It was for a long time supposed that there actually did exist in Italy a
secret poison, the effects of which were slow, and even unheeded, until a
lingering malady had consumed the sufferer. No suspicions were excited;
or, had they led to any _post mortem_ examination, no trace of the
terrific preparation's effects could have been detected.
It was towards the year 1659, during the pontificate of Alexander VII.,
that the existence of this baneful preparation was suspected. Many young
women had been left widows; and many younger husbands, who might have
ceased to please their wives, had died away. A certain society of young
ladies had been observed to meet under the auspices of an elderly matron
of rather a questionable character, who had been known in her horoscopic
predictions to announce deaths that had but too truly taken place about
the period she prophesied. One of the society, it appears, _peached_
against her companions, who were all apprehended and put to the torture;
and the lady patroness, whose name was Spara, was executed with four of
her pupils. This Spara was a Sicilian, who had obtained the fatal secret
from Tofania at Naples. Hence the composition was named _aqua Tofania_,
_aqua della Toffana_, and _acquetta di Napoli_. These deadly drops had
been charitably distributed by Tofania to various uncomfortable ladies who
wished to get rid of their lords, and were contained in small phials,
bearing the inscription of "_Manna de San Nicolas de Bari_." This hag had
lived to an old age, but was at length dragged from a monastery, in which
she had sought a sanctuary, tortured, and duly strangled, after a
confession of her crimes.
Garelli, physician to Charles VI., thus wrote to Hoffmann on the subject:
"Your elegant dissertation on the popular errors respecting poisons
brought to my recollection a certain slow poison which that infamous
poisoner, still alive in prison at Naples, employed to the destruction of
upwards of six hundred persons. It was nothing else than crystallized
arsenic dissolved in a large quantity of water by decoction, with the
addition, but for what purpose I know not, of the herb _cymbalaria_
(_antirrhinum_). This was communicated to me by his Imperial Majesty
himself, and confirmed by the confession of the criminal in the judicial
procedure."
Abbe Gagliani, however, gives a different account of the secret Neapolitan
drug. "At Naples," he says, "the mixture of opium and cantharides is known
to be a slow poison; the surest of all, and the most infallible, as one
cannot mistrust it. At first, it is given in small doses, that its effects
may be insensible. In Italy it is called _aqua di Tufinia_: no one can
avoid its attacks, since the liquid is as limpid as water, and cannot be
suspected. Most of the ladies of Naples have some of it lying carelessly
on their toilet-tables with smelling-bottles; but they always can know the
fatal phial when they need its contents." A curious observer has remarked
on these two preparations, that the mixture of Garelli was, perhaps,
intended for husbands, while that of Gagliani was for the use of lovers.
This remark appears judicious, since the potion described by the Abbe was
evidently intended as an amorous philter. Under that head I have related
many curious circumstances. There is no doubt but that these preparations
often contained deadly drugs, the perilous qualities of which were most
probably unknown to those who made them up without any sinister motives.
Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos inform us that Lucullus, the Roman General,
lost his reason, and subsequently his life, from having taken one of these
mixtures; and Caius Caligula was driven into a fit of insanity by a
philter given to him by his wife Caesonia, as described by Lucretius:
Tamen hoc tolerabile, si non
Et furere incipias, ut avunculus ille Neronis
Cui totam tremuli frontem Caesonia pulli
Infudit.
Virgil also alludes to the powerful and baneful nature of the plants
employed in magical incantations:
Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena
Ipse dedit Moeris; nascuntur plurima Ponto.
His ego saepe lupum fieri, et se condere silvis
Moerin, saepe animas imis excire sepulchris,
Atque satas alio vidi traducere messes.
Female poisoners of a somewhat similar description were known amongst the
ancients. Nero, when he resolved to destroy Britannicus, sent for one of
those murderers, named Locusta, who, convicted of several assassinations,
was pardoned, but kept by the emperor to execute his secret purposes. He
wished that on this occasion the poison should produce immediate death.
Locusta prepared a drug that destroyed a goat in a few minutes. This was
not sufficiently active. The next preparation killed a hog in a few
seconds. It was approved of. The ill-fated youth was seated at the
imperial festive board--the potion poured into his goblet--and he died in
epileptic convulsions. Nero, undisturbed, requested his guests to remain
quiet--the youth he said was subject to similar attacks, which in general
were but of short duration; but soon the black, the livid hue of the face
betrayed the poison, which the imperial assassin sought to conceal, by
ordering this tell-tale sign to be concealed with paint. Sir Henry Halford
seems to think that Juvenal alludes to this circumstance in his first
Satire.
Instituit rudes melior Locusta propinquas
Per famam et populum _nigros_ effere maritos.
The poisons used by the ancients appear to have been of various kinds;
some more slow in their action than others, to suit, most probably, the
views of their employers. Socrates, it is supposed, drank the _cicuta_,
the action of which must have been very slow and weak, since his gaoler
informed him that if he could exert himself in a warm debate, the effects
might be arrested. The philosopher, however, remained tranquil. He shortly
after experienced a numbness in the legs, gradually became insensible, and
expired in convulsions.
These secret poisons were conveyed in the most stealthy manner. Hence it
is related, that the poison prepared by Antipater, to destroy Alexander,
had been conveyed in a mule's hoof, being of so corroding a nature, that
no metallic vessel could contain it. This absurd story was credited by
Plutarch and Quintus Curtius, whereas it appears more probable that poison
was carried in an _onyx_, of which trinkets to contain precious ointments
were frequently made, or under a human nail, also called _Unguis_, or
[Greek: onux]. The latter case was the opinion of Dr. Heberden.
Sir Henry Halford, in his learned and interesting essay on the deaths of
illustrious persons of antiquity, has clearly proved that Alexander was
not poisoned, but died of a lingering fever of a remittent type; a disease
that was most probably endemic in the marshes surrounding the city of
Babylon.
Many absurd ideas regarding venenose substances prevailed in ancient days
as well as in modern times. Hannibal and Themistocles were said to have
been poisoned with bullocks' blood.
Eastern nations fancy that a fascinating power is the gift of virtue. In
the _Hitapadesa_ of _Vishnusannan_ we find the following aphorism: "As a
charmer draweth a serpent from his hole, so a good wife, taking her
husband from a place of torture, enjoyeth happiness with him." Possibly
some receipt of this description may be found in the archives of Doctors'
Commons.