POISONING  BY  CYANIDE  OP  POTASSIUM.  137 
upon  even  the  most  experienced  persons.  At  Geneva,  however, 
after  several  of  her  patients  dying,  suspicion  was  aroused,  and 
she  was  carefully  watched,  especially  by  Dr.  Rapin,  one  of  whose 
relations  was  among  the  number  of  her  victims.  At  a  boarding- 
house  where  she  gained  admission  several  persons  died,  and  one 
morning  the  inmates  were  startled  by  finding  an  unknown  hand 
had  conveyed  its  warning  by  placarding  at  the  door  these  omi- 
nous words  :  Ceux  qui  entrent  ici  nen  sortent  pas.  The  public 
became  alarmed,  and  suspicions  were  more  and  more  pointed  at 
J.,  who  had  become  very  dexterous  in  persuading  her  victims 
not  to  seek  for  medical  advice.  At  last  one  of  them,  a  young 
German  governess,  to  whom  she  had  given  some  atropia,  was 
brought  to  the  hospital,  having  all  the  symptoms  of  poisoning 
by  atropia,  great  dilatation  of  the  pupils  being  especially  re- 
markable. She  recovered,  and  stated  that  Mademoiselle  J., 
while  professing  to  instruct  her  in  French,  gave  her  from  time 
to  time  some  fluid  to  drink,  saying  it  was  kirschenwasser.  Ma- 
demoiselle J.  has  been  arrested  and  awaits  her  trial.  Several 
phials  containing  atropia  were  found  at  her  residence,  and  seven 
bodies  have  been  exhumed  and  submitted  to  medico-legal  investi- 
gation, with  the  result  of  the  discovery  of  atropia  and  other 
poisons.  (Since  the  above  was  written,  the  prisoner  has  con- 
fessed, and  been  condemned  to  penal  servitude,  notwithstanding 
the  plea  of  insanity.) — The  Med.  News  and  Library y  Jan.  1869, 
from  the  Med.  Times  and  G-az.,  Dec.  5,  1868. 
A  CASE  OF  POISONING  BY  THE  CYANIDE  OF  POTASSIUM. 
By  A.  B.  Arnold,  M.D,  of  Baltimore,  Md. 
The  symptoms  of  poisoning  by  the  cyanide  of  potassium  and 
prussic  are  said  to  be  identical,  but  as  these  cases  generally  ter- 
minate very  rapidly,  little  opportunity  has  been  afforded  to 
watch  the  course  of  the  symptoms  or  to  note  the  subjective  sen- 
sations peculiar  to  the  action  of  these  poisonous  agents.  The 
following  case,  which  happened  in  my  own  person,  is  therefore 
of  some  interest,  since  I  well  remember  the  manner  I  was  affect- 
ed when  the  poison  first  began  to  act,  and  also  the  agonizing 
struggle  for  life,  which  immediately  preceded  recovery.  Various 
statements  of  the  accident,  which  occurred  some  years  ago, 
