Under this name are generally understood all poisons which can be
administered imperceptibly, and which gradually shorten the life of
man, like a lingering disease. They were not first discovered in the
17th century in France and Italy as many believe, but were known to
the ancient Greeks and Romans, by whom they were used. I must however
allow, that they were never prepared with more art at any period, or
in any country, or employed oftener and with more success, than they
were in these countries, and at that time. If it be true that they
can be prepared in such a manner as to occasion death at a certain
period previously determined, or that the person to whom they are given
will die within a certain time limited, it must be confessed that
the ancient poisoners have been far exceeded by the modern. But this
advantage will be considered as scarcely possible, when one reflects
upon the many variable circumstances which have an influence on the
operation of medicines and poisons; and it has often happened that a
company have swallowed the same poison, at the same time, and in the
same quantity, some of whom have died sooner and some later, while
some have survived. Thus died Pope Alexander VI. in the year 1503,
and Cæsar Borgia recovered without any loss of health, though, by the
bottles being changed through mistake, he drank of the poison that
had been prepared for the other guests alone. At any rate, I am of
opinion that the celebrated Tophania, when she engaged to free wives
from disagreeable husbands within stated weeks and days, must have had
certain and very accurate information respecting their constitution and
manner of living, or, as the physicians say, their idiosyncrasy.
Some physicians have doubted respecting secret poison[103]; and others
have only denied that its effects can with certainty be regulated to
a fixed time[104]. I agree in opinion with the latter; but the former
can be confuted by many examples both of ancient and modern times; for
that the ancients were acquainted with this kind of poison, can be
proved by the testimony of Plutarch, Quintilian, and other respectable
authors. We are told by Plutarch, that a slow poison, which occasioned
heat, a cough, spitting of blood, consumption, and a weakness of
intellect, was administered to Aratus of Sicyon[105]; and Quintilian
in his Declamations, speaks of this poison in such a manner as proves
that it must then have been well known[106]. It cannot be said that
such an invention was too great for that period, or that it required
more knowledge of chemistry than any one possessed; for the Indians in
America are acquainted with a most perfect poison of this kind, and
can employ it with so much skill, that the person to whom it is given
cannot guard against the treachery, even with the utmost precaution,
but infallibly dies, though in a lingering manner, often after the
expiration of some years[107].
Theophrastus speaks of a poison which could be moderated in such a
manner as to have effect in two or three months, or at the end of a
year, or two years; and he remarks that the death, the more lingering
it was, became the more miserable. This poison was prepared from
aconitum, a plant which, on that account, people were forbidden to have
in their possession, under pain of capital punishment[108]. He relates
also, that Thrasyas had discovered a method of preparing from other
plants a poison which, given in small doses of a drachm, occasioned an
easy but certain death, without any pain, and which could be kept back
for a long time without causing weakness or corruption. This Thrasyas,
whose scholar Alexias carried the art still further, was a native of
Mantinea, a city in Arcadia, and is celebrated by Theophrastus on
account of his abilities, and particularly his knowledge of botany; but
those are mistaken who ascribe to him the discovery of secret poison.
This poison was much used at Rome about two hundred years before the
Christian æra. As several persons of distinction died the same year at
that period, and of the like distemper, an inquiry being made into the
cause, a maid-servant gave evidence against some ladies of the first
families, who, she said, prepared and distributed poison; and above a
hundred and fifty of them were convicted and punished[109]. As so many
had learnt this destructive art, it could not be suppressed; and we
find sufficient proofs in the Roman history that it was continually
preserved. Sejanus caused such a secret poison to be administered
by an eunuch to Drusus, who gradually declined afterwards, as by
a consumptive disorder, and at length died[110]. Agrippina, being
desirous of getting rid of Claudius, but not daring to despatch him
suddenly, and yet wishing not to leave him sufficient time to make new
regulations respecting the succession to the throne, made choice of a
poison which should deprive him of his reason, and gradually consume
him. This she caused to be prepared by an expert poisoner, named
Locusta, who had been condemned to death for her infamous actions,
but saved that she might be employed as a state engine. The poison
was given to the emperor in a dish of mushrooms; but as, on account
of his irregular manner of living, it did not produce the desired
effect, it was assisted by some of a stronger nature[111]. This Locusta
prepared also the poison with which Nero despatched Britannicus, the
son of Agrippina, whom his father Claudius wished to succeed him on
the throne. As this poison occasioned only a dysentery, and was too
slow in its operation, the emperor compelled Locusta by blows, and
by threatening her with death, to prepare in his presence one more
powerful. It was first tried on a kid; but as the animal did not die
till the end of five hours, she boiled it a little longer, until it
instantaneously killed a pig to which it had been given, and this
poison despatched Britannicus as soon as he had tasted it[112]. For
this service the emperor pardoned Locusta, rewarded her liberally, and
gave her pupils whom she was to instruct in her art, in order that it
might not be lost.
The art of preparing this poison must have been well understood also
at Carthage. When M. Attilius Regulus, the Roman general, who had been
taken by the Carthaginians, was sent to Rome to propose to the senate
that the Carthaginian prisoners might be restored in exchange for him,
he prevented this negotiation, because he knew that a poison had been
administered to him, by which the state would soon be deprived of his
services. He returned, therefore, to Carthage, in compliance with the
promise he had made to the enemy, who put him to death with the most
exquisite torture[113].
All these poisons were prepared from plants, particularly aconite,
hemlock and poppy, or extracted from animal substances. Among those
made from the latter, none is more remarkable than that supplied by
the sea-hare, _lepus marinus_, with which, as Philostratus says[114],
Titus was despatched by Domitian. Without here attempting to define
the substances employed by the ancients to compose their poisons, I
shall only observe, that the _lepus marinus_, the terrible effects of
which are expressly mentioned by Dioscorides, Galen, Nicander, Aëtius,
Ælian[115], Pliny[116], and others, is that animal called at present in
the Linnæan system _Aplysia depilans_[117], as Rondelet conjectured,
and has been since fully proved by Bohadsch[118]. This animal poison
however seems to have been seldom used, as it easily betrays itself by
some peculiar symptoms. It appears that it was not known to Aristotle,
at least he makes no mention of it[119]. With the far stronger, and
now common mineral poisons the ancients were not acquainted; for their
arsenic was what we call orpiment, and not that pernicious metallic
oxide which formed the principal ingredient of those secret poisons
which in latter times were in France and Italy brought to a diabolical
perfection[120].
No one was ever more infamous by this art than Tophania, or Toffana, a
woman who resided first at Palermo, and afterwards at Naples. She sold
those drops, which from her acquired the name of _aqua Tophania_, _aqua
della Toffana_, and which were called also _acquetta di Napoli_, or
only _acquetta_; but she distributed her preparation by way of charity
to such wives as wished to have other husbands. From four to six drops
were sufficient to destroy a man; and it was asserted that the dose
could be so proportioned as to operate in a certain time. As she was
watched by the government, she fled to an ecclesiastical asylum; and
when Keysler was at Naples in 1730, she was then still living, because
no one could, or was willing to take away her life, while under that
protection. At that time she was visited by many strangers out of
curiosity.
In Labat’s Travels through Italy[121] we also find some information
which may serve still further to illustrate the history of Tophania.
She distributed her poison in small glass phials, with this
inscription, _Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari_, and ornamented with the
image of the saint. A miraculous oil, employed by folly in the cure of
many diseases, drops from the tomb of that saint which is shown at Bari
in the kingdom of Naples; and on this account it is dispersed in great
abundance under the like name. It was therefore the best appellation
which Tophania could give to her poison, because the reputed sanctity
of it prevented the custom-house officers from examining it too
closely. When the viceroy was informed of this, which I think was in
1709, Tophania fled from one convent to another, but was at length
seized and thrown into prison. The clergy raised a loud outcry on
account of this violation of ecclesiastical freedom, and endeavoured
to excite the people to insurrection. But they were soon appeased on a
report being spread that Tophania had confessed she had poisoned all
the springs in the city. Being put to the rack, she acknowledged her
wickedness, and confessed to having caused the death of not less than
600 persons; named those who had protected her, who were immediately
dragged from churches and monasteries; and declared that the day before
she had absconded, she had sent two boxes of her manna to Rome, where
it was found in the custom-house, but she did not accuse any one of
having ordered it. She was afterwards strangled, and to mitigate the
archbishop, her body was thrown at night into the area of the convent
from which she had been taken. Tophania however was not the only person
at Naples who understood the making of this poison; for Keysler says
that at the time he was there it was still secretly prepared and much
employed.
In the year 1659, under the government of Pope Alexander VII., it was
observed at Rome that many young married women were left widows, and
that many husbands died when they became disagreeable to their wives.
Several of the clergy declared also, that for some time past various
persons had acknowledged at confession that they had been guilty of
poisoning. As the government employed the utmost vigilance to discover
these poisoners, suspicion fell upon a society of young married women,
whose president appeared to be an old woman who pretended to foretell
future events, and who had often predicted very exactly many deaths
to persons who had cause to wish for them. To ascertain the truth, a
crafty female, given out to be a person of considerable distinction,
was sent to this old woman, pretending that she wished to obtain her
confidence, and to procure some of her drops for a cruel and tyrannical
husband. The whole society were by this stratagem arrested; and all
of them, except the fortune-teller, whose name was Hieronyma Spara,
confessed before they were put to the torture.--“Where now,” cried she,
“are the Roman princes, knights and barons, who on so many occasions
promised me their protection! Where are the ladies who assured me
of their friendship! Where are my children whom I have placed in so
distinguished situations!” In order to deter others from committing the
like crime, one Gratiosa, Spara’s assistant, three other women, and
the obstinate Spara herself, who still entertained hopes of assistance
till the last moment, were hanged in the presence of innumerable
spectators. Some months after, several more women were executed in
the same manner; some were whipt, and others were banished from the
country. Notwithstanding these punishments, the effects of this
inveterate wickedness have been from time to time remarked. Le Bret,
to whom we are indebted for the above account, says[122] that Spara
was a Sicilian, and acquired her knowledge from Tophania at Palermo. If
that be true, the latter must have been early initiated in villany, and
must have become when very young a teacher of her infamous art. Keysler
calls her a little old woman.
The art of poisoning never excited more attention than it did in
France about the year 1670[123]. Mary Margaret d’Aubray, daughter of
the lieutenant-civil Dreux d’Aubray, was in the year 1651 married to
the Marquis de Brinvillier, son of Gobelin president of the Chamber
of Accounts, who had a yearly income of thirty thousand livres,
and to whom she brought a portion of two hundred thousand. He was
mestre-de-camp of the regiment of Normandy, and during the course of
his campaigns became acquainted with one Godin de Sainte Croix, a young
man of a distinguished family, who served as a captain of cavalry
in the regiment of Trassy. This young officer, who was then a needy
adventurer, became a constant visitor of the marquis, and in a short
time paid his addresses to the marchioness, who lost her husband after
she had helped to dissipate his large fortune, and was thus enabled to
enjoy her amours in greater freedom. Her indecent conduct, however,
gave so much uneasiness to her father, that he procured a lettre de
cachet, had Sainte Croix arrested while in a carriage by her side,
and thrown into the Bastille[124]. Sainte Croix there got acquainted
with an Italian named Exili, who understood the art of preparing
poison, and from whom he learnt it. As they were both set at liberty
after a year’s imprisonment, Sainte Croix kept Exili with him until he
became perfectly master of the art, in which he afterwards instructed
the marchioness, in order that she might employ it in bettering the
circumstances of both. When she had acquired the principles of the
art, she assumed the appearance of a nun, distributed food to the
poor, nursed the sick in the Hôtel-Dieu, and gave them medicines, but
only for the purpose of trying the strength of her poison undetected
on these helpless wretches[125]. It was said in Paris, by way of
satire, that no young physician, in introducing himself to practice,
had ever so speedily filled a churchyard as Brinvillier. By the
force of money, she prevailed on Sainte Croix’s servant, called La
Chaussée, to administer poison to her father, into whose service she
got him introduced, and also to her brother, who was a counsellor of
the parliament, and resided at his father’s house. To the former the
poison was given ten times before he died; the son died sooner; but
the daughter, Mademoiselle d’Aubray, the marchioness could not poison,
because perhaps she was too much on her guard; for a suspicion soon
arose that the father and son had been poisoned, and the bodies were
opened. She would however have escaped, had not Providence brought to
light the villany.
Sainte Croix, when preparing poison, was accustomed to wear a glass
mask; but as this once happened to drop off by accident, he was
suffocated, and found dead in his laboratory. Government caused the
effects of this man, who had no family, to be examined, and a list of
them to be made out. On searching them, there was found a small box, to
which Sainte Croix had affixed a written request, that after his death
it might be delivered to the Marchioness de Brinvillier, or in case she
should not be living, that it might be burnt[126]. Nothing could be a
greater inducement to have it opened than this singular petition; and
that being done, there was found in it a great abundance of poisons of
every kind, with labels on which their effects, proved by experiments
made on animals, were marked. When the marchioness heard of the death
of her lover and instructor, she was desirous to have the casket,
and endeavoured to get possession of it, by bribing the officers
of justice; but as she failed in this, she quitted the kingdom. La
Chaussée, however, continued at Paris, laid claim to the property of
Sainte Croix, was seized and imprisoned, confessed more acts of villany
than were suspected, and was in consequence broke alive on the wheel in
1673.
A very active officer of justice, named Desgrais, was despatched in
search of the Marchioness de Brinvillier, who was found in a convent
at Liège, to which she had fled from England. To entice her from this
privileged place, which folly had consecrated for the protection
of vice, Desgrais assumed the dress of an abbé, found means to get
acquainted with her, acted the part of a lover, and, having engaged
her to go out on an excursion of pleasure, arrested her. Among her
effects at the convent, there was found a confession, written by her
own hand, which contained a complete catalogue of her crimes. She
there acknowledged that she had set fire to houses, and that she had
occasioned the death of more persons than any one ever suspected. She
remarked also, that she had continued a virgin only till the seventh
year of her age. Notwithstanding all the craft which she employed
to escape, she was conveyed to Paris, where she at first denied
everything; and, when in prison, she played picquet to pass away
the time. She was however convicted, brought to a confession of her
enormities, became a convert, as her confessor termed it, and went with
much firmness to the place of execution, on the 16th of July, 1676;
where, when she beheld the multitude of the spectators, she exclaimed
in a contemptuous manner, “You have come to see a fine spectacle!” She
was beheaded and afterwards burnt; a punishment too mild for such an
offender[127]. As she had been amused with some hopes of a pardon, on
account of her relations, when she mounted the scaffold, she cried out,
“_C’est donc tout de bon!_[128]”
Among a number of persons suspected of being concerned in this affair,
was a German apothecary, named Glaser, who on account of his knowledge
in chemistry, was intimate with Exili and Sainte Croix. From him they
had both procured the materials which they used, and he was some
years confined in the Bastille; but the charge against him being more
minutely investigated, he was declared innocent, and set at liberty. He
was the author of a Treatise on Chemistry, printed at Paris in 1667,
and reprinted afterwards at Brussels in 1676, and at Lyons in 1679.
By the execution of this French Medea, the practice of poisoning
was not suppressed; many persons died from time to time under very
suspicious circumstances; and the archbishop was informed from
different parishes that this crime was still confessed, and that traces
of it were remarked both in high and in low families. For watching,
searching after, and punishing poisoners, a particular court, called
the _Chambre de Poison_ or _Chambre ardente_, was at length established
in 1679. This court, besides other persons, detected two women named
La Vigoreux and La Voisin[129], who carried on a great traffic in
poisons. The latter was a midwife. Both of them pretended to foretell
future events, to call up ghosts, and to teach the art of finding
hidden treasures, and of recovering lost or stolen goods. They also
distributed philtres, and sold secret poison to such persons as they
knew they could depend upon, and who wished to employ them either to
get rid of bad husbands, or recover lost lovers. Female curiosity
induced several ladies of the first rank, and even some belonging
to the court, to visit these women, particularly La Voisin; and who,
without thinking of poison, only wished to know how soon a husband,
a lover, the king or his mistress, would die. In the possession of
La Voisin was found a list of all those who had become dupes to her
imposture. They were arrested and carried before the above-mentioned
court, which, without following the usual course of justice, detected
secret crimes by means of spies, instituted private trials, and began
to imitate the proceedings of the holy inquisition. In this list were
found the distinguished names of the Countess de Soissons, her sister
the Duchess de Bouillon, and Marshal de Luxembourg. The first fled
to Flanders to avoid the severity and disgrace of imprisonment; the
second saved herself by the help of her friends; and the last, after
he had been some months in the Bastille, and had undergone a strict
examination, by which he almost lost his reputation, was set at liberty
as innocent. Thus did the cruel Louvois the war minister, and the
Marchioness de Montespan, ruin those who opposed their measures. La
Vigoreux and La Voisin were burnt alive on the 22nd of February 1680,
after their hands had been bored through with a red-hot iron and cut
off. Several persons of ordinary rank were punished by the common
hangman; those of higher rank, after they had been declared by this
tribunal not guilty, were set at liberty; and in 1680 an end was put to
the _Chambre ardente_, which in reality was a political inquisition.
It is certain that notwithstanding such punishments, like crimes have
given occasion to unjust succession both in Italy and in France, and
that attempts have been made for the same purpose even in the northern
kingdoms. It is known that in Denmark Count Corfitz de Ulfeld was
guilty, though it was not proved, of having intended to give the king
a poison, which should gradually destroy him like a lethargy[130].
Charles XI. also, king of Sweden, died by the effects of such a
poison. Having ruined several noble families by seizing on their
property, and having after that made a journey to Torneo, he fell into
a consumptive disorder which no medicine could cure. One day he asked
his physician in a very earnest manner, what was the cause of his
illness? The physician replied, “Your majesty has been loaded with too
many maledictions.” “Yes,” returned the king, “I wish to God that the
reduction of the nobility’s estates had not taken place, and that I had
never undertaken a journey to Torneo!” After his death his intestines
were found to be full of small ulcers[131].
The oftener poisoning in this manner happens, the more it is to be
wished that preventives and antidotes were found out, and that the
symptoms were ascertained; but this is hardly possible as long as it is
not known of what the poison properly consists. Governments, however,
have wisely endeavoured to conceal the recipes, by suppressing the
criminal procedures. Pope Alexander VII. caused them to be shut up
in the castle of St. Angelo; in France, it is said, they were burnt
together with the criminals; in Naples only the same precaution was
not taken. I do not know that observations on the bodies of persons
destroyed by slow poison have been ever published; for what Pitaval
says on that subject is not sufficient[132]. People talk of powders
and pills, but the greater part of this kind of poison appears to be a
clear insipid water, and that prepared by Tophania never once betrayed
itself by any particular effects on the body. The sale of aqua-fortis
was a long time forbidden at Rome, because it was considered as the
principal ingredient; but this is very improbable. At Paris it was
once believed that succession powder consisted of diamond dust pounded
exceedingly fine. Without assenting to this idea, one may contradict
Voltaire, who conceives that diamond dust is not more prejudicial than
powder of coral. It may be rather compared to that fine sand which is
rubbed off from our mill-stones, and which we should consider and
guard against as a secret poison, were we not highly negligent and
careless of our health in the use of food[133]. In the casket of Sainte
Croix were found corrosive sublimate, opium, regulus of antimony,
vitriol, and a large quantity of poison ready prepared, the principal
ingredients of which the physicians were not able to distinguish.
Many have affirmed that sugar of lead was the chief ingredient[134];
but the consequences of the poison did not seem to indicate the use
of that metal. For some years past a harmless plant, which is only
somewhat bitter and astringent, the ivy-leaved Toadflax (_Linaria
Cymbalaria_), that grows on old walls, has been loaded with the
opprobrium of producing this slow poison, while at the same time it
has been celebrated by others on account of its medicinal properties;
but it is perhaps not powerful enough to do either mischief or good;
and it is probable that it has been added to poisons either through
ignorance, or to conceal other ingredients; for the emperor Charles
VI., who was king of the Two Sicilies at the time when Tophania was
arrested, told his physician Garelli, who communicated the same in
a letter[135] to the celebrated Hoffmann, in 1718 or 1719, that the
poison of that Italian Circe was composed of an arsenical oxide,
dissolved in _aqua cymbalariæ_, and which I suppose was rendered
stronger and more difficult to be detected by a salt that may be
readily guessed. It is dreadful to think that this secret poison is
administered as a febrifuge by ignorant or unprincipled physicians,
quacks, and old women. It drives off obstinate fevers, it is true; but
it is equally certain that it hastens death: it is therefore a cure,
which is far worse than the disease, and against which governments and
physicians cannot exclaim too severely. It was remarked at Rome, by
accident, that lemon juice and the acid of lemons are, in some measure,
counter-poisons; and a physician named Paul Branchaletti, respecting
whom I can find no information, wrote a book expressly on this antidote
to these drops, according to the account of Keysler, who however adds,
“Everything hitherto found out, supposes that one has taken the drops
only for a short time, or that one has had an opportunity to be upon
one’s guard when suspicious circumstances occurred, and to discover the
threatened danger.”
It seems to be almost certain that the poisons prepared by Tophania
and Brinvillier were arsenical mixtures, or, as Dr. Hahneman[136]
rightly conjectures, neutral salts of arsenic. Loss of appetite,
faintness, gnawing pains in the stomach, loss of strength without
any visible cause, a continual indisposition, followed by a wasting
of the viscera, a slow fever, &c., are all symptoms which seem to
announce that dangerous metallic oxide. The opinion, however, that it
was composed of opium and cantharides has, in latter times, received
so many confirmations, that one is almost induced to believe that
there are more kinds than one of this Stygian water. The information
given by the abbé Gagliani, seems to carry too much weight with it
to be denied[137]. It is confirmed also by M. Archenholz[138]; but
what he says of the use made of Spanish flies, by the Chinese, to
invigorate the sixth sense, gives reason to suspect that his voucher
is _L’Espion Dévalisé_, to whom the abbé Gagliani ascribes the same
words. It appears to me, however, if I may be allowed to judge from
probabilities, that the poison known in the East Indies under the
name of _powst_ is also water which has stood a night over the juice
of poppies. It is given in the morning fasting to those persons, and
particularly princes, whom people wish to despatch privately, and
without much violence. It consumes them slowly, so that they at length
lose all their strength and understanding, and in the end die torpid
and insensible[139].
[Chemical science has made such rapid progress of late years, that
there are but few, if any, poisonous substances which cannot be
detected with certainty. The improved state of our medical knowledge,
and the institution of coroners’ inquests in all cases where any
suspicion of the cause of death occurs, fortunately renders secret
poisoning almost, if not quite impossible, at least in this country.]