I have made enough to send all our thirty-three millions of Italians to sleep for ever!" Kalmon laughed pleasantly.
"If this could be properly used, civilisation would make a gigantic stride," he added.

"In war, for instance, how infinitely pleasanter and more aesthetic it would be to send the enemy to sleep, with the most delightful dreams, never to wake again, than to tear people to pieces with artillery and rifle bullets, and to blow up ships with hundreds of poor devils on board, who are torn limb from limb by the explosion." "The difficulty," observed the Contessa, "would be to induce the enemy to take your poison quietly.

What if the enemy objected ?" "I should put it into their water supply," said Kalmon.
"Poison the water!" cried the Signora Corbario.

"How barbarous!" "Much less barbarous than shedding oceans of blood.

Only think--they would all go to sleep.