2824.] History of Poisons. 433 



of the guilt or innocence of the party charged with the perpe- 

 tration of a crime, which may be said to rob courage of its just 

 security, while it transfers to cowardice the triumphs of valour. 

 That engines so powerful and secret in their work of destruction 

 should have universally excited the terror of mankind is a fact 

 which cannot surprise us, and, when we consider how intimate 

 are the relations between fear and credulity, we need not seek 

 further for the solution of the many problems to which the exag- 

 gerated statements of ancient toxicologists* have given origin ; 

 the most extraordinary of those relate to the alleged subtlety of 

 certain poisons, which was believed to be so extreme as to defeat 

 the most skilful caution, and at the same time so manageable, 

 as to be capable of the most accurate graduation ; so that in 

 short the accomplished assassin was not only thus enabled to 

 ensure the death of his victim through the most secret and least 

 suspicious agents, but to measure his allotted moments with the 

 nicest precision, and to occasion his death at any period that 

 might best answer the objects of the assassination. The writ- 

 ings of Plutarch, Tacitus, Theophrastus, Quintillian, and Livy, 

 abound with such instances of occult and slow poisoning ; most 

 of which, however, notwithstanding the weight they may acquire 

 from their testimony, bear internal evidence of their fallacious 

 character. Plutarch informs us that a slow poison which occa- 

 sioned heat, cough, spitting of blood, a lingering consumption 

 of the body, and a weakness of intellect, was administered to 

 Aratus of Sicyon. This same poison is also alluded to by Quin- 

 tillian in his declamations. Tacitusf informs us that Sejanus 

 caused a secret poison to be administered by an eunuch to 

 Drusus, who in consequence gradually declined, as if by a con- 

 sumptive disorder, and at length died. Theophrastus^ speaks 

 of a poison, prepared from aconite, that could be so modified as 

 to occasion death within a certain period, such as two, three, or 

 six months, a year, and even sometimes two years. 



To such an extent does the crime of poisoning appear to have 

 been carried, about 200 years before the Christian sera, that, 

 according to Livy,§ above 150 ladies, of the first families in 

 Rome, were convicted and punished for preparing and distribut- 

 ing poison. The most notorious and expert character of this 

 kind is handed down to us by the historians and poets under 

 the name of Locusta, who was condemned to die on account of 

 her infamous actions, but was saved in order that she might 

 become a state engine, and be numbered, as Tacitus expresses 

 it, " Liter iitstrume/Ua regni." She was accordingly employed 



* The study of poisoning appears to have been of considerable antiquity. Ulysses 

 nought poison for his weapons from Ilus, " $«f/iotxov avfyo^ivov" Od. 1. I. v. 201 ; but 

 the conscientious pharmacopolisl refused to furnish his dangerous preparations to ihc 

 wily chief. 



+ Taciti Anna!. lib. iv. c.8. 



t lli<t. Plant, lib. ix. c. 10, p. 189, 



§ Lib. viii. c. 18. 



Neio Series, vol. vn. 2 F 



