l 8 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 15 . 
against any attempt to commit murder, no matter by what means. 
There is thus ample provision for all the strange ways by which poison 
has been introduced into the system, whether it be by the ear, nose, 
brain, rectum, vagina, or any other conceivable way, so that, to borrow 
the words of Mr Graves ( Notes on Criminal Law Consolidation), “ the 
malicious may rest satisfied that every attempt to murder which their 
perverted ingenuity may devise, or their fiendish malignity suggest, 
will fall within some clause of this Act, and may be visited with penal 
servitude for life.” 
Since poison is often exhibited, not for the purpose of taking life, 
but from various motives, and to accomplish various ends—as, for 
example, to narcotise the robber’s victim (this especially in the East), 
to quiet children, to create love in the opposite sex (love philters), to 
detect the secret sipper by suitably preparing the wine, to expel the 
inconvenient fruit of illicit affection, to cure inebriety by polluting the 
drunkard’s drink with antimony, and, finally, to satisfy an aimless spirit 
of mere wantonness and wickedness, the English law enacts “ that whoso¬ 
ever shall unlawfully or maliciously administer to, or cause to be taken 
by, any other person, any poison or other destructive or noxious thing, so 
as thereby to endanger the life of such person, or so as thereby to inflict 
upon such person any grievous bodily harm, shall be guilty of felony.” 
There is also a special provision, framed, evidently, with reference 
to volatile and stupefying poisons, such as chloroform, tetrachloride of 
carbon, etc. :— 
“ Whoever shall unlawfully apply, or administer to, or cause to be 
taken by any person, any chloroform, laudanum, or other stupefying or 
overpowering drug, matter, or thing, with intent, in any such case, 
thereby to enable himself or any other person to commit, or with intent, 
etc., to assist any other person in committing, any indictable offence, 
shall be guilty of felony.” 
§ 15. The German statute, as with successive amendments it now 
stands, enacts as follows :— 1 
Whoever wilfully administers ( beibringl ) to a person, for the 
purpose of injuring health, poison, or any other substance having the 
1 “ Wer vorsatzlich einem Andern, um dessen Gesundheit zu beschaedigen, Gift 
oder andere Stoffe boibringt, welche die Gesundheit zu zcrstoren geeignet sind, wird 
mit Zuchthaus von zwoi bis zu zehn Jaliron bestraft. 
“ 1st durch die Handlung eine sell were Korporverlotzung verursaebt worden, so 
ist auf Zuchthaus nicht unter fiinf Jahren, und wenn durch die Handlung der Tod 
verursacht worden, auf Zuchthaus nicht unter zehn Jahren oder auf lebenslangliches 
Zuchthaus zu erkcnnon. 
“ 1st die vorsatzliche rechtswidrigo Handlung des Gift—etc.,—Beibringens auf 
das ‘ Tod ton ’ gerichtet, soli also durch dieselbe gewolltor Woise der Tod einos Anderen 
herbeigefuhrt worden, so kommt in betracht : Wer vorsatzlich einen Menschen tddtet, 
wird, wenn or die Todtung mit Ueberlogung ausgefiihrt hat, wogon Mordos mit dom 
Tode bestraft.” 
