POISON.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 December 1925, Page 4

POISON.

HOW THE MURDERER GETS IT

(T. Neathercuat in “Daily Mail.”) When the average man turns to the subject of poisons ho thinks of a notorious murder or recalls one or two recent suicides. It may come as a shock to him to learn that about 1,000 lives are lost each year through poisons taken intentionally or accidentally, or administered with intent of murder.

Front time to time, a particular poison, or group of poisons, lias been singled out by the authorities for special attention, and commendable work lias been done in 'tightening the regulations governing its sale. Periodically the sale of poisons has been considered comprehensively and improvements in legislation have been effected. Rut an analysis of the registrar’s annual figures will show that poisons which take the largest toll are those still obtainable with relative ease. In 1922—the latest year for which figures are available—more than 25 per cent of the fatal accidents resulting from the use of poisons and more than 18 per cent of the suicides were attributable to carbolic acid and to disinfecting fluids in which that poison is employed. We may look up certain notorious poisons securely in the chemists’s shop and threaten the pharmacist with dire penalties if ho supplies them without proper authority, but on a shelf in almost every house is a- hot lie capable of causing agonising death to the. whole I'amilv. DANG EI iOU S IMS IN F ECT ANTS.

To dejirive these disinfectants of their poisonous qualities would bo to make them almost useless for antiseptic purposes, hill I heir containers might lie made distinctive so that it would be jirnolically impossible for them to be mistaken for anything else, whether the label he present or not. Furthermore. steps should he taken to ensure, that their distribution to the public is restricted to those who are trained to appreciate the dangers. Next to carbolic acid, as a ‘•jiopular’ poison, come the mineral acids—hydrochloric. nitric:, and sulphuric. Within this group come “spirits ol salts.” Industrial requirements and domestic uses, as well as their employment in the accumulator batteries of wireless sets and other mechanical apparatus, make them readily available. In the 1922 statistics oxalic acid or “salts of lemon” accounted for 45 suicides and two accidents. Hero, again, is an article' much favoured as a domestic cleanser.

It will be seen, ihcrefore. that the agents responsible lor the large part of the* meliuiefmly roll of deaths bv poisoning are articles of common use. They are not the poisons usually employed by murderers, and. for that reason, we do not shudder al the mention of them as wo do. perilous, when arsenic and strychnine are spoken of; hut the fact remains that they are more devastating. IN THE HANDS OF CHILDREN. The poisons employed by the murderer are obtainable almost as easily, jiarticularly when the murderer is not averse from a little mendacity, as few murderers are. Arsenic, which laid low Air Maybrick and was employed by Seddon, was. in both instances, obtained from fly-papers of which equally deadly kinds are still im sale to the public. Armstrong, too. used arsenic in two forms, obtained on (lie pretext lliat he had weeds to exterminate. For this innocent jnirpose he was able to secure sufficient poison to kill nearly 1,000 people. Weed-killing and sheep-dipping remain sufficient excuses in law, for the purcliase of arsenic, and bull have destroyed many lives accidentally. A labourer has drunk such poison from a beer bottle in error; children have been killed by drinking water from a weed-killer cask; and a leaky drum of it has injured a whole family.

Arsenic is most extensively used in industry and agrictulture. Il is one of (lie oldest of poisons, and was probably responsible for some of the mysterious murders which darken early history. Photography is the |)iirpose for which much cyanide of potassium is sold. Collectors of moths and butterflies (often juveniles) also get it in what are known as “killing hollies.” British medical practice has lit Lie use lor it, but many a schoolboy photographer possesses siifiiceiil to kill several families. since live grains are fatal. Whitaker \Yrighl used cyanide of potassium to cheat the gaol, and il figured, 100, in the recent tragedy at Shoreditch, where a librarian, who was an amateur photographer, look a quantity after accideulallv shooting his assistant. SOAIK FAMOUS CRIMES. From belladonna, or deadly nightshade. conies the livoscyamine and hynseine which (Yip|>en used to poison his wife. Belladonna is commonly used in liniments and lotions prescribed lor feminine ailments. As a consequence most of I lie persons killed l>,v sucli liniments. taken internally, are women.

Strychnine, though it is a relatively now discovery, is. perhaps, a little oldfashioned as a murderer’s agent. Wainwright employed it, as also did Palmer, but Va'piier gave it now notoriety h.v using ii to murder Mr Jones, of liytleet. Vnquier, ii will lie recalled obtained his supply of strychnine for experiments in photography and wireless, though, there was no truth in the suggestion that it could ever he usolul for such purposes. In the Vaquior ease the regulation which enforces the registration ol each purchase of strychnine furnished just ti'iat piece of evidence which, in my judgment, pul the guilt of the murderer bevond doubt. Restrictive legislation here showed its value, hut. important as it is to prove the purchase of poison by a murderer, il is better to have regulations which, so far as is linmanl,v possible, put such poisons bevond his reach.