with which the colon and rectum may be evacuated, it is not likely that the poison will be found in the gut after death, if the individual did not die in a few hours after its administration.
In the third place, women have also died of poisoning by arsenic introduced into the vagina. Two examples of this revolting crime are on record. One of them occurred in 1799, in the Department of the Ourthe in France. A middle-aged female was seized with vomiting, diarrhœa, swelling of the genitals and uterine discharge; and she expired not long after. Before her death she told two of her neighbours, that her husband had some time before tried to poison her by putting arsenic in her coffee, and had at length succeeded by introducing a powder into her vagina while in the act of enjoying his nuptial rights. The vulva and vagina were gangrenous, the belly distended with gases, and the intestines inflamed.[1]
The other case, which happened in Finland in 1786, gave rise to an excellent dissertation on the subject by Dr. Mangor, at that time medical inspector for Copenhagen. A farmer near Copenhagen lost his wife suddenly under suspicious circumstances, and six weeks afterwards married his maid-servant. In a few years he transferred his affections to another maid-servant, with whose aid he endeavoured to poison his second wife. For some time his attempts proved abortive; till at last one morning, after coïtion, he introduced a mixture of arsenic and flour on the point of his finger into the vagina. She took ill at mid-day and expired next morning; and the murderer soon after married his guilty paramour. But a few years had not elapsed before he got tired of her also; and one morning, after the conjugal embrace, he administered arsenic to her in the same way as to her predecessor. About three in the afternoon, while enjoying good health, she was suddenly seized with shivering and heat in the vagina. The remembrance of her former wickedness soon awoke the suspicions of the unhappy woman, and she wrung from her husband a confession of his crime. Means were resorted to for saving her life, but in vain: She was attacked with acute pain in her stomach and incessant vomiting, then became delirious, and died in twenty-one hours. After death grains of arsenic were found in the vagina, although frequent lotions had been used in the treatment. The labia were swollen and red, the vagina gaping and flaccid, the os uteri gangrenous, the duodenum inflamed, the stomach natural. In the course of the judicial proceedings which arose out of these two cases, Dr. Mangor made experiments on mares, with the view of settling the doubts which were entertained as to the likelihood of arsenic proving fatal in the manner alleged; and the results clearly showed that, when applied to the vagina of these animals, it produces violent local inflammation and fatal constitutional derangement.[2]
In the fourth place, poisoning by arsenic through the bronchial
