Show i METHODS OF POISONERS By the general public the discovery or arsenic In a body vlilch succumbed to f mysterious del th Is accepted as undisputed r evidence of poisoning Judges and JUles have taken tills same view except where testimony showed that aracilc was used In embalming preparations but as the functions o the human body have become better bet-ter known It appears that many men and women have been convicted o murder by poisoning who have been Innocent In-nocent 1 Kcccnt scientific discoveries have entirely en-tirely modified the theories ot criminal lexicologists with reference to mineral poisons in general and to poisoning by arsenic in v particular The scientists have established that the human body contains arsonlc as a constituent part just as it contains iron and other minerals min-erals This fact has oC course been known I long whll to certain savants but It was not until recently that It could be proved to the satisfaction of the skeptical nice o Judges Juries and prosecuting counsel Thus when toward to-ward the beginning of last century Marie Jjafargc a woman of high position 1 posi-tion and great wealth war tried for her life for poisoning her husband with arsenic and this argument was brought forward in her favor by an eminent chemist it availed her nothing indeed was met With general f derision I Is now known that the thyroid gland Is in Its way as rich In arsenic as any Cornish mine More than this arsenic has been found by the new tests in a healthy human brain In human hu-man skin and In hairs of our head So where poisoning by arsenic Is suspected sus-pected the mystery must remain more unfathomable than ever and the responsibility I re-sponsibility of Judges and juries becomes be-comes weightier by far than before I No such doubts however can exist in the case of Helene Jegndo who was executed at Hennes In Brittany toward the middle of the last century Her name I still a terror in Breton house holds for her guilt was made as clear as day by her own confession A terrible ter-rible confession it was She killed with arsenic for the sheer pleasure of killing I gave me a sense of ower > she said which I enjoyed More than a dozen murders were pioved against her she was suspected o many more She was a cook and moved from situation to situation leaving a trail or corpses behind her That she was able to carry on her abominable practices for so many years surprises one less when one remembers that In France Coroners do not exist and inquests are not held After U wedding feast which had been prepared by her J those who hud par Uiken of her cookery were taken 111 Inquiry qui naturally followed and in the end I her arrest was ordered A largo quantity of rat poison arsenic was found in her trurk and when this fact had been made public people bega to talk I was thus brought to the knowledge knowl-edge of the authorities that Helena had never been In a situation where I death hil not occurred Slip gave the investigating magistrates little trouble for she confessed almost Immediately I and seemed to glory in relating her crimes She was a homfcitlal manioc of the stamp of Gette Grotchcn whose In famous notoriety still lingers in Germany Ger-many where she was beheaded at Breslnu some years before Jegado was brought to the scaffold Gretchen was i a cook also and killed for the sake of killing Such monsters are unfortunately unfortu-nately not rare PolHonurs however asa as-a rule practice foi lucre like Palmer 01 La Pommcraye although in the case of women poisoners the motive may be different There Is by the way living in Paris at this moment 1 woman who in Intention In-tention tit least is worthy to rank with Marie Lnfnrgi In infamy She too wished to destroy her husband and literally dosed him with the white powders with which her accomplice supplied her The accomplice however had no wish to qualify for the guillotine guillo-tine and the poison he provided was the healthful bicarbormtc of soda The police found out what was going on han h-an accident Infamous as are crimes such as the one which this woman contemplated or that for which Mine Lefursjo was sent to lifelong Imprisonment what can one call those perpetrated for gain by doctors doc-tors Amongst these monsters I think Couty de la Pommeruye stands first In the annals of crime although the Eng lish Palmer runs him close and Cas talng comes a good third Cauutat lig who Inspired Victor Hugo with D passage l of eplo horror slowl poisoned to death an unfortunate youth who had been placed under his medical care lie took him into the country as he said for the benellt of the air AK a fact he had calculated that in a strange place It 1 would be easier for him to carr out his wicked plans And thus it was that the charming riverside river-side Innthe Black Headut St Cloud won a notoriety which has not yet died out Strychnine was Castaings poison as It wns Palmcri La Pommcraye used cHgitaline which Is an extract of extract of foxglove DIgitallne kills by exhausting he I heart and takes twenty four hourn to do so twentyfour hours of undcscribable torture Caslalng coveted I small sum of I money and some Jewelry La Pommcr I aye like Palmer played for a high stake He had insured he I life of a wretched mmMine dc Pauw for liOOOO pounds and finished her off after the first premium had boon paid Tie had laid his plans with supreme cunning cun-ning but he wrecked his chill for the sake o a pennyorth o tar Had the victim been provided with cla victm cen wih a respectable respecta-ble home and allowed a little money a little would havp done for the short time she wan to live suspicion would never have been rouses rouse-s It was the murderer was not arrested rested till I month nft r the woman had been burled Ha was a nobleman and was supposed to be In good position I posi-tion He nccms to have hal something of the homicidal mania I in lola composition com-position for when his apartment In the Rue des Saints Peres was searched a whole cupboard of polnons of every kind were found Yet to look at ho wns I mid and handsome young man Ho had remarkably fine eyes the eyes one describes as good IIIH precautions had so well been taken that lois counsel had splendid weapons for the fight of hiM life But such weapons often cut both ways and I they proved fatal to the handsome young doctor After a trial which lasted eight days lie Was convicted and was executed on June 0 1801 In spite of the Empress Eugenies appeal to the Kmpcror prompted by compassion for his wife The people who lee La Pommeraye Palmer and Castalng use vegetable poisons rely for Immunity on the supposition sup-position that these tre Immediately absorbed ab-sorbed by the system and leave no traces as mineral poisons do Fortunately Fortun-ately for society If these poisons cannot can-not be recovered by the analysis in their original state they do leave traces as legible to scientific men as would bo the murderers vldlting card This fact should be remembered by those who may be tempted to the most wicked and crudest of crimes And such would be illadvised to hope for Immunity for the use of arsenic because be-cause of the recently enhanced difficulty diffi-culty of proving Its administration Absolute scientific proof it IK possible to give and jurymen know this Philadelphia Phil-adelphia Press |