucretia took unto herself a
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: third husband, in the person of Alphonso deaste A, son
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: of the Duke of Ferrara. She led a wild and
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: unhappy life and was accused of poisoning and almost every
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: form of crime, although it is stated by several modern
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: historians that many of these charges were unfounded. Although tradition
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: has inflicted her with a bad character, she is said
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: to have been a liberal patroness of art and literature
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: in her time. She died in fifteen twenty three. In
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: fifteen thirty six, the dpho Fa, eldest son of Francis
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: the First, died suddenly, and suspicion attached to Sebastian Modicusilli,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: a fierase who held the part of cupbearer, bribed, as
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: was supposed by Catherine of Medicis, in order to secure
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the crown to her husband, Henry, Duke of Orleon, who
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: became Dauphin in consequence of his elder brother's death. The
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: story of the Countess of Somerset, who was tried with
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: others for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Reign of James the First forms an interesting episode in
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the history of romantic poisoning. Robert, Earl of Essex, son
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: of Queen Elizabeth's favorite and who afterwards became Commander in
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: Chief of the Parliamentary Forces, married at the age of
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: fourteen Francis Howard, a younger daughter of the Earl of Suffolk,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: the bride being just a year younger than her husband.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: The match had been arranged and brought about through the
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: influence of relatives who thought it expedient that the young
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: bridegroom should be sent off to travel on the continent
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: immediately after the marriage had taken place, and he remained
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: away for three or four years. During this period, the countess,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: who was brought up at court, developed into a very
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: beautiful woman, but seems to have been equally unprincipled and capricious.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: On the return of the Earl from his travels, she
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: shrank from all advances on his part, and showed the
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: utmost repugnance to her husband on all occasions. Their dispositions
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: were entirely different. He loved retirement and wished to live
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: a quiet country life, while she, who had been bred
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: at court, and accustomed to adulation and intrigue, refused to
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: leave town. The King about this time had a number
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: of young men of distinguished appearance and good looks attached
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: to the court, and of these one, Robert Carr, at
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: length became an exclusive favorite. Between him and the self
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: willed young countess, there sprang up an attachment which, at
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: least on her side, amounted to infatuation. Her opportunities for
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: meeting her lover were short and rare, and in this
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: emergency she applied to a missus Turner, who introduced her
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: to Doctor Foreman, a noted astrologer and magician at that time,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: and he, by images made of wax and other devices
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: of the black art, undertook to procure the love of
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Carr to the lady. At the same time he was
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: also to practice against the Earl in the opposite direction.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: These measures, however, were too slow for the wayward countess,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: and having gone to the utmost lengths with her inamorata,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: she insisted on a divorce and a legal marriage with him.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: One of Carr's greatest friends was Sir Thomas Overbury, a
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: young courtier and a man of honor and kindly disposition.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: He was much against this intimacy and besought his friend
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: to break it off, assuring him it would ruin his
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: prospects and reputation if he married the lady. Carr unwisely
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: made this known to the Countess, who at once regarded
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Overbury as a bitter enemy and resolved to do what
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: she could to overthrow him. The pair plotted together with
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: evident success for the unfortunate Sir Thomas was shortly afterwards
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: committed to the tower by an arbitrary mandate of the King. Next,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: he was not allowed to see any visitors, and finally
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: his food was poisoned, and after several unsuccessful attempts on
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: his life, he at last died from the effects of poison. Cantharides,
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: nitrate of silver spiders, arsenic and last of all, corrosive
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: sublimate are said to have been administered in turn to
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: this unfortunate individual. Meanwhile, the Countess obtained a divorce from
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: her husband on the ground of impotency, and married Carr,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: who was soon afterward made Earl of Somerset by King James.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Two years elapsed before the murder of Sir Thomas, Overbury
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: was brought to light when the inferior criminals, Missus Turner
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and the others were convicted and executed, but the Earl
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: of Somerset and his Countess, although found guilty with their accomplices,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: received the royal pardon. The happiness of the Earl and Countess, however,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: was not of long duration, as it is stated they
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: afterwards became so alienated from each other that they resided
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: for years under the same roof, with the most careful
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: precautions that they might not by any chance come into
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: each other's presence. The Missus Turner, implicated in the crime,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: is said to have been the first to introduce into
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: England the yellow starch that was then applied to Ladies Roughs.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: Her last request was that she should be hanged in
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: a rough dyed with her own yellow starch, which is
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: said to have been carried out. According to some historians,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, prime Minister and favorite of
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth, was a poisoner of the most diabolical description.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: His ambition to marry his royal mistress, whose shrewd woman
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: as she was, seems to have had no insight into
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: his unscrupulous character, was the cause of his moving every
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: human obstacle from his path by insidious methods. The murder
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: of his wife, Amy Robzart was the first of a
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: long series of murders carried out doubtless at his instigation.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: He was next suspected of causing the death of Lord Sheffield,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: of whose lady he was an admirer. The Earl of
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Essex is said to have been another victim. His death
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: is described in the language of the time as having
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: been due to an extreme flux caused by an Italian receipt.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: The maker whereof was a surgeon that then was newly
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: come to my Lord from Italy, a cunning man and
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: sure in operation. The inventor of this recipe was known
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: as one doctor Julio, who was said to be able
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: to make a man die in what manner of sickness
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: you will. The death of the Earl of Essex took
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: place when on his way home from Ireland with the
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: object of revenging himself on the Earl of Leicester for
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: his domestic wrongs. The next victim is said to have
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: been Cardinal Chatillien, who, having accused the Earl of preventing
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: the marriage of the Queen to the King of France,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: was journeying back to Dover when he was taken suddenly
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: ill and died in Canterbury. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, a wealthy
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: city magnet and a tool of the earls, whom tis
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: said he used to thwart the doings of the Lord Treasurer.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Sir William Cecil was another victim. Having heard that Sir
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: Nicholas was revealing some of his secrets, he invited him
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: one night to supper at his house in London, and
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: at supper time hurriedly went to the court, to which
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: he said he had been called suddenly by her Majesty.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: Sir Nicholas proceeded with the meal in his absence, and
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: soon after was seized with a violent vomiting from which
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: he never recovered. According to an old chronicler, the day
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: before his death, he declared to a dear friend all
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: the circumstances and cause of his complaint, which he affirmed
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: plainly to be poison given him in a sallet at supper,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: inveighing most earnestly against the Earl's cruelty and bloody disposition,
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: and affirming him to be the wickedest, most perilous and
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: perfidious man under heaven, the chronicle continues, And for his
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: art of poisoning, it is such now and reaching so
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: far as he holdeth all his foes in England and elsewhere,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: as also a good many of his friends in fear thereof.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: And if it were known how many he hath despatched
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: in that way, would be marvelous to posterity. His body physician,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: one doctor Bailey openly proclaimed the fact that he knew
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: of poisons which might be so tempered that they should
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: kill the party afterwards, at what time it should be appointed?
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: Which argument belike, says the writer of Lester's Commonwealth pleased
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: well his lordship of Leicester. The tool who carried out
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: the murder of the Earl of Essex is said to
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: have been one Crompton, Yeoman of the Bottles. Together with
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Godwick Lloyd. Lester was suspected of being the instigator of
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: many murders, which probably he may have had nothing to
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: do with. Such was the feeling of dislike against him.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Among others was Lady Lennox, who died in a mysterious
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: manner shortly after being visited by the Earl. He is
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: said to have kept in his employ several needy but
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: unscrupulous physicians ready to administer the Italian comfortive, as the
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: poison was called. At his bidding with the Earl of Essex.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: One missus Alice Drackett, a godly gentlewoman, is also said
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: to have been poisoned. This lady happened to be accompanying
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: the Earl on her way towards her own house, when,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: after partaking of the same cup, she was also seized
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: with violent pain and vomiting, which continued until she died
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: a day or two before the Earl succumbed. When she
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: was dead, says the chronicler, her body was swollen into
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: a monstrous bigness and deformity, whereof the good Earl, hearing
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: the day following, lamented the case greatly and said, in
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: the presence of his servants, Ah, poor Alice, the cup
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: was not prepared for thee albeit it was thy hard
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: fortune to taste thereof. End of Chapter three, Chapter four.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: Professional poisoners. The criminal destruction of life by poison has
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: been practiced from ancient times. Very little was known of
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: toxicology in those days, and even the symptoms often passed
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: unrecognized or were attributed to natural causes, and the poisoner's
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: fiendish work was frequently undiscovered and rendered easy. In the
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: early Christian era, poisoning indeed became quite a profession, and
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: convenient individuals could be hired with little difficulty to administer
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: a deadly dose to an enemy or rival. Agrippina, in
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: refusing to eat some apples offered to her at table
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: by her father in law Tiberius, must have had suspicions
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: of this kind. Locusta, who is said to have supplied
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: the poison by which Agrippina got rid of Claudius, and
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: who also prepared the dose for Britannicus according to the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: order of his brother Nero, is the first professional poisoner
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: of whom we have record. In the year b c.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Three thirty one, an epidemic broke out in Rome, which
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: was supposed to proceed from corrupt air, but it was
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: observed that the principal patricians only were the victims. Their deaths, however,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: were attributed to infection. For poisoning was then scarcely known
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: in Rome, nor was there a law for its punishment.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: In the general grief, a female slave presented herself to
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the edeal curule Quintus Fabius, and accused more than twenty
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: Roman ladies of poisoning, designing specially Cornelia, a lady of
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: an illustrious family of that nas name, and Sergia, another
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: patrician lady. It is recorded that as many as three
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: hundred sixty six ladies were similarly accused, but Cornelia and
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: Sergia were detected in compounding their fatal potions. When led
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: before the popular Assembly, they maintained their preparations were harmless remedies.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: The slave, seeing herself accused as a false witness, asked
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: that the ladies should be required to swallow their own potions,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: which they did and by so doing avoided a more
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: shameful death later. There were doubtless many, both men and
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: women of the baser sort, who professed to practice alchemy
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: and had dealings in the black arts, who, for suitable consideration,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: would procure poison for criminal purposes. In medieval times, a
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: law was passed in Italy rendering the apothecary who knowingly
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: sold poison for criminal purposes is liable to a heavy penalty.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: And yet secret poisoning was practiced to a very large extent,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: and there were probably many like the poor apothecary of
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Mantua in Romeo and Juliet, who, in response to Romeo's
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: demand for poison, replied my poverty and not my will consents.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, two great criminal
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: schools arose in Venice and Italy. The Venetian poisoners, who
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: first came into notoriety, flourished in the fifteenth century. At
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: that period, the mania for poisoning had risen to such
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: a height that the governments of the states were formally
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: recognizing secret assassination by poison and considering the removal of emperors, princes,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: and powerful nobles by this method. The Notorious Council of
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Ten met to consider such plans, and an account and
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: record of their proceedings still exists, giving the number of
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: those who voted for and who voted against the proposed removal,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: the reasons for the assassination, and the sum to be
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: paid for its execution. Thus, these conspirators quietly arranged to
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: take the lives of many prominent individuals, and when the
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: deed was executed, it was registered on the margin of
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: their official record by the significant word foctomb. On December
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: fifteenth fifteen forty three, John of Ruguba, a Franciscan brother,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: offered the Council a selection of poisons and declared himself
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: ready to remove any person whom they deemed objectionable out
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: of the way. He calmly stated his terms, which for
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: the first successful case, were to be a pension of
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: fifteen hundred ducats a year, to be increased on the
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: execution of future services. The President, Skuelando Duoda and Pietro Guarini,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: placed this matter before the Council on January fourth, fifteen
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: forty four, and on a division, it was resolved to
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: accept this patriotic offer and to experiment first on the
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: Emperor Maximilian. John, who had evidently reduced poisoning to a
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: fine art, submitted afterwards a regular graduated tariff to the Council,
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: which ran as follows, For the Great Sultan five hundred ducats,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: For the King of Spain one hundred and fifty ducats
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: including the expenses of the journey, et cetera, for the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Duke of Milan, sixty ducats, for the Marquis of Mantua,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: fifty ducats for the Pope one hundred ducats. He further
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: adds at the foot of the document. The farther the journey,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: the more eminent the man, the more it is necessary
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: to reward the toil and hardships undertaken, and the heavier
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: must be the payment. The school of Italian poisoners became
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: prominent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the magnitude
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: of their operations during that period struck terror into the
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: hearts of the chief nobles and rulers of that country.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: The mania for secret poisoning seems to have seized on
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: all classes, from the highest to the lowest, and no
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: one who made an enemy was safe. Portai, in his
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: work published in fifteen eighty nine, gives some account of
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: the poisons used at the time, and seems to have
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: made a study of the subject. He describes methods for
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: drugging wine, a favorite medium of administration, with belladonna root,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: and also mentions nux vomica, aconite, and hellebore. In his
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: account of poisonous bodies, he gives the following recipe for
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: compounding a very strong poison, which he calls venenium lupinum.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: Take of the powdered leaves of aconitum lycotonum toxus baccata
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: with powdered glass, caustic lime, sulfide of arsenic and bitter almonds.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: Mix them with honey and make into pills the size
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: of a hazelnut. He also recommends a curious mixture to
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: poison a sleeping person. It is composed of a mixture
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: of hemlock juice, bruised stramonium, belladonna, and opium. This is
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: to be placed in a leaden box with a perfectly
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: fitting cover and allowed to ferment for several days. It
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: is then to be opened under the nose of the
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: intended victim while asleep. So long as the individual only
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: got the smell and did not swallow the compound, it
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: certainly would not do him much harm. The most notorious
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: of the Italian poisoners was the woman Tofana or Tophania,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: who carried on her practice from the latter end of
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: the seventeenth century until she was brought to justice in
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: seventeen o nine. Tofauna resided first at Palermo, but removed
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: to Naples in sixteen fifty nine during the pontificate of
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: Alexander the seventh. This later circi gained large sums of
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: money by the sale of certain mysterious preparations she compounded,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: which were afterwards proved to be simply solutions of arcinious acid.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: These were circulated throughout Italy in small glass pials bearing
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: the image of a saint and labeled various names, such
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: as Acatadnapoli or the Mana of Saint Nicholas Abari and
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: Acqua Tofana. Any One in the secret could buy the
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: poison for its supposed use as a cosmetic or other
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: innocent property, and then employ it for any purpose they wished.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: This infamous woman carried on her nefarious trade from girlhood
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: until she was nearly seventy years of age, without ever
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: having fallen into the meshes of the law, and it
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: had stated over six hundred persons were poisoned through her instrumentality.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: She dealt only with individuals after due safeguards had been
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: built up, and she changed her abode so frequently and
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: adopted so many disguises that her detection was rendered very difficult.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: She also called in the aids of religion and superstition,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: and those who were uninitiated in the history of her
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: deadly elixir imagined it to be a certain miraculous oil,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: which was supposed to ooze from the tomb of Saint Nicholas.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: The popes Pious the third and Clement the fourteenth are
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: said to have fallen victim to its use. The composition
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: of the Acetadinapoli was long a profound secret, but it
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: is said to have been known by them Emperor Charles
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: the sixth of Austria. According to a letter addressed to
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: Hoffmann by Garceli, physician to the Emperor, he informed the
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: latter that, being governor of Naples at the time, that
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: the aketta was the dread of every noble family in
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: the city, and when the subject was investigated legally, he
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: had an opportunity of examining all the documents, and that
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: he found the poison consisted of a solution of arsenic
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: in aqua cymbalaria. The dose was said to be from
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: four to six drops in water, and that it was colorless, transparent,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: and tasteless. When the manufacture and sale of the poison
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: was at last traced to Tofauna, she took refuge in
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: a convent, from which the abbess and archbishop refused to
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: give her up, and so continued to sell the water
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: for twenty years longer, and evaded punishment for the time.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: Public indignation was roused to such a pitch that at
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: last the convent was broken into by a body of soldiers,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: who secured Tofauna and handed her over to the authorities.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: She was tortured until she confessed in seventeen o nine,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: and then strangled, her body being thrown into the garden
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: of the convent which had sheltered her. Aquatofana was reputed
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: to possess some very peculiar properties, and among others, that
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: of causing death at any determinate period, after months, for example,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: or even years of ill health, a common supposition attributed
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: to poisons in the Middle Ages. Its alleged effects were
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: graphically described by barons as follows. A certain indescribable change
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: is felt in the whole body, which leads the person
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: to complain to his physician. The physician examines and reflects,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: but finds no symptoms either external or internal. No vomiting,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: no inflammation, no feaver. In short, he can only advise
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: patients strict regimen and laxatives. The malady, however, creeps on,
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: and the physician is again sent for Still he cannot
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: detect any symptoms of note. Meanwhile, the poison takes firmer
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: hold of the system. Languor, wearisomeness, and loathing of food continue.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: The nobler organs gradually become torpid, and the lungs in particular,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: at length began to suffer. In a word, the malady
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: from the first is incurable. The unhappy victim pines away insensibly,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: even in the hands of the physician, and thus is
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: he brought to a miserable end through months or years,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: according to his enemy's desire Tofauna had many imitators, and
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: some time after her death a similar scheme was attempted,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: with a poisonous solution reputedly sold as a cosmetic called
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: the Aceta de per Perugia. It is said to have
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: been prepared by killing a hog, disjointing it, strewing the
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: pieces with white arsenic, which was well rubbed in, and
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: finally collecting the juice which dropped from the meat itself.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: This preparation was supposed to be much stronger and more
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: powerful poison than arsenic itself, but doubtless had the same
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: fatal effect. It is a curious fact that most of
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: the notorious poisoners in medieval times were women, and indeed,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: in later years the frail sex seems to have retained
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: a special predilection for this form of crime. In the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: year sixteen fifty nine, a secret society of women, most
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: of whom were young wives, belonging to some of the
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: best and wealthiest families of Rome, was discovered in that city,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: the sole or chief object of which was to destroy
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: the lives of the husbands of the members. They met
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: at regular intervals at the house of one Hieronyma Spara,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: a woman reputed to be a witch, who provided her
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: fellow associates and pupils with the required poison, and planned
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: and instructed them how to use it. Operations had been
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: carried on for some time when the existence of the
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: society was discovered, and says a chronicler, the hardened old
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: hag passed the ordeal of the rack without confession, but
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: another woman divulged the secrets of the sisterhood, and the
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: La Spara, together with twelve other women implicated, were hanged.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: Many others who were guilty in a lesser degree were
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: publicly whipped through the streets of the city. In the
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: seventeenth century, the Mania for poisoning seems to have spread
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: to France, and great interest was excited by the disclosures
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: which followed the discovery of Axilli's conspiracy to poison a
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: number of persons. Madame de Montespont, one of the favorites
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: of Louis fourteen, a woman of great beauty, died very
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: suddenly at the age of twenty six on June thirty,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: sixteen seventy two, and it was generally believed she had
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: been poisoned. The rumor seems to have been set on
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: foot by one of her husband's old servants, who professed
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: to know the individual who had administered the fatal dose.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: This man said, he who was not rich withdrew immediately
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: afterwards into Normandy, where he bought an estate on which
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: he lived with grandeur a long time. The poison was
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: powder of diamonds mixed instead of sugar with strawberries. Voltaire,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: who believed the whole story to be a myth, states
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: the court and city believed the princess had been poisoned
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: with a glass of water or succery, after which she
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: felt terrible pains and soon after was seized with the
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: agonies of death. But natural malignity of mankind and a
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: fondness for extraordinary incidents were the only inducements to this
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: general persuasion. The glass of water could not be poisoned,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: since Madame de Lafayette and another person drunk what remained
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: without receiving the least injury from it. The princess had
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: been a long time ill of an abscess which had
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: formed itself in the liver for some time. The young
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: Chevalier de Lorraine, the favorite of the Duke of Orleans,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: rested under suspicion, it being openly stated that the motive
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: was to revenge the banishment and imprisonment which his behavior
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: to the Princess a short time before had drawn upon him.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: Public opinion was strengthened in the belief that the princess
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: had met her death through poison by the fact that
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: just at this time the mania for secret poisoning seemed
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: to spread over France. About this date, a German apothecary
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: and alchemist named Glazier settled in Paris, together with two Italians,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: one of whom was called Exili. Their professed object was
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: a research to discover the Philosopher's Stone. Having lost the
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: little they possessed in a very short time. In the
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: pursuit of this chimera, they commenced the secret sale of
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: poisons through the confessional. Their nefarious trade became known to
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: the Grand Penitentiary of Paris. This dignity gave information to
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: the government and the two suspected Italians were promptly sent
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: to the Vestille, where one of them died. But Egzili,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: while still in prison, managed to carry out his business
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: and found ready purchasers for his secrets, and the number
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: of deaths attributed to poison increased to such an extent
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: that a special court for the investigation of poisoning cases,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: called Le Chambre Dante was formed. A few years later,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: the whole of France was aroused by the confession of
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: the Marquise de Brimvillier of having poisoned her father, two
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: brothers and a sister. Her husband. The Marquis de Brimvillier
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: invited a friend, one Captain Saint Croix, who was an
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: officer in his regiment, to lodge in his house. The
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: too agreeable person of the lady of the house speedily
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: charmed the visitor, and to her credit, she endeavored to
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: inspire her husband with a fear of the consequences, but
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: he obstinately persisted in keeping his young friend in the
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: house with his wife, who was both young and handsome,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: with the result they soon conceived a passion for each other.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: The father of the Marquise, one Lieutenant d'Aubray, was greatly
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: incensed on hearing of his daughter's indiscretions, and obtaining a letter,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: de Cachet had the captain sent to the bastille. Here,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: Saint Croix was placed in the same cell as exili
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: and the latter soon instructed him how he might easily
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: revenge himself. The Marquise, who found means of visiting her lover,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: was informed how to obtain the poison, and at once
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: commenced operations on those members of her family who were
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: most incensed against her, with the result that first her father,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: then her brothers and sister fell victims to her revenge.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: Suspicion resting on her, she fled into Belgium and was
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: arrested at Liege. A full confession of her crimes, written
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: by her own hand, was found upon her. She was
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: eventually beheaded and burnt near Notre Dame in July sixteen
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: seventy six, Saint Croix is said to have accidentally succumbed
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: to the effects of poisonous fumes in his own laboratory.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: The authorities, on examining his effects, as he left no family,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: came across a small box to which paperwork was attached,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: which contained a request that after his death, it might
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: be delivered to the Marquise de brad Villiers, who resides
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: in rue Neuve Saint Paul. This paper was signed and
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: dated by Saint Croix on May twenty five, sixteen seventy two.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: On the box being opened, it was found to contain
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: a large collection of various poisons, including corrosive, sublimey, antimony,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: and opium. When the Marquise heard of the death of
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: her lover, she at once made every effort to obtain
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: the box by bribing the officers of justice, but failed.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: La Chose the servant of Saint Croix laid claim to
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: the property, but was arrested as an accomplice and imprisoned.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: On confessing many serious crimes. He was broken alive on
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: the wheel. In sixteen seventy three. Evidence was brought to
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: prove at the trial of de Bravagnier that both She
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: and san Qui Croois were secretly combined with other persons
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: accused of similar crimes. Some distinguished people were implicated, including Pinacier,
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: a receiver general of the clergy, who was afterwards accused
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: of practicing her secrets one crime seemed to bring another
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: to light, and two persons named La Voissi and La Viguerier,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: a priest named Lossage, and several others were next hailed
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: before the tribunal and charged with trading with the secrets
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: of exili and inciting people with weak minds to the
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: crime of poisoning. It was alleged that, through their instrumentality,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: a large number of married women had hastened the decease
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: of their husbands. The Chambre Ardonte, or burning Court, as
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: it was commonly called, was established at the Arsenal near
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: the Bastille and was rarely idle. Persons of the highest
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: rank were cited to appear before it, among others, two
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, the Duchess of Buillon, and the
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: Countess de Soissant, mother of Prince Eujane. The Countess de
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: Soisson had to retire to Brussels. The Martial de Luxembourg
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: was the next sensational arrest. He was carried to the
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: Bastille and submitted to a long examination, after which he
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: was allowed to remain fourteen months in prison. Lavoisin and
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: his accomplices were eventually condemned and burnt at the stake,
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: which seemed to put a check on this series of
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: abominable crimes which spread throughout France from sixteen seventy to
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: sixteen eighty. Maria Luisa, daughter of Louis the fourteenth, who
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: married Charles the second, King of Spain, is said to
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: have died from the effects of poison in sixteen eighty nine.
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: Voltaire states it was undoubtedly believed that the Austrian ministers
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: of Charles the second would get rid of her be
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: because she loved her country and might prevent the king
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: her husband from declaring for the Allies against France. They
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: even sent her from Versailles what they believed to be
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: a counter poison. This did not arrive until after her death.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: In the Memoirs of the Marquis de don Jo, he
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: says the king announced the death of his daughter at supper.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: In these words, the Queen of Spain is dead, poisoned
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: by eating of an eel pie, and the Countess d'epernis,
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: and the Camara, Zapeta and Nina, who eat of it
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: after her, are also dead of the same poison. It
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: is more than probable the unfortunate Queen and her ladies
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: succumbed to some putrefactive poison in the fish itself, and
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: were not killed by intent. Nothing was known of animal
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: poisons in those days, and such was the state of
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: the public mind that nearly every sudden death was at
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: once attributed to poison. The close of the reign of
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: Louis fourteen was marked by the sudden deaths of no
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: less than six members of the royal family in close succession.
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: The public sorrow and excitement were great, and rumors and
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: suspicions of poisoning were revived with fury. Unexampled. The prince
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: had a laboratory, and, among other arts, studied chemistry. This
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: was considered by the ignorant to be sufficient proof, and
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: the public outcry became terrible. On a visit of the
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: Marquis de Canelais, the Prince was found extended on the floor,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: shedding tears and distracted with despair. His chemist and fellow
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: worker Humber ran to surrender himself at the Bstille, but
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: they refused to receive him without orders. The prince was
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: so beside himself on hearing the public outcry and suspicions,
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: that he demanded to be put in prison so that
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: his innocence might be cleared by judicial forms. The letter
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: de Cachet was actually made out, but not signed. The
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: marquis alone kept his head and prevailed upon the prince's
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: mother to oppose Elettre de Cachet. The monarch who granted
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: it and his nephew who demanded it were both equally wretched,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: says the historian. The Poudre des Assesson, famous in Paris
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: as a secret poison, was at one time supposed to
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: consist of diamond dust, but, according to Haller, was really
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: composed of sugar of lead. This was used by several
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: notorious criminals during the seventeenth century. End of Chapter four,
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: Chapter five poisoning plots. The use of poison as an
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: instrument for political purposes during the Middle Ages soon spread
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: over Europe, and the dread of wholesale poisoning caused numerous panics.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: Some of these alarms may probably have been circulated by
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: unscrupulous traders who had articles to sell or some business
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: interest to forward. But of others authentic records exist. June
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: six is still kept as a public holiday in Malta.
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: Upon that day, a century and a half ago, while
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: the island was still possessed by the Knights of Saint John,
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: a jew waited on the grand Master and revealed to
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: him a plot that had been planned for exterminating the
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: whole population at a stroke. This man kept a coffee
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: house frequented by the Turkish slaves, and understanding their language,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: he had overheard suspicious remarks among his customers. The grand Master,
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: believing the truth of the man's statement, took immediate action.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: The slaves indicated were at once seized and put to torture,
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: and they confessed a design of poisoning all the wells
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: and fountains on the island, and to make the result surer,
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: each of the conspirators was to assassinate a Christian. One
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five were found guilty. Some were burnt,
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: some broken on the wheel, while others were ordered to
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: have their arms and legs attached to two galleys, which,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: on being rowed apart, would thus dismember them. Whether these
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: frightful punishments were carried out it is impossible to say,
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: but the fact remains that the people of Malta still
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: commemorate their escape from poisoning. To the present time, wholesale
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: poisoning appears to have been a common practice in Eastern countries,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: especially in India and Persia. The wells or other water
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: sources were usually chosen as the medium for disseminating the poison,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: and in this way whole villages have often been destroyed
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: by by some miscreant. Another extraordinary poisoning plot was discovered
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: in Lima towards the close of the nineteenth century. During
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: the Insurrection of seventeen eighty one, A rich tathique who
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: professed loyalty, went to a chemist's shop and asked for
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: two hundred pounds of corrosive sublimate. He was willing to
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: pay any price. The chemist had not anything like that
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: amount in stock, and, not wishing to send such a
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: good customer away, substituted two hundred pounds of alum. On
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: the following day, all the water in the town was
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: found to be impregnated with alum. An examination being made
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: of the reservoir. It was found that the fence around
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: it had been broken down and the banks strewn with alum,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: and the water rendered undrinkable. England has remained practically free
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: from crimes of this kind. In fifteen thirty a case
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: occurred which caused great public indignity. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: was accustomed to entertain a number of poor people daily.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: One afternoon, a large number of his humble guests, together
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: with some of the officers of the household, were taken ill.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: Two died, and after an examination of the food had
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: been made, it was declared the yeast had been poisoned.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: Parliament took up the investigation, and the bishop's cook, one
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: Richard Rowe, was found guilty. He was tried and sentenced
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: to be boiled alive as a terrible example to others.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: Boiling seems to have been a favorite punishment for poisoners
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: during the Middle Ages, a fact which doubtless shows the
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: abhorrence in which crimes of this kind were held. It
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: is further recorded that on March seventeenth, fifteen twenty four,
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: Margaret Davy Made was boiled in Smithfield for poisoning three households.
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: She had dwelled in. Among Queen Elizabeth's statesmen, poison would
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: appear to have been regarded as almost a legitimate weapon
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: of defense. Her favorite Lester, to whom we have already alluded,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: was often called the poisoner. This propensity was probably largely
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: due to the fact that most young englishmen of rank
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: were sent to Italy to finish their education, and there
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: were introduced to the Italian methods of poisoning so much
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: in vogue. The Duke de Gues in his memoirs, relates
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: in a most matter of fact way how he requested
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: the captain of his guard to Poniard, a troublesome demagogue
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: at Naples. The captain was shocked. He would poison anyone
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: at his Grace's command with pleasure, but the dagger was
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: a vulgar instrument. So the Duke bought some strong poison,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: the composition of which he describes at length, and it
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: was duly administered. But Gennaro, the intended victim, had just
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: eaten cabbage dressed in oil, which is said to have
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: acted as an antidote, and so he lived after all.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: End of chapter five. Chapter six concerning Arsenic. Arsenic has
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: perhaps been more frequently used than any other poison for
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: criminal purposes. It was known to the ancient Greeks in
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: the form of the yellow sulfide, commonly called orpiment. It
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: is found in Greece and Hungary. Its bright yellow color
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: caused many of the early alchemists to consider it the
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: key to the philosopher's stone, and this is said to
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: be grounded on some enigmatical verse in the Sybiline Oracles.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: The Emperor Caligula, according to Pliny, ordered a great quantity
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: of orpiment to be melted and manipulated, so that the
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: gold it was supposed to contain might be extracted from it.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: Ours is the agent most commonly employed for criminal purposes in India,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: doubtless because it can be both easily and cheaply obtained.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: The reports of the Analyst to the Bombay government throw
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: considerable light on the methods pursued by Indian poisoners. The
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: poison is usually given in sweetmeats, and generally by a
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: strange woman who has been met in the street and
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: who mysteriously disappears. This strange woman is found in every
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: annalist report for the past twenty years, and under much
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: the same circumstances. Most of the cases were typical of
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: the people among whom they occur, as for instance, the
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: following in a Shindy district, a man went into a
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: shop one day and entered into friendly conversation with a
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: stranger he met there. On parting, by way of thanking him,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: the stranger presented him with some sweets for distribution among
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: his friends. The result was that five men and a
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: boy were poisoned, and the obliging stranger has never been
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: heard of since. The professional poisoner in India, for there
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: are many such, is rarely caught or even suspected. In
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: a large number of cases, crimes of this kind are
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: taken little notice of by the community, and sometimes the
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: poisoner apparently thinks nothing of poisoning a whole family in
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: order to make sure of his victim. The utter absence
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: of motive in the majority of cases would point to
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: the conclusion that they were largely the result of homicidal mania.
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: For more than a century after the properties of arsenic
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: were well known, there was no certain method known for
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: its detection, and very little advance was made until the
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: early part of last century, when marsh discovered his test
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty six, by means of which the minutest
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: quantities of the poison may be detected. It is cacharacteristic
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: of both arsenic and mercury that their presence may be
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: proved and demonstrated even in the bones years after they
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: have been taken. In proof of this, the following remarkable
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: case is given. A wealthy farmer died and was buried
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: in the tomb where his father had been interred thirty
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: five years before. An examination of certain of the bones
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: of the father revealed particles of a metallic looking substance,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: which was collected and tested and proved to be mercury.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: It had thus been preserved in his body for more
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: than the third of a century, the probability being that
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: he had been in the habit of taking it medicinally
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: during the latter part of his life. Another strange case
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: came under the notice of a Bristol chemist in which
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: he found abundant traces of arsenic in the bodies of
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: several young children after they had been buried eight years.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: A curious story is related by the late Sir Richard
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: Quain that came under his experience, and one which would
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: have proved a profound mystery to this day, but for
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: his practical knowledge and acumen, he was asked to make
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: a post mortem examination on the body of a man
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: who was by trade a stonemason. To continue the story
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: in his own words, one day, on coming in to
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: his dinner, he went into the scullery, washed his hands,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: and going into the kitchen, he said to his wife,
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: it is all over. I have taken poison. What have
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: you taken? Arsenic? He replied, and she at once took
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: him off to the Western General Dispensary. The senior surgeon
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: was out when they got there, but two young pupils
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: of his happened to be in, who thought it was
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: a very important case and they would treat it pretty actively.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: So they gave him tartar emetic, pumped out the stomach
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: and pumped oxide of iron in to it, and a
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: good many other operations they performed. The poor man was
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: extremely ill and died in twenty four hours. The coroner's
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: beadle went to the chemist and said, how did you
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: come to sell this man poison? He replied, I sold
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: him no poison. I thought he was off his head
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: when he came. What did you give him? Oh? I
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: gave him some alum and cream of tartar and labeled
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: it poison. He swallowed this in the belief it was arsenic,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: says Sir Richard. When I made the post mortem examination,
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: to my amazement, I found a great deal of arsenic
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: in the stomach. This was rather puzzling. I said, if
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: it is in the stomach, it ought to go farther down.
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: So I searched the intestines, but there was no trace
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: of arsenic anywhere. The simple explanation of it was this
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: These two young fellows, horrified to find the man had
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: died without taking arsenic after all, pumped some into the stomach.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: Another instance that terminated in a less tragic manner, in
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: which a would be suicide was frustrated by a watchful chemist,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: happened some years ago. One morning, a tall, decently dressed
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: man of seafaring aspect entered a chemist's shop in the
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: neighborhood of the docks of a northern seaport, and, in
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: a solemn and confidential manner, asked for a shillings worth
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: of strong laudanum. For what purpose do you require it,
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: asked the chemist. Well, you see, sir, the man explained,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: I've just come off a voyage from Frisco, and I
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: find my sweetheart has gone off with Jim, you see, sir,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: And now it's all up with me. Give me a
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: strong dose please, And if you don't think a shillingsworth
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: will be enough, but my good man, interrupted the chemist,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: I'll shoot myself. If not, sir, I will all right, then,
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: said the chemist, and seeing argument was useless, he proceeded
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: to mix an innocent but nauseous draft of aloes. Now
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: put in a shillings worth of arsenic very well, replied
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: the chemist, adding some harmless magnesia. And you might as
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: well throw in a shillings worth of Prussic acid, said
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: the broken hearted lover. The chemist carefully measured a little
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: essence of almonds into the glass and handed it to
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: the would be suicide. He paid, swallowed it at one draft,
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: and solemnly walked out of the shop, Crossing the street,
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: which was quiet at the time. He deliberately laid himself
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: flat on his back on the footpath and closed his eyes.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: A group of children gathered round and stood gazing with
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: their eyes and mouths open in wonderment, and an occasional
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: passer by stopped a moment cast a glance at the
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: unwonted sight, and then passed on. After lying thus quite
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: motionless for about five minutes, he suddenly raised his head,
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: took a look round, then, with one bound jumped to
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: his feet and made off as hard as he could run.
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: It is a curious fact that arsenic has been the
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: favorite medium of female poisoners from very early times, and
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: in two celebrated poisoning cases of later years, in both
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: of which women were accused of murder by the administration
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: of arsenic, the plea that the poison had been used
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: by them for cosmetic purposes has been put forward to
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: account for having it in their possession. The effect of
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: arsenic on the skin is well known, and that it
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: is frequently used both internally and externally to improve the
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: skin by women. Is an undoubted fact that such a
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: practice may lead to the taking of arsenic as a
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: confirmed habit. There is also evidence to prove, and the
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: writer has met with more than one instance in which
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: the habit of taking solution of arsenic in large quantities
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: has been contracted by women. The recent rage for the
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: so called arsenical soaps, which are supposed to improve the
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: complexion and are being extensively used by women goes to
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: corroborate this statement. End of chapter six, Chapter seven. The
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: strange case of Madame LeFarge. The story of Madame LeFarge,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: who was tried in France for the murder of her
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: husband in eighteen forty, is a strangely romantic one. Marie
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: foutunet Capel was the daughter of a captain in the
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: Imperial Artillery. Her parents died in her childhood and she
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: was placed in the care of an aunt, who, at
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: the earliest opportunity, determined to relieve herself of the burden
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: of her support by negotiating a marriage for her while
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: still a girl. Through the instrumentality of a matrimonial agent
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: in Paris, an alliance was arranged between Marie Capell and
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: one Monsieur Charles Lafarge, who was a widower and an
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: iron master of Glandier. The marriage, which was purely a
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: commercial transaction, took place in Paris on August fifteenth, eighteen
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: thirty nine, after which Lafarge and his young wife set
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: out for his old and gloomy seigniorial mansion in Glandere.
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: From statements made afterwards, Madame Lafarge became disgusted with her
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: husband's brutality before the honeymoon was over. After they reached
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: their own house, however, they were reconciled and there seemed
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: to be every possibility of their spending a happy wedded
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: life together. Besides the newly married pair, there lived in
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: the family mansion. The mother and sister of Lafarge and
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: his chief clerk, one Denis Barbieu, was a frequent visitor
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: at the house and had liberty to walk through the
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: place without restriction. In a very short time, Madame Lafarge
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: discovered that both she and her relatives had been deceived
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: as to the position of her husband, and that instead
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: of being a man of considerable fortune, he was straitened
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: for means. On his representations, she bestowed upon him all
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: her fortune, and even wrote letters, at his dictation to
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: some of her wealthy friends asking them to aid him
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: to find money to develop a new method he claimed
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: to have discovered for smelting iron. With these letters of introduction,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: Lafarge set out for Paris in December eighteen thirty nine
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: to raise money to start his new project. While he
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: was thus away, his wife had her portrait drawn by
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: an artist in Glandier, and determined to send it to
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: her absent husband. She therefore packed it in a box
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: with some cakes made by his mother, together with an
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: affectionate letter, and dispatched them to Paris. This box, which
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: contained nothing but the five small cakes, the portrait, and
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: the letter, was packed and sealed by Madame LeFarge in
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: the presence of several witnesses. When it reached Paris and
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: was opened by Lafarge, it contained only one large cake.
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: After partaking of which he was suddenly taken ill and
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: was eventually compelled to return home, where he arrived on
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: January five, eighteen forty. His sickness continued and increased in severity,
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: and nine days afterwards, he died. Shortly after his death,
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: his mother and friends, who were well aware how the
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: widow disliked them, and her husband also, who had made
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: her life so unhappy, at once imputed the cause of
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: death to poison administered by his wife in the cake
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: she had sent to Paris, and Marie Cappelle Lfarge was
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: arrested on suspicion. When the house of the deceased man
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: was searched, certain diamonds were found which were supposed to
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: have been stolen from the Vicomte des lef Das by
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: Madame Lfarge before her marriage. The unfortunate woman was therefore
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: charged with a double crime of theft and murder. Though
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: arrested in January eighteen forty, the trial of Madame Lafarge
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: did not commence till July ninth of the same year,
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: and the charge of theft was first proceeded with in
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: her absence, and she was found guilty. While this judgment
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: was still under appeal, she was brought to trial on
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: the graver charge. The evidence for the prosecution went to
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: prove that the illness of Lafarge commenced with the eating
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: of the cake received from his home, As already stated,
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: when the box arrived in Paris, the seals had been broken,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: the five cakes had disappeared, and a single cake as
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: large as a plate had been substituted for them. It
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: was alleged by the prosecution that this single cake had
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: been prepared by Madame LeFarge and secretly placed in the box,
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: but no evidence could be brought to prove that she
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: ever tampered with the box after it had been sealed.
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: LaFarge's clerk, Denise Barbier, made a clandestine visit to Paris
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: after the box had been dispatched, and he was with
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: LeFarge when it arrived in Paris. Yet no notice seems
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: to have been taken of this suspicious fact it transpired.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: It was he who also first threw out hints on
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: his master's return that he was being poisoned by arsenic,
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: and told a brother employee that his master would be
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: dead within ten days. There was ample proof, however, that
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: there was a considerable quantity of arsenic in the house
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: at Glandere. It was found that Madame LeFarge had purchased
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: some in December, stating she required it for destroying rats.
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: Denise also stated in evidence that Madame had requested him
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: to procure her some arsenic. He bought some, but did
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: not give it to her. It was further stated that
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: Madame LeFarge was seen to stir a white powder into
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: some chicken broth which had been prepared for her husband,
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: the remains of which found in a bowl were said
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: by the analyst to contain arsenic. The medical men who
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: conducted the post mortem examination gave it as their deliberate
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: opinion that the deceased man had been poisoned by arsenic,
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: of which metal they professed to have found considerable quantities.
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: The friends of the accused then submitted the matter to Ophila,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: the famous toxicologist, who, in giving his opinion of the
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: methods and manner in which the analysis had been carried out,
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: said that, owing to the antiquated and doubtful methods of
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: detection employed by the medical men, it was probable they
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: fancied they had found arsenic where there was none. Thereupon,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: the prosecution asked Orphela to undertake a fresh analysis himself,
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: which he consented to do, and, on making a careful
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: examination of the remains, stated he discovered just a minute
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: trace of arsenic. This apparently sealed the doom of the
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: accused woman and served to strengthen the bias of the jury.
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: But now another actor appeared in the drama, in the
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: person of Raspaill, another famous French chemist, who had watched
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: the case from the beginning with interest. On hearing the
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: result of Orfila's examination, he had taken the trouble to
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: trace the zinc wire with which Opela had experimented to
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: the shop where the great toxicologist had procured the article,
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: and he found on analysis that the zinc itself contained
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: more arsenic than Ophela had detected by his examination. Orphela
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: had used Marsha's test, which is infallible so long as
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: the reagents used are free from arsenic themselves. Raspai, having
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: placed the result of his discovery of arsenic in or
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: Feeli's reagent at the service of the defense, was on
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: his way to Tull, where the assizes were being held,
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: when an unfortunate accident delayed his progress, and the unhappy
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: Marie capel LeFarge, after a trial which lasted sixteen days,
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: was found guilty meanwhile and condemned to imprisonment for life
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: with hard labor and exposure in the pillory. Raspaia, however,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: would not let the matter rest, and at once set
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: to work to save the condemned woman. He at length
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: Garaphila to fairly admit his error and join him in
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: a professional report to the authorities to that effect. After
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: being imprisoned for twelve years, in the end, the sentence
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: on this unhappy woman was reduced to five years in
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: the Montpellier House of detention, after which the government sent
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: her to the convent of Sena Remi, from whence she
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: was liberated in eighteen fifty two, but only to end
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: her wretched life. A few months afterwards. There appeared in
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: the Edinburgh Review for eighteen forty two a careful examination
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: of this interesting case from a legal point of view,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: in which the writer states the strongest evidence indicated Denise
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: and not Madame Lafarge, as the perpetrator of the crime.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: It was proved this man lived by forgery and assisted
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: LeFarge in some very shady transactions to cover the latter's insolvency.
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: He was further known to harbor a deadly hatred for
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: Madame Lfarge. He was with his master in Paris when
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: he was seized with the sudden illness, and it transpired
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: that out of the twenty five thousand francs the iron
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: Master had succeeded in borrowing from his wife's relatives, only
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: three thousand, nine hundred could be found when he returned
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: to Glandere. On his own statement, he was in the
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: possession of a quantity of arsenic and he was the
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: first to direct suspicion against his master's wife. Yet all
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: these facts appear to have been overlooked in the efforts
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: of the prosecution to fasten the guilt on the unfortunate woman.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: That LeFarge died from the effects of arsenical poisoning, there
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: seems little doubt, but by whom it was administered has
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: never been conclusively proved, and the tragedy still remains among
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: the unsolved poisoning mysteries. End of chapter seven, Chapter eight.
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: The Case of Madeline Smith. The case of Madeline Smith,
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: who was charged with causing the death of Longuelier by
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: the Administration of arsenic at Glasgow in eighteen fifty seven,
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: excited universal interest owing to the social position of the lady.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: The trial was a cold celebre of the time, and
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: the circumstances of the case were of an extraordinary character.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: Miss Smith, who was a young and accomplished woman at
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: that time, and who resided in a fashionable quarter of Glasgow,
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: got entangled with a French clerk named Pierre Emil Languedere.
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: Langliars died very suddenly in an unaccountable manner, and suspicion
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: falling on Madeline Smith, who was frequently in his company,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: she was arrested and charged with the crime. The crown
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: case was that she poisoned her lover that she might
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: be betrothed to a personage of high social standing. That
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: Loguelier died on March from the effects of arsenic was
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: amply proved. But while suspicious acts were alleged against the
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: accused woman, no direct evidence was adduced to show that
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: she administered the drug. The worst point against her was
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: the fact of her having possession of the poison, and
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: irrespective of two previous purchases of colored arsenic for which
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: she had given false reasons, it was proved that the
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: accused had purchased one ounce as she said to kill
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: rats on March eighteenth, only five days before the death
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: of Loanguellier. The arsenic sold was colored with indigo according
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: to the Act of Parliament. When charged with the crime
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: and required to account for the poison, she replied she
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: had used the whole of it to apply to her face,
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: arms and neck, diluted with water, and that a school
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: companion had told her that arsenic was good for the complexion.
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: From the post mortem examination and subsequent analysis, eighty eight
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: grains of arsenic were found in the stomach and its contents.
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: Doctor Chrysisten, the greatest toxicological expert of the time, was
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: called and stated he knew of no case in which
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: so much as eighty eight grains of arsenic had been
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: found in the stomach after death. This was made a
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: turning point of the defense, and it was contended that
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: so large a dose of arsenic could not have been
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: swallowed unknowingly, and therefore suicide was indicated. The jury, accepting
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: this view of the case, returned a verdict of not proven,
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: and Madeline Smith was liberated, the trial having lasted ten days.
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: Some interesting particulars concerning the subsequent life of this lady
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: were published some time ago. After the trial, she decided
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: to go abroad, but before starting she is said to
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: have married a certain mysterious individual named doctor Tudor Horra.
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: With him, she lived for many years in Perth, but
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: few people ever saw her, and the doctor always declined
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: to divulge his wife's maiden name. He kept a small
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: surgery and is said to have been in receipt of
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: about four hundred pounds a year from an unnamed source.
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: Some years after, believing that his wife had been recognized,
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: he bought a practice, this at Hotham, near Melbourne, and
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: they sailed for Australia. Shortly after their arrival, missus Urra
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: left her husband and remained absent from Melbourne until his death.
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: Soon afterwards, she married again, but it is said her
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: second union was not by any means a happy one.
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: She remained unknown and sought no society. She was an
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: excellent musician and spent most of her time in reading
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: and playing. She had no children and died at the
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: age of fifty five. Six years after the trial of
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: Madeline Smith, a case was tried at the Chester Assizes
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: in which a woman named Hewet or Holt was charged
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: with poisoning her mother. Although the symptoms of irritant poisoning
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: were very clearly marked, the county practitioner who attended the
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: woman at the time certified that the cause of her
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: death was gastro enteritis. Eleven weeks after she had been buried,
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: the body was exhumed and examined. An analysis revealed the
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: presence of one hundred fifty four grains of arsenic in
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: the stomach alone. The possession of a considerable quantity of
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: arsenic was brought home to the accused and also direct
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: evidence of its administration, and she was found guilty. This
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: case is interesting from the fact of proof being obtained
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: of the administration of so large a quantity of arsenic,
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: and if it had occurred before the trial of Madeline Smith,
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: it might have demolished her council's main line of defense.
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eight, Chapter nine. The Maybrick Case. On
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: July thirty one, eighteen eighty nine, one of the most
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: remarkable poisoning cases of modern times, was brought before Mister
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: Justice Stephen at the Liverpool Assizes. The trial, which lasted
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: eight days, excited the keenest interest throughout the country, especially
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: as the principal actors in the tragedy were people of
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: good social position. The accused, Florence Maybrick, wife of a
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: Liverpool merchant, was charged with causing the death of her
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: husband by administering arsenic to him. About the end of
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: April eighteen eighty nine, mister James Maybrick was seized with
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: a peculiar illness, of which the main symptoms consisted of
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: a rigidity of the limbs and a general feeling of sickness,
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: which quite prostrated him and eventually confined him to bed.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: The medical man who was called in to attend him
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: attributed the cause to extreme irritability of the stomach and
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: treated him accordingly, but becoming puzzled by the persistent sickness
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: and the rapidly increasing weakness of his patient, A second
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: practitioner was called in consultation. From this time he grew
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: considerably worse. Severer symptoms and diarrhea set in, which caused
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: the doctors to suspect the cause was to to some
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: irritant poison. This was confirmed by the discovery that arsenic
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: had been placed in a bottle of meat juice that
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: was being administered to the sick man. Trained nurses were
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: placed in charge and a close watch kept on the patient,
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: but without avail, and he died on May eleventh. Suspicions
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: having been aroused, and from statements made to the police,
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: Missus Maybrick was arrested and eventually charged with the wilful
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: murder of her husband. From evidence given at the trial,
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: it transpired that the relations between husband and wife had
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: not been of the most cordial character for some time.
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: There were frequent disagreements, and just before mister Maybrick was
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: taken ill, there had been a serious quarrel resulting from
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: the wife's relations with another man. The lady resented the
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: accusation and a separation was talked of. The fatal illness
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: then intervened during the first portion of which Missus mays
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: Eybrick nursed her husband, but through a letter addressed to
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: her lover, which she had given to her nurse maid,
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: to post having been opened by the latter and handed
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: to mister Maybrick's brother, trained nurses were called in and
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: the sick man was placed in their charge entirely. This letter,
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: which formed one of the strongest pieces of evidence against
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: the accused, revealed the connection between Missus Maybrick and her
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: lover and contained the intelligence to him that her husband
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: was sick unto death. Evidence was also given by the
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: servants of fly papers having been seen in process of
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: maceration in water in Missus Maybrick's bedroom. The trained nurses
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: also gave evidence concerning the suspicious conduct of Missus Maybrick,
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: with reference to tampering with the medicines and meat juice
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: which were to be administered to the patient. These suspicions
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: culminated in the discovery of arsenic in a bottle of
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: the meat juice by one of the medical attendants. Considerable
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: quantities of arsenic were found by the police in the house,
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: including a packet containing seventy one grains mixed with charcoal
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: and labeled poison for cats. The analytical examination was made
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: by doctor Stephenson and a local analytical chemist, who discovered
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: traces of arsenic in the intestines and point zero four
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: nine of a grain of arsenic in the liver, traces
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: of the poison being also found in the spleen. Arsenic
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: was also found in various medicine bottles, handkerchiefs, bottles of glycerine,
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: and in the pocket of a dressing gown belonging to
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: the accused. Doctor Stephenson further stated he believed the body
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: of the deceased at the time of death probably contained
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: a fatal dose of arsenic. The scientific evidence adduced was
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: of a very conflicting character. On one hand, the medical
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: men who attended the deceased and the government analyst swore
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: they believed that death was caused from the effects of arsenic,
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: while on the other, doctor Tidy, who was called for
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: the defense as an expert, stated that the quantity of
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: arsenic discovered in the body did not point to the
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: fact that an overdose had been administered. He believed that
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: death had been due to gastroenteritis. Of some kind or other,
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: but that the symptoms and post mortem appearance distinctly pointed
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: away from arsenic as the cause of death. Doctor Macnamara,
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: ex President of the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, also
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: stated that in his opinion, mister Maybrick's death had not
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: been caused by arsenical poisoning, and that he agreed with
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: doctor Tidy that the cause was gastro enteritis unconnected with
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: arsenical poisoning. For the defense, it was also urged that
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: the deceased man had been in the habit of taking
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: arsenic in considerable quantities for some years. In support of this,
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: witnesses were called to prove that he had been in
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: the habit of taking a mysterious white powder, and that
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: while living in America, he frequently purchased arsenic from chemists
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: who knew he was in the habit of taking it.
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: A black man who had been in the service of
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: the deceased in America also deposed to seeing him take
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: this white powder in beef tea. At the close of
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: the evidence for the defense, the accused woman, by permission
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: of the Judge, made the following statement. Amid the breathless
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: silence of those in the court. My Lord, I wish
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: to make a statement as well as I can, about
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: a few facts in connection with the dreadful and crushing
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: charge that has been made against me, the charge of
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: poisoning my husband and father of my dear children. I
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: wish principally to refer to the fly paper solution. The
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: fly papers I bought with the intention of using the
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: solution as a cosmetic before my marriage, and since for
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: many years I have been in the habit of using
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: this wash for the face, prescribed for me by doctor
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: Graves of Brooklyn. It consisted I believe, principally of arsenic
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: of tincture of Benzwen and elderflower water, and some other ingredients.
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: This prescription I lost or mislaid last April, and as
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: at the time I was suffering from an eruption on
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: the face, I thought I should like to try and
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: make a substitute myself. I was anxious to get rid
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: of this eruption before I went to a ball on
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: the thirtieth of that month, when I had been in
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: Germany among my young friends. There I had seen used
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: a solution derived from fly papers soaked in elderflower water,
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: and then applied to the face with a handkerchief well
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: soaked in the solution. I procured the fly papers and
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: used them in the same manner, And to avoid evaporation,
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: I put the solution into a bottle, so as to
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: avoid as much as possible the admission of the air.
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: For this purpose I put a plate over the fly papers,
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: then a folded towel over that, and then another towel
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: over that. My mother has been aware for a great
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: many years that I have used arsenic in solution. I
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: now wished to speak of his illness. On Thursday night,
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: May nine, after the nurse had given my husband to medicine,
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: I went and sat on the bed beside him. He
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: complained to me of feeling very sick, very weak, and
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: very restless. He implored me then again to give him
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: the powder, which he had referred to earlier in the evening,
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: and which I declined to give him. I was overwrought,
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: terribly anxious, miserably unhappy, and his evident distress utterly unnerved me.
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: As he told me the powder would not harm him,
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: and that I could put it in his food. I
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: then consented, my Lord, I had not one true or
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: honest friend in the house. I had no one to consult,
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: no one to advise me. I was deposed from my
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: own position as mistress of my own house, and from
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: the position of attending on my husband. And notwithstanding that
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: he was so ill, and notwithstanding the evidence of the
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: nurses and the servants, I may say that he missed me.
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: Whenever I was not with him, whenever I was out
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: of the room, he asked for me. And four days
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: before he died, I was not allowed to give him
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: a piece of ice without its being taken out of
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: my hand. I took the meat juice into the inner room.
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: On going through the door, I spilled some of the
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: liquid from the bottle, and in order to make up
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: the quantity spilled, I put in a considerable quantity of water.
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: On returning into the room, I found my husband asleep.
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: I placed the bottle on the table near the window.
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: As he did not ask for anything then, and as
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: I was not anxious to give him anything, I removed
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: it from the small table where it attracted his attention,
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: and put it on the washstand, where he could not
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: see it. There I left it until Tuesday May fourteenth,
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: the tuesday after my husband's death, till a few moments
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: before the terrible charge was made against me. No one
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: in that house had informed me of the fact that
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: a death certificate had been refused, but of course the
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: post mortem examination had taken place, or that there was
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: any reason to suppose that my husband had died from
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: other than natural causes. It was only when a witness
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: alluded to the presence of arsenic in the meat juice
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: that I was made aware of the nature of the
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: powder my husband had been taking. In conclusion, I only
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: wished to say that, for the love of our children,
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: and for the sake of their future, a perfect reconciliation
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: had taken place between us, and on the day before
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: his death, I made a full and freak confession to him.
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: Missus Maybrick's council, Sir Charles Russell, made a most brilliant
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: and eloquent appeal in her defense. He pointed out that
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: at the time the black shadow, which could never be dispelled,
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: passed over the life of the accused woman. Her husband
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: was in the habit of drugging himself. She was deposed
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: from her position as mistress of her own home and
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: pointed out as an object of suspicion. If it had
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: not been for the act of infidelity on her part,
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: there would be no motive assigned in the case. And
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: surely there was a wide chasm between the grave moral
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: guilt of unfaithfulness and the criminal guilt involved in the
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: deliberate plotting by such wicked means of the felonious death
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: of her husband. There were two questions to be answered.
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: Was there clear, safe and satisfactory equivocal proof either that
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: death was in fact caused by arsenical poisoning, or that
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: the accused woman administered that poison If to the poison
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: the death of her husband was due. The jury, however,
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: returned a verdict of guilty, and Florence Maybrick was sentenced
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: to death. The agitation and excitement throughout the country which followed,
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: ending in a respite being granted and the sentence being
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: committed to one of penal servitude for life, will be
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: well remembered. Whether Florence Maybrick did actually administer arsenic to
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: her husband with intent to kill him, she alone can tell.
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: On her own confession, she admitted having given him a
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: certain white powder for which he craved, of the nature
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: of which she said she was ignorant. There can be
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: no doubt this powder was arsenic. If she did not
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: know the powder was arsenic and did not give it
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: with intent to take his life, which many still believe,
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: then surely such a web of circumstantial evidence has never
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: before been woven round one accused of having committed a
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: terrible crime. End of Chapter nine, Chapter ten about aconite
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: and hemlock. Aconite or monkshood, whose purple flower shaped like
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: a helmet, or monkshood is a familiar feature in our
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: country gardens, ranks as one of the most ancient of
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: vegetable poisons. The name aconite was derived from Acon, a
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: city of Heraclia, and the plant, owing to its deadly nature,
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: was supposed by the early Greeks, to have originated from
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: the foam of the dog Cerberus. Aconite was largely used
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: as an arrow poison by the ancients, and also employed
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: for that purpose by the Chinese and the wild hill
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: tribes of India. It was used by the ancient Greeks
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: and Romans to destroy life, and they believed they could
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: cause death to take place at a certain time by
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: regulating the dose of poison. Thus, Theoprost writes the ordering
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: of this poison was different according as it was designed
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: to kill in two or three months or a year.
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: The poison cup of the ancients was probably a compound
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: of which hemlock and aconite were the chief ingredients. This
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: was used for carrying out the criminal death penalty, and
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: also for purposes of suicide when so desired. A curious
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: relic of this ancient custom was practiced at Marseilles, where
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: a poison was kept by the public authorities, of which
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: hemlock was an ingredient. A dose of this was allowed
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: by the magistrates to any one who could show a
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: sufficient reason why he should deserve death. Valarius Maximus observed
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: this custom came from Greece, particularly from the island of Chaos,
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: where I saw an example of it in a woman
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: of great quality, who, having lived very happy ninety years,
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: obtained leave to die this way, lest by living longer
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: she should happen to see a change of her good fortune.
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: Theophrastus states Thrasius, a great physician, invented a composition which
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: would cause death without any pain, and it was prepared
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: with the juice of hemlock and poppy together, and did
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 1: the business in a small dose. When vice and dissipation
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: were at their height. In Rome, suicide was most common,
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: and it was often met with among the Greeks after
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: they had been contaminated by Roman manners and customs. When
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: the Greeks and Romans recognized the impossibility of suppressing suicide,
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: they decided to establish tribunals whose duty it should be
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: to hear the applications of those persons who wished to die.
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: If the applicants succeeded in showing what the tribunal considered
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: good cause for quitting life, his prayer was granted, and
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: he destroyed himself under the authority of the court. In
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: some instances, the court not only sanctioned the suicide but
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: supplied the means of self destruction in the shape of
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: a decoction of aconite and hemlock. If any one applied
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: for permission to end his life and was refused, and
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: in defiance of the decision committed suicide, his act was illegal.
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: The Romans in such cases confiscated the property of the deceased.
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: The Greeks held his memory as dishonored and treated his
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: body with indignity. The aconite, now used in medicine, is
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: derived from the aconitum napolis, chiefly grown in Britain. It
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: is also found in the mountainous districts of the temperate
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It grows on the Alps,
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: the Pyrenees, the mountains of Germany and Austria, and also
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: in Denmark and Sweden on the Himalias. It is found
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: at ten thousand to sixteen thousand feet above the sea level.
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: Both the root and the leaves are used medicinally. The
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: tap fruit of the aconite has been frequently eaten in
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: mistake for horse reddish, with fatal results. Aconite contains several
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: active principles, all of which are powerful poisons. The chief
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: of these is aconitine, probably the most deadly poison known,
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: the fiftieth part of a grain of which has nearly
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: caused death. Indian aconite, known as bish, is chiefly derived
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: from aconitum ferox, a native of high altitude in the
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: Hamalia regions, and is mentioned by the Persian physician ALEROI
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: in the tenth century, also by many early Arabian writers
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: on medicine. Isa ben Ali pronounced it to be the
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: most rapid of deadly poisons and describes the symptoms with
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: tolerable correctness. The chief symptoms of poisoning by aconite are heat,
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: numbness and tingling in the mouth and throat, giddiness and
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: loss of muscular power. The pupils become dilated, the skin cold,
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: and pulse feeble, with oppressed breathing and dread of approaching death. Finally,
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: numbness and paralysis come on rapidly, followed by death in
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: a few sudden gasps. The poison being extremely rapid in effect,
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: immediate action is absolutely necessary in order to save life.
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: Several species of aconite grow plentifully in India, where it
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: has been used for centuries. It is found growing at
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: an elevation of ten thousand feet above the level of
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: the sea, and among other places, in the Singalilas, a
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: mountain range which forms the watershed boundary between Nepal and
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: British territory northwest of Darjeeling. Aconitrium palmatum is collected in
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: abundance at Tunglu, the southern termination of the Singalilas, but
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: a Nepalis, which is more poisonous, requires a higher elevation
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: in which to thrive. The natives, especially the hill tribes,
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: take aconite in the crude state as a remedy for
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: various ailments, and every bottaya has a few dried roots
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: put away in some secure corner of his hut. The
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: method of collecting is thus described. Early in October, when
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: the aconite route has matured, one of the leading men
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: of the village organizes a party composed of both sexes.
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: He for the time becomes their leader, settles all disputes
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: and quarrels while out in camp, and while keeping an
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: account of the general expenses, supplies to each all necessaries
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: in the way of food. Before starting, he has to
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: obtain a permit from the forest department, the charge for
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: which is fifteen rupees. Carefully wrapping the pass up in
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: a rag and placing it in his network bag of valuables,
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: he collects his band together and they set out for
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: the higher ranges. As soon as they arrive at the slopes,
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: where aka night is growing plentifully, they at once set
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: to work to build bamboo huts about five feet high,
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: roofing them with leaves. After the morning meal, they all
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: set off for the lower slopes, each with basket and
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: spade over his shoulder. But before the actual work is commenced,
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: a ceremony has to be performed. The Bottaias, like the Nepalese,
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: have a belief that the presiding demon of the hills
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: imprisons evil spirits in the aconite plant, which fly out
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: as soon as it is dug up and inflict dire
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: calamity on the digger. In order therefore, to counteract this,
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: every morning, before the digging commences, the lama or head man,
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: standing on a convenient hill with his followers around him,
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: makes a fire and burns some duna, a native rosin. Then,
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: inserting two fingers in his mouth, blows several shrill whistles,
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: all weight in breathless silence, till an answering whistle is heard,
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: which may be an echo or the cry of some bird.
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: Whatever it may be, it is taken as the dying
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: dirge of the evil spirits, and digging begins at once.
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: The roots, after being shaken from the soil, are placed
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: in the baskets, which, on return to the encampment, are
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: emptied and formed into heaps and covered with bamboo leaves
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: to protect them from the frost. During the day, they
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: are spread out in the sun to dry. When a
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: sufficient quantity has been collected and dried, thus bamboo frames
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: are fixed up with a fire below on which the
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: aconite is placed. When the flame has died out, the
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: one who looks after this drying process has a cloth
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: tied round his head, covering the nose, as the constant
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: inhalation of the fumes causes a feeling of heaviness and
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: dizziness in the head. This process is carried on three
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: or four days until the roots are dried. When sufficient
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: have collected and dried, they are packed in baskets. These
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: are shouldered, and with their cooking utensils and blankets on
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: the top, the whole band set their faces homeward on
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: arrival at the commercial center at the termination of their march,
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: The results of the expedition are soon sold, and each
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: man is handed his share of the prophets according to
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: the amount of aconite he has collected. End of Chapter ten,
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. The case of Doctor Lambson. The only case
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: on record in which the active principle of aconite has
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: been used for the purpose of criminal poisoning is that
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: of doctor Lamson, who suffered the extreme penalty of the
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: law for administering the drug to Percy Malcolm John and
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: thereby causing his death. The story is remarkable for the
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: cold blooded way in which the murder was carried out.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: George Henry Lamson, a surgeon in and impecunious circumstances, had
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: a reversionary interest through his wife in a sum of
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: fifteen hundred pounds which would come to him on the
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: death of his brother in law, Percy Malcolm John. The latter,
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: a sickly youth of eighteen years of age, was paralyzed
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: in his lower limbs from old standing spinal disease. On
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: November twenty seventh, eighteen eighty one. Lanson purchased two grains
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: of acontine, and shortly afterwards went down to the school
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: where the lad had been placed as a boarder, and
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: had an interview with him in the presence of the headmaster,
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 1: professing at the same time a kindly interest in the
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: lad and his health. During the interview, he produced some
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: gelatine capsules, one of which he filled with a white
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: powder presumed to be sugar, and directly after seeing his
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: brother in law swallow it, he took his departure. Within
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an hour, John became unwell, saying he
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: felt the same as when Lampson had given him a
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: quinine pill on a former occasion. Violent vomiting soon set
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: in and he became unable to swallow. This was rapidly
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: followed by delirium, and in three hours and three quarters
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: death ensued. Suspicion fell on Lampson, and he was arrested
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: shortly afterwards and charged with the murder of John. According
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: to evidence at the trial, it is probable that Lampson
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: had made several previous attempts on the lad's life with
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: acontine in the form of pills and powders, which he
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: had given him under the pretense of prescribing for his ailments.
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: The money to which he was entitled on the death
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: of John doubtless supplied the motive for the crime. The
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: proof of the purchase of aconotine by the prisoner and
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: the evidence of the post mortem examination pointed to the
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: cause of death, and the presence of aconitine was amply
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: proved by the clinical and other tests patiently and carefully
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: applied by the analyst. The difficulty of proving the presence
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: of a rare vegetable alkaloid in the body after death
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 1: was no doubt duly considered by Lanson when he fixed
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: on acontine as the medium for his evil design. But
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: science proved the master of the criminal, and the evidence
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: of the instrument by which the crime was committed was
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: indisputably proved. End of Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve The Bravo mystery. Antimony,
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 1: like arsenic, to which in many ways it is closely allied,
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: claims also to be ranked among the historic poisons. It
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: was known and used by the ancient Greek and Roman
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: physicians as a medicinal agent and for certain purposes. It
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: is perhaps unequalled at the das present time. The metal
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: is a brittle, silvery and very brilliant substance in the
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 1: form of plates and crystals, and is largely used in
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: the arts as an alloy, the most common form being
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: Brittannia metal, which is a compound of antimony, lead and tin.
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: The old Poculo emerica, or everlasting emetic cups, were made
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: of antimony. It is found abundantly in nature as a sulfide,
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: also combined with various metals, and with quartz and limestone.
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: From these it is separated by fusion, the heavy metallic
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: portion sinking by the law of gravity and abandoning the
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: impurities which remain on the surface of the molten mass
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 1: arsenic is a frequent contamination of commercial antimony, and it
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 1: is very important that it should be eliminated before antimony
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: is prepared for use in medicine. Poisoning by tartarated antimony
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: causes a pecure uliar metallic taste in the mouth, which
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: is speedily followed by vomiting, burning heat, pains in the
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: stomach and purging, difficulty in swallowing, thirst cramp, cold perspirations,
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 1: and great debility. In smaller doses, it produces these effects
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 1: in a mitigated form, which causes symptoms somewhat similar to
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: natural disease, such as distaste for food, nausea, and loss
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: of muscular power. For this reason, doubtless, it has been
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 1: a favorite medium with many criminal poisoners, including Dove, Smethurst, Richard,
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: and others. But there is no trial in which antimony
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: has figured that caused more interest than the Bravo mystery
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy six. The story of this case begins
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: with the marriage of mister Bravo, a young barrister of
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: about thirty years of age, to missus Ricardo, who was
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: then a wealthy widow and a lady of considerable personal attractions.
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: After the marriage, which followed a very short acquaintance, the
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 1: couple went to reside in Balum. According to a statement
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: made by Missus Bravo, she informed her husband before the
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 1: marriage of a former lover, and there is little doubt
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 1: that it rankled in mister Bravo's mind, and he frequently
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 1: taunted his wife with the fact he was a strong,
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: healthy and temperate man, but appears to have been both
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: weak and vain in character. On Tuesday, April eighteenth, eighteen
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: seventy six, after breakfast at his own house at Balum,
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: he drove with his wife into town. On their way,
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: a very unpleasant discussion took place. Arriving in town, he
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: had a Turkish bath, lunched with a relative of his
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: wife at Saint James's restaurant, and walked on his way
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: home to Victoria Station with a friend and fellow barrister,
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 1: whom he asked out for the following day. He arrived
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 1: back home about half past four. Shortly after his return,
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: mister Bravo went out for a ride, in the course
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: of which his horse bolted and carried him a long distance,
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: and he got back to his home very tired and exhausted.
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 1: At half past six, he was noticed leaning forward on
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: his chair, looking ill and with his head hanging down.
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: He ordered a hot bath, and when getting into it,
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: he cried out aloud with pain, putting his hand to
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: his side. The bath did not appear to relieve him much,
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: and he seemed to be suffering pain all through dinner,
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: but appeared to avoid attracting the attention of his wife
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: and Missus Cox, her companion, who dined with him. The
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: food provided during the dinner was partaken of more or
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: less in common by all three, but this was not
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: the case as regards the wine. Mister Bravo drank Burgundy only,
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: while Missus Bravo and Missus Cox drank sherry and marsala.
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: The wine drunk by mister Bravo had been decanted by
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: the butler some time before dinner. How long he could
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: not say, but he noticed nothing unusual about it. The
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: wine was of good quality, and mister Bravo, who was
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: something of a connoisseur of wine, remarked nothing peculiar in
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 1: its taste, but drank it as usual. If he had
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 1: burgundy for luncheon, he finished the bottle at dinner, but
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: if not as on the day in question. The remains
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: of the bottle were put away in an unlocked celorette
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: in the dining room. The butler could not remember whether
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 1: any burgundy was left on this day or not, but
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 1: however none was discovered. This celorette was opened at least
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: twice subsequently to this and prior to mister Bravo's illness,
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 1: once by Missus Cox and once by the maid. Mister
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: Bravo seems to have eaten a good dinner, although he
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: was evidently not himself from some cause or other. It
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: was said he was suffering from toothache or neuralgia, and
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: had just received a letter that had given him some annoyance.
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: The dinner lasted till past eight o'clock, after which the
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: party adjourned to the morning room, where conversation continued up
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 1: to about nine o'clock. Missus Bravo and Missus Cox then
• 2:28:22
  Speaker 1: retired upstairs, leaving mister Bravo alone, and Missus Cox went
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 1: to fetch Missus Bravo some wine and water from the
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 1: dining room. Missus Bravo remained in her room and prepared
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: for bed and drank the wine and water brought to
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: her by Missus Cox, who remained with her. The housemaid,
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: on taking some hot water to the lady's room, as
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: was her usual custom, at half past nine, was asked
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: by Missus Bravo to bring her some more marsala in
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 1: the glass that had contained the wine and water. On
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: her way downstairs to the dining room, the girl met
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 1: her master at the foot of the stairs. He looked
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: queer and very strange in the face, but did not
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: appear to be in pain. According to her statement, he
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: looked twice at her, yet did not speak, though it
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: was his custom, but passed on. Mister Bravo was alone
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: after the departure of his wife and Missus Cox, until
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: the time when he passed the housemaid at the foot
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 1: of the stairs. He entered his wife's dressing room and
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: the maid Missus Bravo's bedroom. In the dressing room, according
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 1: to Missus Coxe's statement, mister Bravo spoke to his wife
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: in French with reference to the wine. This had frequently
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 1: been the subject of unpleasant remarks before, but Missus Bravo
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 1: had no recollection of the conversation on this occasion. After
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: leaving his wife in her room, mister Bravo went to
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 1: his own bedroom and closed the door. The maid left
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 1: missus Bravo's bedroom and met her mistress in the passage,
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: partially undressed and on her way to bed. Missus Bravo
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: and missus Cox entered their bedrooms, and the former drank
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 1: her Marsala and went to bed. In about a quarter
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: of an hour, mister Bravo's bedroom door was heard to
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 1: open and he shouted out, Florence, Florence, hot water. The
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 1: maid ran into missus Bravo's room, calling out that mister
• 2:30:24
  Speaker 1: Bravo was ill. Missus Cox, who had not yet undressed,
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: rose hastily and ran to his room. She found him
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 1: standing in his night gown at the open window, apparently vomiting,
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: and this the maid also saw. Missus Cox further stated
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 1: that mister Bravo said to her, I have taken poison.
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: Don't tell Florence, alluding to his wife and to this
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: confession of having taken poison on the part of mister Bravo,
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: Missus Cox adhered. After this, mister Bravo was again very sick,
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 1: and some hot water was brought by the maid. After
• 2:31:03
  Speaker 1: the vomiting, he sank on the floor and became insensible
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 1: and remained so for some hours. Missus Cox tried to
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: raise him and got some mustard and water, but he
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: could not swallow it. She then applied mustard to his
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: feet and coffee was procured, but he was also unable
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 1: to swallow that. Meanwhile, a doctor who had attended Missus
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: Bravo and who lived at some distance was sent for.
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: Missus Bravo, who was aroused from sleep by the maid
• 2:31:35
  Speaker 1: and who seemed to have been greatly excited, insisted on
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: a nearer practitioner being sent for, and in a short
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: time a medical man living close by arrived on the scene.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: The doctor found mister Bravo sitting or lying on a chair,
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: completely unconscious and the heart's action almost suspended. He had
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 1: him laid on the bed and then administered some brandy
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 1: and water, but was unable to get him to swallow it.
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: In about half an hour, another medical man arrived and
• 2:32:07
  Speaker 1: was met by Missus Cox, who said she was sure
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: mister Bravo had taken chloroform. Both doctors came to the
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 1: conclusion that the patient was in a dangerous state and
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: endeavored to administer restoratives. Realizing the critical nature of the case,
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: doctor George Johnson of King's College Hospital was sent for Meanwhile,
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 1: mister Bravo was again seized with vomiting mostly blood, and
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: the doctors came to the conclusion he was suffering from
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 1: some irritant poison. About three o'clock he became conscious and
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: able to be questioned. He was at once asked what
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 1: have you taken? But from first to last he persisted
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: in declaring, in the most solemn manner that he had
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: taken nothing except some laudanum for toothache. In reply to
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: other questions asking him if there were any poisons about
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: the house, he replied there was only the laudanum and
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: chloroform for toothache, some Condi's fluid and rat poison at
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: the stable. Mister Bravo did not lose consciousness again until
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: the time of his death, which occurred fifty five and
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 1: a half hours after he was first taken ill. At
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: an early period, his bedroom was searched, but nothing was
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: found but the laudanum bottle and a little chloroform and
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: camphor liniment which had been brought from another room. There
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 1: were no remains of any solid poison in paper glass
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: or tumbler, and nothing to indicate any poison had been taken.
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 1: The post mortem examination showed evidence of great gastric irritation
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: extending downwards, but there was no appearance of any disease
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 1: in the body, or inflammation, congestion or ulceration. It was
• 2:33:56
  Speaker 1: left therefore to the chemical examination to show what was
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 1: the irritating substance which had been introduced into the body,
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 1: and supply a key to part of the mystery. The
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: matters which had been vomited in the early stage of
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: mister Bravo's illness had been thrown away, but singular to relate.
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: On examination of the leads of the house beneath the
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 1: bedroom window, some portion of the matter was found undisturbed,
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: although much rain had fallen and the greater part must
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: have been washed away. This was carefully collected and handed
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 1: to Professor Redwood for analysis. From this matter, he extracted
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 1: a large amount of antimony. Antimony was also discovered in
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 1: the liver and other parts of the body, and it
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: was concluded that altogether nearly forty grains of this poison
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: must have been swallowed by the unfortunate man. How he
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 1: came to swallow this enormous dose, Whether the design was
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 1: homicidal or suicidal. There was not the slightest evidence to show,
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: or where the antimony was obtained. The whole affair was
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: shrouded in mystery, and a mystery it remains end of
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen. The Case of Doctor Pritchard. The
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 1: remarkable case of doctor E. W. Pritchard of Glasgow, who
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with murdering his wife and mother
• 2:35:26
  Speaker 1: in law in that city in the year eighteen sixty five,
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: excited great interest at the time. The respectable position occupied
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 1: by the accused man in society in Glasgow, and the
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 1: practice as a physician which he had been enabled to
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 1: attain in the course of his six years residence there,
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 1: awakened an unusual degree of attention in the public mind.
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: When the fact of his apprehension became known, the excitement
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: was strengthened by the mystery invariably attached to the prosecution
• 2:35:59
  Speaker 1: of all criminal inquiries in Scotland. It appears that for
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: some time previous to her decease, Missus Prichard had been
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 1: in a delicate state of health, and her mother, Missus Taylor,
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: wife of mister Taylor, a silk weaver of Edinburgh, had
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 1: gone to Glasgow to nurse her during her illness. Missus
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: Taylor took up her abode in the house of doctor
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: Prichard and ministered to her daughter's comfort, but while so engaged,
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: she became ill and died suddenly, about three weeks previous
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: to the day on which the accused man was apprehended.
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: The cause of death was assigned to apoplexy, and as
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: Missus Taylor was about seventy years of age, no public
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 1: attention was awakened, and the body was conveyed to Edinburgh
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 1: and buried in the Grange Cemetery. Circumstances closely following on this, however,
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 1: awakened grave suspicions. Missus Prichard died shortly after her life,
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 1: and a report was circulated that she had succumbed to
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 1: gastric fever. The family grave at the Grange was fixed
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: on as the place of interment, and arrangements were made
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 1: for the funeral without delay. The body was taken to
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: Edinburgh by rail, and doctor Prichard accompanied it to the
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: house of his father in law, where it was to
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: await interment. The deaths of the two ladies occurring within
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: so short an interval of each other, coupled with certain
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: hints which they had received, set the police on the alert,
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: and while doctor Prichard was absent in Edinburgh, they instituted
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: inquiries which led to a warrant being issued for his apprehension.
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 1: On his return to Glasgow previous to the day fixed
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 1: for the funeral, he was arrested at the railway station
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 1: in Queen Street and conveyed to the police offices. Meanwhile,
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: the authorities had transmitted to Edinburgh information of what had
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 1: been done, and at the same time had issued a
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: warrant for a post mortem examination of the body of
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: Missus Pritchard. This was entrusted to Professor Douglas McLaughlin, assisted
• 2:38:11
  Speaker 1: by doctors Arthur Gamgi and Little John. The result of
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: the post mortem proved that death had not resulted from
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: natural causes, and a subsequent examination disclosed the presence of
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 1: minute particles of antimony in the liver. The case now
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: assumed a grave and mysterious aspect, and the authorities resolved
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: to carry the investigations further. The next step was to
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: order the exhumation of the body of Missus Taylor. This
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 1: having been effected, the internal organs were submitted to analysis
• 2:38:45
  Speaker 1: by Professor McLachlin, Doctor Littlejohn, and Professor Pinney of Glasgow,
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: who after a protracted examination, reported that the death of
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: Missus Taylor, like that of her daughter, was due to poisoning.
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 1: By antimony. On these facts being elicited, Doctor Prichard was
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 1: fully committed on the charge of murdering Jane Taylor, his
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: mother in law, and Mary Jane Pritchard, his wife. The
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 1: trial was opened on July three, eighteen sixty five, at
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 1: the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, before the Lord Justice Clerk,
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 1: Lord Ardmillan and Lord Jervis Wood, the Solicitor General prosecuting
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 1: for the Crown, while the prisoner was defended by measures A. R. Clark,
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: Watson and Brand. Evidence was given that Missus Prichard was
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 1: first taken ill in the October of eighteen sixty four,
• 2:39:42
  Speaker 1: with constant vomiting, often accompanied by severe cramp. After being
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 1: treated by her husband for some time and getting no
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 1: better at her own request, a doctor Gerdner was called
• 2:39:54
  Speaker 1: in and her mother, Missus Taylor, came from Edinburgh to
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 1: nurse her. While on this visit to her daughter, Missus Taylor,
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: on February twenty fourth, complained of feeling unwell. The next
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 1: day she was found insensible sitting on her chair in
• 2:40:11
  Speaker 1: her daughter's room and died the same night. From this time,
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 1: Missus Pritchard got gradually worse and died within three weeks afterwards.
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: Mary mc cloud, a girl who had been in the
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: service of the prisoner, admitted that he had familiar relations
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: with her, and that this fact was known to Missus Prichard.
• 2:40:32
  Speaker 1: The doctor had also made her presence and told her
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: he would marry her if his wife died. Doctor Patterson,
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: a medical practitioner of Glasgow, who was called in to
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: see Missus Taylor, stated Pritchard told him the old lady
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 1: was in the habit of taking batlely solution of opium,
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: and a few days before her death she had purchased
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: a half pound bottle. When he saw her, he was
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: convinced her symptoms betokened that she was under the depressing
• 2:41:01
  Speaker 1: influence of antimony and not opium. He therefore refused to
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 1: give a certificate of her death. Prichard eventually signed the
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 1: certificate himself, stating the primary cause of death had been
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: paralysis and the secondary cause apoplexy. He further certified Missus
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 1: Prichard's death as due to gastric fever. It was proved
• 2:41:25
  Speaker 1: on the evidence of two chemists that Prichard was in
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: the habit of purchasing tartarated antimony in large quantities and
• 2:41:33
  Speaker 1: also Fleming's tincture of aconite. Doctor MacLaughlin, professor of medical
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh, was then called to
• 2:41:42
  Speaker 1: give the result of the chemical examination of the various
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: organs of the body of Missus Prichard which had been
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: retained for analysis. Antimony corresponding to one fourth of a
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: grain of tartar emetic was found in the urine, in
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: small quantities in the bile and blood, and as much
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: as four grains in the whole liver. Evidence of the
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 1: presence of antimony was also found in the spleen, kidney,
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: muscular substance of the heart, coats of the stomach and rectum,
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 1: the brain and uterus. Antimony was also detected in various
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: stains on linen and articles of clothing which had been
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 1: worn by Missus Pritchard during her illness. From these results,
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: doctor MacLachlan concluded that Missus Pritchard had taken a large
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: quantity of antimony in the form of tartar emetic which
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: caused her death, and that from the extent to which
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: the whole organs and fluids of the body were impregnated
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 1: with the drug, it must have been given in repeated
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 1: doses up to within a few hours of her decease.
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: The result of the chemical examination of the various organs
• 2:42:52
  Speaker 1: of the body of Missus Taylor, which was exhumed for
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: this purpose, revealed the presence of point two seven nine,
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 1: or a little more than a quarter of a grain
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 1: of antimony in the contents of the stomach. Antimony was
• 2:43:07
  Speaker 1: also found in the blood, and one point one five
• 2:43:11
  Speaker 1: one grain was recovered from one thousand grains of the liver.
• 2:43:16
  Speaker 1: Doctor Penny, who made an independent analysis, found distinct evidence
• 2:43:22
  Speaker 1: of antimony in the liver, spleen, kidney, brain, heart, blood
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 1: and rectum, but no trace of morphine or aconite. He
• 2:43:31
  Speaker 1: also came to the conclusion that Missus Pritchard's death had
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 1: resulted from the effects of antimony. Antimony was found mixed
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: with tapioca contained in a packet discovered in the house,
• 2:43:44
  Speaker 1: also in a bottle containing batley solution of opium found
• 2:43:47
  Speaker 1: in the prisoner's surgery. Doctor Lyttleton surgeon to the Edinburgh Police,
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: who was present at the post mortem examination of both women,
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: gave his opinion that Missus Pritchard's death had been due
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 1: to the administration of antimony in small quantities, and that
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 1: continuously in Missus Taylor's case, he believed some strong narcotic
• 2:44:10
  Speaker 1: poison had been administered with the antimony. This opinion was
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 1: further endorsed by doctor Patterson. Evidence was offered that Pritchard
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: had been in the habit of purchasing large quantities of
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 1: Batley solution of opium, which the manufacturers swore contained no antimony.
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 1: For the defense, it was urged that there was no
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 1: proof whatever that poison had been administered by the prisoner,
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 1: who had always lived on affectionate terms with his wife,
• 2:44:42
  Speaker 1: and that the motive suggested was of the most trifling nature.
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 1: That the stronger suspicion pointed to the maid servant Mary MacLeod,
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 1: on whose uncooborated statements the chief evidence against the prisoner lay.
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 1: The Senior Council for the prisoner, Mister Clarke, included his
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 1: address by stating that the Crown had admitted there were
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: but two persons who could have committed the crime the
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 1: prisoner and Mary MacLeod. Mary MacLeod's hand had been found
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 1: in connection with every one of the acts in which
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: poison was said to have been administered in the food.
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: The case against the prisoner seemed to depend on a
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: series of suspicions and probabilities, and not upon legal proof,
• 2:45:27
  Speaker 1: And upon these grounds he asked a verdict of acquittal.
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: The summing up of the Lord Justice Clerk occupied three
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: hours and twenty minutes, on the conclusion of which the
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: jury retired to consider their verdict. After an absence of
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 1: fifty five minutes, they returned with the following verdict. The
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: jury unanimously find the prisoner guilty of both charges as libeled.
• 2:45:53
  Speaker 1: Doctor Prichard was thereupon sentenced to death and was executed
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 1: at Glasgow on July twenty eighth, eighteen sixty five. There
• 2:46:03
  Speaker 1: can be no doubt that he fully deserved his terrible doom.
• 2:46:08
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen. The Pimlico mystery chloroform
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: belongs to the class of neurotic poisons which act on
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 1: the brain and produce loss of sensation. It is a colorless,
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 1: heavy and volatile liquid having a peculiar ethereal odor which
• 2:46:29
  Speaker 1: cannot be easily mistaken, and a sweet, pungent taste when diluted.
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 1: For producing insensibility, it requires very careful and experienced administration,
• 2:46:42
  Speaker 1: and more lives have been lost by carelessness in using
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 1: than from the noxious character of the drug. Many stories
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 1: are related of the peculiar hallucinations and remarks made by
• 2:46:55
  Speaker 1: patience while under or partially under the influence of chloroform.
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 1: The following has the merit of being true. Doctor who
• 2:47:05
  Speaker 1: has just administered chloroform to a lady nurse some one
• 2:47:09
  Speaker 1: in a thousand, If you please, patient under the anesthetic. Ah,
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 1: that's my jack, He's one in a thousand, dear Jack.
• 2:47:19
  Speaker 1: The stories that crop up from time to time of
• 2:47:23
  Speaker 1: persons who have been rendered unconscious by simply waving a
• 2:47:26
  Speaker 1: chloroformed handkerchief before the face usually emanate from the fertile
• 2:47:31
  Speaker 1: brain of some imaginative journalist. As an internal poison, chloroform
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: has rarely been used, although there are many cases on
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: record where persons have accustomed themselves to drinking chloroform until
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 1: they have been able to swallow it in very large quantities.
• 2:47:48
  Speaker 1: The one recorded instance in which it was alleged to
• 2:47:51
  Speaker 1: have been used for the criminal destruction of life was
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 1: in the remarkable case known as the Pimlico mystery. The
• 2:48:00
  Speaker 1: trial of Adelaide Bartlett for the wilful murder of her
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 1: husband by administering chloroform to him, was held before Mister
• 2:48:08
  Speaker 1: Justice Wills at the Central Criminal Court on April twelve,
• 2:48:12
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty six, and lasted for six days. The case
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 1: attracted considerable attention and interest throughout, which culminated in a
• 2:48:21
  Speaker 1: dramatic scene at the close and the acquittal of the
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: accused woman. The strange relations which existed between Missus Bartlett
• 2:48:30
  Speaker 1: and her husband with whose murder she was charged, the
• 2:48:33
  Speaker 1: yet more strange relations between her and the man who,
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 1: in the first instance was included in the accusation, together
• 2:48:41
  Speaker 1: with the exceptional circumstances of his acquittal and his immediate
• 2:48:46
  Speaker 1: appearance in the witness box, formed a case of peculiar
• 2:48:50
  Speaker 1: dramatic interest. Thomas Edwin Bartlett was a grocer, having several
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 1: shops in the suburbs of London, and at the time
• 2:48:58
  Speaker 1: of his death was forty years of age. In eighteen seventy five,
• 2:49:02
  Speaker 1: he married a frenchwoman, Adelaide Blanche de la Tremois, who
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 1: was a native of Orleans and whom he met at
• 2:49:09
  Speaker 1: the house of his brother, she being at that time
• 2:49:12
  Speaker 1: about twenty years of age. After the marriage, she went
• 2:49:16
  Speaker 1: to a boarding school at Stoke, Newington, and lived with
• 2:49:19
  Speaker 1: her husband only during the vacation. At a later period,
• 2:49:24
  Speaker 1: she went to a convent school in Belgium, where she
• 2:49:26
  Speaker 1: remained for some eighteen months, after which she rejoined her
• 2:49:30
  Speaker 1: husband and settled down to live in London. During Christmas
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: of eighteen eighty one, she gave birth to a stillborn child,
• 2:49:39
  Speaker 1: which so affected her that she came to the resolution
• 2:49:42
  Speaker 1: that she would have no more children. Some four years later,
• 2:49:46
  Speaker 1: Bartlett and his wife made the acquaintance of George Dyson,
• 2:49:51
  Speaker 1: a young Wesleyan minister, who soon became on terms of
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 1: great social intimacy with them, visiting and dining with them frequent.
• 2:50:01
  Speaker 1: The admiration for their friend seems to have been common
• 2:50:04
  Speaker 1: to both husband and wife. In eighteen eighty five, Edwin
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 1: Bartlett made a will, leaving all he possessed to his
• 2:50:12
  Speaker 1: wife and making mister Dyson and his solicitors his executors.
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 1: Shortly afterwards, the couple removed to furnished apartments in Claverton Street, Pimlico,
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 1: where they apparently lived on good terms and were still
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 1: frequently visited by their friend mister Dyson. On December ten
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 1: in the same year, mister Bartlett became seriously ill. Peculiar
• 2:50:37
  Speaker 1: symptoms developed, which excited the curiosity and surprise of the
• 2:50:42
  Speaker 1: medical man called in to attend him. The state of
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 1: his gums suggested to the doctor that the illness was
• 2:50:48
  Speaker 1: due to mercury, which in some way was being taken
• 2:50:52
  Speaker 1: or administered to him, and he complained of nervous depression
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 1: and sleeplessness. He appeared to be gradually recovering from this,
• 2:51:00
  Speaker 1: but on December nineteenth, mister Bartlett himself suggested that a
• 2:51:04
  Speaker 1: second doctor should be called in lest, as he put it,
• 2:51:08
  Speaker 1: his friends should suspect, if anything happened to him that
• 2:51:12
  Speaker 1: his wife was poisoning him. The cause for this was
• 2:51:16
  Speaker 1: put down to some ill feeling which had formerly existed
• 2:51:20
  Speaker 1: between Missus Bartlett and her husband's father. A second practitioner
• 2:51:25
  Speaker 1: therefore was called in, and the patient, on December twenty
• 2:51:29
  Speaker 1: sixth was practically well and went out for a drive,
• 2:51:33
  Speaker 1: though still weak. The next day, Missus Bartlett asked mister Dyson,
• 2:51:39
  Speaker 1: who was constantly calling at the house to procure for
• 2:51:42
  Speaker 1: her a considerable quantity of chloroform, which she told him
• 2:51:46
  Speaker 1: she had used before with good effect on her husband
• 2:51:50
  Speaker 1: for some internal ailment of long standing, and that this
• 2:51:53
  Speaker 1: internal affliction had, upon previous occasions, given him paroxysms. She
• 2:51:59
  Speaker 1: further expressed apparently some belief that he might die suddenly
• 2:52:03
  Speaker 1: in one of these attacks. Dyson seems meekly to have
• 2:52:07
  Speaker 1: yielded to her request and obtained three different lots of
• 2:52:11
  Speaker 1: chloroform in all six ounces, from various chemists, giving the
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 1: reason that he required it for taking out grease spots,
• 2:52:20
  Speaker 1: and placed it all together in one bottle. Two days after,
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: he met Missus Bartlett on the embankment and handed her
• 2:52:28
  Speaker 1: the chloroform. During his illness, mister Bartlett had slept on
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 1: a camp bedstead in the front drawing room, his wife
• 2:52:36
  Speaker 1: occupying a sofa in the same room. On December thirty one,
• 2:52:41
  Speaker 1: he was apparently quite well again, and about half past
• 2:52:44
  Speaker 1: ten o'clock in the evening, Missus Bartlett told the servant
• 2:52:48
  Speaker 1: she required nothing else and retired with her husband for
• 2:52:51
  Speaker 1: the night. At four o'clock in the morning, the house
• 2:52:55
  Speaker 1: was aroused by Missus Bartlett, and it was discovered her
• 2:52:58
  Speaker 1: husband was dead in bed. The statement made by the
• 2:53:04
  Speaker 1: lady was that when her husband had settled for the night,
• 2:53:08
  Speaker 1: she sat down on the foot of the bed, that
• 2:53:10
  Speaker 1: her hand was resting upon his feet, that she dozed
• 2:53:13
  Speaker 1: off in her chair. She awoke with a sensation of
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 1: cramp and was horrified to find her husband's feet were
• 2:53:20
  Speaker 1: deathly cold. She tried to pour some brandy down his throat,
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 1: and she found he was dead. She then aroused the household.
• 2:53:29
  Speaker 1: The first person who entered the room was the landlord,
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 1: who noticed a peculiar smell that reminded him of chloric ether.
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 1: The doctor was promptly sent for, but from external examination
• 2:53:41
  Speaker 1: could find nothing to account for death. The only bottle
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 1: found was one that contained a drop or two of chlorodyne.
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 1: A post mortem examination was held and the stomach showed
• 2:53:53
  Speaker 1: evidence of having contained a considerable quantity of chloroform. There
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: was no internal disease or growth, the organs being quite healthy,
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 1: and nothing to account for death beyond the chloroform, which
• 2:54:06
  Speaker 1: the medical men concluded must have been the cause of death.
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 1: The coroner's inquiry resulted in a verdict of wilful murder.
• 2:54:14
  Speaker 1: Against Adelaide Bartlett and George Dyson, and they were both arrested.
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 1: At the trial, the Crown decided to offer no evidence
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: against Dyson, and after being indicted and pleading not guilty,
• 2:54:27
  Speaker 1: he was discharged by the judge to be called as
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 1: a witness. A brilliant array of counsel were engaged on
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 1: the case, the late Lord Chief Justice, then Sir Charles
• 2:54:38
  Speaker 1: Russell having charge of the prosecution, while the defense of
• 2:54:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Bartlett was entrusted to Sir Edward Clark, and that
• 2:54:46
  Speaker 1: of mister Dyson to Mister Lockwood. Dyson's examination occupied nearly
• 2:54:51
  Speaker 1: the whole of the second day, during which he detailed
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 1: the form of the intimacy between Missus Bartlett and himself,
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 1: how he procured the chloroform and disposed of the bottles
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 1: after hearing the result of the post mortem, by throwing
• 2:55:05
  Speaker 1: them away on Wandsworth Common. While on his way to
• 2:55:09
  Speaker 1: preach at Tooting, he was in the habit of kissing
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 1: Missus Bartlett and usually called her Adelaide. He had had
• 2:55:16
  Speaker 1: conversations with mister Bartlett on the subject of marriage, and
• 2:55:20
  Speaker 1: had heard him express the opinion that a man should
• 2:55:23
  Speaker 1: have two wives, one to look after the household duties,
• 2:55:26
  Speaker 1: and the other to be a companion and confidant. He
• 2:55:30
  Speaker 1: had told mister Bartlett he was becoming attached to his wife,
• 2:55:34
  Speaker 1: but the latter seemed to encourage it and asked him
• 2:55:36
  Speaker 1: to continue the intimacy. He did not mention the matter
• 2:55:40
  Speaker 1: of having procured the chloroform for Missus Bartlett until he
• 2:55:44
  Speaker 1: had heard the result of the post mortem. The medical
• 2:55:48
  Speaker 1: man called in to attend mister Bartlett during his illness,
• 2:55:51
  Speaker 1: described the condition in which he found him and his
• 2:55:55
  Speaker 1: recovery from the illness. He also gave an account of
• 2:55:58
  Speaker 1: a very extraordinary state which was made to him by
• 2:56:01
  Speaker 1: Missus Bartlett after the death of her husband. It was
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 1: as follows. At the age of sixteen years, she was
• 2:56:08
  Speaker 1: selected by mister Bartlett as a wife for companionship only,
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 1: and for whom no carnal feeling should be entertained. The
• 2:56:17
  Speaker 1: marriage compact was that they should live together simply as
• 2:56:21
  Speaker 1: loving friends. This rule was faithfully observed for about six
• 2:56:26
  Speaker 1: years of their married life, and then only broken at
• 2:56:29
  Speaker 1: her earnest and repeated entreaty that she should be permitted
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 1: to be really a wife and a mother. The child
• 2:56:37
  Speaker 1: was still born and From that time the two lived together,
• 2:56:41
  Speaker 1: but their relations were not those of matrimony. Her husband
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 1: showed great affection for her of an ultra platonic kind,
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 1: and encouraged her to pursue studies of various kinds, which
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 1: she did to please him. He affected to admire her
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 1: and liked to surround her with malie acquaintances and enjoy
• 2:57:02
  Speaker 1: their attentions to her. Then they became acquainted with Dyson.
• 2:57:06
  Speaker 1: Her husband conceived a great liking for him, and threw
• 2:57:10
  Speaker 1: them together. He requested them to kiss in his presence,
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 1: and seemed to enjoy it, and gave her to understand
• 2:57:18
  Speaker 1: that he had given her to mister Dyson. As her
• 2:57:22
  Speaker 1: husband gradually recovered from his illness, he expressed a wish
• 2:57:26
  Speaker 1: that they should resume the ordinary relations of man and wife,
• 2:57:30
  Speaker 1: but she resented it. She therefore sought for some means
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 1: to prevent his desire, and for this purpose she asked
• 2:57:37
  Speaker 1: Dyson to procure the chloroform. On the night of the death,
• 2:57:41
  Speaker 1: some conversation of this kind had taken place between them,
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 1: and when he was in bed, she brought the bottle
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 1: of chloroform and gave it to him, informing him of
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: her intention. To sprinkle some upon a handkerchief and wave
• 2:57:54
  Speaker 1: it in his face, thinking that thereby he would go
• 2:57:57
  Speaker 1: peacefully to sleep. He looked at the bottle and placed
• 2:58:01
  Speaker 1: it by the side of the low bed, then, turning
• 2:58:04
  Speaker 1: over on his side, apparently went to sleep. She fell asleep, also,
• 2:58:09
  Speaker 1: sitting at the foot of the bed with her arm
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 1: around his foot. She heard him snoring, then woke again
• 2:58:16
  Speaker 1: and found he was dead. Doctor Stevenson, who made the analysis,
• 2:58:21
  Speaker 1: gave evidence as to finding eleven and a quarter grains
• 2:58:24
  Speaker 1: of pure chloroform in the stomach of the deceased, but
• 2:58:29
  Speaker 1: judging from the time that had elapsed and the very
• 2:58:32
  Speaker 1: volatile nature of the liquid, a large quantity must have
• 2:58:35
  Speaker 1: been swallowed. No other poisons were found. The jury, after
• 2:58:40
  Speaker 1: deliberating nearly two hours, returned a verdict of not guilty,
• 2:58:45
  Speaker 1: thus making another addition to the list of unsolved poisoning mysteries.
• 2:58:51
  Speaker 1: End of chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen the Rougelie mystery. Strychnine
• 2:58:59
  Speaker 1: may very justly be termed a deadly poison. It is
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 1: one of the active principles extracted from nuxvomica, the singular
• 2:59:08
  Speaker 1: disc like seed of the strychnos nuxvomica, a tree indigenous
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 1: to most parts of India, Burma, North Australia and other countries.
• 2:59:19
  Speaker 1: Nuxwomika was unknown to the ancients and is said to
• 2:59:22
  Speaker 1: have been introduced into medicine by the Arabians, but there
• 2:59:26
  Speaker 1: is very little reliable record of it until the seventeenth century,
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 1: when the seeds were used for poisoning animals and birds.
• 2:59:34
  Speaker 1: Strychnine was discovered in eighteen eighteen by Pelletier and Clarenton,
• 2:59:39
  Speaker 1: and was first extracted from Saint Ignatius, being in which
• 2:59:43
  Speaker 1: it is present to the extent of about one point
• 2:59:46
  Speaker 1: five percent. Very soon afterwards it was extracted from nuxvomika, which,
• 2:59:51
  Speaker 1: being very plentiful, is now the chief source of the drug.
• 2:59:55
  Speaker 1: It is extremely bitter in taste and may be distinctly
• 2:59:59
  Speaker 1: detected in a solution containing no more than one six
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: hundred thousandth part. For a considerable time after its discovery,
• 3:00:09
  Speaker 1: the detection of strychnine in the body after death was
• 3:00:12
  Speaker 1: a matter of great uncertainty, especially when only a small
• 3:00:16
  Speaker 1: quantity had been administered. But now it is possible to
• 3:00:20
  Speaker 1: detect the presence of one five thousandth part of a
• 3:00:24
  Speaker 1: grain and that even after some period has elapsed, it
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 1: has been used for criminal purposes by several notorious poisoners,
• 3:00:33
  Speaker 1: notably by Dove, Palmer and Cream. But the symptoms produced
• 3:00:38
  Speaker 1: are so marked and its presence clearly indicated, that detection
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 1: now is almost certain. Among the most celebrated trials of
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 1: this century was that of doctor Palmer, who was charged
• 3:00:52
  Speaker 1: with the wilful murder of John Parsons Cook at Rougelie
• 3:00:56
  Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty five. A special Act of Parliament was
• 3:01:00
  Speaker 1: passed in order to have this case tried in London,
• 3:01:03
  Speaker 1: where it was brought before Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Mister
• 3:01:07
  Speaker 1: Baron Alderson and Mister Justice Creswell at the Central Criminal
• 3:01:12
  Speaker 1: Court on May fourteen, eighteen fifty six. The Attorney General,
• 3:01:17
  Speaker 1: Mister E. James q C, with several other council conducted
• 3:01:21
  Speaker 1: the prosecution and Palmer was defended by Mister Sergeant she
• 3:01:26
  Speaker 1: Measures Grove q C. Gray and Kenneley. The accused man
• 3:01:32
  Speaker 1: was a country doctor and had carried on a medical
• 3:01:35
  Speaker 1: practice in Rougeie, a small town in Staffordshire, for some years.
• 3:01:40
  Speaker 1: Then he went on the turf and made his business
• 3:01:43
  Speaker 1: over to a man named Thurlby, a former assistant. Shortly afterwards,
• 3:01:48
  Speaker 1: he made the acquaintance of John P. Cook over some
• 3:01:51
  Speaker 1: betting transactions. Cook was a young man of good family,
• 3:01:55
  Speaker 1: about twenty eight years of age, and was intended for
• 3:01:58
  Speaker 1: the legal profession. He was articled to a solicitor, but
• 3:02:03
  Speaker 1: after a time inheriting some property worth between twelve and
• 3:02:07
  Speaker 1: fifteen thousand pounds, he abandoned law and commenced to keep
• 3:02:12
  Speaker 1: race horses. Meeting Palmer at various race meetings, they soon
• 3:02:16
  Speaker 1: became very intimate. In a very short time, Palmer got
• 3:02:20
  Speaker 1: into difficulties and was compelled to raise money on bills.
• 3:02:24
  Speaker 1: Things went from bad to worse, until he at last
• 3:02:27
  Speaker 1: forged an acceptance to a bill in his mother's name,
• 3:02:31
  Speaker 1: who was possessed of considerable property. In eighteen fifty four,
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 1: he owed a large sum of money, and in the
• 3:02:38
  Speaker 1: same year his wife died, whose life it transpired, he
• 3:02:42
  Speaker 1: had insured for thirteen thousand pounds. With this money, he
• 3:02:46
  Speaker 1: bought two race horses, but in his betting transactions he
• 3:02:50
  Speaker 1: lost heavily, and then commenced to borrow money from Cook,
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 1: whose name he also forged. On one occasion, on the
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 1: back of a check he insure his brother's life for
• 3:03:01
  Speaker 1: thirteen thousand pounds, and very shortly after he died the
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 1: amount being also paid to Palmer. This money soon went
• 3:03:10
  Speaker 1: and at length he had two writs out against him
• 3:03:13
  Speaker 1: for four thousand pounds. In the Meanwhile, Cook had been
• 3:03:17
  Speaker 1: more successful than his friend in his racing ventures and
• 3:03:21
  Speaker 1: had won a considerable amount with a race horse he
• 3:03:24
  Speaker 1: owned called Polestar. Polestar was entered for the Shrewsbury races
• 3:03:30
  Speaker 1: on November fourteenth, eighteen fifty five, and Cook and Palmer
• 3:03:34
  Speaker 1: went there and stayed with some friends at the same
• 3:03:37
  Speaker 1: hotel in that town. On the evening of the races,
• 3:03:41
  Speaker 1: they were drinking brandy and water together. Cook asked Palmer
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: to have some more, and the latter replied, not unless
• 3:03:49
  Speaker 1: you finish your glass. Cook, noticing he had some still
• 3:03:53
  Speaker 1: left in his tumbler, said I'll soon do that and
• 3:03:56
  Speaker 1: finished it at a draft. On swallowing it, he imediately exclaimed,
• 3:04:01
  Speaker 1: there's something in it, burns my throat. Palmer took up
• 3:04:05
  Speaker 1: the glass and said, oh, nonsense, there is nothing in it,
• 3:04:08
  Speaker 1: and called the attention of the others standing by. Cook
• 3:04:12
  Speaker 1: then suddenly left the room and was seized with violent vomiting.
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 1: This became so bad that he soon had to be
• 3:04:19
  Speaker 1: taken to bed and appeared to be very seriously ill.
• 3:04:23
  Speaker 1: Two hours later a medical man was sent for who
• 3:04:26
  Speaker 1: at once prescribed an emetic and then a pill. He
• 3:04:30
  Speaker 1: obtained relief from these, and by the morning the vomiting
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 1: had ceased and he was much better, though he still
• 3:04:37
  Speaker 1: felt very unwell. They returned to Rougelie together, Cook taking
• 3:04:42
  Speaker 1: rooms at a hotel directly opposite Palmer's house. Cook was
• 3:04:47
  Speaker 1: still confined to his room and during the next few
• 3:04:49
  Speaker 1: days was constantly visited by Palmer, and after each visit
• 3:04:54
  Speaker 1: it was noticed the sickness commenced again. On one occasion,
• 3:04:58
  Speaker 1: Palmer had some broth which he specially wished Cook to take.
• 3:05:03
  Speaker 1: The latter tried to swallow it, but was immediately sick.
• 3:05:07
  Speaker 1: It was then taken downstairs, and a woman at the hotel,
• 3:05:10
  Speaker 1: thinking it looked nice, took a couple of tablespoons of it,
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 1: but within half an hour she was taken seriously ill
• 3:05:18
  Speaker 1: and obliged to go to bed, her symptoms being exactly
• 3:05:22
  Speaker 1: like those of Cook's when first taken ill at Shrewsbury.
• 3:05:26
  Speaker 1: Three days after this, a neighboring doctor was called in Palmer,
• 3:05:31
  Speaker 1: telling him that Cook was suffering from a bilious attack.
• 3:05:34
  Speaker 1: Palmer then suddenly went off to London, his business being
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 1: to try and arrange about this settlement of some debts
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: that were pressing. From the time he left, it was
• 3:05:45
  Speaker 1: noticed by the doctor that Cook's condition rapidly improved, and
• 3:05:49
  Speaker 1: in a day or two he was able to leave
• 3:05:51
  Speaker 1: his bed and be up and dressed. On Palmer's return
• 3:05:55
  Speaker 1: to Rougeie, he at once went to see Cook, and
• 3:05:58
  Speaker 1: during the rest of his illness, was constantly with him.
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 1: On the evening of his return, he also called on
• 3:06:04
  Speaker 1: a surgeon's assistant with whom he was acquainted, and purchased
• 3:06:09
  Speaker 1: from him three grains a strychnine. Cook was taking some
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 1: pills which had been prescribed by the doctor and which
• 3:06:16
  Speaker 1: had done him good. They were ordered to be taken
• 3:06:19
  Speaker 1: at bedtime, and the box containing them was in his room.
• 3:06:23
  Speaker 1: He was visited by Palmer about eleven o'clock the same night,
• 3:06:27
  Speaker 1: and up to that time he was apparently well. Palmer
• 3:06:31
  Speaker 1: left shortly after. At twelve o'clock, the whole house was
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 1: aroused by violent screams proceeding from Cook's room. The servants
• 3:06:41
  Speaker 1: rushed in and found him writhing in great agony, shouting murder.
• 3:06:46
  Speaker 1: He was evidently suffering intense pain and soon was seized
• 3:06:50
  Speaker 1: with convulsions. Palmer was at once sent for and on
• 3:06:54
  Speaker 1: his arrival Cook was gasping for breath and hardly able
• 3:06:57
  Speaker 1: to speak. He ran back to procure some medicine, which
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 1: on his return he gave him, but the sick man
• 3:07:05
  Speaker 1: at once threw it back. The attack gradually passed off,
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 1: and by morning he was somewhat better, but very weak.
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 1: The same day, Palmer visited a chemist he knew in
• 3:07:16
  Speaker 1: the town and purchased six grains of strychnine. During the afternoon,
• 3:07:21
  Speaker 1: a relative of Palmer's who was also a medical man,
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 1: arrived on a visit to Rougelye, and he was taken
• 3:07:28
  Speaker 1: to see Cook, and in the evening a consultation was
• 3:07:31
  Speaker 1: held by the three medical men. They agreed to prescribe
• 3:07:35
  Speaker 1: some medicine for the patient in the form of pills,
• 3:07:38
  Speaker 1: which were prepared and in the course of the evening
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 1: were handed to Palmer, who was to administer a dose
• 3:07:44
  Speaker 1: the last thing at night, about half past ten, Palmer
• 3:07:49
  Speaker 1: gave Cook two of the pills, settled him comfortably for
• 3:07:53
  Speaker 1: the night, and went home. At ten minutes to eleven,
• 3:07:57
  Speaker 1: Cook roused the house with a frightful screen, calling out,
• 3:08:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be ill as I was last night.
• 3:08:04
  Speaker 1: Palmer was sent for and brought with him two more pills,
• 3:08:08
  Speaker 1: which he said contained ammonia, and gave them to Cook.
• 3:08:11
  Speaker 1: Very shortly afterwards, convulsion set in, which were followed by tetanus,
• 3:08:16
  Speaker 1: and the unfortunate man died in a few minutes in
• 3:08:19
  Speaker 1: great agony. The deceased man's relatives were communicated with, and
• 3:08:25
  Speaker 1: his father in law soon arrived in Rougeie. On Palmer
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 1: being questioned about Cook's affairs, he said that he held
• 3:08:32
  Speaker 1: a paper drawn up by a lawyer and signed by Cook,
• 3:08:35
  Speaker 1: stating that in respect of four thousand pounds worth of
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 1: bills he Cook was alone liable, and Palmer had a
• 3:08:43
  Speaker 1: claim for that amount against the estate. This, with the
• 3:08:47
  Speaker 1: other matters aroused suspicion, and it was decided to hold
• 3:08:51
  Speaker 1: a post mortem examination on the body to ascertain the
• 3:08:55
  Speaker 1: cause of death. Palmer was present at the examination, and
• 3:08:59
  Speaker 1: by his most deliberate act, the fluid contents of the
• 3:09:02
  Speaker 1: stomach were lost. What portions of the body were reserved
• 3:09:07
  Speaker 1: for analysis. He did all he could to prevent from
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 1: reaching the analysts. When the jars et cetera were being
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 1: sent to London for examination by the government analyst, he
• 3:09:18
  Speaker 1: intercepted them and offered the postboy ten pounds to upset
• 3:09:22
  Speaker 1: the conveyance and break them. The evidence offered at the
• 3:09:26
  Speaker 1: trial was almost entirely circumstantial, and the medical testimony was
• 3:09:32
  Speaker 1: very conflicting. It was supposed in the first instance Palmer
• 3:09:37
  Speaker 1: had administered tartar emetic to his victim, but that for
• 3:09:40
  Speaker 1: the fatal dose strychnine was used. It was proved Palmer
• 3:09:45
  Speaker 1: had purchased strychnine under suspicious circumstances on the morning of
• 3:09:49
  Speaker 1: the day on which Cook died, and could not account
• 3:09:53
  Speaker 1: for the purchase of it or state what he had
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: done with it. The symptoms appeared at a time which
• 3:09:59
  Speaker 1: would correspond to the interval that precedes the action of
• 3:10:02
  Speaker 1: strychnan being developed over the entire body and limbs in
• 3:10:06
  Speaker 1: a few minutes. Suddenly, and with violence. None of the
• 3:10:10
  Speaker 1: pills could be obtained for analysis, and doctor Taylor, who
• 3:10:14
  Speaker 1: made the analytical examination, was unable to find any trace
• 3:10:19
  Speaker 1: of strychnin in the portion submitted to him, but he
• 3:10:22
  Speaker 1: found half a grain of antimony in the blood. He
• 3:10:26
  Speaker 1: believed Cook died from the effects of strychnin. The great
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 1: point in the case was did the tetanic symptoms under
• 3:10:34
  Speaker 1: which the deceased man died depend on disease or poison?
• 3:10:39
  Speaker 1: Doctors Brodie, Christison and Todd, and other imminent authorities of
• 3:10:43
  Speaker 1: the time agreed that when taken as a whole, they
• 3:10:47
  Speaker 1: were not in accordance with any form of disease, but
• 3:10:51
  Speaker 1: were in perfect accordance with the effects of strychnan. On
• 3:10:55
  Speaker 1: the other hand, medical men called for the defense testified
• 3:10:59
  Speaker 1: that tetanus might be caused by natural disease, and the
• 3:11:03
  Speaker 1: deceased might have died from angina pectoris or epilepsy, in
• 3:11:07
  Speaker 1: spite of the absence of confirmatory chemical evidence. After one
• 3:11:12
  Speaker 1: hour and seventeen minutes deliberation, the jury returned a verdict
• 3:11:16
  Speaker 1: of guilty and Palmer was sentenced to death, the trial
• 3:11:20
  Speaker 1: having lasted twelve days. The rigid and fixed condition of
• 3:11:25
  Speaker 1: the limbs is a marked feature after poisoning by strychnine.
• 3:11:30
  Speaker 1: In the recent Horsford case, in which a farmer named
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 1: Walter Horsford was convicted of the murder of his cousin
• 3:11:37
  Speaker 1: Anne Holmes at Saint Niat's in eighteen ninety seven, three
• 3:11:42
  Speaker 1: point sixty nine grains of strychnin were recovered from the
• 3:11:45
  Speaker 1: internal organs after the body was exhumed nineteen days after death.
• 3:11:51
  Speaker 1: Even then, rigidity was very marked, especially in the lower
• 3:11:55
  Speaker 1: limbs and fingers. The same rigidity was remarked by doctors
• 3:12:00
  Speaker 1: Stephenson in the case of Matilda Clover, who was poisoned
• 3:12:03
  Speaker 1: by meal cream with strychnan a few years ago. In
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: this case, the body had been buried from October until May,
• 3:12:11
  Speaker 1: and the rigidity in the limbs and fingers was still maintained.
• 3:12:16
  Speaker 1: Doctor Stephenson states that usually when persons are suffering from
• 3:12:19
  Speaker 1: strychnin poisoning, they are very apprehensive of death. He has
• 3:12:24
  Speaker 1: known a woman say I am going to die before
• 3:12:27
  Speaker 1: any intimation of symptoms had occurred. The first apprehension is
• 3:12:32
  Speaker 1: that some terrible calamity is about to take place. End
• 3:12:38
  Speaker 1: of chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen Opium eating and smoking mescal buttons.
• 3:12:47
  Speaker 1: The narcotic properties of the poppy have been known from
• 3:12:50
  Speaker 1: times of great antiquity. The first mention we have of
• 3:12:54
  Speaker 1: its use is by Theophrastus, who lived about three hundred
• 3:12:58
  Speaker 1: years b c. It is opposed that the potient known
• 3:13:01
  Speaker 1: under the name of Nepenthe, prepared by Helen of Troy
• 3:13:05
  Speaker 1: and given to the guests of Menelaus to drive away
• 3:13:08
  Speaker 1: their care, was none other than a wine of opium.
• 3:13:12
  Speaker 1: This conjecture receives support from Homer, who states that Nepenthe
• 3:13:17
  Speaker 1: was obtained from Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. According
• 3:13:22
  Speaker 1: to Prosper Alpinus, the Egyptians were practiced opium eaters, and
• 3:13:26
  Speaker 1: were often faint in languid through the want of it.
• 3:13:30
  Speaker 1: They prepared and drank it in the form of cretic wine,
• 3:13:33
  Speaker 1: which they flavored and made hotter by the addition of
• 3:13:36
  Speaker 1: pepper and other aromatics. The Turks and Persians employed opium
• 3:13:42
  Speaker 1: as a medicine and also for eating from a very
• 3:13:45
  Speaker 1: early period. Discorides, the ancient Greek pharmacist, describes how the
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: capsules from which the drug is collected should be cut,
• 3:13:55
  Speaker 1: and Celsus, a Roman physician of the first century, frequently
• 3:13:59
  Speaker 1: alludes to opium in his works under the quaint name
• 3:14:02
  Speaker 1: of Poppi tears. The introduction of opium into India seems
• 3:14:07
  Speaker 1: to have been connected with the spread of Mohammedanism, the
• 3:14:11
  Speaker 1: earliest record we have of its use in that country
• 3:14:14
  Speaker 1: being made by Barbosa in fifteen eleven, although it is
• 3:14:19
  Speaker 1: more than probable it was used in India long before
• 3:14:22
  Speaker 1: that time. Pies, the first ambassador from Europe to China
• 3:14:26
  Speaker 1: in fifteen sixteen, speaks of the opium of Egypt, Cambai
• 3:14:31
  Speaker 1: and the Kingdom of kus In Bengal And states it
• 3:14:35
  Speaker 1: was eaten by the kings and lords and even the
• 3:14:38
  Speaker 1: common people, though not so much because it costs deer.
• 3:14:43
  Speaker 1: The Mogul government uniformly sold the opium monopoly, and the
• 3:14:47
  Speaker 1: East India Company did likewise. The properties of opium have
• 3:14:52
  Speaker 1: also been known from early times to the Persians, who
• 3:14:56
  Speaker 1: flavored the drug with aromatics and held it in great esteem.
• 3:15:00
  Speaker 1: By them, it was commonly called theriaka. It is supposed
• 3:15:05
  Speaker 1: to have been first introduced to China by the Arabs,
• 3:15:08
  Speaker 1: who traded with the Chinese as early as the ninth century.
• 3:15:12
  Speaker 1: Towards the end of the eighteenth century, a trade sprang
• 3:15:15
  Speaker 1: up with India, which rapidly increased till it led to
• 3:15:19
  Speaker 1: political difficulties, culminating in the War of eighteen forty two.
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 1: And the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, after which
• 3:15:27
  Speaker 1: five ports of China were opened to foreign trade, opium
• 3:15:31
  Speaker 1: being admitted as a legalized import in eighteen fifty eight.
• 3:15:36
  Speaker 1: Opium smoking in China was practiced in the seventeenth century
• 3:15:40
  Speaker 1: and gradually extended over the entire Empire, and at the
• 3:15:44
  Speaker 1: present time is almost a recognized habit among the people.
• 3:15:49
  Speaker 1: With regard to the introduction of opium into India, the Mohammedans,
• 3:15:54
  Speaker 1: once having established its use, began to make it a
• 3:15:57
  Speaker 1: source of income. The Great Mogul monopolized the opium production
• 3:16:01
  Speaker 1: and trade and derived an immense income from the sale
• 3:16:05
  Speaker 1: of the monopoly. With respect to its use in India,
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 1: it is not easy to state with certainty whether or
• 3:16:12
  Speaker 1: not and in what periods it has increased over the
• 3:16:16
  Speaker 1: various parts of the country. From the most recent reports,
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 1: it appears that the largest amount of opium is produced
• 3:16:24
  Speaker 1: in the central tract of the Ganges, extending from Dinapur
• 3:16:28
  Speaker 1: in the east to Agra in the west, and from
• 3:16:31
  Speaker 1: Gurkapur in the north to Azaribah in the south, and
• 3:16:37
  Speaker 1: comprising an area of about six hundred miles long and
• 3:16:40
  Speaker 1: two hundred miles broad. In the district of Bengal. The
• 3:16:45
  Speaker 1: government has the monopoly of the opium industry and the
• 3:16:49
  Speaker 1: districts are divided into two agencies, Bihar and Banaras, which
• 3:16:54
  Speaker 1: are under the control of officers residing at Patna and Ghazipur.
• 3:17:00
  Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty three, the amount of acres under poppy
• 3:17:03
  Speaker 1: cultivation was in Bihar four hundred sixty three thousand, eight
• 3:17:07
  Speaker 1: hundred twenty nine and in Banaris Agency four hundred twelve thousand,
• 3:17:12
  Speaker 1: six hundred twenty five, but the export of opium has
• 3:17:17
  Speaker 1: somewhat diminished since then. Any One may undertake the industry,
• 3:17:22
  Speaker 1: but cultivators are obliged to sell the opium exclusively to
• 3:17:26
  Speaker 1: the government agencies at a price which is fixed beforehand
• 3:17:30
  Speaker 1: by the officials. The government sells the ready goods to
• 3:17:33
  Speaker 1: merchants at a much higher price, which difference is paid
• 3:17:37
  Speaker 1: by the country to which the opium is exported. In
• 3:17:41
  Speaker 1: India itself, the sale of opium is restricted to licensed
• 3:17:45
  Speaker 1: shop keepers, a practice which has proved to be useful
• 3:17:49
  Speaker 1: because in some places, when the licensed shops have been closed,
• 3:17:53
  Speaker 1: a greater number of unlicensed and secret shops have sprung
• 3:17:57
  Speaker 1: up and have made the contract in sufficient The opium
• 3:18:01
  Speaker 1: question is so complex in its nature, and is so
• 3:18:05
  Speaker 1: largely influenced by the habit and constitution of those nations
• 3:18:09
  Speaker 1: who are addicted to its use, that it is obvious
• 3:18:13
  Speaker 1: that only those with skilled medical knowledge, who are on
• 3:18:17
  Speaker 1: the spot and have lived and had a daily experience
• 3:18:20
  Speaker 1: of the people, are in a proper position to deal
• 3:18:23
  Speaker 1: with the question at all. So much has been written
• 3:18:26
  Speaker 1: by religious enthusiasts and other persons totally ignorant of the
• 3:18:31
  Speaker 1: nature and properties of the drug that one almost hesitates
• 3:18:35
  Speaker 1: to touch upon the question at all. Our only excuse
• 3:18:39
  Speaker 1: for so doing is that the following facts have been
• 3:18:42
  Speaker 1: furnished by reliable medical authorities who are really in a
• 3:18:46
  Speaker 1: position to judge on the subject. The cause which led
• 3:18:50
  Speaker 1: to the use of this narcotic drug by the races
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 1: of the East may have been primarily due to the
• 3:18:56
  Speaker 1: prohibition of wine by the Moslems, but more likely on
• 3:19:00
  Speaker 1: account of its valuable remedial or protective properties needed by
• 3:19:05
  Speaker 1: erase subject to malaria and kindred diseases, and to counteract
• 3:19:10
  Speaker 1: the effect of the hot climate to which they are exposed.
• 3:19:13
  Speaker 1: It is a remedy at hand, and would seem to
• 3:19:16
  Speaker 1: be one to which they at once fly. The evil
• 3:19:20
  Speaker 1: lies more in the smoking than the eating of the drug.
• 3:19:24
  Speaker 1: The former habit is more prevalent in China and has
• 3:19:27
  Speaker 1: the most demoralizing effect. The extent of its use in
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: the East varies according to the geographical and social differences
• 3:19:34
  Speaker 1: of the people, and it is used in various degrees
• 3:19:38
  Speaker 1: of moderation and excess. The drug is employed in various
• 3:19:42
  Speaker 1: forms according to the class of people who consume it.
• 3:19:46
  Speaker 1: In India, it is largely used in the crude state
• 3:19:49
  Speaker 1: and is sold at about to annas a drachma in
• 3:19:53
  Speaker 1: small square pieces. The opium eater will take two or
• 3:19:57
  Speaker 1: three grains and roll them into the form of a
• 3:19:59
  Speaker 1: pea ill between his fingers, and then chew or swallow it,
• 3:20:03
  Speaker 1: often twenty times in the day. It is also used
• 3:20:07
  Speaker 1: in a liquid form called kasumba, made by macerating opium
• 3:20:12
  Speaker 1: in rose water. Others boil it with milk, then collect
• 3:20:16
  Speaker 1: the cream and eat it. The varieties for smoking are
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 1: known as jundo and mudat, the former being a very
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: impure extract of a fairly stiff consistence, and the latter
• 3:20:29
  Speaker 1: made from the refuse of chundo, of which it largely consists,
• 3:20:34
  Speaker 1: but being much cheaper is chiefly used by the low
• 3:20:37
  Speaker 1: class Hindus and Mohammedans. From two to four grains a
• 3:20:41
  Speaker 1: day may be called a moderate use of the crude drug.
• 3:20:45
  Speaker 1: The poorer people regularly give it to children up to
• 3:20:48
  Speaker 1: two years of age to keep them quiet, also as
• 3:20:52
  Speaker 1: a preventive against such complaints as enteritis so common in
• 3:20:56
  Speaker 1: the East, and so before youth is reached they become
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 1: inured to its action. Licenses to sell the drug are
• 3:21:04
  Speaker 1: sold to the highest bidder at the opium auctions, the
• 3:21:08
  Speaker 1: licensee having the privilege of supplying a certain number of
• 3:21:12
  Speaker 1: small dealers. The Chinese smoker usually lays himself down on
• 3:21:17
  Speaker 1: his side, with his head supported by a pillow on
• 3:21:21
  Speaker 1: the straw mat. Beside him. Between his doubled up knees
• 3:21:25
  Speaker 1: and his nose, a small glass oil lamp covered with
• 3:21:29
  Speaker 1: a glass shade is burning. Close to this is a
• 3:21:32
  Speaker 1: tray containing a small round box holding the drug, a
• 3:21:36
  Speaker 1: straight piece of wire used for manipulating it, a knife
• 3:21:40
  Speaker 1: to scrape up fragments, and the pipe used for smoking.
• 3:21:44
  Speaker 1: The latter is about two feet long with a bore
• 3:21:47
  Speaker 1: of about half an inch in diameter, and is not
• 3:21:50
  Speaker 1: unlike the stem of a flute before it is fitted.
• 3:21:54
  Speaker 1: About two inches from the bottom of the tube is
• 3:21:57
  Speaker 1: a closed cup or bowl of earthenware or stone having
• 3:22:01
  Speaker 1: a central perforation. To charge the pipe, A small portion
• 3:22:06
  Speaker 1: of the drug, weighing a few grains, is picked up
• 3:22:09
  Speaker 1: with the wire, kneaded and rolled in the closed surface
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: of the cup, then heated in the flame of the
• 3:22:16
  Speaker 1: lamp till it swells. This is rolled up and again manipulated,
• 3:22:21
  Speaker 1: then finally placed in the aperture in the surface of
• 3:22:24
  Speaker 1: the bowl. It is then lighted from the lamp and
• 3:22:28
  Speaker 1: the smoke drawn into the lungs through the tube till
• 3:22:31
  Speaker 1: the first charge is exhausted. In a report made by
• 3:22:36
  Speaker 1: the British Medical Journal concerning the use of opium in India,
• 3:22:40
  Speaker 1: from the evidence of medical men long resident in that country,
• 3:22:44
  Speaker 1: there seems a general consensus of opinion that opium eating,
• 3:22:48
  Speaker 1: in the majority of cases exercises no unfavorable influence on
• 3:22:53
  Speaker 1: the people who indulge in the habit, and that it
• 3:22:56
  Speaker 1: is a prophylactic against fever and prevents the name ees
• 3:23:00
  Speaker 1: from malaria and excessive fatigue. There is no comparison between
• 3:23:05
  Speaker 1: the effects of the opium habit and the habitual use
• 3:23:09
  Speaker 1: of alcohol. English people cannot judge from their own standard
• 3:23:13
  Speaker 1: the manners and customs of people living under conditions with
• 3:23:17
  Speaker 1: which they are unacquainted. While we look on opium as
• 3:23:21
  Speaker 1: a narcotic, the Hindu uses it as a stimulant to
• 3:23:25
  Speaker 1: enable him to go through hard work on the smallest
• 3:23:28
  Speaker 1: quantity possible of food. In Persia at the present time,
• 3:23:32
  Speaker 1: according to Wills, nine out of ten of the aged
• 3:23:36
  Speaker 1: take from one to five grains of the drug daily.
• 3:23:39
  Speaker 1: It is largely used by the native physicians. It does
• 3:23:43
  Speaker 1: not appear that the moderate use of Persian opium in
• 3:23:47
  Speaker 1: the country itself is deletrious. Opium smoking is almost unknown,
• 3:23:52
  Speaker 1: and when it is smoked, it is as a rule
• 3:23:55
  Speaker 1: by a doctor's orders. The opium pill box, a chiny
• 3:24:00
  Speaker 1: box of silver, is as common in Persia as the
• 3:24:03
  Speaker 1: snuff box was once among us. Most men of forty
• 3:24:08
  Speaker 1: in the middle and upper classes use it. They take
• 3:24:11
  Speaker 1: from a grain to a grain and a half, divided
• 3:24:13
  Speaker 1: into two pills, one in the afternoon and one at night.
• 3:24:18
  Speaker 1: The majority of authorities agree that opium smoking as a
• 3:24:21
  Speaker 1: habit is much more harmful and attended with more demoralizing
• 3:24:26
  Speaker 1: influences than opium eating, but either habit is undoubtedly harmful
• 3:24:31
  Speaker 1: to Europeans, and when once formed, is extremely difficult to break.
• 3:24:37
  Speaker 1: Paracelsus is generally credited with being the originator of the
• 3:24:41
  Speaker 1: word laudanum, which is now employed as the popular name
• 3:24:45
  Speaker 1: for tincture of opium, Yet there seems little doubt the
• 3:24:49
  Speaker 1: word was first applied to the gum of the cistus.
• 3:24:53
  Speaker 1: Clusius in his Rariorum Plantarum Historiae, states the gum of
• 3:24:59
  Speaker 1: the cistus is called in Greek and Latin laudanum, and
• 3:25:02
  Speaker 1: in shops laudanum. It is therefore very likely that the
• 3:25:07
  Speaker 1: secret preparation originated by Paracelsus, which he called laudanum, was
• 3:25:12
  Speaker 1: composed of the gum of the cistus as well as opium,
• 3:25:16
  Speaker 1: and that he adopted the title from the former ingredient.
• 3:25:20
  Speaker 1: The Kiowa and other Mexican Indians use the fruit of
• 3:25:23
  Speaker 1: the Anhelonium luini, which they called mescal buttons, to produce
• 3:25:29
  Speaker 1: a species of intoxication and stimulation during certain of their
• 3:25:34
  Speaker 1: religious ceremonies. The effects of this fruit, which like Indian hemp,
• 3:25:39
  Speaker 1: varies considerably in different individuals, are very peculiar and have
• 3:25:43
  Speaker 1: been described by Lewin Prentiss and Morgan. The eating of
• 3:25:47
  Speaker 1: the fruit first results in a state of strange excitement
• 3:25:51
  Speaker 1: and great exuberance of spirits, accompanied by great volubility in speech.
• 3:25:57
  Speaker 1: This is shortly followed by a stage of intoxication, in
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 1: which the sight is affected in a very extraordinary manner,
• 3:26:04
  Speaker 1: consisting of a kaleidoscopic play of colors, ever in motion,
• 3:26:09
  Speaker 1: of every possible shade and tent, and these constantly changing.
• 3:26:15
  Speaker 1: The pupils of the eyes are widely dilated, Cutaneous sensation
• 3:26:19
  Speaker 1: is blunted, and thoughts seem to flash through the brain
• 3:26:23
  Speaker 1: with extraordinary rapidity. The color visions are generally only seen
• 3:26:28
  Speaker 1: with closed eyes, but the coloring of all external objects
• 3:26:32
  Speaker 1: is exaggerated. Sometimes there is also an indescribable sensation of
• 3:26:38
  Speaker 1: dual existence. Recent investigation into the pharmacology of the mescal
• 3:26:44
  Speaker 1: plant proved it to be a poison of a very
• 3:26:47
  Speaker 1: powerful nature. Lethal doses produce a complete paralysis and death
• 3:26:53
  Speaker 1: is caused by respiratory failure. End of Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen.
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 1: Hashise and Hashish eaters. Hashish or bang is the native
• 3:27:08
  Speaker 1: term applied to the dried flowering tops of the Indian
• 3:27:11
  Speaker 1: hemp from which the rosin has not been removed. This plant,
• 3:27:16
  Speaker 1: cultivated largely in India, is now considered to be the
• 3:27:20
  Speaker 1: same botanically as the cannabis sativa of European cultivation, but
• 3:27:26
  Speaker 1: there is great difference in their medicinal activity, that growing
• 3:27:30
  Speaker 1: in India being much more powerful. Ganja is the native
• 3:27:34
  Speaker 1: name for part of the plant, and seedi for another part,
• 3:27:38
  Speaker 1: which is much poorer in rosin. The rosinous principle is
• 3:27:42
  Speaker 1: called churis or charis, and the entire plant, cut during inflorescence,
• 3:27:49
  Speaker 1: dried in the sun and pressed into bundles is called bang.
• 3:27:54
  Speaker 1: The method of using it in India is chiefly for
• 3:27:57
  Speaker 1: smoking in combination with tobacco. For this purpose, a plug
• 3:28:01
  Speaker 1: of tobacco is first placed in the bottom of the
• 3:28:04
  Speaker 1: bowl of the pipe, on the top a small piece
• 3:28:07
  Speaker 1: of hashish, and over this a piece of glowing charcoal.
• 3:28:12
  Speaker 1: Another way is tonad the drug with the tobacco by
• 3:28:15
  Speaker 1: the thumb of one hand working in the palm of
• 3:28:18
  Speaker 1: the other till they are thoroughly incorporated. Simple infusions of
• 3:28:23
  Speaker 1: the leaves and flowering tops are also much used for
• 3:28:26
  Speaker 1: drinking purposes by old and young in India, the alcoholic
• 3:28:31
  Speaker 1: form being a most active and dangerous intoxicant. The antiquity
• 3:28:36
  Speaker 1: of the drug is great, and it is said to
• 3:28:39
  Speaker 1: have been used in China as early as the year
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: to twenty to produce insensibility when performing operations. The Persians
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: employed it in the Middle Ages for the purpose of
• 3:28:50
  Speaker 1: exciting the pugnacity and fanaticism of the soldiers during the
• 3:28:55
  Speaker 1: wars of the Crusades. In eighteen o three, Vaisi, a
• 3:29:00
  Speaker 1: French scientist, published a memoir on hashish and attempted to
• 3:29:04
  Speaker 1: prove that it was the napenthe of Homer. There is
• 3:29:07
  Speaker 1: little doubt, however, that the use of the drug was
• 3:29:10
  Speaker 1: known to Galen Sylvestin de le See contends that the
• 3:29:15
  Speaker 1: word assassin is derived from hashashin, a name given to
• 3:29:20
  Speaker 1: a wild sect of Mohammedans who committed murder under its influence.
• 3:29:26
  Speaker 1: The Chinese herbal Rayah, which dates from about the fifth
• 3:29:30
  Speaker 1: century b c. Notices the fact that the hemp plant
• 3:29:34
  Speaker 1: is of two kinds, the one producing seeds and the
• 3:29:37
  Speaker 1: other flowers only. Herodotus states that hemp grows in Scythia,
• 3:29:42
  Speaker 1: both wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians made garments
• 3:29:47
  Speaker 1: from it, which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He
• 3:29:51
  Speaker 1: also describes how the Scythians exposed themselves, as in Abbath,
• 3:29:55
  Speaker 1: to the vapor of the seeds thrown on hot coals.
• 3:29:59
  Speaker 1: The hemp occurs in two principal forms, viz. One bang
• 3:30:04
  Speaker 1: consisting of the dried leaves and small stalks of a
• 3:30:08
  Speaker 1: dark green color, mixed with a few fruits. It has
• 3:30:11
  Speaker 1: a peculiar odor but little taste. Mixed with flour or
• 3:30:16
  Speaker 1: incorporated with sweetmeat, it is called hashish. It is also
• 3:30:20
  Speaker 1: smoked or taken infused in cold water. Two Ganja consists
• 3:30:26
  Speaker 1: of the flowering shoots of the female plant, having a
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: compound or glutenous appearance, and is brownish green in color.
• 3:30:35
  Speaker 1: Of the many curious experiences that have been written describing
• 3:30:39
  Speaker 1: the effects of hashish, perhaps the most accurate is that
• 3:30:43
  Speaker 1: given by Gautier, in which he relates his own experience
• 3:30:46
  Speaker 1: of the drug. The Orientalists, he states, have, in consequence
• 3:30:51
  Speaker 1: of the interdiction of wine, sought that species of excitement
• 3:30:56
  Speaker 1: which the Western nations derive from alcoholic drinks. He then
• 3:31:00
  Speaker 1: proceeds to state how, a few minutes after swallowing some
• 3:31:03
  Speaker 1: of the preparation, a sudden, overwhelming sensation took possession of him.
• 3:31:09
  Speaker 1: It appeared to him that his body was dissolved, and
• 3:31:12
  Speaker 1: that he had become transparent. He clearly saw in his
• 3:31:16
  Speaker 1: stomach the hashish he had swallowed, under the form of
• 3:31:20
  Speaker 1: an emerald, from which a thousand little sparks issued. His
• 3:31:24
  Speaker 1: eye lashes were lengthened out indefinitely and rolled like threads
• 3:31:30
  Speaker 1: of gold around ivory balls, which turned with inconceivable rapidity.
• 3:31:37
  Speaker 1: Around him were sparklings of precious stones of all colors,
• 3:31:41
  Speaker 1: changes eternally produced like the play of a kaleidoscope. He
• 3:31:46
  Speaker 1: every now and then saw his friends, who were around
• 3:31:49
  Speaker 1: him disfigured as half men, half plants, some having the
• 3:31:54
  Speaker 1: wings of the ostrich, which they were constantly shaking. So
• 3:31:59
  Speaker 1: strange were these that he burst into fits of laughter,
• 3:32:02
  Speaker 1: and to join in the apparent ridiculousness of the affair,
• 3:32:06
  Speaker 1: he began by throwing the cushions in the air, catching
• 3:32:10
  Speaker 1: and turning them with the rapidity of an Indian juggler.
• 3:32:14
  Speaker 1: One gentleman spoke to him in Italian, which the hashish
• 3:32:18
  Speaker 1: transposed into Spanish. After a few minutes, he recovered his
• 3:32:23
  Speaker 1: habitual calmness, without any bad effect, and only with feelings
• 3:32:27
  Speaker 1: of astonishment at what had passed. Half an hour had
• 3:32:31
  Speaker 1: scarcely elapsed before he again fell under the influence of
• 3:32:35
  Speaker 1: the drug. On this occasion, the vision was more complicated
• 3:32:39
  Speaker 1: and extraordinary. In the air, there were millions of butterflies,
• 3:32:44
  Speaker 1: confusedly luminous, shaking their wings like fans. Gigantic flowers with
• 3:32:51
  Speaker 1: galaxies of crystal. Large paeonies upon beds of gold and
• 3:32:55
  Speaker 1: silver rose and surrounded him with a crackling sound that
• 3:32:59
  Speaker 1: a companies the explosion in the air of fireworks. His
• 3:33:04
  Speaker 1: hearing acquired new power. It was enormously developed. He heard
• 3:33:09
  Speaker 1: the noise of colors green, red, blue, yellow. Sounds reached
• 3:33:14
  Speaker 1: him in waves. A glass thrown down, the creaking of
• 3:33:18
  Speaker 1: a sofa, A word pronounced low vibrated and rolled within
• 3:33:23
  Speaker 1: him like peals of thunder. His own voice sounded so
• 3:33:27
  Speaker 1: loud that he feared to speak, lest he should knock
• 3:33:30
  Speaker 1: down the walls or explode like a rocket. More than
• 3:33:35
  Speaker 1: five hundred clocks struck the hour with fleeting, silvery voice,
• 3:33:39
  Speaker 1: and every object touched gave a note like the harmonica
• 3:33:43
  Speaker 1: or the Aeolian harp. He swam in an ocean of sound,
• 3:33:48
  Speaker 1: where floated like aisles of light. Some of the airs
• 3:33:51
  Speaker 1: of Luccia di Lammimoor and the Barber of Seville never
• 3:33:56
  Speaker 1: did the similar bliss overwhelm him with its waves. He
• 3:34:00
  Speaker 1: was lost in a wilderness of sweets. He was not himself.
• 3:34:04
  Speaker 1: He was relieved from consciousness, that feeling which always pervades
• 3:34:09
  Speaker 1: the mind, and for the first time he comprehended what
• 3:34:12
  Speaker 1: might be the state of elementary beings, of angels, of souls,
• 3:34:17
  Speaker 1: separated from the body. All his system seemed infected with
• 3:34:22
  Speaker 1: the fantastic coloring in which he was plunged. Sounds, perfume,
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: light reached him only by minute rays, in the midst
• 3:34:32
  Speaker 1: of which he heard mystic currents whistling along. According to
• 3:34:37
  Speaker 1: his calculation, this state lasted about three hundred years, for
• 3:34:42
  Speaker 1: the sensations were so numerous and so hurried one upon
• 3:34:46
  Speaker 1: the other that a real appreciation of time was impossible.
• 3:34:50
  Speaker 1: The paroxysm over, he was aware that it had only
• 3:34:54
  Speaker 1: lasted a quarter of an hour. Another interesting account of
• 3:34:58
  Speaker 1: the strange hallucination produced by the drug is related by
• 3:35:03
  Speaker 1: doctor Moreau, who with two friends experimented with hashish. At first,
• 3:35:09
  Speaker 1: he states I thought my companions were less influenced by
• 3:35:13
  Speaker 1: the drug than myself. Then, as the effect increased, I
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 1: fancied that the person who had brought me the dose
• 3:35:21
  Speaker 1: had given me some of more active quality. This, I
• 3:35:25
  Speaker 1: thought to myself, was an imprudence, and the involuntary idea
• 3:35:31
  Speaker 1: presented itself that I might be poisoned. The idea became fixed.
• 3:35:36
  Speaker 1: I called out loudly to doctor Roche, you are an assassin.
• 3:35:40
  Speaker 1: You have poisoned me. This was received with shouts of
• 3:35:45
  Speaker 1: laughter and my lamentations excited mirth. I struggled for some
• 3:35:50
  Speaker 1: time against the thought, but the greater the effort, the
• 3:35:53
  Speaker 1: more completely did it overcome me, till at last it
• 3:35:57
  Speaker 1: took full possession of my mind. The extravagant conviction now
• 3:36:02
  Speaker 1: came uppermost that I was dead, and upon the point
• 3:36:06
  Speaker 1: of being buried, my soul had left my body. In
• 3:36:10
  Speaker 1: a few minutes, I had gone through all the stages
• 3:36:13
  Speaker 1: of delirium. These fixed ideas and erroneous convictions are apt
• 3:36:19
  Speaker 1: to be produced, but they only last a few seconds
• 3:36:22
  Speaker 1: unless there is any actual physical disorder. The Orientalist, when
• 3:36:27
  Speaker 1: he indulges in hashish, retires into the depth of his
• 3:36:31
  Speaker 1: harim no one is then admitted who cannot contribute to
• 3:36:35
  Speaker 1: his enjoyment. He surrounds himself with his dancing girls, who
• 3:36:40
  Speaker 1: perform their graceful evolutions before him to the sound of music. Gradually,
• 3:36:46
  Speaker 1: a new condition of the brain allows a series of
• 3:36:50
  Speaker 1: illusions arising from the external senses to present themselves. The
• 3:36:55
  Speaker 1: mind becomes overpowered by the brilliancy of gorgeous visions. Discrimination
• 3:37:01
  Speaker 1: comparison reason yield up their throne to dreams and phantoms,
• 3:37:06
  Speaker 1: which exhilarate and delight. The mind tries to understand what
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 1: is the cause of the new delight, but it is
• 3:37:15
  Speaker 1: in vain. It seems to know there is no reality.
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 1: Hardly two people experience the same effects from hashish. Upon
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 1: some it has little action, while upon others, especially women,
• 3:37:29
  Speaker 1: it exerts extraordinary power. While one person says he imagined
• 3:37:34
  Speaker 1: his body endowed with such elasticity that he fancied he
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 1: could enter into a bottle and remain there at his ease,
• 3:37:42
  Speaker 1: another fancied he had become the piston of a steam engine.
• 3:37:46
  Speaker 1: Under the influence of the drug, the ear lends itself
• 3:37:49
  Speaker 1: more to the illusion than any other sense. Its first
• 3:37:54
  Speaker 1: effect is one of intense exhilaration, almost amounting to delirium.
• 3:38:00
  Speaker 1: The power of thought is soon lost, and the victim laughs, cries,
• 3:38:04
  Speaker 1: and sings or dances, all the time imagining he is
• 3:38:09
  Speaker 1: acting rationally. The second stage is one of dreamy enjoyment,
• 3:38:14
  Speaker 1: followed by a dead stupor. Of the ordinary physical effects
• 3:38:19
  Speaker 1: of hashish, the first is a feeling of slight compression
• 3:38:23
  Speaker 1: of the temporal bones and upper parts of the head.
• 3:38:26
  Speaker 1: The respiration is gentle, the pulse is increased, and a
• 3:38:31
  Speaker 1: gentle heat is felt all over the surface of the body.
• 3:38:35
  Speaker 1: There is a sense of weight about the forepart of
• 3:38:37
  Speaker 1: the arms, and an occasional slight involuntary motion, as if
• 3:38:42
  Speaker 1: to seek relief from it. There is a feeling of
• 3:38:45
  Speaker 1: discomfort about the extremities, creating a feeling of uneasiness, and
• 3:38:50
  Speaker 1: if the dose has been too large, the usual symptoms
• 3:38:53
  Speaker 1: of poisoning by Indian hemp show themselves. Flushes of heat
• 3:38:58
  Speaker 1: seemed to ascend the head even to the brain, which
• 3:39:02
  Speaker 1: create considerable alarm. Singing in the ears is complained of.
• 3:39:08
  Speaker 1: Then comes on a state of anxiety, almost of anguish,
• 3:39:12
  Speaker 1: with a sense of constriction about the chest. The individual
• 3:39:16
  Speaker 1: fancies he hears the beating of his heart with unaccustomed loudness.
• 3:39:21
  Speaker 1: But throughout the whole period it is the nervous system
• 3:39:24
  Speaker 1: that is affected, and in this way the drug differs
• 3:39:28
  Speaker 1: materially from opium, whose action on the muscular and digestive
• 3:39:32
  Speaker 1: systems is most marked. It is somewhat remarkable that Indian
• 3:39:38
  Speaker 1: hemp fails to produce the same intoxicating effects in this
• 3:39:42
  Speaker 1: country that it does in warmer climates, and whether this
• 3:39:46
  Speaker 1: is due to the loss of some volatile principle or
• 3:39:49
  Speaker 1: difference in temperature, it is not yet determined, but would
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 1: be experimentalists in the effects of hashish would do well
• 3:39:58
  Speaker 1: to remember that it may may not be indulged in
• 3:40:01
  Speaker 1: with impunity, and most authorities agree that the brain becomes
• 3:40:06
  Speaker 1: eventually disordered with frequent indulgence in the drug. Even in India,
• 3:40:13
  Speaker 1: it further becomes weakened and incapable of separating the true
• 3:40:17
  Speaker 1: from the faults. Frequent intoxication leads to a condition of
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 1: delirium and usually of a dangerous nature. The moral nature
• 3:40:25
  Speaker 1: becomes numbed, and the victim at last becomes unfit to
• 3:40:29
  Speaker 1: pursue his ordinary avocation. It is stated by those who
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 1: have considerable experience in its use, that even during the
• 3:40:38
  Speaker 1: dream of joy, there is a consciousness that all is illusion.
• 3:40:43
  Speaker 1: There is at no period a belief that anything that
• 3:40:47
  Speaker 1: dances before the senses or plays upon the imagination is real,
• 3:40:52
  Speaker 1: and that when the mind recovers its equilibrium, it knows
• 3:40:56
  Speaker 1: that all is but a phantasm. End of Chapter seventeen,
• 3:41:03
  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen, Tobacco lore. Few perchants of the millions who
• 3:41:09
  Speaker 1: gather comfort from the herb of Fragrance are aware that
• 3:41:12
  Speaker 1: it is to Don Honandez de Tiledo we are indebted
• 3:41:16
  Speaker 1: for the introduction of tobacco into Western Europe, which he
• 3:41:20
  Speaker 1: first brought to Spain and Portugal in fifteen fifty nine.
• 3:41:24
  Speaker 1: Jean NiCoT was at this time ambassador at the Court
• 3:41:27
  Speaker 1: of Lisbon from Francis the Second, and it was he
• 3:41:30
  Speaker 1: who transmitted or carried either the seed or the plant
• 3:41:34
  Speaker 1: to Catherine de Medici, and who gave it the name Nicochiana.
• 3:41:39
  Speaker 1: Like other great personages of the time, Catherine encouraged the
• 3:41:44
  Speaker 1: homage of travelers and artists. It was considered to be
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: one of the wonders of the New World, and reported
• 3:41:50
  Speaker 1: to possess most extraordinary medicinal properties and virtues. Thirty years later,
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 1: the Cardinal Santa Croce, returning from his nunciature in Spain
• 3:42:02
  Speaker 1: and Portugal to Italy, took with him some tobacco leaves,
• 3:42:06
  Speaker 1: and we may form some idea of the enthusiasm with
• 3:42:09
  Speaker 1: which its production was hailed from a perusal of the
• 3:42:13
  Speaker 1: poetry which the subject inspired, such as the following herb
• 3:42:18
  Speaker 1: of immortal fame, which hither first with Santa Croce, came
• 3:42:23
  Speaker 1: when he his time of nunziatier expired, back from the
• 3:42:28
  Speaker 1: court of Portugal, retired even as his predecessor Great and
• 3:42:32
  Speaker 1: Good brought home the cross. The poet compares the exploit
• 3:42:37
  Speaker 1: of the cardinal with that of his progenitor, who brought
• 3:42:41
  Speaker 1: home the wood of the true Cross. The first exact
• 3:42:45
  Speaker 1: description of the plant is that given by Gonzolo Fnandesdovieto
• 3:42:50
  Speaker 1: E Valdes, governor of Santa Domingo, in his Historiaenera de
• 3:42:56
  Speaker 1: las Indis, printed at Sabella in fifteen thirty five. In
• 3:43:00
  Speaker 1: this work, the leaf is said to be smoked through
• 3:43:03
  Speaker 1: a branched tube of the shape of the letter y,
• 3:43:06
  Speaker 1: which the natives called tobacco. After the introduction of tobacco
• 3:43:11
  Speaker 1: into England, by Sir Walter Rawleigh on his return from America.
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 1: The custom of smoking the leaf became very general, and
• 3:43:20
  Speaker 1: it truly seems to have supplied a common want. It
• 3:43:23
  Speaker 1: was mostly sold by the apothecaries in their dark little shops,
• 3:43:28
  Speaker 1: and here the gallants would congregate to smoke their pipes
• 3:43:31
  Speaker 1: and gossip, while the real timidado nicotine, cane and pudding
• 3:43:37
  Speaker 1: was cut off with a silver knife on a maple
• 3:43:39
  Speaker 1: block and retailed to the customers. The pipes used in
• 3:43:44
  Speaker 1: the time of Queen Elizabeth were chiefly made of silver.
• 3:43:47
  Speaker 1: The commoner kinds consisted of a walnut shell in which
• 3:43:51
  Speaker 1: a straw was inserted, and the tobacco was sold in
• 3:43:55
  Speaker 1: the shops for its weight in silver. The celebrated counter
• 3:43:59
  Speaker 1: black ast to tobacco by King James the First describes
• 3:44:04
  Speaker 1: smoking as accustom, loathe them to the eye, hateful to
• 3:44:08
  Speaker 1: the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs,
• 3:44:13
  Speaker 1: and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the
• 3:44:17
  Speaker 1: horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless. In
• 3:44:22
  Speaker 1: sixteen o four, this monarch endeavored by means of heavy
• 3:44:26
  Speaker 1: imposts to abolish its use in this country, and in
• 3:44:30
  Speaker 1: sixteen nineteen he commanded that no planter in Virginia should
• 3:44:34
  Speaker 1: cultivate more than one hundred pounds. It is said some
• 3:44:39
  Speaker 1: spent as much as five hundred pounds a year in
• 3:44:43
  Speaker 1: the purchase of tobacco in those days. In sixteen twenty four,
• 3:44:48
  Speaker 1: Pope Urban the eighth published a decree of excommunication against
• 3:44:52
  Speaker 1: all who took snuff in the church. Ten years after this,
• 3:44:56
  Speaker 1: smoking was forbidden in Russia under pain of having the
• 3:44:59
  Speaker 1: no rose cut off, and in sixteen fifty three the
• 3:45:03
  Speaker 1: Council of the Canton of Appenzell cited smokers before them,
• 3:45:08
  Speaker 1: whom they punished, ordering all innkeepers to inform against such
• 3:45:13
  Speaker 1: as were found smoking in their houses. The police regulations
• 3:45:18
  Speaker 1: made in Bern in sixteen sixty one were divided according
• 3:45:21
  Speaker 1: to the Tin Commandments, in which the prohibition of smoking
• 3:45:25
  Speaker 1: stands after the command against adultery. This prohibition was renewed
• 3:45:31
  Speaker 1: in sixteen seventy five, and the tribunal instituted to put
• 3:45:35
  Speaker 1: it into execution viz. Chambro Tobach continued to the middle
• 3:45:40
  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century. Pope Innocent the twelfth in sixteen
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 1: ninety excommunicated all those who were found taking snuff or
• 3:45:49
  Speaker 1: tobacco in the Church of Saint Peter at Rome, and
• 3:45:52
  Speaker 1: even so late as seventeen nineteen, the Senate of Strasbourg
• 3:45:57
  Speaker 1: prohibited the cultivation of tobacco from an apprehension that it
• 3:46:01
  Speaker 1: would diminish the growth of corn. Amurath the fourth published
• 3:46:05
  Speaker 1: an edict which made smoking tobacco a capital offense, but
• 3:46:10
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding all opposition, its fascinating power has held its own.
• 3:46:16
  Speaker 1: It is believed that the tobacco plant Nicotsiana tobaccum is
• 3:46:20
  Speaker 1: a native of Tropical America, and it was found by
• 3:46:24
  Speaker 1: the Spaniards when they landed in Cuba in fourteen ninety two.
• 3:46:28
  Speaker 1: There seems little doubt that the practice of smoking the
• 3:46:31
  Speaker 1: leaf has been common among the natives of South America
• 3:46:34
  Speaker 1: from time immemorial. It is now cultivated all over the world,
• 3:46:39
  Speaker 1: but nowhere more abundantly or with better results than in
• 3:46:42
  Speaker 1: the United States. Virginia is perhaps most celebrated for its culture.
• 3:46:48
  Speaker 1: The young shoots, produced from seeds thickly sown in beds,
• 3:46:53
  Speaker 1: are transplanted into the fields during the month of May
• 3:46:56
  Speaker 1: and set in rows with an interval of three or
• 3:46:59
  Speaker 1: four feet between the plants. Through the whole period of
• 3:47:03
  Speaker 1: its growth. The crop requires constant attention till the harvest
• 3:47:07
  Speaker 1: time in the month of August. The ripe plants, having
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 1: been cut off above their roots, are dried under cover
• 3:47:14
  Speaker 1: and then stripped of their leaves, which are tied in
• 3:47:17
  Speaker 1: bundles and packed in hogsheads. While hung up in the
• 3:47:21
  Speaker 1: drying houses, they undergo a curing process consisting of exposure
• 3:47:26
  Speaker 1: to a considerable degree of heat, through which they become moist,
• 3:47:31
  Speaker 1: after which they are dried for packing. In Persia and Turkey,
• 3:47:35
  Speaker 1: a form of tobacco is sold under the name of
• 3:47:38
  Speaker 1: tumbeki for use in the water pipes or nahili, which
• 3:47:42
  Speaker 1: is said to be the product of the Nicotziana persica.
• 3:47:46
  Speaker 1: The active principle of nicotine was first isolated in eighteen
• 3:47:50
  Speaker 1: twenty eight by Pusselt and Riemen and is an almost colorless,
• 3:47:56
  Speaker 1: oily liquid of a highly poisonous nature. It soon becomes
• 3:48:00
  Speaker 1: brown on exposure to air or light. The amount present
• 3:48:05
  Speaker 1: in tobacco leaves varies considerably, but it is usually about
• 3:48:09
  Speaker 1: six per cent. It has not been met with in
• 3:48:12
  Speaker 1: tobacco smoke according to vol but the tobacco oils contain
• 3:48:17
  Speaker 1: minute proportion of nicotine. One drop of pure nicotine is
• 3:48:21
  Speaker 1: sufficient to kill a dog, while a very little more
• 3:48:24
  Speaker 1: will destroy life in a human being. It is said
• 3:48:28
  Speaker 1: to possess the property of resisting decomposition amid the decaying
• 3:48:32
  Speaker 1: tissues of the body, and was detected by orphila two
• 3:48:37
  Speaker 1: or three months after death. Foll and Eulenberg have made
• 3:48:41
  Speaker 1: an interesting investigation of tobacco smoke. The smoke analyzed was
• 3:48:45
  Speaker 1: from a tobacco containing four per cent of nicotine, but
• 3:48:49
  Speaker 1: none of the alkaloid was found in the smoke. In
• 3:48:52
  Speaker 1: the smoke of cigars, certain gases were given off and
• 3:48:56
  Speaker 1: an oily body collected, which, on distillation yielded aromatic acids.
• 3:49:02
  Speaker 1: Distilled at a temperature above boiling water, tobacco gives an
• 3:49:07
  Speaker 1: impi rheumatic oil of a poisonous nature. It exactly resembles
• 3:49:12
  Speaker 1: that which collects in the stems of tobacco pipes and
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 1: contains a small percentage of nicotine. The actual amount of
• 3:49:19
  Speaker 1: nicotine absorbed into the blood while smoking a pipe is
• 3:49:24
  Speaker 1: very minute, at least fifty percent of the entire alkaloid
• 3:49:28
  Speaker 1: being destroyed by decomposition and escaping from the bowl of
• 3:49:32
  Speaker 1: the pipe. The habitual inhalation of tobacco smoke is undoubtedly harmful,
• 3:49:38
  Speaker 1: but unless the smoke be intentionally inhaled, very little makes
• 3:49:42
  Speaker 1: its way into the lungs. A great deal of misconception
• 3:49:46
  Speaker 1: exists in the mind of the average individual as to
• 3:49:49
  Speaker 1: the power of the alkaloid of tobacco. The amount of
• 3:49:53
  Speaker 1: nicotine actually absorbed from a fair sized pipe is about
• 3:49:57
  Speaker 1: one fortieth of a grain in a cigar. Rather less
• 3:50:01
  Speaker 1: death has resulted after smoking eighteen pipes and from twenty
• 3:50:05
  Speaker 1: cigars smoked continuously. Tobacco is a powerful sedative poison used
• 3:50:12
  Speaker 1: in large quantities. It causes vertigo, stupor, faintness, and general
• 3:50:17
  Speaker 1: depression of the nervous system. It will sometimes cause excessive
• 3:50:22
  Speaker 1: nausea and wretching, with feebleness of pulse, coolness of the skin,
• 3:50:27
  Speaker 1: and occasionally convulsions, but there seems very little known as
• 3:50:31
  Speaker 1: to how these symptoms are produced. Employed to excess it
• 3:50:36
  Speaker 1: enfeebles digestion, produces emaciation and general debility, and is often
• 3:50:42
  Speaker 1: the beginning of serious nervous disorders. Be this as it may,
• 3:50:46
  Speaker 1: the moderate smoking of tobacco has in most cases even
• 3:50:50
  Speaker 1: beneficial results, and there appears little doubt that It acts
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 1: as a solace and comfort to the poor as well
• 3:50:58
  Speaker 1: as the rich, woth the restless, calms mental and corporeal
• 3:51:03
  Speaker 1: in quietude, and produces a condition of repose without a
• 3:51:07
  Speaker 1: corresponding reaction or after effect. In adults, especially those liable
• 3:51:13
  Speaker 1: to mental worry, and all brain workers, its action is
• 3:51:17
  Speaker 1: often a boon, the only danger being in overstepping the
• 3:51:21
  Speaker 1: boundary of moderation to excess. It is not suitable to
• 3:51:25
  Speaker 1: every constitution, and those who can trace to it evil
• 3:51:29
  Speaker 1: effects should not continue its use. End of Chapter eighteen,
• 3:51:37
  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen. Poison habits. There is a very peculiar property
• 3:51:43
  Speaker 1: attached to poisons, especially those possessing anodyne properties. That is,
• 3:51:49
  Speaker 1: they are capable of forming the most enslaving habits known
• 3:51:52
  Speaker 1: to mankind. Thousands of people today are enchained in the
• 3:51:57
  Speaker 1: slavery of the poison habit in one form or another,
• 3:52:01
  Speaker 1: and very few are ever successful in resting themselves free.
• 3:52:05
  Speaker 1: When once it has been contracted, the habit is formed
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 1: in the most insidious manner. Often in the first instance,
• 3:52:13
  Speaker 1: some narcotic drug is recommended to relieve pain or induce
• 3:52:17
  Speaker 1: sleep in a short time, the original dose fails to
• 3:52:21
  Speaker 1: produce the desired effect. It has to be increased, and
• 3:52:24
  Speaker 1: afterwards still further increased, until the victim finds he cannot
• 3:52:29
  Speaker 1: do without it, and a terrible craving for the drug
• 3:52:32
  Speaker 1: is created by and by the stupefying action affects the brain,
• 3:52:37
  Speaker 1: The moral character suffers, and the unfortunate being is at
• 3:52:41
  Speaker 1: last ready to do anything to obtain a supply of
• 3:52:44
  Speaker 1: the drug that is now his master. This is not
• 3:52:49
  Speaker 1: an overdrawn picture, but one of which instances are constantly
• 3:52:53
  Speaker 1: to be met. With. The enslaving habit of alcohol, when
• 3:52:56
  Speaker 1: once contracted, is too well known to need description. Opium
• 3:53:01
  Speaker 1: comes next in the point of influence it exerts over
• 3:53:04
  Speaker 1: its victims, and a very small percentage ever free themselves
• 3:53:09
  Speaker 1: from the habit when it is once contracted. In most
• 3:53:13
  Speaker 1: instances it is taken in the first place to relieve
• 3:53:16
  Speaker 1: some severe pain, as in de Quincey's case. He says
• 3:53:20
  Speaker 1: in his Confessions of an Opium Eater, it was not
• 3:53:24
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of creating pleasure, but of mitigating pain.
• 3:53:27
  Speaker 1: In the severest degree that I first began to use
• 3:53:31
  Speaker 1: opium as an article of daily diet. Like others, he
• 3:53:36
  Speaker 1: was compelled to increase the dose gradually until at last
• 3:53:40
  Speaker 1: he consumed the enormous quantity of three hundred and twenty
• 3:53:43
  Speaker 1: grains of the drug a day. He graphically describes the struggle.
• 3:53:48
  Speaker 1: He first had to reduce the daily dose and found
• 3:53:52
  Speaker 1: that to a certain point it could be reduced with ease,
• 3:53:55
  Speaker 1: but after that point further reduction caused intense suffering. However,
• 3:54:01
  Speaker 1: a crisis arrived, and he writes, I saw that I
• 3:54:04
  Speaker 1: must die if I continued the opium. I determined, therefore,
• 3:54:09
  Speaker 1: if that should be required to die in throwing it off,
• 3:54:14
  Speaker 1: I apprehend at this time I was taking from fifty
• 3:54:17
  Speaker 1: or sixty grains to one hundred and fifty grains a day.
• 3:54:21
  Speaker 1: My first task was to reduce it to forty to thirty,
• 3:54:25
  Speaker 1: and as fast as I could to twelve grains. I triumphed,
• 3:54:30
  Speaker 1: But think not my sufferings were ended. Think of me
• 3:54:34
  Speaker 1: as one, even when four months had passed, still agitated, writhing, throbbing, palpitating, shattered,
• 3:54:43
  Speaker 1: and much perhaps in the situation of him who has
• 3:54:47
  Speaker 1: been racked. Other cases are commonly met with in this country,
• 3:54:51
  Speaker 1: where opium eaters take on an average from sixty to
• 3:54:55
  Speaker 1: eighty grains of the drug a day. The smallest quantity
• 3:55:00
  Speaker 1: which has proved fatal in the adult is for and
• 3:55:02
  Speaker 1: a half grains. In other cases, enormous quantities have been
• 3:55:06
  Speaker 1: taken with impunity, and Guie states recovery once took place
• 3:55:11
  Speaker 1: after no less than eight ounces of solid opium had
• 3:55:15
  Speaker 1: been swallowed. Morphine, the chief alkaloid of opium, is also
• 3:55:20
  Speaker 1: abused by many and is swallowed as well as used
• 3:55:23
  Speaker 1: by injection under the skin. Its action is very similar
• 3:55:28
  Speaker 1: to that of opium. It has been recently given on
• 3:55:31
  Speaker 1: good authority that in Chicago, that city of hurrying men
• 3:55:35
  Speaker 1: and restless women, over thirty five thousand persons habitually take
• 3:55:40
  Speaker 1: subcutaneous injections of morphine to save themselves from the pains
• 3:55:45
  Speaker 1: and terrors of neuralgia, insomnia, and nervousness, et cetera. To
• 3:55:51
  Speaker 1: a delicate woman, one grain of this drug has proved fatal,
• 3:55:54
  Speaker 1: yet under the influence of habit, a young lady has
• 3:55:58
  Speaker 1: been known to take from fifteen to twenty grains a day.
• 3:56:02
  Speaker 1: A man in a good position and head of a
• 3:56:05
  Speaker 1: large commercial house, contracted the habit of taking morphine from
• 3:56:09
  Speaker 1: a prescription he had had given to him containing four
• 3:56:13
  Speaker 1: grains of the drug as the habit grew, He would
• 3:56:17
  Speaker 1: have the medicine prepared by four different chemists daily and
• 3:56:21
  Speaker 1: swallow the contents of each bottle for a dose, until
• 3:56:24
  Speaker 1: he took on an average over twenty four grains a day.
• 3:56:29
  Speaker 1: This being put a stop to by his friends, he
• 3:56:32
  Speaker 1: commenced to take chloroform, which he would purchase in small
• 3:56:36
  Speaker 1: quantities until he had collected a bottleful, and then he
• 3:56:40
  Speaker 1: would drink it, usually mixed with whiskey. He eventually had
• 3:56:44
  Speaker 1: to be placed under restraint. Chloroform is not often taken habitually,
• 3:56:50
  Speaker 1: but several instances have been met with where as much
• 3:56:53
  Speaker 1: as two ounces have been swallowed by a man. The effects,
• 3:56:57
  Speaker 1: when taken by the mouth are similar to those which
• 3:57:00
  Speaker 1: follow its inhalation. Chlorodyne, which generally contains both morphine and
• 3:57:06
  Speaker 1: prussic acid in its composition, is also much abused, especially
• 3:57:11
  Speaker 1: by women. Some women have been known to consume two
• 3:57:15
  Speaker 1: ounces a week of this preparation. Cocaine, an active principle
• 3:57:20
  Speaker 1: of the erythroxylum Coca, is capable of exciting a powerful
• 3:57:25
  Speaker 1: craving which apparently holds its victims in a grip of
• 3:57:28
  Speaker 1: iron until they are willing to spend any amount of
• 3:57:32
  Speaker 1: money in obtaining the drug. Arsenic eating is a habit
• 3:57:36
  Speaker 1: fortunately rare in this country, although cases have been met
• 3:57:40
  Speaker 1: with in which women have gradually become addicted to taking
• 3:57:44
  Speaker 1: large quantities for improving their complexions. The peasants in some
• 3:57:49
  Speaker 1: parts of Styria and Hungary have long been known to
• 3:57:52
  Speaker 1: eat arsenic, taking it is said from two to five
• 3:57:56
  Speaker 1: grains daily, the men doing so in order that they
• 3:57:59
  Speaker 1: may gain st strength and be able to endure fatigue,
• 3:58:03
  Speaker 1: and the women that they may improve their complexions. Doctor
• 3:58:07
  Speaker 1: McLaughlin of Edinburgh dates he saw Astyrian eat a piece
• 3:58:11
  Speaker 1: of arcinious acid weighing over four grains. Sleeplessness is a
• 3:58:18
  Speaker 1: frequent cause of the formation of a poison habit, and
• 3:58:21
  Speaker 1: for this purpose chlorohydrate perhaps is capable of producing more
• 3:58:26
  Speaker 1: serious results than any other drug of its class. The
• 3:58:30
  Speaker 1: fact that it accumulates in the system, and that the
• 3:58:33
  Speaker 1: dose needs constantly to be increased, always renders its use
• 3:58:38
  Speaker 1: dangerous in unskilled hands. Many gifted men have fallen victims
• 3:58:43
  Speaker 1: to the habit, Among others Dante Rosetti, who seldom was
• 3:58:47
  Speaker 1: without a bottle of the narcotic near him. Latterly sulfonol,
• 3:58:52
  Speaker 1: a drug derived from coal tar possessing hypnotic properties, has
• 3:58:57
  Speaker 1: been largely taken, and antipiet irene, now a popular remedy
• 3:59:02
  Speaker 1: for headache, is capable of forming a pernicious and dangerous habit.
• 3:59:07
  Speaker 1: The practice of self dosing with drugs of this description
• 3:59:10
  Speaker 1: cannot be too strongly deprecated. Some people form a curious
• 3:59:15
  Speaker 1: habit of taking one drug till at last they become
• 3:59:19
  Speaker 1: imbued with the idea that that only and nothing else,
• 3:59:22
  Speaker 1: will have any effect on them. The only remedy Carlyle
• 3:59:26
  Speaker 1: would ever take, according to the late Sir Richard Quaine,
• 3:59:30
  Speaker 1: who was his medical adviser, was gray powder. Gray Powder
• 3:59:35
  Speaker 1: was his favorite remedy when he had that wretched dyspepsia
• 3:59:39
  Speaker 1: from which he suffered, and which was fully accounted for
• 3:59:42
  Speaker 1: by the fact that he was particularly fond of very
• 3:59:46
  Speaker 1: nasty gingerbread. Many times I have seen him sitting in
• 3:59:50
  Speaker 1: the chimney corner, smoking a clay pipe and eating this gingerbread.
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 1: Oliver Goldsmith also labored under the confirmed belief that the
• 3:59:59
  Speaker 1: only edison that would have any effect on him was
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 1: James powder. He doctored himself with this favorite nostrum whenever
• 4:00:08
  Speaker 1: he felt unwell and believed it to be a cure
• 4:00:12
  Speaker 1: for all ills. According to a West End physician, quite
• 4:00:17
  Speaker 1: a new and most reprehensible vice has recently become fashionable, viz.
• 4:00:22
  Speaker 1: A crage that has arisen among women for smoking green
• 4:00:26
  Speaker 1: tea in the form of cigarettes. Though adopted by some
• 4:00:30
  Speaker 1: fair ladies merely as a past time, not a few
• 4:00:33
  Speaker 1: of its votaries are women of high education and mental attainments.
• 4:00:38
  Speaker 1: Among my patients, he states, suffering from extreme nervousness and insomnia,
• 4:00:44
  Speaker 1: is a young lady highly distinguished at Girton. Another is
• 4:00:48
  Speaker 1: a lady novelist, whose books are widely read, and who
• 4:00:52
  Speaker 1: habitually smoked twenty or thirty of these cigarettes nightly when
• 4:00:56
  Speaker 1: writing for their stimulating effect. Though tea does not contain
• 4:01:02
  Speaker 1: a trace of any poisonous principle, it can, when thus misused,
• 4:01:07
  Speaker 1: exert a most harmful influence. Doubtless, the high pressure at
• 4:01:11
  Speaker 1: which most of the dwellers in our great cities now live,
• 4:01:14
  Speaker 1: and the worry of too much brain work on one hand,
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 1: or the lack of occupation on the other, is one
• 4:01:21
  Speaker 1: of the chief causes of taking up habits of this kind,
• 4:01:25
  Speaker 1: one of the best remedies, and one which it is
• 4:01:28
  Speaker 1: to be hoped will eventually come to pass, is that
• 4:01:31
  Speaker 1: the legislature should render poisons less easy of purchase by
• 4:01:36
  Speaker 1: restricting the sale of every drug or compound in the
• 4:01:39
  Speaker 1: nature of a poison to the properly qualified chemist, who,
• 4:01:43
  Speaker 1: by his training and special knowledge, is alone competent to
• 4:01:47
  Speaker 1: sell these substances. Incalculable harm is done by habits such
• 4:01:52
  Speaker 1: as we have alluded to, and it is better often
• 4:01:56
  Speaker 1: to endure pain and torment than to fly constantly to what,
• 4:02:00
  Speaker 1: in the end will only inflict worse punishment. End of
• 4:02:06
  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty. Poisons in fiction from a very
• 4:02:13
  Speaker 1: early period, poisoning mysteries have been woven into romance and story,
• 4:02:18
  Speaker 1: and in later times have been a favorite theme for
• 4:02:22
  Speaker 1: both novelist and dramatist. But unfortunately, the scientific knowledge of
• 4:02:27
  Speaker 1: writers of fiction as a rule is of a very
• 4:02:30
  Speaker 1: limited description, and the effects attributed by them to certain
• 4:02:35
  Speaker 1: drugs are usually as fabulous as the romances of the
• 4:02:38
  Speaker 1: olden times. They tell us of mysterious poisons of untold
• 4:02:43
  Speaker 1: power and infinitesimal quantity, of which will cause instantaneous death
• 4:02:48
  Speaker 1: without leaving a trace behind. They describe anesthetic so powerful
• 4:02:54
  Speaker 1: that a whiff from a bottle is sufficient to produce
• 4:02:56
  Speaker 1: immediate insensibility for any period design. In fact, the novelist
• 4:03:02
  Speaker 1: has a pharmacopeia of his own. After all, why should
• 4:03:06
  Speaker 1: we question our cavil and wish to analyze it in
• 4:03:09
  Speaker 1: the prosaic test tube of modern science. For take away
• 4:03:13
  Speaker 1: the marvels and mysteries, and you kill the romance. The
• 4:03:18
  Speaker 1: novel performs its mission if it succeeds in interesting and
• 4:03:21
  Speaker 1: amusing us. And the story teller has accomplished the object
• 4:03:25
  Speaker 1: of his art when he is successful in weaving the
• 4:03:28
  Speaker 1: possible with the impossible, so that we can scarce perceive it.
• 4:03:34
  Speaker 1: That master of fiction Dumas gives us an instance of
• 4:03:38
  Speaker 1: this in his wonderfully fascinating Adventures of the Count of
• 4:03:41
  Speaker 1: Monte Cristo. Nothing seems impossible to this extraordinary individual. An
• 4:03:47
  Speaker 1: incident after incident of the most romantic and exciting nature
• 4:03:52
  Speaker 1: crowd one upon another throughout the story, yet so beautifully
• 4:03:56
  Speaker 1: blended by the wonderful imagination of the author that it
• 4:04:00
  Speaker 1: enthralls us to the end. The Count, who is supposed
• 4:04:04
  Speaker 1: to have studied the art of medicine in the East,
• 4:04:07
  Speaker 1: has always a remedy at hand for every emergency from Hashish,
• 4:04:11
  Speaker 1: in which he is a profound believer, to his mysterious
• 4:04:15
  Speaker 1: stimulating elixir, described as of the color of blood, preserved
• 4:04:21
  Speaker 1: in a file of Bohemian glass. A single drop of
• 4:04:25
  Speaker 1: this marvelous fluid, if allowed to fall on the lips,
• 4:04:29
  Speaker 1: will almost before it reaches them, restore the marble and
• 4:04:33
  Speaker 1: inanimate form to life. His pill boxes were composed of
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 1: emeralds and precious stones of huge size, and their contents
• 4:04:42
  Speaker 1: consisted of drugs whose effects were beyond conception. His knowledge
• 4:04:48
  Speaker 1: of chemistry and toxicology is equally astonishing, as instanced in
• 4:04:54
  Speaker 1: the conversation he holds with Madame de Villefort, who, for
• 4:04:59
  Speaker 1: nefarious par purposes, desires to improve her knowledge of poisons.
• 4:05:04
  Speaker 1: Monte Cristo discourses on the poisonous properties of brussine, a
• 4:05:08
  Speaker 1: drug rarely used in England but largely used in France. Suppose,
• 4:05:14
  Speaker 1: says the count, you were to take a milligram of
• 4:05:17
  Speaker 1: this poison the first day, two milligrams the second day,
• 4:05:20
  Speaker 1: and so on. Well, at the end of ten days,
• 4:05:24
  Speaker 1: you would have taken a centigram. At the end of
• 4:05:27
  Speaker 1: twenty days, increasing another miligram, you would have taken three
• 4:05:32
  Speaker 1: hundred centigrams, that is to say, a dose you would
• 4:05:35
  Speaker 1: support without inconvenience, and which would be very dangerous for
• 4:05:40
  Speaker 1: any other person who had not taken the same precautions
• 4:05:43
  Speaker 1: as yourself. Well, then, at the end of a month,
• 4:05:47
  Speaker 1: when drinking water from the same carafe, you would kill
• 4:05:51
  Speaker 1: the person who had drunk this water without your perceiving
• 4:05:55
  Speaker 1: otherwise than from slight inconvenience, that there was any poison
• 4:06:00
  Speaker 1: a substance mingled with the water. The count thus explains
• 4:06:04
  Speaker 1: the doctrine of immunity from a poison by accustoming the
• 4:06:09
  Speaker 1: system to its effect in small doses for a length
• 4:06:12
  Speaker 1: of time, a process which is actually possible with some drugs,
• 4:06:16
  Speaker 1: but not withal. His satirical description of the bungling of
• 4:06:21
  Speaker 1: the common poisoner as compared to the fine, subtlety, and
• 4:06:26
  Speaker 1: cunning he advocates, is also worth quoting. Amongst us, a
• 4:06:30
  Speaker 1: simpleton possessed by the demon of hate or cupidity, who
• 4:06:35
  Speaker 1: has an enemy to destroy or some near relation to
• 4:06:38
  Speaker 1: dispose of, goes straight to the grocers or druggists, gives
• 4:06:42
  Speaker 1: a false name which leads more easily to his detection
• 4:06:46
  Speaker 1: than is real one, and purchases under a pretext that
• 4:06:50
  Speaker 1: the rats prevent him from sleeping five or six pennyworth
• 4:06:54
  Speaker 1: of arsenic. If he is really a cunning fellow, he
• 4:06:57
  Speaker 1: goes to five or six different druggist orgs grocers, and
• 4:07:01
  Speaker 1: thereby becomes only five or six times more easily traced. Then,
• 4:07:06
  Speaker 1: when he has acquired his specific he administers duly to
• 4:07:10
  Speaker 1: his enemy or near kinsman a dose of arsenic which
• 4:07:14
  Speaker 1: would make a mammoth or mastodon burst, and which without
• 4:07:18
  Speaker 1: rhyme or reason, makes his victim utter groans which alarm
• 4:07:23
  Speaker 1: the whole neighborhood. Then arrive a crowd of policemen and constables.
• 4:07:28
  Speaker 1: They fetch a doctor who opens the dead body and
• 4:07:32
  Speaker 1: collects from the entrails and stomach a quantity of arsenic
• 4:07:35
  Speaker 1: in a spoon. Next day a hundred newspapers relate the
• 4:07:40
  Speaker 1: fact with the names of the victim and the murderer.
• 4:07:44
  Speaker 1: The same evening, the grocer or grocers, druggists or druggists
• 4:07:48
  Speaker 1: come and say, it is I who sold the arsenic
• 4:07:52
  Speaker 1: to the gentleman accused, And rather than not recognize the
• 4:07:56
  Speaker 1: guilty purchaser, they will recognize twenty. Then the foolish criminal
• 4:08:01
  Speaker 1: is taken, imprisoned, interrogated, confronted, confounded, condemned, and cut off
• 4:08:08
  Speaker 1: by hemp or steel, or if she be a woman
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 1: of any consideration, they lock her up for life. This
• 4:08:17
  Speaker 1: is the way in which you Northerners understand chemistry. And
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 1: so he endeavors to incite a woman who is already
• 4:08:25
  Speaker 1: anxiously contemplating a series of terrible crimes. The recital of
• 4:08:31
  Speaker 1: the ingenious experiments of the Abbe Adelmonte is a piece
• 4:08:35
  Speaker 1: of clever construction. As the quotation will show, the Abbe
• 4:08:40
  Speaker 1: said Monte Cristo had a remarkably fine garden, full of vegetables,
• 4:08:45
  Speaker 1: flowers and fruit. From amongst these vegetables, he selected the
• 4:08:49
  Speaker 1: most simple, a cabbage, for instance. For three days he
• 4:08:54
  Speaker 1: watered this cabbage with a distillation of arsenic. On the
• 4:08:58
  Speaker 1: third the cabbage began to roup and turn yellow. At
• 4:09:02
  Speaker 1: that moment he cut it. In the eyes of everybody,
• 4:09:05
  Speaker 1: it seemed fit for table and preserved its wholesome appearance.
• 4:09:09
  Speaker 1: It was only poisoned to the Abbe Adlumont. He then
• 4:09:13
  Speaker 1: took the cabbage to the room where he had rabbits.
• 4:09:16
  Speaker 1: For the Abbe Ademont had a collection of rabbits, cats,
• 4:09:20
  Speaker 1: and guinea pigs equally fine as his collection of vegetables,
• 4:09:24
  Speaker 1: flowers and fruit. Well, the abbe Adeumont took a rabbit
• 4:09:28
  Speaker 1: and made it eat a leaf of the cabbage. The
• 4:09:31
  Speaker 1: rabbit died. What magistrate would find or even venture to
• 4:09:35
  Speaker 1: insinuate anything against this? What procureur du Roi has ever
• 4:09:41
  Speaker 1: ventured to draw up an accusation against Monsieur Margendi or
• 4:09:46
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Floriennes in consequence of the rabbits, cats and guinea
• 4:09:50
  Speaker 1: pigs they have killed not one? So then the rabbit dies,
• 4:09:56
  Speaker 1: and justice takes no notice. This rabbit dead, the abbe
• 4:10:00
  Speaker 1: Adlumont has its entrails taken out by his cook and
• 4:10:04
  Speaker 1: thrown on the dunghill. On this dunghill was a hen
• 4:10:08
  Speaker 1: who pecking these intestines, was in her turn taken ill
• 4:10:12
  Speaker 1: and dies. Next day. At the moment when she was
• 4:10:16
  Speaker 1: struggling in the convulsions of death, a vulture was flying by.
• 4:10:20
  Speaker 1: There are a good many vultures in Adelmont's country. This
• 4:10:24
  Speaker 1: bird darts on the dead bird and carries it away
• 4:10:27
  Speaker 1: to a rock, where it dines off its prey. Three
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 1: days afterwards, this poor vulture who has been very much
• 4:10:35
  Speaker 1: indisposed since that dinner, feels very giddy suddenly whilst flying
• 4:10:40
  Speaker 1: aloft in the clouds, and falls heavily into a fish pond.
• 4:10:45
  Speaker 1: The pike, eels and carp eat greedily always, as everybody knows,
• 4:10:50
  Speaker 1: while they feast on the vulture. Well, suppose the next
• 4:10:55
  Speaker 1: day one of these eels, or pike or carp is
• 4:10:58
  Speaker 1: served at your table poison, and as they are to
• 4:11:01
  Speaker 1: the third generation, well, then your guest will be poisoned
• 4:11:05
  Speaker 1: in the fifth generation and die at the end of
• 4:11:09
  Speaker 1: eight or ten days of pains in the intestines, sickness,
• 4:11:13
  Speaker 1: or abscess of the pelorus. The doctors open the body
• 4:11:17
  Speaker 1: and say, with an air of profound learning, the subject
• 4:11:20
  Speaker 1: has died of a tumor on the liver or typhoid fever.
• 4:11:25
  Speaker 1: After attempting to kill half the household with brucine, Madame
• 4:11:30
  Speaker 1: de Villefort changes her particular poison for a simple narcotic,
• 4:11:34
  Speaker 1: recognized by Monte Cristo, who, in this instance frustrates the
• 4:11:39
  Speaker 1: murderer as being dissolved in alcohol. The name of the
• 4:11:43
  Speaker 1: latter poison is not told us by the novelist, but
• 4:11:46
  Speaker 1: on the doctor's examination of the suspected liquid. We read
• 4:11:50
  Speaker 1: he took from its silver case a small bottle of
• 4:11:53
  Speaker 1: nitric acid, dropped a little of it into the liquor,
• 4:11:57
  Speaker 1: which immediately changed to a blood red color. Perhaps the
• 4:12:02
  Speaker 1: most curious method of poisoning ever used in fiction is
• 4:12:06
  Speaker 1: that introduced by the late mister James Paine in his
• 4:12:09
  Speaker 1: novel Halves. The poisoner uses finely chopped horsehair as a
• 4:12:15
  Speaker 1: medium for getting rid of her niece. In this way,
• 4:12:18
  Speaker 1: she brings on a disease which puzzles the doctor until
• 4:12:22
  Speaker 1: one day he comes across the would be murderess pulling
• 4:12:25
  Speaker 1: the horsehair out of the drawing room sofa, which causes
• 4:12:28
  Speaker 1: him to suspect her. At once. This ingenious lady introduced
• 4:12:33
  Speaker 1: the chopped horsehair into the pepper pot used by her victim.
• 4:12:38
  Speaker 1: The inimitable Count Fosco, whom Wilkie Collins introduces into The
• 4:12:43
  Speaker 1: Woman in White, was supposed to possess a remarkable knowledge
• 4:12:47
  Speaker 1: of chemistry, although he says only twice did I call
• 4:12:51
  Speaker 1: science to my aid. In working out his plot to
• 4:12:54
  Speaker 1: abduct Lady Glyde, his media were simple, a medicated glass
• 4:12:59
  Speaker 1: of water and a medicated bottle of smelling salts relieved
• 4:13:04
  Speaker 1: her of all further embarrassment and alarm. This genial villain
• 4:13:09
  Speaker 1: waxes eloquent on the science of chemistry. In his confession. Chemistry,
• 4:13:14
  Speaker 1: he exclaims, has always had irresistible attractions for me from
• 4:13:19
  Speaker 1: the enormous, the illimitable power which the knowledge of it confers. Chemists,
• 4:13:25
  Speaker 1: I asserted emphatically, might sway if they pleased, the destinies
• 4:13:30
  Speaker 1: of humanity. Mind, they say rules the world, But what
• 4:13:36
  Speaker 1: rules the mind? The body? Now follow me closely. Here
• 4:13:40
  Speaker 1: lies at the mercy of the most omnipotent of all potentates,
• 4:13:44
  Speaker 1: the chemist. Give me foscal chemistry. And when Shakespeare has
• 4:13:50
  Speaker 1: conceived Hamlet and sits down to execute the conception, with
• 4:13:54
  Speaker 1: a few grains of powder dropped into his daily food,
• 4:13:58
  Speaker 1: I will reduce his mind by the action of his body,
• 4:14:01
  Speaker 1: till his pen pours out the most abject drivel that
• 4:14:05
  Speaker 1: has ever degraded paper. Under similar circumstances, revive me the
• 4:14:11
  Speaker 1: illustrious Newton. I guarantee that when he sees the apple fall,
• 4:14:15
  Speaker 1: he shall eat it. Instead of discovering the principle of gravitation,
• 4:14:20
  Speaker 1: Nero's dinner shall transform Nero into the mildest of men
• 4:14:24
  Speaker 1: before he has done digesting it, And the morning draft
• 4:14:28
  Speaker 1: of Alexander the Great shall make Alexander run for his
• 4:14:32
  Speaker 1: life at the first sight of the enemy the same afternoon,
• 4:14:36
  Speaker 1: on my sacred word of honor. It is lucky for
• 4:14:40
  Speaker 1: society that modern chemists are, by incomprehensible good fortune, the
• 4:14:45
  Speaker 1: most harmless of mankind. The mass are worthy fathers of
• 4:14:50
  Speaker 1: families who keep shops. The few are philosophers besotted with
• 4:14:55
  Speaker 1: admiration for the sound of their own lecturing voices, visionaries
• 4:15:00
  Speaker 1: who waste their lives on fantastic impossibilities, or quacks whose
• 4:15:05
  Speaker 1: ambition soars no higher than our corns. In Armadale, the
• 4:15:11
  Speaker 1: same novelist introduces us to a poisoner of the deepest
• 4:15:15
  Speaker 1: dye in the persons of Miss Gwilt. This fair damsel,
• 4:15:19
  Speaker 1: whose auburn locks seemed to have possessed an irresistible attraction
• 4:15:24
  Speaker 1: for the opposite sex, was addicted to taking laudanum to
• 4:15:28
  Speaker 1: soothe her troubled nerves, and first tried to mix a
• 4:15:31
  Speaker 1: dose with some lemonade she had prepared for her husband's
• 4:15:35
  Speaker 1: namesake and friend, whom she wished out of the way
• 4:15:39
  Speaker 1: this attempt failing, and a second one to scuttle a
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 1: yacht in which he was sailing, proving futile also. He
• 4:15:46
  Speaker 1: was finally lured to a sanatorium in London, where she
• 4:15:50
  Speaker 1: had arranged for him to be placed to sleep in
• 4:15:53
  Speaker 1: a room into which a poisonous gas, presumably carbonic acid,
• 4:15:58
  Speaker 1: was to be passed. At the last moment, she discovers
• 4:16:02
  Speaker 1: her husband has taken the place of her victim, and
• 4:16:06
  Speaker 1: in a revulsion of feeling, she rescues him and ends
• 4:16:09
  Speaker 1: her own life instead in the poisoned chamber. According to
• 4:16:14
  Speaker 1: the story, the medical investigation which followed this tragedy ended
• 4:16:19
  Speaker 1: in discovering that she had died of apoplexy, a fact
• 4:16:23
  Speaker 1: which had it occurred in real life, would not have
• 4:16:26
  Speaker 1: redounded to the credit of the medical men who conducted it.
• 4:16:30
  Speaker 1: The heroine of mister Benson's novel The Rubicon poisons herself
• 4:16:35
  Speaker 1: with prussic acid of unheard of strength, which she discovers
• 4:16:40
  Speaker 1: among some photographic chemicals on the stage. Poisoning has gone
• 4:16:45
  Speaker 1: somewhat out of fashion with modern dramatists, although it was
• 4:16:49
  Speaker 1: a common thing in years gone by for the villain
• 4:16:52
  Speaker 1: of the play to swallow a cup of cold poison
• 4:16:55
  Speaker 1: in the last act, and after several dying speeches to false,
• 4:17:00
  Speaker 1: suddenly flat on his back and die to slow music.
• 4:17:04
  Speaker 1: The death of Cleopatra, described by Shakespeare as resulting from
• 4:17:09
  Speaker 1: the bite of a venomous snake, is like no clinical
• 4:17:12
  Speaker 1: description of the final effects of death from the bite
• 4:17:15
  Speaker 1: of any known snake. Beverly, in The Gamester takes a
• 4:17:20
  Speaker 1: dose a strong poison in the fifth act, and afterwards
• 4:17:23
  Speaker 1: makes several fairly long speeches before he apparently feels the
• 4:17:28
  Speaker 1: effects and finally succumbs. The description of the death of Juliet,
• 4:17:33
  Speaker 1: which Shakespeare, in all probability conceived from reading the effects
• 4:17:38
  Speaker 1: that follow the drinking of morion or mandragora wine, is
• 4:17:42
  Speaker 1: an accurate description of death from that drug. The use
• 4:17:46
  Speaker 1: of this anodyne preparation to deadened pain dates from ancient times,
• 4:17:51
  Speaker 1: and it is stated it was a common practice for
• 4:17:54
  Speaker 1: women to administer it to those about to suffer the
• 4:17:57
  Speaker 1: penalty of the law by being ducified. We have another
• 4:18:02
  Speaker 1: instance of the fabulous effects ascribed to poisons by the
• 4:18:05
  Speaker 1: early playwrights. In Messenger's play The Duke of Milan Francisco
• 4:18:11
  Speaker 1: dusts over a plant some poisonous powder and hands it
• 4:18:15
  Speaker 1: to Eugenia. Ludovico approaches and kisses the lady's hand but twice,
• 4:18:21
  Speaker 1: and then dies from the effects of the poison. Miss
• 4:18:25
  Speaker 1: Helen Mathers, in one of her recent works viz. The
• 4:18:29
  Speaker 1: Sin of Hagar, a story warranted to thrill the soul
• 4:18:33
  Speaker 1: of Sweet seventeen, makes some extraordinary discoveries which will be
• 4:18:38
  Speaker 1: new to chemists. For instance, she tells us of strychnine
• 4:18:42
  Speaker 1: that actually discolors a glass of whiskin water. One of
• 4:18:46
  Speaker 1: the characters of Frisky Old Dowager professes to be an
• 4:18:50
  Speaker 1: amateur chemist, and this lady, we are gravely informed by
• 4:18:54
  Speaker 1: the novelist, detects the presence of the strychnine in the
• 4:18:58
  Speaker 1: glass of whisky and water at a sad glance. But
• 4:19:02
  Speaker 1: Miss Mathers has still other poison whose properties will doubtless
• 4:19:06
  Speaker 1: be a revelation to scientists. And it is with this
• 4:19:09
  Speaker 1: marvelous body the double dyed villainous of the story puts
• 4:19:14
  Speaker 1: an end to her woes. For convenience, she carries it
• 4:19:18
  Speaker 1: about with her, concealed in a ring, and when at
• 4:19:21
  Speaker 1: last she decides on committing suicide, we are told she
• 4:19:25
  Speaker 1: simply placed the ring to her lips. A strange odor
• 4:19:29
  Speaker 1: spread through the room, and she instantly lay dead. Sufficient
• 4:19:34
  Speaker 1: eccentricities of this kind in fiction might be enumerated to
• 4:19:39
  Speaker 1: fill a volume, but we must forbear it is perhaps
• 4:19:43
  Speaker 1: hardly necessary to state that the lady novelist is the
• 4:19:47
  Speaker 1: greatest sinner in this respect, and stranger poisons are evolved
• 4:19:51
  Speaker 1: from her fertile brain than were ever known to man.
• 4:19:56
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty, Chapter twenty q one the Lambeth
• 4:20:01
  Speaker 1: poison Mysteries. Towards the close of the year eighteen ninety
• 4:20:07
  Speaker 1: one and the early part of eighteen ninety two, public
• 4:20:10
  Speaker 1: interest was excited by the mysterious deaths of several young
• 4:20:15
  Speaker 1: women of the unfortunate class residing in the neighborhood of Lambeth.
• 4:20:21
  Speaker 1: The first case was that of a girl named Matilda Clover,
• 4:20:25
  Speaker 1: who lived in Lambeth Road. On the night of October twenty,
• 4:20:28
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety one, she spent the evening at a music
• 4:20:32
  Speaker 1: hall in company with a man, who returned with her
• 4:20:35
  Speaker 1: to her lodgings about nine o'clock. Shortly afterwards, she was
• 4:20:40
  Speaker 1: seen to go out alone, and she purchased some bottled beer,
• 4:20:44
  Speaker 1: which she carried to her rooms. After a little time,
• 4:20:48
  Speaker 1: the man left the house. At three o'clock in the morning,
• 4:20:52
  Speaker 1: the inmates of the house were aroused by the screams
• 4:20:55
  Speaker 1: of a woman and on the landlady entering Matilda Clover's room,
• 4:21:00
  Speaker 1: whom she found the unfortunate girl lying across the bed
• 4:21:04
  Speaker 1: in the greatest agony. Medical aid was sent for, and
• 4:21:08
  Speaker 1: the assistant of a neighboring doctor saw the girl and
• 4:21:12
  Speaker 1: judged she was suffering from the effects of drink. He
• 4:21:16
  Speaker 1: prescribed a sedative mixture, but the girl got worse and
• 4:21:20
  Speaker 1: after a further convulsion, died on the following morning. The
• 4:21:25
  Speaker 1: medical man, whose assistant had seen her the previous night,
• 4:21:30
  Speaker 1: gave a certificate that death was due to delirium, tremens
• 4:21:34
  Speaker 1: and syncope, and Matilda Clover was buried at Tooting. A
• 4:21:40
  Speaker 1: few weeks afterwards, a woman called Ellen Donworth, who resided
• 4:21:44
  Speaker 1: in Duke Street, Westminster Bridge Road, is stated to have
• 4:21:48
  Speaker 1: received a letter in consequence of which she went out
• 4:21:52
  Speaker 1: between six and seven in the evening. About eight o'clock,
• 4:21:56
  Speaker 1: she was found in Waterloo Road in great agony and
• 4:22:00
  Speaker 1: died while she was being conveyed to Saint Thomas Hospital.
• 4:22:04
  Speaker 1: Before her death, she made a statement that a man
• 4:22:07
  Speaker 1: with a dark beard and wearing a high hat had
• 4:22:11
  Speaker 1: given her two drops of white stuff to drink. In
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 1: this case, a post mortem examination was made and on
• 4:22:19
  Speaker 1: analysis both strychnine and morphine were found in the stomach,
• 4:22:24
  Speaker 1: proving that the woman had been poisoned. These cases had
• 4:22:29
  Speaker 1: almost been forgotten when some six months afterwards, attention was
• 4:22:34
  Speaker 1: again aroused by the mysterious deaths of two girls named
• 4:22:38
  Speaker 1: Alice Marsh and Emma Shrival, who lodged in Stamford Street.
• 4:22:43
  Speaker 1: On the evening of April eleventh, eighteen ninety two, A
• 4:22:47
  Speaker 1: man who one of the girls in her dying testimony
• 4:22:50
  Speaker 1: called Fred and who she described as a doctor, called
• 4:22:55
  Speaker 1: to see them and together they partook of tea. The
• 4:22:58
  Speaker 1: man stayed till two a m. And during the evening
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 1: gave them both three long pills. Half an hour after
• 4:23:07
  Speaker 1: the man left the house, both girls were found in
• 4:23:11
  Speaker 1: a dying condition while they were being removed to the hospital.
• 4:23:16
  Speaker 1: Alice Marsh died in the cab and Emma Shrival lived
• 4:23:20
  Speaker 1: for only six hours. Afterwards, the result of an analysis
• 4:23:24
  Speaker 1: of the stomach and organs revealed the fact that death
• 4:23:28
  Speaker 1: in each case had been caused by strychnine. There was
• 4:23:32
  Speaker 1: absolutely no evidence beyond the vague description of the man
• 4:23:36
  Speaker 1: for the police to work upon, and this case, like
• 4:23:40
  Speaker 1: the others, with which at first it was not connected,
• 4:23:43
  Speaker 1: seemed likely to remain among the unsolved mysteries, when by
• 4:23:48
  Speaker 1: the following curious chain of circumstances, the perpetrator of these
• 4:23:53
  Speaker 1: cold blooded crimes was at last brought to justice. Some
• 4:23:58
  Speaker 1: time after the deaths of the two girls, Marsh and Trival,
• 4:24:02
  Speaker 1: a doctor Harper of Barnstable received a letter in which
• 4:24:06
  Speaker 1: the writer stated that he had indisputable evidence that the
• 4:24:11
  Speaker 1: doctor's son, who had recently qualified as a medical practitioner
• 4:24:16
  Speaker 1: in London, had poisoned two girls, Marsh and Trival, and
• 4:24:20
  Speaker 1: that he the writer, required fifteen hundred pounds to suppress it.
• 4:24:26
  Speaker 1: Doctor Harper placed the letter in the hands of the police,
• 4:24:30
  Speaker 1: with the result that on June three, eighteen ninety two,
• 4:24:34
  Speaker 1: a man named Thomas Neill or Neil Cream was arrested
• 4:24:39
  Speaker 1: on the charge of sending a threatening letter. He was
• 4:24:43
  Speaker 1: brought up at Bow Street on this charge for several days,
• 4:24:47
  Speaker 1: when it transpired that in the preceding November, a well
• 4:24:51
  Speaker 1: known London physician had also received a letter in which
• 4:24:55
  Speaker 1: the writer declared that he had evidence to show that
• 4:24:58
  Speaker 1: the physician had pois a Miss Clover with strychnine, which
• 4:25:03
  Speaker 1: evidence he could purchase for twenty five hundred pounds and
• 4:25:08
  Speaker 1: so save himself from ruin. Neil Cream was remanded and
• 4:25:13
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, the body of Matilda Clover was exhumed
• 4:25:17
  Speaker 1: and the contents of the stomach sent to doctor Stephenson,
• 4:25:21
  Speaker 1: one of the government analysts, for examination. He discovered the
• 4:25:26
  Speaker 1: presence of strychnine and came to the conclusion that someone
• 4:25:30
  Speaker 1: had administered a fatal dose to her. An inquest was
• 4:25:35
  Speaker 1: then held on the body of Matilda Clover, with the
• 4:25:38
  Speaker 1: result that James Neil or Neil Cream was committed on
• 4:25:43
  Speaker 1: the charge of wilful murder. This man's lodgings were searched
• 4:25:48
  Speaker 1: after his arrest, and a curious piece of paper was
• 4:25:51
  Speaker 1: discovered on which written in pencil in his handwriting were
• 4:25:56
  Speaker 1: the initials M C and opposite to them two dates
• 4:26:02
  Speaker 1: and then a third date, viz. October twenty, which was
• 4:26:06
  Speaker 1: the date of Matilda Clover's death. On the same paper,
• 4:26:10
  Speaker 1: in connection with the initials E S, was also found
• 4:26:15
  Speaker 1: two dates, one being April eleven, which was the date
• 4:26:18
  Speaker 1: of Emma Shribel's death. There was also found in his
• 4:26:23
  Speaker 1: possession a paper bearing the address of Martian Shrival, and
• 4:26:27
  Speaker 1: it was afterwards proved that he had said on more
• 4:26:30
  Speaker 1: than one occasion that he knew them well. In his room,
• 4:26:35
  Speaker 1: a quantity of small pills were discovered, each containing from
• 4:26:40
  Speaker 1: one sixteenth to one twenty second of a grain of strychnine.
• 4:26:44
  Speaker 1: Also fifty four other bottles of pills, seven of which
• 4:26:48
  Speaker 1: contained strychnine, and a bottle containing one hundred and sixty
• 4:26:53
  Speaker 1: eight pills, each containing one twenty second of a grain
• 4:26:57
  Speaker 1: of strychnine. These, it is supposed he obtained as an
• 4:27:02
  Speaker 1: agent for the Harvey Drug Company of America. It was
• 4:27:06
  Speaker 1: found he had purchased a quantity of empty gelatine capsules
• 4:27:11
  Speaker 1: from a chemist in Parliament Street, which there is little
• 4:27:15
  Speaker 1: doubt he had used to administer a number of the
• 4:27:17
  Speaker 1: small pills in a poisonous dose. Thomas Neil or Neil Cream,
• 4:27:24
  Speaker 1: was tried for the wilful murder of Matilda Clover at
• 4:27:27
  Speaker 1: the Central Criminal Court before Mister Justice Hawkins on October eighteenth,
• 4:27:33
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety two. The trial, lasting five days. It transpired
• 4:27:39
  Speaker 1: that Cream, who had received some medical education and styled
• 4:27:44
  Speaker 1: himself a doctor, came to this country from America on
• 4:27:48
  Speaker 1: October one, eighteen ninety one, and on arriving in London,
• 4:27:53
  Speaker 1: first stayed at Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street. Shortly afterwards
• 4:27:59
  Speaker 1: he took apartments in Lambeth and became engaged to a
• 4:28:02
  Speaker 1: lady living at Berkhamsted. He was identified as having been
• 4:28:07
  Speaker 1: seen in the company of Matilda Clover, and also by
• 4:28:11
  Speaker 1: a policeman as the man who left the house in
• 4:28:14
  Speaker 1: Stamford Street on the night that Marsh and Shrival were murdered.
• 4:28:19
  Speaker 1: Doctor Stephenson, who made the analysis of the body of
• 4:28:23
  Speaker 1: Matilda Clover on May sixth, eighteen ninety two, stated in
• 4:28:28
  Speaker 1: his evidence that he found strychnine in the stomach, liver
• 4:28:32
  Speaker 1: and brain, and that quantitatively he obtained one sixteenth of
• 4:28:37
  Speaker 1: a grain of strychnine from two pounds of animal matter.
• 4:28:42
  Speaker 1: He also examined the organs from the bodies of Alice
• 4:28:45
  Speaker 1: Marsh and Emma Shrival. He found six point thirty nine
• 4:28:50
  Speaker 1: grains of strychnine in the stomach and its contents of
• 4:28:54
  Speaker 1: Alice Marsh and one point six grain of strychnine in
• 4:28:59
  Speaker 1: the stomach and its contents, also one point four six
• 4:29:03
  Speaker 1: grain in the vomit, and point two grain in the
• 4:29:07
  Speaker 1: small portion of the liver of Emma shrival. The jury,
• 4:29:12
  Speaker 1: after deliberating for ten minutes, returned a verdict of guilty
• 4:29:16
  Speaker 1: and Thomas Neil or Neil Cream, as he was otherwise known,
• 4:29:21
  Speaker 1: was sentenced to death. He was executed on November fifteenth,
• 4:29:26
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety two. End of Chapter twenty one Chapter twenty
• 4:29:33
  Speaker 1: two The Horsford Case. Towards the close of the year
• 4:29:38
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety seven, a Missus Holmes, a widow, was living
• 4:29:42
  Speaker 1: with her three children at Stoneleigh, near Kimbolton. She had
• 4:29:46
  Speaker 1: a cousin named Walter Horsford, a well to do young
• 4:29:49
  Speaker 1: farmer who occupied a farm at Spaldwick, about twelve miles away,
• 4:29:55
  Speaker 1: and who frequently came to Stoneleigh to visit her. A
• 4:29:58
  Speaker 1: romantic attachment of the venturely sprang up between them, which
• 4:30:02
  Speaker 1: resulted in a too intimate acquaintance. After a while, Horsford's
• 4:30:08
  Speaker 1: affection began to wane, and in the end he married
• 4:30:11
  Speaker 1: another lady. Shortly afterwards, Missus Holmes left Stoneleigh and took
• 4:30:17
  Speaker 1: up her residence at Saint Neat's. About December of the
• 4:30:21
  Speaker 1: same year, she wrote a letter to Horsford informing him
• 4:30:25
  Speaker 1: of her condition, a piece of news which appears to
• 4:30:28
  Speaker 1: have greatly upset him, as he was in fear the
• 4:30:31
  Speaker 1: information might reach his wife. On December twenty eighth, he
• 4:30:36
  Speaker 1: called at a chemist shop in Thrapston, a neighboring town,
• 4:30:40
  Speaker 1: and asked for a shillings worth of strychnine, some prussic acid,
• 4:30:45
  Speaker 1: arsenic and carbolic acid, which he stated he required for
• 4:30:49
  Speaker 1: poisoning rats. The chemist, to whom he was a stranger,
• 4:30:53
  Speaker 1: requested him to bring a witness, which he did, and
• 4:30:57
  Speaker 1: the chemist's poison register was due duly signed by Horsford
• 4:31:01
  Speaker 1: and a man who introduced him. He took the poisons,
• 4:31:05
  Speaker 1: which consisted of ninety grains of strychnine, one pound of
• 4:31:09
  Speaker 1: arsenic and some prussic acid and carbolic acid, away with him.
• 4:31:15
  Speaker 1: About a week afterwards, missus Holmes received a letter from Horsford.
• 4:31:19
  Speaker 1: It was taken in by her daughter, who recognized his handwriting,
• 4:31:23
  Speaker 1: and the envelope is also supposed to have contained two
• 4:31:27
  Speaker 1: packets of strychnine. On the evening of January seventh, eighteen
• 4:31:32
  Speaker 1: ninety eight, Missus Holmes retired to bed, apparently in her
• 4:31:36
  Speaker 1: usual health, about half past nine. The only other persons
• 4:31:41
  Speaker 1: in the house were her daughter Annie, her son Percy,
• 4:31:44
  Speaker 1: and her infant. The daughter noticed that her mother took
• 4:31:48
  Speaker 1: a glass of water upstairs with her, which was an
• 4:31:52
  Speaker 1: unusual circumstance. On going to her mother's bedroom shortly afterwards,
• 4:31:57
  Speaker 1: she found her suffering great pain, and she saw the glass,
• 4:32:01
  Speaker 1: now almost empty, standing on a chest of drawers. Percy
• 4:32:06
  Speaker 1: Holmes ran out and called in the assistance of some neighbors,
• 4:32:09
  Speaker 1: and then went for a doctor. When medical aid arrived,
• 4:32:13
  Speaker 1: the unfortunate woman was in convulsions and died shortly afterwards.
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 1: The day after her death, the police searched the house
• 4:32:22
  Speaker 1: but failed to find any trace of poison, and an
• 4:32:25
  Speaker 1: inquest was held on January eighth, which Horsford was summoned
• 4:32:29
  Speaker 1: to attend. In his evidence before the coroner, he swore
• 4:32:34
  Speaker 1: that he had neither written to nor seen the deceased woman.
• 4:32:38
  Speaker 1: The medical evidence proved that death was caused by strychnine.
• 4:32:42
  Speaker 1: The inquest was adjourned for a week, and in the
• 4:32:45
  Speaker 1: meantime Missus Holmes was buried from information received by the police,
• 4:32:51
  Speaker 1: a further search was made in the house, with the
• 4:32:53
  Speaker 1: result that two packets were discovered under the feather bed
• 4:32:57
  Speaker 1: in Missus Holmes's bedroom. One packet of buff colored paper
• 4:33:02
  Speaker 1: was found to contain about thirty three grains of strychnine
• 4:33:06
  Speaker 1: in powder, on which was written the words one dosed
• 4:33:10
  Speaker 1: take as told in Horsford's handwriting. On the second packet,
• 4:33:15
  Speaker 1: the contents of which had been used, was written, take
• 4:33:19
  Speaker 1: in a little water, it is quite harmless. This was
• 4:33:23
  Speaker 1: also in Horsford's handwriting. On January ten, Walter Horsford was
• 4:33:29
  Speaker 1: arrested on the charge of perjury committed at the inquest,
• 4:33:33
  Speaker 1: and it was resolved to have another examination made of
• 4:33:37
  Speaker 1: the body of the deceased woman. On examination of further
• 4:33:41
  Speaker 1: documents and letters discovered by the police, the charge of
• 4:33:45
  Speaker 1: wilful murder was added to corrupt perjury against Horsford and
• 4:33:50
  Speaker 1: he was committed for trial. The trial took place on
• 4:33:54
  Speaker 1: June two, eighteen ninety eight, in Huntingdon before Mister Justice Hawkins.
• 4:34:00
  Speaker 1: Doctor Stevenson stated in his evidence he first made an
• 4:34:04
  Speaker 1: analysis of a portion of the body of missus Holmes
• 4:34:07
  Speaker 1: on January nineteenth and extracted one point thirty one grain
• 4:34:12
  Speaker 1: of strychnine, but no other poison. Subsequently, he examined the
• 4:34:17
  Speaker 1: two packets discovered under the bed and found one containing
• 4:34:22
  Speaker 1: thirty three and three quarter grains of powdered strychnine, and
• 4:34:26
  Speaker 1: the other which presented the appearance of having had the
• 4:34:29
  Speaker 1: powder shaken out a few minute crystals of strychnine. In
• 4:34:34
  Speaker 1: each case it was the pure alkaloid. The body was
• 4:34:38
  Speaker 1: exhumed nineteen days after death, and he then made an
• 4:34:42
  Speaker 1: analysis of all the chief organs and obtained therefrom a
• 4:34:46
  Speaker 1: total quantity of three point six nine grains of strychnine.
• 4:34:51
  Speaker 1: Death usually occurred about half an hour after the commencement
• 4:34:55
  Speaker 1: of the symptoms. He judged there could not have been
• 4:34:59
  Speaker 1: less than ten grains of strychnine in the body at
• 4:35:02
  Speaker 1: the time of death. The jury found Walter Horsford guilty
• 4:35:06
  Speaker 1: and he was sentenced to death. End of chapter twenty two.
• 4:35:13
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three. The Great American Poison Mystery, one of
• 4:35:19
  Speaker 1: the most carefully planned murders by means of poison in
• 4:35:22
  Speaker 1: modern times, was investigated at the trial of Roland B. Molineux,
• 4:35:27
  Speaker 1: who was charged with causing the death of Missus Catherine J.
• 4:35:31
  Speaker 1: Adams in New York in eighteen ninety nine. On November tenth,
• 4:35:36
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight, a mister Henry C. Barnett, a produce
• 4:35:41
  Speaker 1: booker who was a member of the Knickerbocker Athletic Club,
• 4:35:45
  Speaker 1: one of the most prominent social organizations in New York,
• 4:35:49
  Speaker 1: received by post at the club a sample box of
• 4:35:52
  Speaker 1: kut nose powder. He was in the habit of taking
• 4:35:56
  Speaker 1: this and similar preparations for simple ailments, and soon after
• 4:36:01
  Speaker 1: receiving the box he took a dose of its contents.
• 4:36:04
  Speaker 1: He became ill immediately afterwards and was thought to be
• 4:36:08
  Speaker 1: suffering from diphtheria. That he had a slight attack of
• 4:36:12
  Speaker 1: this disease. There as little doubt, as the fact was
• 4:36:15
  Speaker 1: proved from a bacteriological examination made by his medical attendant.
• 4:36:21
  Speaker 1: He left his bed earlier than the doctor advised and died,
• 4:36:25
  Speaker 1: presumably of heart failure. The contents of the box, however,
• 4:36:30
  Speaker 1: were examined, which led to the discovery that the powder
• 4:36:33
  Speaker 1: had been tampered with and mixed with cyanide of mercury,
• 4:36:37
  Speaker 1: and although mister Barnett had died from natural causes, it
• 4:36:41
  Speaker 1: seemed clear an attempt had been made to poison him
• 4:36:45
  Speaker 1: by some one who knew he was in the habit
• 4:36:47
  Speaker 1: of taking this powder. The investigation, however, does not appear
• 4:36:52
  Speaker 1: to have been carried farther. The next chapter in the
• 4:36:56
  Speaker 1: story occurred in connection with a mister Harry Cornish, who
• 4:37:00
  Speaker 1: who occupied the position a physical director to the Knickerbocker
• 4:37:04
  Speaker 1: Athletic Club. A day or two before Christmas in the
• 4:37:07
  Speaker 1: same year, a packet directed to him was delivered by
• 4:37:11
  Speaker 1: post at his address. It contained a box in which,
• 4:37:16
  Speaker 1: on opening he found at one end a silver article
• 4:37:20
  Speaker 1: for holding matches or toothpicks. At the other end was
• 4:37:24
  Speaker 1: a bottle labeled Emerson's Bromo Seltzer, and between the two
• 4:37:29
  Speaker 1: was packed some soft tissue paper. Mister Cornish was at
• 4:37:33
  Speaker 1: first under the impression that someone had sent him the
• 4:37:36
  Speaker 1: packet as a present. After removing the articles from the box,
• 4:37:42
  Speaker 1: he threw it and the wrapper into his waste paper basket,
• 4:37:45
  Speaker 1: but on second thoughts he cut the address from the
• 4:37:48
  Speaker 1: wrapper and kept it. The bottle, labeled Bromo Seltzer, which
• 4:37:53
  Speaker 1: is a saline preparation well known in America, was sealed
• 4:37:57
  Speaker 1: over the top and bore the usual reds. The new stamp.
• 4:38:01
  Speaker 1: After tearing off the outside wrapper, mister Cornish placed the
• 4:38:05
  Speaker 1: bottle and the silver holder on his desk. On the
• 4:38:09
  Speaker 1: following Sunday, he remarked to his aunt, a Missus Catherine Adams,
• 4:38:14
  Speaker 1: that he had received a present. Missus Adams and her daughter,
• 4:38:18
  Speaker 1: Missus Rogers, joked him about it, saying he must have
• 4:38:21
  Speaker 1: some admirer, and was afraid to bring his present home
• 4:38:25
  Speaker 1: as the cinder's name was probably upon it. So on
• 4:38:29
  Speaker 1: Tuesday night, mister Cornish took the bottle and the silver
• 4:38:32
  Speaker 1: holder home with him and presented them to Missus Rogers,
• 4:38:36
  Speaker 1: saying they were no use to him and she might
• 4:38:39
  Speaker 1: have them. The next morning, Missus Adams complained of a headache,
• 4:38:44
  Speaker 1: and her daughter suggested a dose of the Bromo seltzer.
• 4:38:47
  Speaker 1: Mister Cornish was present and mixed a teaspoonful of the
• 4:38:51
  Speaker 1: preparation from the bottle with a glass of water and
• 4:38:54
  Speaker 1: gave it to his aunt. After drinking it, she at
• 4:38:57
  Speaker 1: once exclaimed, my how bitter. That is why that's all right,
• 4:39:03
  Speaker 1: said mister Cornish, as he took a drink from the glass.
• 4:39:06
  Speaker 1: A few moments afterwards, Missus Adams collapsed and died within
• 4:39:11
  Speaker 1: a short time, mister Cornish was seized with violent vomiting,
• 4:39:15
  Speaker 1: which doubtless saved his life and he recovered. A post
• 4:39:20
  Speaker 1: mortem examination revealed the fact that Missus Adams had died
• 4:39:24
  Speaker 1: from cyanide poisoning, and on the bottle of Bromo seltzer
• 4:39:28
  Speaker 1: being analyzed, the contents were found to have been mixed
• 4:39:31
  Speaker 1: with cyanide of mercury. For a long time, the affair
• 4:39:35
  Speaker 1: seemed to complete mystery and the police investigations appeared likely
• 4:39:40
  Speaker 1: to be fruitless. Then the particulars of the death of
• 4:39:43
  Speaker 1: mister Barnett, who was chairman of the House Committee of
• 4:39:47
  Speaker 1: the Knickerbocker Club, were brought to light, and connecting them
• 4:39:51
  Speaker 1: with the fact that mister Cornish was also a prominent
• 4:39:54
  Speaker 1: member of the club and had received the bottle of
• 4:39:57
  Speaker 1: Bromo seltzer by post in the same manner, it seemed
• 4:40:01
  Speaker 1: highly probable that both the poisoned packets, which contained cyanide
• 4:40:05
  Speaker 1: of mercury, had been sent by the same hand. Further
• 4:40:10
  Speaker 1: examination proved that the bottle used was not a genuine
• 4:40:14
  Speaker 1: Bromo seltzer one and that the label had been removed
• 4:40:17
  Speaker 1: from a genuine bottle and carefully pasted on that sent
• 4:40:21
  Speaker 1: to mister Cornish. A firm of druggists in Cincinnati then
• 4:40:26
  Speaker 1: came forward and stated that as far back as May
• 4:40:29
  Speaker 1: thirty one, eighteen ninety eight, they had received a written
• 4:40:33
  Speaker 1: application signed H. C. Barnett for a sample box of pills,
• 4:40:38
  Speaker 1: and another similar application on December twenty one, eighteen ninety eight,
• 4:40:44
  Speaker 1: which was signed H. Cornish. Both these applications were found
• 4:40:49
  Speaker 1: to be in the same handwriting, which was also strikingly
• 4:40:53
  Speaker 1: similar to the address on the packet sent to mister Cornish,
• 4:40:57
  Speaker 1: which he had fortunately kept. The address given by the applicant,
• 4:41:02
  Speaker 1: who called himself H. C. Barnett, was two five seven
• 4:41:06
  Speaker 1: West forty second Street, New York, a place where private
• 4:41:10
  Speaker 1: letterboxes are rented for callers. The address given by the applicant,
• 4:41:15
  Speaker 1: signing himself H. Cornish was a similar place at sixteen
• 4:41:19
  Speaker 1: twenty Broadway, in the same city. From these facts, it
• 4:41:24
  Speaker 1: seemed evident that an attempt had been made to poison
• 4:41:28
  Speaker 1: both Barnett and Cornish by someone who knew them, and
• 4:41:32
  Speaker 1: the poisoner had concealed his identity by employing the names
• 4:41:36
  Speaker 1: of his intended victims. The nature of the poison used
• 4:41:41
  Speaker 1: cyanide of Mercury was also a slight clue, as it
• 4:41:45
  Speaker 1: is a substance which is not used in medicine and must,
• 4:41:49
  Speaker 1: in all probability have been specially prepared for the purpose
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 1: by someone with a good knowledge of chemistry. At the
• 4:41:58
  Speaker 1: coroner's inquest, which began on February ninth, eighteen ninety nine,
• 4:42:03
  Speaker 1: certain facts were elicited that tended to bring suspicion on
• 4:42:07
  Speaker 1: Rowland B. Molineux, who was also a member of the
• 4:42:10
  Speaker 1: Knickerbocker Club and well acquainted with Barnett and Cornish. He
• 4:42:16
  Speaker 1: was also known to have quarreled with the latter. At
• 4:42:19
  Speaker 1: the close of the inquest, Molineux was arrested and removed
• 4:42:23
  Speaker 1: to the Tombs Prison owing to legal technicalities in the
• 4:42:28
  Speaker 1: original indictment which charged him with the murder of both
• 4:42:32
  Speaker 1: mister Barnett and Missus Adams. He was twice liberated and
• 4:42:36
  Speaker 1: then for the third time arrested. The trial of Molineux
• 4:42:41
  Speaker 1: for the murder of Missus Adams was a memorable one
• 4:42:44
  Speaker 1: and lasted nearly three months. It began on November fourteenth,
• 4:42:48
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine, at the Central Criminal Court one twenty,
• 4:42:53
  Speaker 1: New York and was not concluded until February eleventh, nineteen hundred.
• 4:42:58
  Speaker 1: The evidence was entirely circumstantial. Most of the experts in
• 4:43:03
  Speaker 1: handwriting who were examined declared that the address on the
• 4:43:07
  Speaker 1: packet sent to mister Cornish was in Molineu's writing, and
• 4:43:11
  Speaker 1: that he had also written both applications to the Druggists
• 4:43:15
  Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. Further, Molineer was engaged as a chemist to
• 4:43:19
  Speaker 1: a color factory in which cyanide of mercury was used,
• 4:43:23
  Speaker 1: which would enable him either to make or procure that
• 4:43:27
  Speaker 1: special poison from which only three other fatal cases had
• 4:43:32
  Speaker 1: been recorded. No witnesses were called for the defense, and
• 4:43:36
  Speaker 1: the jury found Roland B. Molineer guilty of murder in
• 4:43:40
  Speaker 1: the first degree, which according to American law, is murder
• 4:43:44
  Speaker 1: with premeditation. End of Chapter twenty three, Chapter twenty four.
• 4:43:52
  Speaker 1: Some Curious methods employed by secret poisoners. The strange and
• 4:43:58
  Speaker 1: curious methods employed by poisoners to accomplish their deadly purpose
• 4:44:02
  Speaker 1: form an interesting study to students of human nature. The
• 4:44:07
  Speaker 1: poisoner generally sets to work on a preconceived and carefully
• 4:44:11
  Speaker 1: thought out plan, which he proceeds to carry out with
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 1: all the cunning he possesses. The methods that can be
• 4:44:19
  Speaker 1: employed to introduce a poisonous substance into the human body
• 4:44:23
  Speaker 1: are necessarily limited, and although they are varied at times
• 4:44:27
  Speaker 1: according to the ingenuity in which the deed is planned,
• 4:44:31
  Speaker 1: we find the poisoner, with all his craft, shows but
• 4:44:35
  Speaker 1: little originality, and the modes used in ancient times are
• 4:44:40
  Speaker 1: repeated down through the centuries to the present day. There
• 4:44:44
  Speaker 1: seems little doubt that the earliest method employed by man
• 4:44:47
  Speaker 1: was the poisoned weapon. The use of the poisoned arrowhead
• 4:44:51
  Speaker 1: by primitive man goes back to a period of remote antiquity.
• 4:44:56
  Speaker 1: Among the cave remains of the Paleolithic period, arrow and
• 4:45:00
  Speaker 1: spear heads of bone have been found marked with depressions
• 4:45:04
  Speaker 1: for containing poison, and this method of introducing poison seems
• 4:45:09
  Speaker 1: to have been practiced by most of the aboriginal races.
• 4:45:14
  Speaker 1: Arrow poisons were well known to the Greeks, and their
• 4:45:17
  Speaker 1: word toxicon signified a poisonous substance into which the arrow
• 4:45:23
  Speaker 1: toxon was dipped. Homer alludes to the use of poisoned
• 4:45:27
  Speaker 1: arrows in the Odyssey, and Ovid mentions the bile and
• 4:45:31
  Speaker 1: blood of vipers as being employed to poison weapons. The
• 4:45:35
  Speaker 1: Scythians and the tribes of the Caucasus were reputed to
• 4:45:39
  Speaker 1: use viper poison mixed with the serum of human blood
• 4:45:43
  Speaker 1: that had decomposed the Celts, and the Gauls, according to Pliny,
• 4:45:48
  Speaker 1: dipped their arrow heads in hellebore juice, and down to
• 4:45:52
  Speaker 1: the seventh century we find poisoned weapons were commonly used
• 4:45:56
  Speaker 1: in Europe. During the Middle Ages until the sixteenth century,
• 4:46:01
  Speaker 1: the poisoned dagger or sword formed the favorite weapon of
• 4:46:05
  Speaker 1: the assassin, and the preparation of the blade for this
• 4:46:08
  Speaker 1: purpose was brought almost to a fine art. In Spain,
• 4:46:12
  Speaker 1: it is recorded that Lorenzo de Medici was stabbed with
• 4:46:16
  Speaker 1: a poisoned dagger, and the Duke de Bessalia, the second
• 4:46:20
  Speaker 1: husband of the famous Lucregia Borgia, nearly fell a victim
• 4:46:24
  Speaker 1: to the assassin's knife on the steps of Saint Peter's.
• 4:46:28
  Speaker 1: Of all other methods employed by poisoners, the administration of
• 4:46:32
  Speaker 1: the lethal dose through the medium of food or drink
• 4:46:36
  Speaker 1: seems ever to have been the favorite. The poisoned wine
• 4:46:39
  Speaker 1: or cake recurs with a somewhat monotonous frequency in the
• 4:46:44
  Speaker 1: history of the poisoner, from the earliest times down to
• 4:46:47
  Speaker 1: the present day women especially seem to have been attracted
• 4:46:51
  Speaker 1: by this mode of poisoning, a fact probably due to
• 4:46:55
  Speaker 1: their control and direction of domestic matters, which rendered the
• 4:46:59
  Speaker 1: induction of a poisonous substance into food or drink an
• 4:47:04
  Speaker 1: easy matter. Occasionally, they have fallen victims to their own
• 4:47:08
  Speaker 1: evil designs, as instanced in the case of Rosamund, the
• 4:47:12
  Speaker 1: wife of Helmicus, King of Lombardy, in the year five
• 4:47:16
  Speaker 1: seventy five. Wishing to rid herself of her husband, she
• 4:47:20
  Speaker 1: gave him a cup of poisoned wine. On coming from
• 4:47:23
  Speaker 1: his bath. The king drank part of it, and, suspecting
• 4:47:27
  Speaker 1: its nature from the strange effect it produced, he insisted
• 4:47:31
  Speaker 1: she should drink the remainder, with the result that both
• 4:47:35
  Speaker 1: died shortly afterwards. The Hindus have an ingenious method of
• 4:47:40
  Speaker 1: using powdered glass as a lethal agent, either by mixing
• 4:47:44
  Speaker 1: it with sherbet or some kind of food. In such cases,
• 4:47:48
  Speaker 1: the substance acts by its irritant action on the stomach
• 4:47:52
  Speaker 1: or intestines, while at the same time, if successful, no
• 4:47:57
  Speaker 1: trace of poison can be discovered in the bodily organs.
• 4:48:02
  Speaker 1: A celebrated case in which this agent was used occurred
• 4:48:06
  Speaker 1: in India in eighteen seventy four, when the Gaekwar, or
• 4:48:10
  Speaker 1: reigning Prince of Baroda, was tried for attempting to kill
• 4:48:14
  Speaker 1: his political resident, Colonel Fayre, by administering powdered glass to
• 4:48:19
  Speaker 1: him in Sherbet. The Gekwar was tried before a court
• 4:48:24
  Speaker 1: consisting of three Indian princes and three English judges, and
• 4:48:28
  Speaker 1: was defended by the late mister Sergeant Ballantine. The princes
• 4:48:33
  Speaker 1: returned a verdict of not proven, while the judges decided
• 4:48:37
  Speaker 1: that he was guilty, with the result that the Gurkwar
• 4:48:40
  Speaker 1: was deposed. The sweetmeat was a favorite form employed to
• 4:48:45
  Speaker 1: administer poison during the Middle Ages. Such confections were usually
• 4:48:50
  Speaker 1: handed round to the guests after a meal. In Italy,
• 4:48:54
  Speaker 1: princes and nobles frequently used this method of ridding themselves
• 4:48:59
  Speaker 1: of an enemy, and if the plot failed in the
• 4:49:02
  Speaker 1: first instance, they were always ready to try it again.
• 4:49:05
  Speaker 1: For as Caesar Borgia is stated to have once exclaimed,
• 4:49:09
  Speaker 1: what has failed at dinner time will succeed at supper time.
• 4:49:14
  Speaker 1: Catherine de Medici introduced this method into France, and her
• 4:49:18
  Speaker 1: Florentine perfumers were said to be adepths in mixing arsenic
• 4:49:23
  Speaker 1: with sweetmeats. The poisoned flowers of medieval romance, and poisoned
• 4:49:28
  Speaker 1: gloves and boots, which figure so often in legend and
• 4:49:32
  Speaker 1: story as lethal media, we must dismiss as mere fables
• 4:49:37
  Speaker 1: of an age when the historian drew largely on his imagination.
• 4:49:42
  Speaker 1: The poison ring, with its carefully concealed tiny spike, which
• 4:49:46
  Speaker 1: was intended to penetrate the flesh of the victim, might
• 4:49:50
  Speaker 1: perhaps have set up blood poisoning, as would a similar
• 4:49:53
  Speaker 1: wound if inflicted by a rusty nail. The use of
• 4:49:58
  Speaker 1: rings with secret receptacles to contain poisons we have already mentioned.
• 4:50:03
  Speaker 1: Among the gems in the British Museum, there is an
• 4:50:06
  Speaker 1: onyx which has been hollowed out to form a receptacle
• 4:50:10
  Speaker 1: for poison. The face of the stone is engraved with
• 4:50:14
  Speaker 1: the head of a horned fawn. To take the poison,
• 4:50:17
  Speaker 1: it was only necessary to bite through the thin shell
• 4:50:21
  Speaker 1: of the onyx and swallow the contents. When the gold
• 4:50:26
  Speaker 1: deposited by Camillus in the Capitol was taken away, it
• 4:50:30
  Speaker 1: is recorded that the custodian responsible for it broke the
• 4:50:34
  Speaker 1: stone of his ring in his mouth and died shortly afterwards.
• 4:50:39
  Speaker 1: The poisoners of the seventeenth century, not content with introducing
• 4:50:43
  Speaker 1: poison into wine and other drinks, sought to improve on
• 4:50:47
  Speaker 1: this method by preparing the goblet or cup in such
• 4:50:51
  Speaker 1: a way that it would impregnate any liquid that was
• 4:50:54
  Speaker 1: placed in it. There is a record of one Francois Belot,
• 4:50:59
  Speaker 1: who made a specialty of this art, and it is
• 4:51:02
  Speaker 1: said received a comfortable income therefrom but he fitly ended
• 4:51:06
  Speaker 1: his days by being broken on the wheel on June tenth,
• 4:51:11
  Speaker 1: sixteen seventy nine. According to a contemporary writer, his secret
• 4:51:16
  Speaker 1: method consisted in cramming a toad with arsenic, placing it
• 4:51:20
  Speaker 1: in a silver goblet, and after pricking its head, crushing
• 4:51:24
  Speaker 1: it in the vessel. While this operation was being performed,
• 4:51:29
  Speaker 1: certain charms were uttered. I know a secret stated below,
• 4:51:34
  Speaker 1: such that in doctoring a cup with a toad and
• 4:51:37
  Speaker 1: what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to
• 4:51:40
  Speaker 1: drink from it afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed,
• 4:51:44
  Speaker 1: they would all be done for, and the cup could
• 4:51:47
  Speaker 1: only be purified by throwing it into a hot fire.
• 4:51:52
  Speaker 1: After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try
• 4:51:55
  Speaker 1: it upon a human being, but upon a dog, and
• 4:51:58
  Speaker 1: I should entrust the cup to noble And yet Below's
• 4:52:02
  Speaker 1: powers were believed in, and he enjoyed a substantial reputation
• 4:52:06
  Speaker 1: in his day. His boasting is on par with that
• 4:52:10
  Speaker 1: of the magician Blessus, who flourished about the same period.
• 4:52:15
  Speaker 1: He declared to the world that he had discovered a
• 4:52:17
  Speaker 1: method of manipulating mirrors in such a way that anyone
• 4:52:21
  Speaker 1: who looked in them received his death blow. The stories
• 4:52:25
  Speaker 1: of the poisoned shirt, which was a favorite medium with
• 4:52:29
  Speaker 1: the poisoners of the seventeenth century, are not, however, without
• 4:52:33
  Speaker 1: a substratum of fact. The tail of the shirt was
• 4:52:37
  Speaker 1: prepared by soaking it in a strong solution of arsenic
• 4:52:40
  Speaker 1: or corrosive sublimate. The object was to produce a violent
• 4:52:45
  Speaker 1: dermatitis with ulceration about the perineum and neighboring parts, which
• 4:52:51
  Speaker 1: should compel the victim to keep his bed. Medical men
• 4:52:55
  Speaker 1: would then be summoned in due course, and would probably
• 4:52:58
  Speaker 1: judge the patient to be suffering from syphilis and administer
• 4:53:02
  Speaker 1: mercury in large quantities. The fatal dose could then be
• 4:53:06
  Speaker 1: introduced at leisure. The notorious Labossa left on record her
• 4:53:11
  Speaker 1: method of preparing the poisoned shirt. The garment was first
• 4:53:16
  Speaker 1: to be washed, and the tail then soaked in a
• 4:53:19
  Speaker 1: strong solution of arsenic, so that it only looked a
• 4:53:22
  Speaker 1: little rusty, as if it had been ill washed, and
• 4:53:26
  Speaker 1: was stiffer than usual. The effect, she concludes, it should
• 4:53:31
  Speaker 1: produce on the wearer, is a violent inflammation and intense pain,
• 4:53:36
  Speaker 1: and that when one came to examine him, one would
• 4:53:40
  Speaker 1: not detect anything. The Duke of Savoy is said to
• 4:53:44
  Speaker 1: have succumbed to the effects of a poisoned shirt of
• 4:53:47
  Speaker 1: this kind. Some time ago, Doctor Nass, a French medical man,
• 4:53:52
  Speaker 1: made some interesting experiments with a view to testing the
• 4:53:56
  Speaker 1: truth of these stories. He carefully shaved a portion of
• 4:53:59
  Speaker 1: the left lumbar region of a guinea pig and gently
• 4:54:03
  Speaker 1: rubbed the skin with a paste containing arsenic in the
• 4:54:06
  Speaker 1: proportion of one in ten. He repeated this operation several
• 4:54:11
  Speaker 1: times during the day. Shortly afterwards, the animal became prostrate,
• 4:54:17
  Speaker 1: the eyes became dull, it assumed a cholera like aspect,
• 4:54:21
  Speaker 1: and in forty eight hours died. The skin on which
• 4:54:25
  Speaker 1: the paste had been applied remained unchanged and unbroken, and
• 4:54:30
  Speaker 1: showed no signs of ulceration. On examining the internal organs
• 4:54:35
  Speaker 1: after death, fatty degeneration of the viscero was found, as
• 4:54:40
  Speaker 1: is usual after arsenical poisoning. This experiment does not, of course,
• 4:54:46
  Speaker 1: actually prove the effect of a shirt impregnated with arsenic
• 4:54:50
  Speaker 1: being worn in direct contact with the skin, but it
• 4:54:53
  Speaker 1: shows that arsenic may be introduced into the body by
• 4:54:57
  Speaker 1: simple gentle friction on an unbroken oken's skin, and that
• 4:55:01
  Speaker 1: the poisoned shirt theory was possible. The administration of poison
• 4:55:06
  Speaker 1: in the form of medicine is another method which has
• 4:55:09
  Speaker 1: often been criminally employed. In France, the enema was at
• 4:55:14
  Speaker 1: one time frequently made use of for introducing arsenic, corrosive
• 4:55:18
  Speaker 1: sublement and opium into the system. The poisoner's aim in
• 4:55:24
  Speaker 1: such cases was to attribute the fatal effects which followed
• 4:55:28
  Speaker 1: to disease. Within recent years, a curious case was tried
• 4:55:33
  Speaker 1: at the Paris Court of Assizes in which a lady
• 4:55:37
  Speaker 1: was charged with attempting to poison her husband. It was
• 4:55:41
  Speaker 1: known that the couple had lived unhappily together and arrangements
• 4:55:45
  Speaker 1: had been made for a divorce. One morning, the husband
• 4:55:49
  Speaker 1: complained of a severe headache, and his wife suggested a
• 4:55:52
  Speaker 1: dose of antipyrine, which she gave him in some mineral water.
• 4:55:56
  Speaker 1: He remarked to her at the time that the draft
• 4:55:59
  Speaker 1: had a picureculiar taste. Later in the day she administered
• 4:56:03
  Speaker 1: sundry cups of coffee to him, but he grew rapidly worse,
• 4:56:07
  Speaker 1: and at night a doctor was summoned. He failed to
• 4:56:11
  Speaker 1: diagnose the complaint and called in other medical men, who
• 4:56:15
  Speaker 1: were equally puzzled. One thing which they all noticed was
• 4:56:19
  Speaker 1: a peculiar dilation of the pupils of the patient's eyes.
• 4:56:24
  Speaker 1: A consultation was held the next day, and shortly afterwards
• 4:56:28
  Speaker 1: one of the medical men received a note from the
• 4:56:30
  Speaker 1: lady in which she stated that her husband was black.
• 4:56:34
  Speaker 1: He was dead, more dead than any man I ever saw.
• 4:56:39
  Speaker 1: The doctor at once went to see the patient and
• 4:56:42
  Speaker 1: found him in a state of collapse. He bled him
• 4:56:45
  Speaker 1: twice and injected caffeine, but he still remained motionless. After
• 4:56:51
  Speaker 1: a time, it occurred to the doctor that the patient's
• 4:56:54
  Speaker 1: symptoms resembled those of atropine poisoning, and resorting to other measures,
• 4:57:00
  Speaker 1: he eventually brought him round. Then he remembered that the
• 4:57:03
  Speaker 1: lady had previously asked him for some morphine for herself,
• 4:57:08
  Speaker 1: and when he had refused it, she requested some atropine
• 4:57:12
  Speaker 1: for her dog's eyes. He wrote her a prescription for
• 4:57:16
  Speaker 1: a solution of atropine containing ten per cent of the
• 4:57:19
  Speaker 1: drug and took it to the chemist himself. On further inquiries,
• 4:57:24
  Speaker 1: it was proved that the lady had procured atropine upon
• 4:57:28
  Speaker 1: various other occasions by copying the doctor's prescription and forging
• 4:57:33
  Speaker 1: his signature. At the trial, the medical evidence was very conflicting,
• 4:57:38
  Speaker 1: but the consensus of opinion was in favor of the
• 4:57:41
  Speaker 1: theory that atropine had been administered in small, repeated doses.
• 4:57:47
  Speaker 1: The accused woman declared in her defense that atropine had
• 4:57:50
  Speaker 1: been put into the medicine for her husband in mistake
• 4:57:54
  Speaker 1: by the chemist who had dispensed it. There was no
• 4:57:58
  Speaker 1: evidence to support this theory, and she was found guilty
• 4:58:02
  Speaker 1: and sentenced to five years penal servitude. A strange method,
• 4:58:07
  Speaker 1: which said to have been employed by the Borgias and
• 4:58:10
  Speaker 1: was afterwards used in France, was a combination of arsenic
• 4:58:14
  Speaker 1: with the secretions or products of decomposition of an animal
• 4:58:19
  Speaker 1: to which it had been administered. The poison was prepared
• 4:58:23
  Speaker 1: by cutting open a pig and well sprinkling the carcass
• 4:58:27
  Speaker 1: with arsenic or other poison. Then it was left to putrefy,
• 4:58:32
  Speaker 1: after which the liquids that ran from the decaying mass
• 4:58:35
  Speaker 1: were collected, and these formed the finished poison. As science advances,
• 4:58:42
  Speaker 1: opening up fresh fields for research, and poisons of a
• 4:58:47
  Speaker 1: still more deadly nature are revealed, so the chemist sets
• 4:58:51
  Speaker 1: to work to discover methods for their certain detection, and
• 4:58:55
  Speaker 1: thus renders the poisoner's fiendish work more difficult. It is
• 4:59:00
  Speaker 1: well to remember that even the most deadly poisons have
• 4:59:04
  Speaker 1: their proper use, and in skilled hands, prove valuable instruments
• 4:59:09
  Speaker 1: in combating many diseases that afflict suffering humanity. End of
• 4:59:16
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four.