POISONING. 



appearance at once. It was in the latter part of 

 the seventeenth century, and the commencement of 

 the eighteenth, that Toffana flourished. This lady 

 lived first at Palermo; but a professor so skilful of 

 an art so useful, could not long be confined to a 

 provincial sphere. About the close of the seven- 

 teenth century she removed to Naples. She con- 

 trived a delicate preparation of arsenic, dissolved in 

 a decoction of Antirrhinum Cymbalaria, of which 

 from four to six drops were supposed to be enough 

 to destroy a man. It entered freely into commerce, 

 and was known by the name of aqua delta Toff- 

 ana, more exquisitely acquetta de Napoli, and even 

 acquetta. In common cases, of course, Toffana 

 was paid for her panacaea; but she had a heart 

 open as day, to melting charity, and ladies, who 

 wished to cultivate the mortifying graces of widow- 

 hood, were supplied gratis. But though an admir- 

 ing and grateful public bestowed on her invention 

 the name mentioned, thus securing to her the 

 credit, to which she was so justly entitled, she her- 

 self was more modest, and waived that honour. 

 The sarcophagus of St Nicholas at Bari distils a 

 certain oil, endowed with marvellous virtues to 

 heal diseases, and sold all over Italy under the name 

 of Manna of St Nicholas of Bari. Toffana, con- 

 sidering that if her little arsenical syrup did not 

 actually cure diseases, it put the patient out of 

 misery, which might be regarded as the next best 

 thing, prepared it in small phials, stamped with the 

 image of good St Nicholas of Bari, and labelled, 

 as his manna. Father Labat, in his travels in Italy, 

 mentioning this fact, observes, that it was attended 

 with the great advantage, that as the manna of St 

 Nicholas was a well known, and withal a sacred 

 article, Toffana's counterfeit, under that name, 

 passed the custom-house with little scrutiny: a 

 pleasing illustration of the demand for this delicate 

 chemical preparation, in the kingdom of Naples. 

 One of these bottles, according to Dr Marx, is 

 said to be still in existence at Cologne. 



But poisoning, though in great repute, was not 

 positively lawful in the kingdom of Naples; and 

 the government at last began to bestir itself. Dis- 

 quieted by this circumstance, Toffana took refuge 

 in an ecclesiastical asylum, where, under the privi- 

 leges of the place, she bade defiance, for some time, 

 to the officers of justice, and continued to vend 

 her catholicon from the very bosom of the church. 

 But the scandal became at length too great to be 

 borne. She was dragged from her refuge and 

 thrown into prison. A great outcry was raised by 

 the clergy at this violation of their privileges, and 

 the people, unwilling to be defrauded of their right 

 to be poisoned, joined in the clamour of the priests. 

 It was only by circulating a report, that she had 

 poisoned the wells in the city, that the current of 

 public sentiment could be turned against her. Be- 

 ing put to the rack, she confessed her enormities ; 

 named those who had afforded her protection, who 

 were immediately dragged from churches fend mon- 

 asteries; and stated that the day before her last 

 flight from justice, she had sent two boxes of her 

 manna to Rome. It was found in the custom-house 

 in that city, but it did not appear that it was sent 

 to order. It was a little speculation of Toffana's, 

 on her own account. The archbishop still mur- 

 mured at her being torn from a privileged asylum ; 

 and, accordingly, to cut the matter short, she was 

 strangled and thrown into the court-yard of the 

 convent, .from which she had been taken. But her 

 art did not perish with her; and, according to 



Keysler, \vlio travelled in the former part of the 

 eighteenth century, and saw Toffana in confinement, 

 her acquetta continued to be prepared, in great 

 quantities, after her execution. 



We have somewhat anticipated the order of 

 events in relating the history of Toffana. A hun- 

 dred and fifty years before that lady flourished, t he- 

 art was introduced into England. But lord Bacon, 

 who performed the duties of attorney- general, in 

 the case of Sir Thomas Overbury, maintains, that 

 poisoning is riot a crime to which the English peo- 

 ple are predisposed, "won cat nostri generis nee 

 sanguinis." He justly sets forth the enormity of 

 an offence, whereby a man is taken off, in full 

 peace, and thinking no harm, and while he is com- 

 forting and refreshing nature with bis food. It is 

 a crime the more to be dreaded, because it is so 

 easily committed, and so hard to be prevented and 

 discovered. Other murders are committed cum 

 sonitu ; with acts, that may discover or trace the 

 offenders ; but this comes upon a man when he is 

 careless and without suspicion, and every day he 

 is in the gates of death. Nor does it only con- 

 cern the man, against whom the malice was in- 

 tended, but it was often proposed for one, and 

 taken by another, as in the example of 21 Henry 

 VIII., where the purpose was to poison one man, 

 and being put into the broth, sixteen of the 

 bishop of Rochester's servants were affected. 



This extraordinary instance of the crime of 

 poisoning produced such an effect upon the legis- 

 lature of Great Britain, that the following year a 

 law passed, making murder by poisoning high trea- 

 son, and inflicting upon it the singular punishment 

 of boiling to death. We have thought it worth 

 while to copy the preamble of this act, a document 

 throwing some light on the manners of the age, 

 and particularly illustrating the opinions entertain- 

 ed by our worthy ancestors of the age of Henry 

 VIII. on the subject of ex post facto laws. 



22 Henry VIII. c. 9. " The kynges royall ma- 

 jistie callyng to bys moste blessed remembraunce 

 that the makyng of good and holsome laws and due 

 execution of the same agaynste the offendours 

 thereof is the only cause that good obedyence and 

 order hath ben preserved in this realme, and his 

 Highnes havyng moste tender zeale to the same 

 emonge other thynges consyderyng that mannes 

 lyfe above all thynges is cbyefly to be favoured, and 

 voluntary murders moste highly to be detested and 

 abhorred, and specyally of all kyndes of murders, 

 poysonynge, which in this realme hytherto our Lord 

 be thanked hath ben moste rare and seldom comyt- 

 ted or practysed ; and now in the tyme of this 

 presente parliamente, that is to saye, in the xviij 

 daye of Februarye in the xxijd yere of his most 

 victorious reygn, one Richarde Roose, late of Rou- 

 chester in the countie of Kente, Coke, otherwyse 

 called Richard Coke, of his most wyked a.~;d damp- 

 nable dysposicyon dyd caste a certeyne venym or 

 poyson into a vessel replenysshed with yeste or 

 barme standyng in the kechyn of the reverend? 

 Father in God John Byssbopp of Rochester at his 

 place in Lamehyth Marsshe wythe which yeste or 

 Barme and other thynges convenyent, porrage or 

 gruell was forthwyth made for his famylye there 

 beyng wherby not only the nombre of xvij persons 

 of his said famylie which dyd eate of that porrage 

 were mortally enfeebled and poysoned and one of 

 them, that is to say, Bennett Curwen gentylman 

 thereof ys deceassed, but also certeyne pore people 

 which resorted to the sayde bysshops place and 



