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.