744- 



POISONING. 



is told of Alexander the Great, that, being seized 

 with a fever, after crossing the Cydnus, he was 

 warned by Parmenio, in a letter, not to taste the 

 medicine, which his physician offered him, for fear 

 of poison. Alexander gave the letter to Philip, 

 (that was the physician's name) to read, and the calm 

 and tranquil air of Philip satisfied the ailing con- 

 queror, that he might safely drink the potion. But 

 it was an uncertain test, and proved self-possession 

 rather than innocence. Philip, a king of Mace- 

 donia, not the father of Alexander, understood the 

 convenience of a secret poison. He is said by Plu- 

 tarch, when be had become weary of his connection 

 with Aratus of Sicyon, to have given him, "not a 

 sharp and violent poison, but one of those which 

 induce first a slow fever and a dull cough, and so 

 by degrees bring on a consumption." Aratus knew 

 with whom he was dealing, and haying, a short 

 time before his death, raised blood, said, " such are 

 the rewards of royal friendship." The Persians 

 greatly excelled in the art of poisoning. Plutarch 

 and Ctesias relate, that queen Parysatis, the mother 

 of Cyrus the younger, put to death her daughter- 

 in-law Statira, by means of a knife poisoned on one 

 aide of the blade. A bird was set before the two 

 queens, at supper ; it was divided by the poisoned 

 knife ; Parysatis ate her half with impunity; Sta- 

 tira died. Eminent men, in the convulsive strug- 

 gles of the ancient republics, frequently carried a 

 little poison about them, that they might, if neces- 

 sary, by suicide, escape a painful and ignominious 

 death. Demosthenes carried his in the hollow of 

 his stylus, and Hannibal's was concealed in a 



"ng- 

 It is not easy to ascertain what the preparation 

 was, which was employed by the ancients, and 

 produced sudden death, by the exhibition of small 

 quantities; for although there is probably much 

 exaggeration on subjects of this kind, yet it is im- 

 possible to doubt, that some such noxious prepara- 

 tions were known to the ancient world. Theo- 

 pbrastus says, that the poison of most subtle ope- 

 ration was extracted from Wolfsbane (Aconitum) ; 

 that it could be so prepared, as to operate in two 

 or three months, or at the end of a year or two 

 years. No antidote had been discovered to this 

 poison, and it was a capital crime to have the plant, 

 from which it was extracted, in one's possession. 

 If we are to understand by this, that a dose could 

 be administered, which would take effect, at a 

 calculated and distant period, it is probably fabu- 

 lous. If it be meant only, that by feeding a man 

 with weak wolfsbane tea for months and years, his 

 health might be gradually destroyed, it is credible. 

 In that sense, Dr Johnson even admitted the 

 genuine leaf of China itself to be " a slow poison." 

 Livy tells us, that poisoning never became a 

 matter of judicial inquiry in Rome, till near two 

 hundred years before the Christian aera. About 

 this time, several persons of distinction went off 

 with the same disorder, at about the same time. 

 The fear of pestilence disturbed the city. Quintus 

 Fabius Maximus was then the Curule JEAile, and 

 a female slave came to him and promised, on con- 

 dition of her own pardon, to disclose the names of 

 those who were guilty. Quintus Fabius Maximus 

 never proceeded rashly; and though even he might 

 have been forgiven a little hurry, in despatching 

 natters with a confessed poisoner, yet he laid the 

 case in due form before the consuls, and they be- 

 fore the.senate. The stipulated pardon was granted, 

 end guided by the maid the officers of justice dis- 



covered the poisoners, ladies of the noblest fami- 

 lies of Rome, busy around the cauldron "coquentes 

 qucedam medicamenta, alia recondita inveniunt." 

 Twenty were seized; two of them, (one was a 

 Cornelia, the other a patrician,) undertook to speak 

 for the rest, and declared that the drugs were medi- 

 cinal. Drink them then, yourselves, was the short 

 reply. They desired permission to consult their 

 sisterhood on that point, and all (hags, if you please, 

 but Roman hags) agreed to the test. They nil 

 drank and died. A hundred and seventy more of 

 the noblest ladies of Rome were seized, on similar 

 information, and condemned. Before that day, 

 exclaims the perturbed Livy, " there never was an 

 inquest of poisoning. The thing was now deemed 

 a prodigy, the act not so much of depraved as of 

 crazed minds." Following the memorable example 

 of what was done in former great calamities, it was 

 resolved by the senate, to have a nail driven into 

 the temple of Jupiter. A dictator is appointed 

 for that mystic duty, a master of the horse named, 

 a nail driven into the temple of Jupiter, and a stop 

 put to poisoning for two or three centuries. Did 

 the Roman ladies, the Cornelias and the Sergias, 

 poison their husbands by the hundred; did the 

 Salem witches torment the afflicted? Human na- 

 ture is the same in all ages. Happy the people 

 that, when a calamitous delusion arises, can hit 

 the nail, that will stop it, on the head I 



After the overthrow of the commonwealth, 

 the old republican talismans lost their charms. 

 The driving of nails lost its efficacy. Poisoning 

 grew common, proverbial, poetical. Canidia was a 

 poisoner, and nothing before or since Shakspeare is 

 comparable to the pharmacy of the weird sisters 

 in Macbeth, but that of Canidia, Sagana. and Veia, 

 in the fifth Epode of Horace. 



Canidia, brevibus implicate viperis 



Crines et incomptum caput, 

 Jubet sepulchris caprificas erutas, 



Jubet cupressos funebrea, 

 Et uucta turpis ova ranae sanguine 



Plumamque nocturna; strigis, 

 Herbasque, quas lolcos atque Iberia 



Mittit, venenorum ferax, 

 Et ossa ab ore rapt a jejuna cailis 



Flammis adori Colchicis. 



" Her head with knotted vipera hung, 



'Twas thus the haggard sorceress sung : 



' First the wild fig tfiou must bring, 



Which through rifted {-rave did spring; 



Eggs and plume of midnight owl 



In filthy frog-blood smeared and foul; 



Herba of Jolcos and of Spain, 



Teeming soil for deadly bane, 



Wrested bone from famished hound 



In Colchian witch-fires burnt and ground.'" 



But the times were coming, when Canidia was 

 to whiten into a sister of charity. Poor Canidia's 

 crimes were the offspring of love and jealousy; 

 but Agrippina's what shall we say of her's? What 

 can we say more fitly, than that they were worthy 

 of the mother of Nero, who after murdering her 

 husband, and him her uncle, to place her son on the 

 throne, was by that son herself murdered, exclaim- 

 ing, as she died, to her unnatural offspring, "Pierce 

 that bosom, which could give life to such a mon- 

 ster?'' Having determined to destroy Claudius, 

 she took counsel of Locusta, a creature but lately 

 convicted of poisoning, and "long kept among the 

 engines of government!" By this skilful agent a 

 poison was prepared, which should do its work 

 gently, to avoid the dangerous eclat of a sudden 

 catastrophe; a wasting and torpid poison, lest 

 Claudius, returning to his senses in the agonies of 

 a sudden death, should forgive his son ; an exqui- 

 site poison, which should shake the reason, with- 



