X-Rays as Detective.

Manawatu Herald, 25 October 1900, Page 3

X-Rays as Detective.

The notion of using Rontgen rays as an aid to the discovery of stolen property supposed to be concealed in the body of the thief was put into practice in Calcutta Gaol recently, but with small success. The subject of the experiment is a man accused of having stolen and swallowed a diamond worth io.ooo rupees in a Calcutta jeweller's shop. ' The investigation disclosed that he had something in bis throat, the Rontgen rays did not say what, and the localdoctors are considering the question of extracting it, the jeweller meanwhile anxiously. awaiting the result.' It seems that in. some of the thieves' schools in India a regular course of training is gone through in the art of " pouching," or concealing articles of value in the throat. The Englishman, a newspaper published in Calcutta, thus describes the process :— ••' At first a small piece of lead, attached to a thread, is swallowed, and guided by the action of the tongue to the orifice of the sac in the throat. As soon as this has been thoroughly learned the lead is coated with lime. This eats into the sac and enlarges it. " The size of the article to be pouched is gradually increased until it is said that- many-of the Indian thieves can pouch eight or ten rupees at once." The prosecution produced an old convict, who swallowed and reproduced dice the size of the missing diamond before the court.