Poisoning as a Profession

1916

Use of Deadly Gases Recalls Politics of the Dark Age Statemen and Diplomats

It is interesting today, when the opposing armies are "removing" their opponents en bloc by the use of poisonous vapors, to recall the horror evoked by the deeds of poisoners in the past. The names of the Borgias and the Medici are to this day held up to the detestation of mankind. Yet these and their like only poisoned individuals; the fighting forces today are compelled to endeavor to poison entire armies!

Their wholesale methods will doubtless go to enrich the annals of historical poisoning. For poison has played a great part in history. The employment of poison by the ancients is graphically and terribly illustrated in the deaths of Socrates, Demosthenes, Hannibal and Cleopatra, while in the reign of Artaxerxes II. (Memnon), B.C. 405-350, Phrysa poisoned the Queen Statira by cutting food with a knife poisoned on one side.

In the early part of the Christian era numberless professional poisoners arose, and for a long time exercised their trade with impunity. "Poisoning," says a well known authority, "was so much in use as a political engine that Agrippina (A.D. 26) refused to eat of some apples offered her at table by her father-in-law, Tiberius." It is a curious fact that Agrippina, while refusing to partake of these apples from her fear of being poisoned, was herself guilty of the poisoning of Claudius; but poetic justice was meted out to her in the death (by poison) of her son, Britannicus.

It was at this time, too, that the infamous Locusta flourished. She is said to have supplied, with suitable directions, the poison by which Agrippina got rid of Claudius; and she was also the principal agent in the preparation of the poison that was administered to Britannicus by order of his brother Nero.

"It was the custom of the Romans to drink hot water," says Mr. Wynter Blythe, "a draught nauseous enough to us, but, from fashion or habit, considered by them a luxury. And as no two men's tastes are alike, great skill was shown by the slaves in bringing the water to exactly that degree of heat which their respective masters found agreeable.

"A slave brings water to Britannicus; it is too hot; Britannicus refuses it. The slave adds cold water, and it is this cold water that is supposed to have been poisoned. In any case, Britannicus died, and extraordinary lividity spread over the corpse, which they attempted to conceal by painting the face."

There has come down to us a curious document, said to have been drawn out by Charles de Mauvais, King of Navarre, which shows how arsenic was much favored as a political weapon by crowned heads in the fourteenth century. It is a commission of murder given to a certain Wouderton.

"Go thou to Paris. Thou canst do great service if thou wilt. Do what I tell thee. I will reward thee well. Thou shall do thus: There is a thing which is called sublime arsenic. If a man eat a bit the size of a pea he will never survive. Thou wilt find it in Pampeluna, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and in all good towns through which thou will pass, at the apothecaries' shops.

"Take it and powder it; and when thou shalt be in the house of the king, and of Valois, his brother, the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon, draw near and betake this to the kitchen, to the larder, to the cellar, and in other places where thy point can be best gained. Put the powder in the soups, meats or wines, provided that thou canst do it secretly. Otherwise do it not."

Wouderton, failing to accomplish his task, was detected and executed in 1384.

No better example of this dread in which poisoners were held can be quoted than the fact that at so late a period as the reign of Henry VII extraordinary precautions were thought necessary for preserving the life of the infant heir. It was ordained that no person, of whatsoever rank, except the regular attendants in the nursery, were to approach the cradle, except with an order from the king's hand. Moreover, everything intended for the royal infant was boiled, to prevent all risk of poison as far as possible.

One of the more recent instances of political poisoning is that of the Sultan Abdul-Aziz, who died May 30, 1876. By reason of his advanced ideas he was forced to abdicate the throne, and four days later the unhappy sultan was found dead, it is almost certain by foul play. — From London Answers.