n6 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



enty different substances, some of them 

 absurd, some of them incompatible, and 

 the most active having simply some pur- 

 gative or stimulating action. 



As Roman society became more and 

 more corrupt, towards the beginning of 

 the Christian era, the art of poisoning be- 

 came of more and more importance, until, 

 in the early Empire, it developed into a 

 court science. The two Emperors, Nero 

 and Tiberius, made the greatest use of it, 

 and in their day the court poisoners 

 achieved a most unenviable pre-emi- 

 nence. Two women, Locusta and Pon- 

 tia are the ones whose names have come 

 down to us as the leaders, and the stories 

 of their work show with what extraordi- 

 nary boldness their crimes were commit- 

 ted. One example will be sufficient. Nero 

 was desirous of getting rid of Britannicus, 

 a gallant young prince of the imperial 

 house, just returned from his conquests 

 in Britain. An attempt was made on 

 his life, but it failed, the young soldier's 

 rugged constitution throwing off the 

 poison. Accordingly Locusta was brought 

 to the palace, and she prepared her po- 

 tions and made her experiments in the 

 Emperor's presence. Her first decoction 

 was tried on an animal, without success, 

 simply acting as a violent purge. A second 

 brew was made, stronger than the first, 

 which killed a goat in five hours. This 

 was promising, but not yet satisfactory. 

 So a third decoction was made, probably 

 with the aid of a good deal of aconite, 

 and this, tried on a pig, produced al- 

 most instant death. It was then ready 

 for the young prince. 



There was a banquet at the palace that 

 night. Nero and his family were re- 

 clining at their meal. At a lower table 

 lay on their couches Britannicus and the 

 younger members of the family, with 

 trusted attendants standing by each to 

 taste the food and drink as they were 

 handed round, for fear of poison. The 



wine was passed, thick and syrupy, and 

 hot water was served at the same time to 

 thin it and dilute it. These were duly 

 tasted and mixed, but the young prince, 

 finding the mixture too hot, called for 

 some cold water. A boy ran up with a 

 flask and poured it directly into the cup 

 which Britannicus held out to him. The 

 prince drank again and fell back in his 

 place almost at once, pale, fainting and 

 gasping for breath. The guests started 

 from their seats and crowded around, 

 but Nero ordered the attendants to carry 

 him out. saying that it was a fit, and 

 that he had been subject to them from 

 his youth. So the banquet went on, 

 while Britannicus was lying dead in the 

 anteroom. 



Of course in those days but little was 

 known about the post mortem symptoms, 

 and proof of death by poisoning was al- 

 most impossible to obtain. This was 

 shown, some little time before, by a curi- 

 ous decision'ot the great court of the Areo- 

 pagus, in Athens, to which one of the Ro- 

 man proconsuls of Asia had referred a 

 case of a woman poisoning her husband. 

 The learned court adjourned the case 

 for ioo years, deeming it impossible 

 to decide truly on the testimony offered. 

 In this case of Britannicus there was so 

 muoh reason lor suspecting foul play 

 that the populace insisted upon having 

 the body of their beloved prince exposed 

 in the Forum. The proof then mostly 

 relied on, at any rate by the laity, was 

 the external appearance of the body, and 

 it is related that, dreading this exposure, 

 Neio had the face of the dead prince 

 carefully painted and whitened, so as to 

 look natural. This answered very well 

 till the afternoon, when a thunder-storm 

 came up, and beating upon the corpse, 

 washed off the chalk and exposed the 

 livid, discolored features beneath. 



(To be continued.) 



