Hawaii Holomua, Volume I, Number 45, 9 November 1893 — ART OF POISONING. [ARTICLE]

ART OF POISONING.

T\VO CTRIOC> t A>£'. When John LordCampbell sentenoed P<ilmer, the raurderer—tiie fir>t p<>isoner by str\chn’ne in Ea<;!and, I believe —the \vise Jndgo es[>re:»e 1 a hope that no raorbid bnsybodies wou!d »trive to ]H-netrate with prving eve s ‘»nto the secrets of themurderer*s eell.’ This significant rerainder to the prurient purvevors of sensational details did not bear immediate fruit; still, it has not been forgotten; and, on the ■ whole, the English press at least. ■ ' left Deeming in the condemned eell as severely alone as they have left the hideous n.ouster Neill. \OSE LIKE NEILL. Psychologically, of conrse, the i pecnliar form of iniqnity whieh | prevailed in Neill will coutinue for a Iong tirae to attract the earnest attention of scientists. I have been digging and delving in ohl books during the past week iu the endeavor to ascertain whether Neill. the seeminglv O wautou an<l purposeless poisouer —the poisouer of poor girls for the mere pleasure of the thiii" — has had any predecessors. PIitherto my researches have been nnavailing; and iu the lon" o P aml dismal chronicles of secret poisoning in ancient llome. in media*val Italy, in Frauce, and iu Spain, 1 have been nualile to fiud even a distant aualogy of Neill. The nearest approach to the rniscreant seems to have been Sainte Crois. the aeeompliee of the infamous Marqni.se de Brinvilliers, who learned the art of poisoning while a prisoner in the Bastille from a fello\v captive, an Italian named Exili. THE TOISONED PEAOH. Ou t\vo very cnrions items in toxicologicaI lore 1 did, however, ehanee to light. One may be called the feat of poisoning by sleight of hand. You were jealoas of a lady and- wished to kill her. Well, you asked her to luaeh and you cansed a verv niee peaeh to be served at dessert. You cut the fruit with a golden knife, one side of the blade of whieh was endaed with a deadly poison. You presented the poisoned half of the peaeh to the lady, who ate it \vith mueh relish, nnd then dropped down dead. The wholesome half voa ate yourse!f and laughed in vour sleeve and went on slicing more peaches for Iadies of whom von \vere jealous—till yon were found out and got broken on the wheel. Ay, there’s the rub. What high old times we might lmve, to be sure, but for that plagaey eontigency of being found ont! A KEY OF DEATH. Another diabolically ingenious triek of poisoning used to be practised by a Koman Prince, Savelli. When he wished to get rid of any one of his retainers he used to give liim a key, in the centre of the haudle of whieh ! was a tiny imperceptible steel i point rubbed with a sure poison. i ; The Prince would beg the fore dooraed gentleman to fetch him a certain paper from a certain cabinet. .The loek of this cabinet was somewhat stiff, and the gen- ' , tleman was fain to press the kev over and over again into the loek, whieh at last was opened; onlv. meanwhile, Prince Savelli’s servitor had scratched his hand , with the poisoned point, and within twenty-four hoars he was ' a dead man. G. A. Sala.