Wholesale Poisoning by Arsenic
| Author | Frank W. Martin |
| Published date | 01 April 1935 |
| Date | 01 April 1935 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3500800210 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Wholesale Poisoning by Arsenic
By
FRANK
W.
MARTIN,
M.D.
Late
Divisional Surgeon, City of Glasgow Police.
IN
all countries arsenic appears to be the most popular
poison used for homicidal purposes.
The
reasons for
this are, no doubt, the ease with which it can be administered
and the fact that it is odourless and tasteless.
In
this country homicidal poisoning is fortunately rare,
and only at long intervals do cases arise.
This
is not the
position on the continent where, according to Beothy,'
poisoning by arsenic has been carried out on what one might
term wholesale lines.
In
the year 1929, in a small district of Hungary, a series
of poisonings by arsenic was revealed hitherto unparalleled
in the annals of crime.
The
poisonings were spread over
aperiod of twenty years, and it is almost incredible that such
outrages, of which one person was the author, escaped
detection.
The
author of these outrages was a midwife of peasant
origin, named Fazekas. She was a handsome woman, and of
such charm of manner that she became the friend of
all-
police, clergy, and villagers. She did a fairly lucrative trade
as an abortionist, and the popularity of the single child among
the villagers greatly facilitated her work.
Not
only had she
the local procurator fiscal under her thumb,
but
it is reported
1
Konrad
von Beothy,
M.D.,
Deutsche Zeitschrift Jur die Gesamte Gerichtliche
Medisin, Band 23,
Heft
3, 1934·
215
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