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 JavaScript Mini−FAQ
By Danny Goodman

All materials Copyright © 1997−2002 Developer Shed, Inc. except where otherwise noted.
This Mini−FAQ is posted periodically to the comp.lang.javascript newsgroup. It covers the language through
JavaScript 1.2, the version deployed in Netscape Communicator 4.0x, plus some compatibility items with
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0x. The focus here is on client−side JavaScript.

Where is the online documentation for JavaScript?

Current JavaScript docs (for Netscape) are available at:
• http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/handbook/javascript/index.html

A zipped set of Netscape's HTML documents is available at:

• http://developer.netscape.com/library/documentation/jshtm.zip

New JavaScript features in Netscape Communicator can be found at:

• http:developer.netscape.com/library/documentation/communicator/jsguide/js1_2.htm

Documentation for Microsoft's implementation of its core language (called JScript) is at:
• http://www.microsoft.com/JScript/us/techinfo/jsdocs.htm

Also be sure to download Microsoft's document object model description. You can find a link from:
• http://www.microsoft.com/JScript/

Documentation for JScript in Internet Explorer 4 is part of Microsoft's Internet Client SDK documentation:
• http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/sdk/inetsdk/asetup/

Where is the official bug list for JavaScript?

Netscape has collected and published a list of bugs for Navigator 3.0x and Communicator. While not
necessarily 100% complete, it is quite extensive:
• http://developer.netscape.com/

Can JavaScript do any of the following?

• read or write random text files on the local disk or on the server?
• invoke automatic printing of the current document?
• control browser e−mail, news reader, or bookmark windows and menus?
• access or modify browser preferences settings?
• capture a visitor's e−mail address or IP address?
• quietly send me an e−mail when a visitor loads my page?
• launch client processes (e.g.,Unix sendmail,Win apps,Mac scripts)?
• capture individual keystrokes?
• change a document's background .gif after the page has loaded?
• change the current browser window size, location, or options?
• get rid of that dumb "JavaScript Alert:" line in alert dialogs?

No, however many of these items are possible in Communicator 4.0. Those items perceived to be security
risks (e.g., access browser settings) require "signed JavaScript". MSIE JScript version 2 (see below) can
read/write local files via ActiveX−−but only from server−side scripting.

1
 JavaScript Mini−FAQ
Why won't my script work under MS Internet Explorer 3 for the Mac? JScript is available on the Macintosh
starting with 3.0.1 (which is different from the Windows 3.01). I am still evaluating the Mac implementation,
whose object model and other support for JavaScript does not necessarily jive with the Windows version (e.g.,
the Mac version supports the Image object for mouse rollovers). MSIE 3.0.1 runs on Mac 68K and PPC.

Why won't my Navigator 3.0x script run under MSIE 3 for Windows 95?
Most language features and objects that are new in Navigator 3.0 are not supported in MSIE 3.0, although
several Navigator 3.0 items have been added to JScript version 2 (see below). Here's the quick list of items not
available in MSIE 3.0:

UNSUPPORTED OBJECTS

• Image −− this means no onMouseOver swappable images in MSIE 3

• Area −− no onMouseOvers
• Applet
• FileUpload
• Array −− hard−wired (JS1.0) arrays OK; implemented in JScript v.2.
• MimeType
• Plugin

UNSUPPORTED PROPERTIES / METHODS / EVENT HANDLERS OF SUPPORTED OBJECTS

• Window
onerror closed blur() focus() scroll() onBlur= onFocus=
• Location
reload() replace()
• Document
applets[] domain embeds[] images[] URL
• Link
onMouseOut=
• Form
reset() onReset=
• (All Form Elements)
type
• Navigator
mimeTypes[] plugins[] javaEnabled()
• String
prototype split()

One more item: the <SCRIPT SRC="xxx.js"> facility for loading external JavaScript library files runs on the
copy of MSIE 3.02 for Windows that I use (with JScript.dll versions 1 and 2). However there are also reports
that this is not working for some users. Try specifying a complete URL for the SRC attribute.

How is compatibility with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4?

2
 JavaScript Mini−FAQ
IE4 adheres closely to a standard called ECMAScript, which is essentially the core JavaScript 1.1 language.
This does not cover the document object model (another standard being studied). Navigator 3 document
objects not supported in IE4 are:
FileUpload navigator.mimeTypes[] navigator.plugins[]
The JScript.dll shipping with IE4 is version 3.

Why doesn't the document.cookie work with MSIE?

It does, but not when you access the HTML file from your local hard disk, as you are probably doing during
testing. Be aware, however, that MSIE limits you to one cookie name=value pair per domain, whereas
Netscape allows up to 20 pairs per domain.

What's new in Microsoft JScript version 2?

More than can fit here. Some items are compatible with Navigator 3.0+ (such as the Array object). Others are
unique to MSIE, such as the Dictionary and TextStream objects (acccessible via ActiveX). Additions are to
the core language, not the document object model. New functions let you determine the JScript version
installed in IE, but JScript version 2 must be installed to get this data. If you use version 2 language items,
see:
• http://www.microsoft.com/JScript/
for info about including a link button on your page to encourage visitors to upgrade their IE 3.0x to JScript
version 2.

How do I know if I have JScript version 2 installed on my PC?

Installation of MSIE 3.02 does not guarantee JScript version 2. Search your disk for 'jscript.dll'. Get the file's
properties, and click on the Version tab. The File version should begin with '2'. If not, download the latest
version from Microsoft (installer is 442KB).

How can I e−mail forms?

The most reliable way is to use straight HTML via a Submit style button. Set the ACTION of the <FORM> to
a mailto: URL and the ENCTYPE attribute to "text/plain". For security reasons, the
form.submit() method does not submit a form whose ACTION is a mailto: URL. Microsoft Internet
Explorer 3.0x does not e−mail forms of any kind.

How do I script a visit counter?

At best, a client−side script can show the visitor how many times he or she has been to the site (storing the
count in a local cookie). A count of total hits to the server requires a server−side CGI program. I have an
article on cookies in Netscape's View Source developer newsletter archive (in the "JavaScript Apostle"
section).

Why is my script not working inside a table?

There is a long−standing bug with JavaScript and tables. Do not place <SCRIPT> tags inside <TD> tags.
Instead, start the <SCRIPT> tag before the <TD> tag, and document.write() the <TD> tag through the
</TD> tag. I go one step further, and document.write() the entire table, interlacing script statements
where needed.

3
 JavaScript Mini−FAQ

After window.open(), how do I access objects and scripts in the other window?
First, be sure to assign an 'opener' property to the new window if you are using a version of JS that doesn't
do it automatically (Nav 3.0x and MSIE 3.0x do it automatically). The following script should be a part of
_every_ new window creation:

var newWind = window.open("xxx","xxx","xxx")

// u fill in blanks
if (newWind.opener == null) { // for Nav 2.0x
newWind.opener = self // this creates and sets a new property
}<

To access items in the new window from the original window, the 'newWind' variable must not be damaged
(by unloading), because it contains the only reference to the other window you can use (the name you assign
as the second parameter of open() is not valid for scripted window references; only for TARGET
attributes). To access a form element property in the new window, use:

newWind.document.formName.elementName.property

From the new window, the 'opener' property is a reference to the original window (or frame, if the
window.open() call was made from a frame). To reference a form element in the original window:

opener.document.formName.elementName.property

Finally, if the new window was opened from one frame in the main browser window, and a script in the new
window needs access to another frame in the main browser window, use:

opener.parent.otherFrameName.document.formName. ...

How do I use JavaScript to password−protect my Web site?

There are any number of schemes (I've used some myself). Most of them fail to deflect the knowledgeable
JavaScript programmer, because no matter how you encode the correct password (e.g., bit shifting), both the
encoding algorithms and the result have to be in the script −− whose source code is easily accessible. If you're
only interested in keeping out casual visitors, this method may suffice.

A more secure way is to set the password to be the name or pathname of the HTML file on your site that is the
'true' starting page. Set the location to the value entered into the field (unfortunately, you cannot extract the
value property of a password object in Navigator 2.0x). Entry of a bogus password yields an 'invalid URL'
error.

If the protected pages need additional security (e.g., an infidel has managed to get the complete URL), you
might also consider setting a temporary cookie on the password page; then test for the existence of that cookie
upon entry to every protected page, and throw the infidel back to the password page.

What does the IE4 "Access Denied" error mean when accessing a new window?
The "Access Denied" error in any browser usually means that a script in one window or frame is trying to

4
 JavaScript Mini−FAQ
access another window or frame whose document's domain is different from the document containing the
script. What can seem odd about this is that you get this error in IE4 frequently when a script in one window
generates a new window (with window.open()), and content for that other window is dynamically created
from the same script doing the opening. The focus() method also triggers the error.

In my experience, this occurs only when the scripts are being run from the local hard disk. You get a clue
about the situation in the titlebar of the new window: It forces an about:blank URL to the new window, which
is a protocol:domain that differs from wherever your main window's script comes from. If, however, you put
the same main window document on a server, and access it via http:, the problem goes away.

There is a workaround for the local−only problem: In the first parameter of the window.open() method call,
load a real document (even if it is a content−free HTML document) into the sub−window before using
document.write() to generate content for the subwindow. The loading action 'legitimizes' the window as
coming from the same domain as your main window's document.

(This solution does not affect scripts that load a page from a secure server into a separate window or frame.
An http: protocol in one window and https: in the other−−even if from the same server.domain−−yield a
security mismatch and "Access Denied." Setting the document.domain properties of both pages may solve the
problem (but I am unable to test it for sure).)

...............................................................................................................................................................................15
Other documents randomly have
different content
those liable to mental worry, and all brain workers, its action is often
a boon, the only danger being in overstepping the boundary of
moderation to excess. It is not suitable to every constitution, and
those who can trace to it evil effects should not continue its use.
 CHAPTER XIX
POISON HABITS

There is a very peculiar property attached to poisons, especially

those possessing anodyne properties—that is, they are capable of
forming the most enslaving habits known to mankind. Thousands of
people to-day are enchained in the slavery of the poison habit in one
form or another, and very few are ever successful in wresting them
selves free when once it has been contracted. The habit is formed in
the most insidious manner. Often, in the first instance, some narcotic
drug is recommended to relieve pain or induce sleep. In a short time
the original dose fails to produce the desired effect, it has to be
increased, and afterwards still further increased, until the victim
finds he cannot do without it, and a terrible craving for the drug is
created. By-and-by the stupefying action affects the brain, the moral
character suffers, and the unfortunate being is at last ready to do
anything to obtain a supply of the drug that is now his master.
This is not an overdrawn picture, but one of which instances are
constantly to be met with. The enslaving habit of alcohol, when once
contracted, is too well known to need description. Opium comes
next in the point of influence it exerts over its victims, and a very
small percentage ever free themselves from the habit when it is
once contracted. In most instances it is taken in the first place to
relieve some severe pain, as in De Quincey's case. He says, in his
Confessions of an Opium Eater, "It was not for the purpose of
creating pleasure, but of mitigating pain in the severest degree, that
I first began to use opium as an article of daily diet." Like others, he
was compelled to increase the dose gradually, until at last he
consumed the enormous quantity of 320 grains of the drug a day.
He graphically describes the struggle he first had to reduce the daily
dose, and found that to a certain point it could be reduced with
ease, but after that point, further reduction caused intense suffering.
However, a crisis arrived, and he writes, "I saw that I must die if I
continued the opium. I determined, therefore, if that should be
required, to die in throwing it off. I apprehend at this time I was
taking from 50 or 60 grains to 150 grains a day. My first task was to
reduce it to 40, to 30, and as fast as I could to 12 grains. I
triumphed; but think not my sufferings were ended. Think of me, as
one, even when four months had passed, still agitated, writhing,
throbbing, palpitating, shattered; and much perhaps in the situation
of him who has been racked." Other cases are commonly met with in
this country, where opium eaters take on an average from 60 to 80
grains of the drug a day. The smallest quantity which has proved
fatal in the adult is 4½ grains; in other cases enormous quantities
have been taken with impunity; and Guy states recovery once took
place after no less than eight ounces of solid opium had been
swallowed.
Morphine, the chief alkaloid of opium, is also abused by many, and is
swallowed as well as used by injection under the skin. Its action is
very similar to that of opium. It has been recently given on good
authority, that in Chicago—that city of hurrying men and restless
women—over thirty-five thousand persons habitually take
subcutaneous injections of morphine to save themselves from the
pains and terrors of neuralgia, insomnia, and nervousness, etc. To a
delicate woman one grain of this drug has proved fatal, yet, under
the influence of habit, a young lady has been known to take from 15
to 20 grains daily. A man in a good position, and head of a large
commercial house, contracted the habit of taking morphine from a
prescription he had had given to him containing 4 grains of the drug.
As the habit grew, he would have the medicine prepared by four
different chemists daily, and swallow the contents of each bottle for
a dose, until he took on an average over 24 grains a day. This being
put a stop to by his friends, he commenced to take chloroform,
which he would purchase in small quantities until he had collected a
bottleful, and then he would drink it, usually mixed with whisky. He
eventually had to be placed under restraint.
Chloroform is not often taken habitually, but several instances have
been met with where as much as two ounces have been swallowed
by a man. The effects, when taken by the mouth, are similar to
those which follow its inhalation. Chlorodyne, which generally
contains both morphine and prussic acid in its composition, is also
much abused, especially by women. Some women have been known
to consume two ounces a week of this preparation. Cocaine, an
active principle of the Erythroxylum coca, is capable of exciting a
powerful craving, which apparently holds its victims in a grip of iron
until they are willing to spend any amount of money in obtaining the
drug. Arsenic eating is a habit fortunately rare in this country,
although cases have been met with in which women have gradually
become addicted to taking large quantities for improving their
complexions. The peasants in some parts of Styria and Hungary
have long been known to eat arsenic, taking, it is said, from two to
five grains daily; the men doing so in order that they may gain
strength and be able to endure fatigue, and the women that they
may improve their complexions. Dr. Maclagan, of Edinburgh, states
he saw a Styrian eat a piece of arsenious acid weighing over four
grains.
Sleeplessness is a frequent cause of the formation of a poison habit,
and for this purpose chloral hydrate, perhaps, is capable of
producing more serious results than any other drug of its class. The
fact that it accumulates in the system, and that the dose needs
constantly to be increased, always renders its use dangerous in
unskilled hands. Many gifted men have fallen victims to the habit,
among others Dante Rossetti, who seldom was without a bottle of
the narcotic near him. Latterly, sulphonal, a drug derived from coal
tar, possessing hypnotic properties, has been largely taken; and
antipyrine, now a popular remedy for headache, is capable of
forming a pernicious and dangerous habit. The practice of self-
dosing with drugs of this description cannot be too strongly
deprecated.
Some people form a curious habit of taking one drug till at last they
become imbued with the idea that that only and nothing else, will
have any effect on them. The only remedy Carlyle would ever take,
according to the late Sir Richard Quain who was his medical adviser,
was Grey powder. "Grey powder was his favourite remedy when he
had that wretched dyspepsia from which he suffered, and which was
fully accounted for by the fact that he was particularly fond of very
nasty gingerbread. Many times I have seen him, sitting in the
chimney corner, smoking a clay pipe and eating this gingerbread."
Oliver Goldsmith also laboured under the confirmed belief that the
only medicine that would have any effect on him was "James'
Powder." He doctored himself with this favourite nostrum whenever
he felt unwell, and believed it to be a cure for all ills.
According to a West End physician quite a new and most
reprehensible vice has recently become fashionable—viz., a craze
that has arisen among women for smoking green tea, in the form of
cigarettes. Though adopted by some fair ladies merely as a pastime,
not a few of its votaries are women of high education and mental
attainments. "Among my patients," he states, "suffering from
extreme nervousness and insomnia, is a young lady, highly
distinguished, at Girton. Another is a lady novelist, whose books are
widely read, and who habitually smoked twenty or thirty of these
cigarettes nightly when writing, for their stimulating effect." Though
tea does not contain a trace of any poisonous principle, it can, when
thus misused, exert a most harmful influence. Doubtless, the high
pressure at which most of the dwellers in our great cities now live,
and the worry of too much brain work on one hand, or the lack of
occupation on the other, is one of the chief causes of taking up
habits of this kind.
One of the best remedies, and one which it is to be hoped will
eventually come to pass is, that the Legislature should render
poisons less easy of purchase, by restricting the sale of every drug
or compound in the nature of a poison to the properly qualified
chemist, who, by his training and special knowledge, is alone
competent to sell these substances. Incalculable harm is done by
habits such as we have alluded to, and it is better often to endure
pain and torment, than to fly constantly to what in the end will only
inflict worse punishment.
 CHAPTER XX
POISONS IN FICTION

From a very early period poisoning mysteries have been woven into
romance and story, and in later times have been a favourite theme
for both novelist and dramatist. But unfortunately, the scientific
knowledge of writers of fiction, as a rule, is of a very limited
description, and the effects attributed by them to certain drugs are
usually as fabulous as the romances of the olden times. They tell us
of mysterious poisons of untold power, an infinitesimal quantity of
which will cause instantaneous death without leaving a trace behind.
They describe anæsthetics so powerful, that a whiff from a bottle is
sufficient to produce immediate insensibility for any period desired.
In fact, the novelist has a pharmacopœia of his own. After all, why
should we question or cavil, and wish to analyse it in the prosaic test
tube of modern science; for take away the marvels and mysteries
and you kill the romance. The novel performs its mission if it
succeeds in interesting and amusing us, and the story-teller has
accomplished the object of his art when he is successful in weaving
the possible with the impossible, so that we can scarce perceive it.
That master of fiction, Dumas, gives us an instance of this, in his
wonderfully fascinating adventures of the Count Monte Christo.
Nothing seems impossible to this extraordinary individual, and
incident after incident of the most romantic and exciting nature
crowd one upon another throughout the story; yet so beautifully
blended by the wonderful imagination of the author, that it enthrals
us to the end. The Count, who is supposed to have studied the art
of medicine in the East, has always a remedy at hand for every
emergency, from hashish, in which he is a profound believer, to his
mysterious stimulating elixir, described as "of the colour of blood,
preserved in a phial of Bohemian glass." A single drop of this
marvellous fluid, if allowed to fall on the lips, will, almost before it
reaches them, restore the marble and inanimate form to life. His pill
boxes were composed of emeralds and precious stones of huge size,
and their contents consisted of drugs, whose effects were beyond
conception. His knowledge of chemistry and toxicology is equally
astonishing, as instanced in the conversation he holds with Madame
de Villefort, who, for nefarious purposes, desires to improve her
knowledge of poisons. Monte Christo discourses on the poisonous
properties of brucine, a drug rarely used in England, but largely used
in France. "Suppose," says the Count, "you were to take a
millegramme of this poison the first day, two millegrammes the
second day, and so on. Well, at the end of ten days you would have
taken a centigramme: at the end of twenty days, increasing another
millegramme, you would have taken three hundred centigrammes;
that is to say, a dose you would support without inconvenience, and
which would be very dangerous for any other person who had not
taken the same precautions as yourself. Well, then, at the end of a
month, when drinking water from the same carafe, you would kill
the person who had drunk this water, without your perceiving
otherwise than from slight inconvenience that there was any
poisonous substance mingled with the water." The Count thus
explains the doctrine of immunity from a poison, by accustoming the
system to its effect in small doses for a length of time, a process
which is actually possible with some drugs, but not with all. His
satirical description of the bungling of the common poisoner, as
compared to the fine subtlety and cunning he advocates, is also
worth quoting: "Amongst us a simpleton, possessed by the demon
of hate or cupidity, who has an enemy to destroy, or some near
relation to dispose of, goes straight to the grocer's or druggist's,
gives a false name, which leads more easily to his detection than his
real one, and purchases, under a pretext that the rats prevent him
from sleeping, five or six pennyworth of arsenic. If he is really a
cunning fellow he goes to five or six different druggists or grocers,
and thereby becomes only five or six times more easily traced; then,
when he has acquired his specific, he administers duly to his enemy
or near kinsman a dose of arsenic which would make a mammoth or
mastodon burst, and which, without rhyme or reason, makes his
victim utter groans which alarm the whole neighbourhood. Then
arrive a crowd of policemen and constables. They fetch a doctor,
who opens the dead body, and collects from the entrails and
stomach a quantity of arsenic in a spoon. Next day a hundred
newspapers relate the fact, with the names of the victim and the
murderer. The same evening the grocer or grocers, druggist or
druggists, come and say, 'It was I who sold the arsenic to the
gentleman accused'; and rather than not recognize the guilty
purchaser, they will recognize twenty. Then the foolish criminal is
taken, imprisoned, interrogated, confronted, confounded,
condemned, and cut off by hemp or steel; or, if she be a woman of
any consideration, they lock her up for life. This is the way in which
you northerners understand chemistry." And so he endeavours to
incite a woman, who is already anxiously contemplating a series of
terrible crimes.
The recital of the ingenious experiments of the Abbé Adelmonte is a
piece of clever construction, as the quotation will show. "The Abbé,"
said Monte Christo, "had a remarkably fine garden full of vegetables,
flowers, and fruit. From amongst these vegetables he selected the
most simple—a cabbage, for instance. For three days he watered
this cabbage with a distillation of arsenic; on the third, the cabbage
began to droop and turn yellow. At that moment he cut it. In the
eyes of everybody it seemed fit for table, and preserved its
wholesome appearance. It was only poisoned to the Abbé
Adelmonte. He then took the cabbage to the room where he had
rabbits, for the Abbé Adelmonte had a collection of rabbits, cats, and
guinea-pigs, equally fine as his collection of vegetables, flowers, and
fruit. Well, the Abbé Adelmonte took a rabbit and made it eat a leaf
of the cabbage. The rabbit died. What magistrate would find or even
venture to insinuate anything against this? What procureur du roi
has ever ventured to draw up an accusation against M. Magendie or
M. Flourens, in consequence of the rabbits, cats, and guinea-pigs
they have killed? Not one. So, then, the rabbit dies, and justice takes
no notice. This rabbit dead, the Abbé Adelmonte has its entrails
taken out by his cook and thrown on the dunghill; on this dunghill
was a hen, who, pecking these intestines, was, in her turn, taken ill,
and dies next day. At the moment when she was struggling in the
convulsions of death, a vulture was flying by (there are a good many
vultures in Adelmonte's country); this bird darts on the dead bird
and carries it away to a rock, where it dines off its prey. Three days
afterwards this poor vulture, who has been very much indisposed
since that dinner, feels very giddy, suddenly, whilst flying aloft in the
clouds, and falls heavily into a fish-pond. The pike, eels, and carp
eat greedily always, as everybody knows—well, they feast on the
vulture. Well, suppose the next day, one of these eels, or pike, or
carp is served at your table, poisoned, as they are to the third
generation. Well, then, your guest will be poisoned in the fifth
generation, and die at the end of eight or ten days, of pains in the
intestines, sickness, or abscess of the pylorus. The doctors open the
body, and say, with an air of profound learning, 'The subject has
died of a tumour on the liver, or typhoid fever.'"
After attempting to kill half the household with brucine, Madame de
Villefort changes her particular poison for a simple narcotic,
recognized by Monte Christo (who in this instance frustrates the
murderer) as being dissolved in alcohol. The name of the latter
poison is not told us by the novelist, but on the doctor's examination
of the suspected liquid we read, "He took from its silver case a small
bottle of nitric acid, dropped a little of it into the liquor, which
immediately changed to a blood-red colour."
Perhaps the most curious method of poisoning ever used in fiction is
that introduced by the late Mr. James Payn in his novel, "Halves."
The poisoner uses finely chopped horse-hair as a medium for getting
rid of her niece. In this way she brings on a disease which puzzles
the doctor, until one day he comes across the would-be murderess
pulling the horse-hair out of the drawing-room sofa, which causes
him to suspect her at once. This ingenious lady introduced the
chopped horse-hair into the pepper-pot used by her victim. The
inimitable Count Fosco, whom Wilkie Collins introduces into "The
Woman in White," was supposed to possess a remarkable
knowledge of chemistry, although he says, "Only twice did I call
science to my aid," in working out his plot to abduct Lady Glyde. His
media were simple: "A medicated glass of water and a medicated
bottle of smelling-salts relieved her of all further embarrassment and
alarm." This genial villain waxes eloquent on the science of
chemistry in his confession. "Chemistry!" he exclaims, "has always
had irresistible attractions for me from the enormous, the illimitable
power which the knowledge of it confers. Chemists—I assert it
emphatically—might sway, if they pleased, the destinies of humanity.
Mind, they say, rules the world. But what rules the mind? The body
(follow me closely here) lies at the mercy of the most omnipotent of
all potentates—the chemist. Give me—Fosco—chemistry; and when
Shakespeare has conceived Hamlet, and sits down to execute the
conception—with a few grains of powder dropped into his daily food,
I will reduce his mind, by the action of his body, till his pen pours
out the most abject drivel that has ever degraded paper. Under
similar circumstances revive me the illustrious Newton. I guarantee
that when he sees the apple fall he shall eat it, instead of
discovering the principle of gravitation. Nero's dinner shall transform
Nero into the mildest of men before he has done digesting it, and
the morning draught of Alexander the Great shall make Alexander
run for his life at the first sight of the enemy the same afternoon. On
my sacred word of honour it is lucky for Society that modern
chemists are, by incomprehensible good fortune, the most harmless
of mankind. The mass are worthy fathers of families, who keep
shops. The few are philosophers besotted with admiration for the
sound of their own lecturing voices, visionaries who waste their lives
on fantastic impossibilities, or quacks whose ambition soars no
higher than our corns."
In "Armadale," the same novelist introduces us to a poisoner of the
deepest dye in the person of Miss Gwilt. This fair damsel, whose
auburn locks seemed to have possessed an irresistible attraction for
the opposite sex, was addicted to taking laudanum to soothe her
troubled nerves, and first tried to mix a dose with some lemonade
she had prepared for her husband's namesake and friend, whom she
wished out of the way. This attempt failing, and a second one, to
scuttle a yacht in which he was sailing, proving futile also, he was
finally lured to a sanatorium in London, where she had arranged for
him to be placed to sleep in a room into which a poisonous gas
(presumably carbonic acid) was to be passed. At the last moment
she discovers her husband has taken the place of her victim, and in
a revulsion of feeling she rescues him, and ends her own life instead
in the poisoned chamber. According to the story, the medical
investigation which followed this tragedy ended in discovering that
she had died of apoplexy; a fact which had it occurred in real life
would not have redounded to the credit of the medical men who
conducted it.
The heroine of Mr. Benson's novel, "The Rubicon," poisons herself
with prussic acid of unheard of strength, which she discovers among
some photographic chemicals.
On the stage, "poisoning" has gone somewhat out of fashion with
modern dramatists, although it was a common thing in years gone
by for the villain of the play to swallow a cup of cold poison in the
last act, and after several dying speeches to fall suddenly flat on his
back and die to slow music. The death of Cleopatra, described by
Shakespeare as resulting from the bite of a venomous snake, is like
no clinical description of the final effects of death from the bite of
any known snake. Beverley, in "The Gamester," takes a dose of
strong poison in the fifth act, and afterwards makes several fairly
long speeches before he apparently feels the effects, and finally
succumbs. The description of the death of Juliet, which
Shakespeare, in all probability, conceived from reading the effects
that followed the drinking of morion or mandragora wine, is an
accurate description of death from that drug. The use of this
anodyne preparation to deaden pain dates from ancient times, and it
is stated it was a common practice for women to administer it to
those about to suffer the penalty of the law by being crucified. We
have another instance of the fabulous effects ascribed to poisons by
the early playwrights, in Massinger's play, "The Duke of Milan."
Francisco dusts over a plant some poisonous powder and hands it to
Eugenia. Ludovico approaches, and kisses the lady's hand but twice,
and then dies from the effects of the poison.
Miss Helen Mathers, in one of her recent works, viz., "The Sin of
Hagar," a story warranted to thrill the soul of "Sweet Seventeen,"
makes some extraordinary discoveries which will be new to
chemists. For instance, she tells us of strychnine that actually
discolours a glass of whisky and water. One of the characters, a
frisky old dowager, professes to be an amateur chemist, and this
lady, we are gravely informed by the novelist, "detects the presence
of the strychnine in the glass of whisky and water at a glance."
But Miss Mathers has still another poison, whose properties will
doubtless be a revelation to scientists, and it is with this marvellous
body the "double-dyed villainess" of the story puts an end to her
woes. For convenience she carries it about with her concealed in a
ring, and when at last she decides on committing suicide, we are
told "she simply placed the ring to her lips, a strange odour spread
through the room, and she instantly lay dead."
Sufficient eccentricities of this kind in fiction might be enumerated to
fill a volume, but we must forbear. It is perhaps hardly necessary to
state that the lady novelist is the greatest sinner in this respect, and
stranger poisons are evolved from her fertile brain than were ever
known to man.
 CHAPTER XXI
THE LAMBETH POISON MYSTERIES

Towards the close of the year 1891 and the early part of 1892, public
interest was excited by the mysterious deaths of several young
women of the "unfortunate" class residing in the neighbourhood of
Lambeth. The first case was that of a girl named Matilda Clover, who
lived in Lambeth Road. On the night of October 20, 1891, she spent
the evening at a music-hall in company with a man, who returned
with her to her lodgings about nine o'clock. Shortly afterwards she
was seen to go out alone, and she purchased some bottled beer,
which she carried to her rooms. After a little time the man left the
house.
At three o'clock in the morning the inmates of the house were
aroused by the screams of a woman, and on the landlady entering
Matilda Clover's room, she found the unfortunate girl lying across
the bed in the greatest agony. Medical aid was sent for, and the
assistant of a neighbouring doctor saw the girl, and judged she was
suffering from the effects of drink. He prescribed a sedative mixture,
but the girl got worse, and, after a further convulsion, died on the
following morning. The medical man whose assistant had seen her
the previous night, gave a certificate that death was due to delirium
tremens and syncope, and Matilda Clover was buried at Tooting.
A few weeks afterwards a woman called Ellen Donworth, who
resided in Duke Street, Westminster Bridge Road, is stated to have
received a letter, in consequence of which she went out between six
and seven in the evening. About eight o'clock she was found in
Waterloo Road in great agony, and died while she was being
conveyed to St. Thomas's Hospital. Before her death she made a
statement, that a man with a dark beard and wearing a high hat had
given her "two drops of white stuff" to drink. In this case a post-
mortem examination was made and on analysis both strychnine and
morphine were found in the stomach, proving that the woman had
been poisoned.
These cases had almost been forgotten, when, some six months
afterwards, attention was again aroused by the mysterious deaths of
two girls named Alice Marsh and Emma Shrivell, who lodged in
Stamford Street. On the evening of April 11, 1892, a man, who one
of the girls in her dying testimony called "Fred," and who she
described as a doctor, called to see them, and together they partook
of tea. The man stayed till 2 a.m., and during the evening gave them
both "three long pills."
Half an hour after the man left the house, both girls were found in a
dying condition. While they were being removed to the hospital Alice
Marsh died in the cab, and Emma Shrivell lived for only six hours
afterwards. The result of an analysis of the stomach and organs
revealed the fact that death in each case had been caused by
strychnine.
There was absolutely no evidence beyond the vague description of
the man for the police to work upon, and this case, like the others,
with which at first it was not connected, seemed likely to remain
among the unsolved mysteries; when by the following curious chain
of circumstances, the perpetrator of these cold-blooded crimes was
at last brought to justice.
Some time after the deaths of the two girls Marsh and Shrivell, a Dr.
Harper, of Barnstaple, received a letter, in which the writer stated,
that he had indisputable evidence that the doctor's son, who had
recently qualified as a medical practitioner in London, had poisoned
two girls—Marsh and Shrivell—and that he, the writer, required
£1,500 to suppress it. Dr. Harper placed this letter in the hands of
the police, with the result, that on June 3, 1892, a man named
Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, was arrested on the charge of sending
a threatening letter. He was brought up at Bow Street on this charge
for several days, when it transpired that in the preceding November
a well-known London physician had also received a letter, in which
the writer declared that he had evidence to show that the physician
had poisoned a Miss Clover with strychnine, which evidence he could
purchase for £2,500, and so save himself from ruin.
Neill Cream was remanded, and in the meanwhile the body of
Matilda Clover was exhumed, and the contents of the stomach sent
to Dr. Stevenson, one of the Government analysts, for examination.
He discovered the presence of strychnine, and came to the
conclusion that some one had administered a fatal dose to her.
An inquest was then held on the body of Matilda Clover, with the
result that James Neill, or Neill Cream, was committed on the charge
of wilful murder.
This man's lodgings were searched after his arrest, and a curious
piece of paper was discovered, on which, written in pencil in his
handwriting, were the initials "M. C.," and opposite to them two
dates, and then a third date, viz. October 20, which was the date of
Matilda Clover's death. On the same paper, in connection with the
initials "E. S.," was also found two dates, one being April 11, which
was the date of Emma Shrivell's death. There was also found in his
possession a paper bearing the address of Marsh and Shrivell, and it
was afterwards proved that he had said on more than one occasion
that he knew them well.
In his room a quantity of small pills were discovered, each
containing from one-sixteenth to one-twenty-second of a grain of
strychnine, also fifty-four other bottles of pills, seven of which
contained strychnine, and a bottle containing one hundred and sixty-
eight pills, each containing one-twenty-second of a grain of
strychnine. These, it is supposed, he obtained as an agent for the
Harvey Drug Co. of America. It was found he had purchased a
quantity of empty gelatine capsules from a chemist in Parliament
Street, which there is little doubt he had used to administer a
number of the small pills in a poisonous dose.
Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, was tried for the wilful murder of
Matilda Clover at the Central Criminal Court, before Mr. Justice
Hawkins, on October 18, 1892, the trial lasting five days.
It transpired that Cream, who had received some medical education
and styled himself a "doctor," came to this country from America on
October 1, 1891, and on arriving in London first stayed at Anderton's
Hotel, in Fleet Street. Shortly afterwards he took apartments in
Lambeth, and became engaged to a lady living at Berkhampstead.
He was identified as having been seen in the company of Matilda
Clover, and also by a policeman, as the man who left the house in
Stamford Street on the night that Marsh and Shrivell were murdered.
Dr. Stevenson, who made the analysis of the body of Matilda Clover
on May 6, 1892, stated in his evidence that he found strychnine in
the stomach, liver, and brain, and that quantitatively he obtained
one-sixteenth of a grain of strychnine from two pounds of animal
matter. He also examined the organs from the bodies of Alice Marsh
and Emma Shrivell. He found 6·39 grains of strychnine in the
stomach and its contents of Alice Marsh, and 1·6 grain of strychnine
in the stomach and its contents, also 1·46 grain in the vomit, and ·2
grain in a small portion of the liver of Emma Shrivell.
The jury, after deliberating for ten minutes, returned a verdict of
guilty, and Thomas Neill, or Neill Cream, as he was otherwise known,
was sentenced to death. He was executed on November 15, 1892.
 CHAPTER XXII
THE HORSFORD CASE

Towards the close of the year 1897, a Mrs. Holmes, a widow, was
living with her three children at Stoneley, near Kimbolton. She had a
cousin named Walter Horsford, a well-to-do young farmer who
occupied a farm at Spaldwick about twelve miles away, and who
frequently came to Stoneley to visit her.
A romantic attachment eventually sprang up between them, which
resulted in a too intimate acquaintance.
After a while Horsford's affection began to wane, and in the end he
married another lady.
Shortly afterwards Mrs. Holmes left Stoneley and took up her
residence at St. Neots.
About December of the same year she wrote a letter to Horsford,
informing him of her condition, a piece of news which appears to
have greatly upset him, as he was in fear the information might
reach his wife.
On December 28 he called at a chemist's shop in Thrapstone, a
neighbouring town, and asked for a shilling's worth of strychnine,
some prussic acid, arsenic, and carbolic acid, which he stated he
required for poisoning rats. The chemist, to whom he was a stranger,
requested him to bring a witness, which he did, and the chemist's
poison register was duly signed by Horsford and a man who
introduced him. He took the poisons, which consisted of ninety
grains of strychnine, one pound of arsenic, and some prussic acid
and carbolic acid, away with him.
About a week afterwards Mrs. Holmes received a letter from
Horsford. It was taken in by her daughter, who recognised his
handwriting, and the envelope is also supposed to have contained
two packets of strychnine.
On the evening of January 7, 1898, Mrs. Holmes retired to bed,
apparently in her usual health, about half-past nine. The only other
persons in the house were her daughter Annie, her son Percy, and
her infant. The daughter noticed that her mother took a glass of
water upstairs with her, which was an unusual circumstance. On
going to her mother's bedroom shortly afterwards, she found her
suffering great pain, and she saw the glass, now almost empty,
standing on a chest of drawers.
Percy Holmes ran out and called in the assistance of some
neighbours, and then went for a doctor. When medical aid arrived,
the unfortunate woman was in convulsions and died shortly
afterwards.
The day after her death the police searched the house, but failed to
find any trace of poison, and an inquest was held on January 8,
which Horsford was summoned to attend.
In his evidence before the coroner, he swore that he had neither
written to nor seen the deceased woman. The medical evidence
proved that death was caused by strychnine.
The inquest was adjourned for a week, and in the meanwhile Mrs.
Holmes was buried. From information received by the police, a
further search was made in the house, with the result that two
packets were discovered under the feather bed in Mrs. Holmes'
bedroom. One packet of buff-coloured paper was found to contain
about thirty-three grains of strychnine in powder, on which was
written the words, "One dose. Take as told," in Horsford's
handwriting. On the second packet, the contents of which had been
used, was written, "Take in a little water. It is quite harmless." This
was also in Horsford's handwriting.
On January 10, Walter Horsford was arrested on the charge of
perjury committed at the inquest, and it was resolved to have
another examination made of the body of the deceased woman. On
examination of further documents and letters discovered by the
police, the charge of wilful murder was added to corrupt perjury
against Horsford, and he was committed for trial.
The trial took place on June 2, 1898, at Huntingdon, before Mr.
Justice Hawkins.
Dr. Stevenson stated in his evidence, he first made an analysis of a
portion of the body of Mrs. Holmes on January 19, and extracted
1·31 grain of strychnine, but no other poison. Subsequently he
examined the two packets discovered under the bed, and found one
contained 33¾ grains of powdered strychnine, and the other, which
presented the appearance of having had the powder shaken out, a
few minute crystals of strychnine. In each case it was the pure
alkaloid. The body was exhumed nineteen days after death, and he
then made an analysis of all the chief organs, and obtained
therefrom a total quantity of 3·69 grains of strychnine. Death usually
occurred about half an hour after the commencement of the
symptoms. He judged there could not have been less than ten grains
of strychnine in the body at the time of death.
The jury found Walter Horsford guilty, and he was sentenced to
death.
 CHAPTER XXIII
THE GREAT AMERICAN POISON MYSTERY

One of the most carefully planned murders by means of poison in

modern times was investigated at the trial of Roland B. Molineux,
who was charged with causing the death of Mrs. Catherine J. Adams
in New York in 1899.
On November 10, 1898, a Mr. Henry C. Barnett, a produce booker,
who was a member of the Knickerbocker Athletic Club, one of the
most prominent social organizations in New York, received by post at
the club a sample box of Kutnow's Powder. He was in the habit of
taking this and similar preparations for simple ailments, and soon
after receiving the box he took a dose of its contents. He became ill
immediately afterwards, and was thought to be suffering from
diphtheria. That he had a slight attack of this disease there is little
doubt, as the fact was proved from a bacteriological examination
made by his medical attendant. He left his bed earlier than the
doctor advised, and died presumably of heart failure.
The contents of the box, however, were examined, which led to the
discovery that the powder had been tampered with and mixed with
cyanide of mercury; and although Mr. Barnett had died from natural
causes, it seemed clear an attempt had been made to poison him by
some one who knew he was in the habit of taking this powder. The
investigation, however, does not appear to have been carried farther.
The next chapter in the story occurred in connection with a Mr. Harry
Cornish, who occupied the position of physical director to the
Knickerbocker Athletic Club.
A day or two before Christmas in the same year, a packet directed to
him was delivered by post at his address. It contained a box, in
which, on opening, he found at one end a silver article for holding
matches or toothpicks; at the other end was a bottle labelled
"Emerson's Bromo-seltzer," and between the two was packed some
soft tissue paper.
Mr. Cornish was at first under the impression that some one had sent
him the packet as a present. After removing the articles from the
box, he threw it and the wrapper into his wastepaper basket, but on
second thoughts he cut the address from the wrapper and kept it.
The bottle, labelled "Bromo-seltzer," which is a saline preparation
well known in America, was sealed over the top and bore the usual
revenue stamp. After tearing off the outside wrapper, Mr. Cornish
placed the bottle and the silver holder on his desk.
On the following Sunday he remarked to his aunt, a Mrs. Catherine
Adams, that he had received a present. Mrs. Adams and her
daughter Mrs. Rogers joked him about it, saying he must have some
admirer, and was afraid to bring his present home, as the sender's
name was probably upon it. So on Tuesday night Mr. Cornish took
the bottle and the silver holder home with him, and presented them
to Mrs. Rogers, saying they were no use to him and she might have
them.
The next morning Mrs. Adams complained of a headache, and her
daughter suggested a dose of the Bromo-seltzer. Mr. Cornish was
present, and mixed a teaspoonful of the preparation from the bottle
with a glass of water, and gave it to his aunt. After drinking it she at
once exclaimed, "My, how bitter that is!"
"Why, that's all right!" said Mr. Cornish, as he took a drink from the
glass.
A few moments afterwards Mrs. Adams collapsed, and died within a
short time. Mr. Cornish was seized with violent vomiting, which
doubtless saved his life, and he recovered.
A post-mortem examination revealed the fact that Mrs. Adams had
died from cyanide poisoning; and on the bottle of Bromo-seltzer
being analysed the contents were found to have been mixed with
cyanide of mercury.
For a long time the affair seemed a complete mystery, and the police
investigations appeared likely to be fruitless. Then the particulars of
the death of Mr. Barnett, who was Chairman of the House
Committee of the Knickerbocker Club, were brought to light; and
connecting them with the fact that Mr. Cornish was also a prominent
member of the club, and had received the bottle of Bromo-seltzer by
post in the same manner, it seemed highly probable that both the
poisoned packets which contained cyanide of mercury, had been
sent by the same hand.
Further examination proved that the bottle used was not a genuine
Bromo-seltzer one, and that the label had been removed from a
genuine bottle and carefully pasted on that sent to Mr. Cornish.
A firm of druggists in Cincinnati then came forward and stated, that
as far back as May 31, 1898, they had received a written application
signed "H. C. Barnett" for a sample box of pills, and another similar
application on December 21, 1898, which was signed "H. Cornish."
Both these applications were found to be in the same handwriting,
which was also strikingly similar to the address on the packet sent to
Mr. Cornish, which he had fortunately kept. The address given by the
applicant who called himself "H. C. Barnett," was 257, West Forty-
second Street; New York, a place where private letter-boxes are
rented for callers. The address given by the applicant signing himself
"H. Cornish," was a similar place at 1,620, Broadway, in the same
city. From these facts it seemed evident that an attempt had been
made to poison both Barnett and Cornish by some one who knew
them, and the poisoner had concealed his identity by employing the
names of his intended victims.
The nature of the poison used, cyanide of mercury, was also a slight
clue, as it is a substance which is not used in medicine and must in
all probability have been specially prepared for the purpose, by some
one with a good knowledge of chemistry.
At the coroner's inquest, which began on February 9, 1899, certain
facts were elicited that tended to bring suspicion on Roland B.
Molineux, who was also a member of the Knickerbocker Club and
well acquainted with Barnett and Cornish. He was also known to
have quarrelled with the latter. At the close of the inquest Molineux
was arrested, and removed to the Tombs prison.
Owing to legal technicalities in the original indictment, which
charged him with the murder of both Mr. Barnett and Mrs. Adams,
he was twice liberated, and then for the third time arrested.
The trial of Molineux for the murder of Mrs. Adams was a
memorable one, and lasted nearly three months. It began on
November 14, 1899, at the Central Criminal Court, New York, and
was not concluded till February 11, 1900.
The evidence was entirely circumstantial. Most of the experts in
handwriting who were examined declared that the address on the
packet sent to Mr. Cornish was in Molineux's writing, and that he had
also written both applications to the druggists in Cincinnati. Further,
Molineux was engaged as a chemist to a colour factory in which
cyanide of mercury was used, which would enable him either to
make or procure that special poison, from which only three other
fatal cases had been recorded.
No witnesses were called for the defence, and the jury found Roland
B. Molineux guilty of "murder in the first degree," which, according
to American law, is murder with premeditation.
 CHAPTER XXIV
SOME CURIOUS METHODS EMPLOYED BY SECRET POISONERS

The strange and curious methods employed by poisoners to

accomplish their deadly purpose, form an interesting study to
students of human nature. The poisoner generally sets to work on a
preconceived and carefully thought-out plan, which he proceeds to
carry out with all the cunning he possesses. The methods that can
be employed to introduce a poisonous substance into the human
body are necessarily limited; and although they are varied at times
according to the ingenuity in which the deed is planned, we find the
poisoner with all his craft shows but little originality, and the modes
used in ancient times are repeated down through the centuries to
the present day.
There seems little doubt that the earliest method employed by man
was the poisoned weapon.
The use of the poisoned arrow-head by primitive man goes back to a
period of remote antiquity. Among the cave remains of the
palæolithic period, arrow-and spear-heads of bone have been found
marked with depressions for containing poison, and this method of
introducing poison seems to have been practised by most of the
aboriginal races.
Arrow poisons were well known to the Greeks and their word
"toxicon" signified a poisonous substance into which the arrow-
"toxon" was dipped. Homer alludes to the use of poisoned arrows in
the "Odyssey," and Ovid mentions the bile and blood of vipers as
being employed to poison weapons. The Scythians and the tribes of
the Caucasus were reputed to use Viper poison mixed with the
serum of human blood that had decomposed. The Celts and the
Gauls, according to Pliny, dipped their arrow-heads in hellebore
juice; and down to the seventh century we find poisoned weapons
were commonly used in Europe.
During the Middle Ages until the sixteenth century, the poisoned
dagger or sword formed the favourite weapon of the assassin, and
the preparation of the blade for this purpose was brought almost to
a fine art in Spain. It is recorded that Lorenzo de Medici was stabbed
with a poisoned dagger; and the Duke de Biscaglia, the second
husband of the famous Lucrezia Borgia, nearly fell a victim to the
assassin's knife on the steps of St. Peter's.
Of all other methods employed by poisoners, the administration of
the lethal dose through the medium of food or drink seems ever to
have been the favourite. The poisoned wine or cake recurs with a
somewhat monotonous frequency in the history of the poisoner,
from the earliest times down to the present day. Women especially
seem to have been attracted by this mode of poisoning, a fact
probably due to their control and direction of domestic matters,
which rendered the introduction of a poisonous substance into food
or drink an easy matter. Occasionally they have fallen victims to their
own evil designs, as instanced in the case of Rosamond the wife of
Helmichis, King of Lombardy, in the year 575. Wishing to rid herself
of her husband, she gave him a cup of poisoned wine on coming
from his bath. The king drank part of it, and suspecting its nature
from the strange effect it produced, he insisted she should drink the
remainder, with the result that both died shortly afterwards.
The Hindoos have an ingenious method of using powdered glass as
a lethal agent, either by mixing it with sherbet or some kind of food.
In such cases the substance acts by its irritant action on the
stomach or intestines, while at the same time, if successful, no trace
of poison can be discovered in the bodily organs.
A celebrated case in which this agent was used occurred in India in
1874, when the Gaekwar, or reigning prince of Baroda was tried for
attempting to kill his political resident, Colonel Phayre, by
administering powdered glass to him in sherbet.
The Gaekwar was tried before a court consisting of three Indian
princes and three English judges, and was defended by the late Mr.
Serjeant Ballantine. The princes returned a verdict of "Not proven,"
while the judges decided that he was guilty, with the result that the
Gaekwar was deposed.
The sweetmeat was a favourite form employed to administer poison
during the Middle Ages. Such confections were usually handed round
to the guests after a meal in Italy. Princes and nobles frequently
used this method of ridding themselves of an enemy; and if the plot
failed in the first instance, they were always ready to try it again, for,
as Cæsar Borgia is stated to have once exclaimed, "what has failed
at dinner-time will succeed at supper-time." Catherine de Medici
introduced this method into France, and her Florentine perfumers
were said to be adepts in mixing arsenic with sweetmeats.
The poisoned flowers of mediæval romance, and poisoned gloves
and boots, which figure so often in legend and story as lethal media,
we must dismiss as mere fables of an age when the historian drew
largely on his imagination.
The "poison ring," with its carefully concealed tiny spike, which was
intended to penetrate the flesh of the victim, might perhaps have set
up blood-poisoning, as would a similar wound if inflicted by a rusty
nail.
The use of rings with secret receptacles to contain poisons we have
already mentioned. Among the gems in the British Museum there is
an onyx which has been hollowed out to form a receptacle for
poison. The face of the stone is engraved with the head of a horned
faun. To take the poison, it was only necessary to bite through the
thin shell of the onyx and swallow the contents.
When the gold deposited by Camillus in the Capitol was taken away,
it is recorded that the custodian responsible for it "broke the stone
of his ring in his mouth," and died shortly afterwards.
The poisoners of the seventeenth century not content with
introducing poison into wine and other drinks, sought to improve on
this method, by preparing the goblet or cup in such a way, that it
would impregnate any liquid that was placed in it.
There is record of one François Belot who made a speciality of this
art, and, it is said, received a comfortable income therefrom; but he
fitly ended his days by being broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679.
According to a contemporary writer, his secret method consisted in
cramming a toad with arsenic, placing it in a silver goblet, and, after
pricking its head, crushing it in the vessel. While this operation was
being performed, certain charms were uttered.
"I know a secret," stated Belot, "such, that in doctoring a cup with a
toad, and what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink from it
afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be
done for, and the cup could only be purified by throwing it into a hot
fire. After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a
human being, but upon a dog, and I should entrust the cup to
nobody." And yet Belot's powers were believed in, and he enjoyed a
substantial reputation in his day.
His boasting is on a par with that of the magician Blessis, who
flourished about the same period. He declared to the world that he
had discovered a method of manipulating mirrors in such a way that
any one who looked in them received his death-blow!
The stories of the "poisoned shirt," which was a favourite medium
with the poisoners of the seventeenth century, are not, however,
without a substratum of fact.
The tail of the shirt was prepared by soaking it in a strong solution
of arsenic or corrosive sublimate. The object was to produce a
violent dermatitis, with ulceration about the perineum and
neighbouring parts, which should compel the victim to keep his bed.
Medical men would then be summoned in due course, and would
probably judge the patient to be suffering from syphilis, and
administer mercury in large quantities. The fatal dose could then be
introduced at leisure.
The notorious La Bosse left on record her method of preparing the
"poisoned shirt." The garment was first to be washed, and the tail
then soaked in a strong solution of arsenic, so that it only looked "a
little rusty," as if it had been ill-washed and was stiffer than usual.
"The effect," she concludes, "it should produce on the wearer is a
violent inflammation and intense pain, and that when one came to
examine him, one would not detect anything."
The Duke of Savoy is said to have succumbed to the effects of a
poisoned shirt of this kind.
Some time ago Dr. Nass, a French medical man, made some
interesting experiments, with a view to testing the truth of these
stories. He carefully shaved a portion of the left lumbar region of a
guinea-pig, and gently rubbed the skin with a paste containing
arsenic, in the proportion of one in ten. He repeated this operation
several times during the day. Shortly afterwards the animal became
prostrate, the eyes became dull, it assumed a cholera-like aspect,
and in forty-eight hours died. The skin on which the paste had been
applied remained unchanged and unbroken, and showed no sign of
ulceration. On examining the internal organs after death, fatty
degeneration of the viscera was found, as is usual after arsenical
poisoning.
This experiment does not, of course, actually prove the effect of a
shirt impregnated with arsenic being worn in direct contact with the
skin, but it shows that arsenic may be introduced into the body by
simple, gentle friction on an unbroken skin, and that the poisoned
shirt theory was possible.
The administration of poison in the form of medicine is another
method which has often been criminally employed. In France, the
enema was at one time frequently made use of for introducing
arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and opium into the system. The
poisoner's aim, in such cases, was to attribute the fatal effects which
followed to disease. Within recent years a curious case was tried at
the Paris Court of Assizes, in which a lady was charged with
attempting to poison her husband. It was known that the couple had
lived unhappily together, and arrangements had been made for a
divorce. One morning the husband complained of a severe
headache, and his wife suggested a dose of antipyrine, which she
gave him in some mineral water. He remarked to her at the time that
the draught had a peculiar taste. Later in the day she administered
sundry cups of coffee to him; but he grew rapidly worse and at night
a doctor was summoned. He failed to diagnose the complaint, and
called in other medical men, who were equally puzzled. One thing
which they all noticed, was a peculiar dilation of the pupils of the
patient's eyes.
A consultation was held the next day, and shortly afterwards one of
the medical men received a note from the lady, in which she stated,
that her husband "was black. He was dead, more dead than any
man I ever saw."
The doctor at once went to see the patient, and found him in a state
of collapse. He bled him twice and injected caffeine, but he still
remained motionless. After a time it occurred to the doctor that the
patient's symptoms resembled those of atropine poisoning, and,
resorting to other measures, he eventually brought him round. Then
he remembered, that the lady had previously asked him for some
morphine for herself, and when he had refused it, she requested
some atropine for her dog's eyes. He wrote her a prescription for a
solution of atropine, containing ten per cent. of the drug, and took it
to the chemist himself. On further inquiries it was proved that the
lady had procured atropine upon various other occasions by copying
the doctor's prescription and forging his signature.
At the trial, the medical evidence was very conflicting; but the
concensus of opinion was in favour of the theory that atropine had
been administered in small, repeated doses. The accused woman
declared in her defence, that atropine had been put into the
medicine for her husband in mistake by the chemist who had
dispensed it. There was no evidence to support this theory, and she
was found guilty and sentenced to five years' penal servitude.
A strange method, which said to have been employed by the
Borgias, and was afterwards used in France, was a combination of
arsenic with the secretions or products of decomposition of an
animal to which it had been administered. The poison was prepared
by cutting open a pig, and well sprinkling the carcase with arsenic or
other poison. Then it was left to putrefy, after which the liquids that
ran from the decaying mass were collected, and these formed the
finished poison.

As science advances, opening up fresh fields for research and

poisons of a still more deadly nature are revealed, so the chemist
sets to work to discover methods for their certain detection, and
thus renders the poisoners' fiendish work more difficult.
It is well to remember that even the most deadly poisons have their
proper use, and in skilled hands prove valuable instruments in
combating many diseases that afflict suffering humanity.
THE END

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
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