434 History of Poisons, [June, 



to poison Claudius by Agrippina, who was desirous of destroy- 

 ing the Emperor, and yet feared to dispatch him suddenly, 

 whence a slow poison was prepared by Locusta, and served to 

 him in a dish of mushrooms, of which he was particularly fond, 

 " Boletorum appetentissimus ;" but it failed in its effects,, as we 

 learn from Tacitus, until it was assisted by one of a more pow- 

 erful nature. " Post quern nihil amplius edit." This same 

 Locusta prepared also the poison with which Nero dispatched 

 Britannicus, the son of Agrippina, whom his father Claudius 

 wished to succeed him on the throne. This poison appears to 

 have proved too slow in its operation, and to have occasioned 

 only a dysentery. The Emperor accordingly compelled her by 

 blows and threats to prepare in his presence one of a more 

 powerful nature, and as the tale is related by Suetonius, it 

 appears that it was then tried on a kid, but as the animal did 

 not die until the lapse of five hours, she boiled it for a longer 

 period, when it became so strong as instantaneously to kill a pig 

 to which it was given. In this state of concentration it is said 

 to have dispatched Britannicus as soon as he tasted it.* Vide 

 Tac. An. 13. s. 15, 16. Now it would clearly appear from these 

 statements that Locusta, avowedly the most accomplished 

 poisoner of ancient Rome, was wholly incapable of graduating 

 the strength of her poisons to the different purposes for which 

 they were applied. 



The records of modern times will furnish examples no less 

 atrocious than those we have just related. Tophana, a woman 

 who resided first at Palermo, and afterwards at Naples, may be 

 considered as the Locusta of modern history ; she invented and 

 sold those drops so well known by the names of AquaToffania ; 

 Aqua della Toffana ; Acquetta di Napoli, or simply Acquetta. 

 This stygian liquor she distributed by way of charity to such 

 wives as wished for 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 within any given period. t 

 It appears that in order to secure her poison from examination, 

 she vended it in small glass phials, inscribed " Manna of Saint 

 Nicolas Bari," and ornamented the vessel with the image of the 

 Saint. Having been put to the rack she confessed that she had 

 destroyed upwards of 600 persons, for which she suffered death 

 by strangulation in the year 1709.J In 1670 the art of secret 

 poisoning excited very considerable alarm in Fiance ; the Mar- 

 chioness de Brinvillier, a young woman of rank and great personal 

 attractions, having intrigued with, and subsequently married an 



♦ For the ingenious mode in which this poison was administered, see Tacitus. The 

 prince having called for a cup of wine, it was purposely presented too hot ; he desired 

 cold water to be added to it, and the opportunity was then taken to infuse the poison. 

 By this stratagem the taster (." calida gelidsrque minister." Juv. Sat. v. v. 63) escaped 

 its effects, in which he must otherwise have participated with Britannicus. 



+ The reader will find a very interesting account of this diabolical woman in Labat's 

 Travels through Italy, and also in Beckman's History of Inventions. 



± Hoffman Medkin. Rational. 



