January 27, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
605 
of deadly plants spring up in the hot and moist atmo¬ 
sphere of Bengal, and the unrestricted freedom with 
which nearly all the most potent kinds of vegetable and 
mineral poisons can be purchased in every Indian bazaar, 
added to the familiarity with the action of narcotics 
which has arisen from their daily habit of opium-eating 
and hemp-smoking, sufficiently account for the preva¬ 
lence of the crime of secret poisoning among a timid 
people, -who, except when wrought up to a state of 
frantic excitement, always prefer treachery to violence 
in the execution of their crimes. There can be no doubt 
that, under the Mussulman dynasty, assassination by 
poison became, if not the most prevalent, undoubtedly 
one of the most prominent of Court atrocities. As the 
closing act of a great political contest, as a means of re¬ 
moving a stubborn minister or an intriguing kinsman, 
the Datoora (or thorn apple), with its power of gradually 
drowning the astutest intellect in a state of drivelling 
fatuity; and arsenic, which destroyed more speedily, with 
symptoms which the most learned native doctors could 
not distinguish from those of cholera (even then, one of 
the most prevalent diseases of India); these, I say, ap¬ 
pear to have wrought as effectually as many of the 
modes of assassination in more modern times. In the 
old Indian records the crucial tests for discovering a 
poisoner are exceedingly quaint, although hardly con¬ 
clusive, according to our modern ideas. We are told 
that “he does not answer questions, or else he gives 
evasive answers; he speaks nonsense ; rubs the great 
toe along the ground and shivers; his face is discoloured; 
he rubs the roots of the hair with his fingers, and he fries, 
by every means, to leave the house. The food which is 
suspected should be first given to certain animals, and if 
they die, it is to be avoided.” 
Several poisons, and some harmless substances, are not 
unfrequently employed in India as “ philtres ” or aphro¬ 
disiacs. Indeed, the art of preparing these love-potions, 
and other potent mixtures for producing magical effects 
on mind or body, flourishes now in India as wddely as 
ever it did among the Greeks or Romans. It is mostly 
practised there, as elsewhere, by jealous women, or de¬ 
sperate lovers of either sex, for the purpose of captivating 
affection, or of infatuating and enthralling the object of 
desire. But it is also used for baneful purposes, to cause 
disease, death, or some strange aberration; and, whether 
employed by love or by hate, it has certainly always 
been intimately connected with some real knowledge of 
medicine, and has veiled a great deal of downright poi¬ 
soning. A complete and accurate list of all the vegetable 
poisons obtainable in the Indian bazaars, especially of 
those which are known to have been employed in the 
destruction of human life, together with full details of 
the operation of those the effects of which upon the sys¬ 
tem are least known, is still a great desideratum. The 
fact that vegetable poisons are those most frequently 
employed with criminal intent, is partly explained by 
the belief which has become general amongst' native 
vendors of drugs, that mineral poisons can be invariably 
discovered, even when existing in extremely minute 
quantities, but that most vegetable matters cannot be 
distinguished by any processes of analysis known to, or 
practised by, European chemists. The great frequency 
of cases of vegetable poisoning in India, induced the 
Government of that country, some years ago, to institute 
an inquiry upon this point, and the result was a return 
of the names of about thirty-six vegetable substances 
stated to be in use as poisons. Of late years the increase 
in the number of native dispensaries, and the importa¬ 
tion of chemicals into India, have occasionally led to 
poisoning by such agents as sulphate of zinc, “ Burnett’s 
solution,” prussic acid, strychnine, cyanide of potassium, 
chloride of cadmium, belladonna, chlorodyne, etc.; but 
poisoning by these substances must still be regarded as 
extremely exceptional, and more frequently the result of 
accident than of criminal intention. 
Although the number of poisons made use of through¬ 
out the length and breadth of India is very great, the 
more popular ones (so to speak) are comparatively few, 
for assassination and 
suicide. 
to produce intoxication, 
etc., but not, perhaps, 
to produce death, 
for abortion. 
given as medicines in 
poisonous doses. 
to a few of these ; very 
briefly it must be, as time will not admit of more. 
First, then, as regards arsenic. Arsenious acids, and 
the yellow and red sulphides of arsenic, are imported 
into India in very large quantities. The principal sup¬ 
plies of white arsenic are brought to Calcutta from the 
Gulf in Arab ships, and some is also brought from Eu¬ 
rope. The yellow arsenic comes from Oude, while an¬ 
other cheaper and coarser description of the yellow 
sulphide is imported in greater quantities from Rangoon, 
and passes largely into the interior of the country. 
Red arsenic also comes from the territories of Oude, and 
it is found native in China. At the present day the 
price of wffiite arsenic in India is 9 cl. per lb.; of red, 
Is. 2>d. per lb.; of yellow (from Rangoon), Is. 3 d. per lb.; 
and yellow (from Oude), 2s. Qd. per lb. The returns of 
the custom house at Calcutta reveal the somewhat curious 
fact that, whereas the annual importation of arsenic of 
all kinds at the present time is much the same as it was 
fifteen years ago (viz. about 125 tons), yet during some 
of the intervening years the importation fell so low as 
20, and even 15 tons. Arsenic is employed in India in. 
a great variety of legitimate modes. For instance, large 
quantities are thrown into the holds of vessels, with the 
view of checking putrefaction, and the generation of 
animal life. Again, when wooden piles are driven into 
moist soil, with a view to building upon them, they are 
usually surrounded with a layer of arsenic. A great 
quantity of white arsenic is consumed in washes for the 
walls of houses, and for the ends of roof-beams, as a pro¬ 
tection against white ants, bugs and other insects. The 
white oxide of arsenic, or arsenious acid, may be freely 
bought at a very low price in nearly all the Indian 
bazaars. A vendor has merely to say that he requires 
this substance as he is in the habit of eating it, or that 
he wants it for the purpose of poisoning rats, and it will 
be supplied to him in any quantity he may wish. It is 
very curious that this plan of procuring poison for homi¬ 
cidal purposes, on the plea of “ killing rats,” has been in 
vogue from the fourteenth century down to the present 
day, and not in this country alone, but throughout the 
whole of India. Thus, for instance, we read in Chaucer 
(fourteenth century) :— 
“ And forth he goth, no longer wold he tary, 
Into the town unto a potiocary, 
And praied him that he wolde sell 
Some poison that he might his ratouns kill; 
And eke there was a polcat in his heme; 
And fayn he wolde him wreken, if he might, 
Of vermine that destroied him at night.” 
There are various diseases in which arsenic is made 
use of by the natives in India. For instance, it is used 
indiscriminately by them in all classes and types ot fever. 
It is used as an aphrodisiac, as an alterative in rheuma¬ 
tism, gout, and syphilis, and very extensively as an ex- 
anu may ue mouraieu uius 
1. Preparations of arsenic ^ 
Aconite 
Nux vomica 
Opium 
Lall chitra 
Oleander 
2. Datoorah and gungah 
3. Lall chitra .... 
4. Sulphate of copper 
A 1 in the 
. i Bish 
Snake poison C Boree _ 
I propose to allude briefly 
