Various hypotheses have been put forward with respect to the history of the shirt we illustrate, which is now in an American museum; but there seems every reason to believe that it is the garment mentioned in a German work of the 15th century by Adolph Beckert, as having been exhumed with the body of a Greek military captain, with an inscription to the effect that, having been guilty of gross insubordination, amounting to treason, he was ordered to denude himself of his garments in the presence of the soldiers, and don the fatal tunic.
Of equal, if not greater antiquity, was the device in vogue among the Tartar princes.
When a prince desired to dispatch an inconvenient subject, he was invited to a game of hockey, participated in by the various nobles, officers and officials of the Court. The Royal Chamberlain always took good care that the technical miscreant should play with a special stick, within whose jewelled hilt lurked the deadly poison. But even the drug would have been scarcely sufficient to destroy life if there had not been also concealed in the handle a number of microscopic needle points which, tiny as they were, and almost unobserved at the first handling, were quite sufficient after a few minutes' play to puncture the skin.
In this connection we may advert to the vast number of swords and daggers extant whose tips were impregnated with poison; these are to be found in many museums in Europe. There are not a few even in our own Scotland Yard. Although legitimately poison devices, they betray little ingenuity.
The pair of gauntlets shown on the opposite page are said to have been the property of a great foreign political notability. Once well on the hands of the victim, a species of gum, with which the interior was lined, adhered with such tenacity to the flesh that it was next to impossible to remove the gloves, except by cutting them away; and even then the gum remained impervious to water, or of solution, until inflammation was succeeded by festering, and unless amputation of the whole arm followed, death inevitably ensued.
Several deaths from the wearing of poisoned boots have been recorded, notably that of Andre Nolofski, courier to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who was discovered some nine miles from Moscow, lying prone dead on the side of the road, with apparently not a mark of disfigurement, until someone removed his boots. Then a surgeon discovered that tiny poisoned needles had pierced his feet.
Poison rings were not unknown to the Romans. A hollow duct was contained in half the ring, from which poison was supplied to a needle of infinitesimal size at the opposite side. The other half of the circle enclosed a very delicate mechanism for operating the needle. When, with a slight pressure, the hand of the enemy was clasped with apparent cordiality and good-fellowship, it gently punctured the skin without exciting suspicion.
Another device we illustrate was in very common use amongst the Chinese up to a century ago. It consisted of a bowl heavily coated with a colourless soluble poison on the inside. Upon any hot liquid, such as tea, being poured into this cup, the poison became dissolved. As a whole service of this ware might come into the possession of one family without suspicion, it is not difficult to credit the fact that in spite of every precaution about food, seven or eight persons were often exterminated by this process.