THE SECRET POISONER

Otago Witness, Issue 4042, 1 September 1931, Page 10

THE SECRET POISONER

Back through the centuries arsenic has been the secret poisoner’s most insidious weapon. It has been the medium used for the murder of more people than any other death-dealing drug known to man. In the Middle Ages, when professional poisoners were common in Italy and France, it was the poison invariably preferred by those hired assassins for their foul work. Tofano, the infamous shedevil of Naples, manufactured a deadly concoction now known as “ aqua Tofano.’’ It is supjrosed to have been compounded of crystallised arsenic dissolved in water; in fact, nearly all the poisons employed criminally in the mediaeval times appear to have been some form or other of arsenic.

For many modern poisoners the whitepowdered drug has had a fatal fascination ; other murderers were chary of using it. They knew-that it “ told tales ” —after death! The notorious Dr Palmer poisoned one of his victims with it; Madeline Smith, Mrs Maybrick, and Frederick Seddon obtained the arsenic they wanted by soaking fly-papers in water.

Major Armstrong used it to poison his wife, but her body had been buried a whole year before he was arrested for attempting to poison Mr Martin, a fellowsolicitor. A noted amateur gardener. Armstrong used to mix his own special weed killer with the aid of white arsenic purchased in bulk from the local stores. When he was arrested, a twelve-mouth after his wife’s death, Armstrong was still carrying neatly made up packets of arsenic in his waistcoat pocket! It did not suggest innocence, and very materially added to the other damning evidence which finally placed the noose round his neek.

Death has resulted from the administration of two grains of white arsenic, but, as Dr Roche Lynch, the Home Office expert, said in his evidence in the Hearn case, four grains is a more adequate fatal dose. Against this Dr Lynch added th a. recoveries have taken place after a dos? of 100 grains and upwards. It depends upon the amount of illness immediately after; that is the amount of vomiting, the stomach thereby throwing off most of the arsenic that had been taken.

Arsenic has many other peculiarities, one of the most remarkable being that if this deadly drug is taken in gradually increasing doses the consumer often becomes immune from its ill effects. In some countries, especially in the southwest of Austria, arsenic eating is largely practised by men who nevertheless attain a healthy old age. Arsenic eaters, who generally begin the use of the drug secretly, say that it improves the complexion (Madeline Smith and Mrs Maybrick both said they used it for this purpose), increases the digestive powers, and so strengthens the recuperative organs as to enable the hearers of heavy burdens to climb mountains with ease. * At first a dose may be taken once a week, afterwards daily; and there are authenticated cases of men who consume six grains—enough to poison three men —at one dose without inconvenience. Once the habit is established it is impossible to give up arsenic eating. Terrible heart-gnawings follow any gradual attempt to stop the practice, and sudden cessation causes death.

Arsenic is used as a tonic for horses and cattle. All grooms are aware that a little of the deadly white powder given daily with the corn improves a horse’s coat, and makes the animal plump and fat. But, once given, it must not be suddenly stopped or the animal goes “ all to pieces.”

Another remarkable point about arsenic is its preservative effects on the human body, the frame and features remaining intact far longer than in eases of natural death. It is well known, too (although many poisoners appear to have overlooked, or forgotten, the damning fact), that traces of the drug remain in a dead body years after burial. In one case, for example, arsenic was found in the remains of a child after eight years’ burial, and another case is on record where the discovery was made 14 years after death.

Arsenic is used in the arts, in numbers of manufacturing processes, in patent medicines, in making soap and fireworks, as a weed-killer, rat poison, fly poison, and sheep dip. From these many uses it is easy to see that this poison surrounds us on all sides, and although the criminal who “ knows his business ” usually avoids it, there are constantly cases cropping up of accidental poisoning by arsenic. Many people will remember the arsenical beer scare. In less than two years—l9oo-01—no fewer than 79 persons died in England and Wales from poisoning set up by arsenic accidentally introduced into beer. At Burslem, too, as recently as last year, sweets were accidentally dusted with white arsenic instead of sugar, a box containing enough of the poison to kill some thousands 'of people being afterwards found in a cellar at the neighbouring town of Stoke-on-Trent.

Still another point not too generally known is that arsenic is an external as well as an internal poison. After being applied to any wound or raw surface arsenic is absorbed into the body and

poisons in similar fashion as if swallowed. In one case a woman applied an arsenical solution to her head to cure a breaking out. Erysipelas followed and a sort of paralysis. After being ill for some time she died. Poisoning has occurred from the fine dust given off by wallpapers containing arsenical pigments, the burning of coke containing arsenic, accidental taking of sheep dip, weed-killer, rat paste, etc., and applying arsenical soaps and cosmetics to the skin. ¥ * VIt used to be possible for people to procure copious supplies of arsenic at the shop of a chemist. But nowadays, because of generations of discovered crime, no one can get a grain of poison from a druggist without the greatest difficulty. Arsenic is one of the poisons, placed in part 1 of the Poisons Schedule, and therefore cannot be sold except under certain restrictions. It must not, for example, be sold to any person unknown to the seller, unless introduced by some person known to the seller, and upon every such sale the seller must, before delivery, make, or cause to be made, an entry in a book kept for that purpose, the date of the sale, name and address of the purchaser, name and quality of the article sold, and the purpose for which it is stated by the purchaser to be required. To this entry he must obtain the signature of the purchaser and the person, if any, who introduced him. In view of these drastic restrictions one would think that the law had very effectively limited the power of the poisoner to obtain possession of his instrument of destruction. So it has —up to a point. But there are loop-holes, as all modern poison cases clearly testify. You can, through the usual channels, buy no arsenic without conforming to the above regulations; but elsewhere you can purchase a ton load of arsenical-laden weed-killer if you are so minded, and the law will not say you nay. In addition to weed-killer the potential poisoner has alternative death dealers—such commodities as fly-papers, sheep dip, fruit sprays, rat paste, etc., all of which has a considerable amount of arsenic in their composition, and which can be purchased from countless shops without a question being asked. Surely this is a grave anomaly which ought to ne rectified—and at once! All substances, indeed, which are “ poisonous in any dangerous degree ought to be included in the Poisons Schedule, and their sale governed by the same restrictions as control the sale of such a deadly poison as arsenic itself. Until this is done the grim machinations of the poisoner will still have ample scope and opportunity to secretly menace the sanctity of human life. —Glasgow Weekly Herald.