438 History of Poisons. [June, 



It has, however, been shown by late experiments that the toad 

 has, under particular circumstances, the power of ejecting from 

 the surface of the body an acrid secretion which excoriates the 

 hands of those that come in contact with it ; and this fact may, 

 perhaps, have assisted in supporting the general belief respecting 

 the poisonous nature of this reptile. Pelletier has ascertained, 

 that this corrosive matter, contained in the vesicles which cover 

 the skin of the common toad (Rana Bufu), has a yellow colour, 

 and an oily consistence, and to consist of, — 1st, an acid partly 

 united to a base, and constituting l-20th part of the whole. 

 2d, very bitter fatty matter. 3d, an animal matter bearing some 

 analogy to gelatine. 



It would also appear from the writings of Dioscorides, Galen, 

 Nicander, iEtius, iElian, and Pliny, that the ancients derived a 

 very energetic poison from the sea.hare,LepusMarimis, — the Apla- 

 sia Depilans of Linnaeus ; and, if we may credit Philostratus, it 

 was with such a poison that Titus was killed by Domitian. 



There is, however, ample ground for supposing that the poi- 

 sons of the ancients were, for the most part, obtained from the 

 vegetable kingdom, and from the class of narcotic plants ;* that 

 they were compounded of a great variety of such ingredients, 

 together with others that were quite inert and useless, and which 

 merely served to disguise their composition. 



Ancient writers also allude to the blood of the bullock as a 



Eoison ; Themistocles is said by Plutarch to have destroyed 

 imself by this fluid ; and Strabo states, that Midas died of 

 drinking the hot blood of this animal, which he did, as Plutarch 

 mentions, to free himself from the numerous ill dreams which 

 continually tormented him. Some historians assign the death 

 of Hannibal to the same draught. 



With respect to the poisons employed by Tophana, the 

 Locusta of modern days, and her infamous successors, there is 

 less doubt; arsenic, corrosive sublimate, sugar of lead, and anti- 

 mony, f were among the most powerful of their instruments of 

 torture and death. According to the declaration of the Emperor 

 Charles VII. to his physician Garelli, the Aqua Toffania was a 

 solution of arsenic in Aqua Cymbalaria.% Dr. Hahneman con- 

 sidered its basis to have been an arsenical salt. Others have, 

 with little probability, regarded opium and cahtharides as the 



• Theophrast. Hist. Plant, lx. c. 16. Strabo mentions the action of the Lauro- 

 . cerasus, as a poison, and observes that it occasions a death like that of epilepsy. 



■j- All these substances were found in the casket of Saint Croix. 



X Gerarde, in his Herbal, considers the Cymbalariato be the Pennywort of which he 

 describes two varieties, viz. the Wall-pennywort, and the Water-pennywort ; and he 

 blames the " ignorant apothecaries," for using the latter instead of the former, as 

 extremely dangerous and destructive to life. Modern botanists consider it as an Antirr- 

 hinum, — A. Cymbalaria. Lin. i. e. Ivy-leaved Toad-flax. We are not aware of any 

 part of this genus being poisonous. The A. Linaria, common Toad-flax, appears to be 

 the only one to which any medicinal virtues have been ascribed. Linnaeus, however, 

 says (Flor. Suec.) that this plant is used as a poison to flies. 



