824 P O I 
others were hanged, and others acquitted. This clofed 
the proceedings of this inquifitorial court, which has 
been accufed of being a political engine, contrived to 
ferve the purpofes of Louvois and the raarchionefs de 
Montefpan. Voltaire, however, admits that the crime of 
poifoning infedled Paris from 1670 to 1680. 
Concerning the effects of the Eau de Brinvilliers, 
Pitaval tells us, that the marchionefs’s father experienced 
violent effects from the poifon ; extraordinary vomiting, 
infupportable pain at ftomach, and great heat in the 
bowels. He died foon after his return from his country- 
feat at Paris. The brothers, and five other perfons, were 
all taken ill, and affedted with vomiting, after partaking 
of a tart at dinner. On their return from the country to 
Paris, the brothers had the appearance of perfons who had 
been long ill; and after fullering, the one for two and 
the other for three months, from naufea and vomiting, 
they died extremely emaciated, and as it were dried up, 
without fever, though experiencing a burning fenlation 
in the ftomach. On opening the bodies, the ftomach 
and duodenum were black and tender, and the liver gan¬ 
grenous and burnt. Mad.Sevigne relates, that the mar- 
chionefs often poifoned her hulband, that file might 
marry Sainte Croix ; but that the gallant, having no defire 
for a wife of her difpofition, as often gave the poor hulband 
an antidote. She is alfo faid to have attempted to poifon 
her filler, but did not fucceed ; and that Ihe was in the 
habit of trying the effects of her poifons on the poor, and 
even on the patients in the Hotel Dieu, under pretence 
of charitably fupplying them with bifcuils. But Voltaire 
pofitively denies this horrible imputation, and fays, that 
fhe never attempted the life of her hufband, who over¬ 
looked a connexion of which he was the caufe. 
The information concerning the nature of the Eau, de 
Brinvilliers, derived from the examination of Sainte 
Croix’s famous cafket, is not fatisfadlory. It contained 
poifons enough to have killed a whole community; 
belides opium, lunar cauftic, antimony, and vitriol, more 
than feventy-five pounds of corrolive fublimate, and two 
bottles of a liquid like water, with a fediment in one. 
The clear liquid was probably his real poifon ; as none 
of the other fubftances could have been given fo as to 
produce death, without inftantly being detected by their 
abominable tafte; but what this liquid was, we can now 
only conjecture, for its examination, as reported by 
Pitaval, (hows that the phyficians, at that time, had not 
the flighted notion of the mode of detecting arfenic even 
in fubftance, much lefs in folution ; and accordingly, 
although both the liquor and powder killed the animals 
to which they were given, it is candidly admitted, that 
the poifon of Sainte Croix furpafled the art and capacity 
of the phyficians, and that it baffled all their experiments 
to difcover its conipofition. 
We have the teftimony of an exceedingly fcarce book, 
the Gazettier Cuirafle, ou Anecdotes de la Cour de 
France, (printed privately in London in 1771.) that the 
Eau de Brinvilliers was not unknown or unufed at the 
court of Louis XV. “ II y a eu quelques morts a Paris 
depuis quatre mois, qui n’ont pas paru trop naturelles; 
mais cliacun fe tait a cet egard.” And the viva-voce 
teftimony of the author, who had then lately quitted 
Paris, and was known to the writer of this, was very 
ftrong indeed to the fame effeCI. 
It was for a long time a prevalent notion among Euro¬ 
peans, that tlie Indians were in poflefflon of a flow poifon, 
which could, like Aqua Tofana, be fb adminiftered as to 
kill with certainty at a given period from its exhibition ; 
and it was thought the Indian women ufed their fecret to 
punifh their white mailers for abandoning their arms in 
fearch of the enjoyments of their native countries. This 
matter has, we believe, never been inveftigated ; but our 
commentators, withfome intelligent colonial gentlemen, 
lend us to the inference, that fuch is not the faift ; and 
that the frequency of deaths which happen to Europeans 
SON. 
after long refidence in India, is chiefly to be afcribed to 
the (hock the conftitution receives from the climate. 
A recent traveller informs us, that pulverized diamond 
is reputed, among the Mahometans of rank, in the fouth 
of India, to be at once the lead painful, and the molt 
a (live and infallible, of all poifons. Whatever doubts 
may be entertained of the fact, there is none regarding 
their belief ; and the fuppofed power of diamonds is kept 
as a laft refource, like the fword of the Romans ; but we 
have never met with any perfon, who, from his own know¬ 
ledge, could defcribe its vifible effedts. The Mahometan 
medical men of that country, have feldom much refpedt- 
ability; and frequently are not only ignorant quacks, 
but inipoftors; perfectly capable of receiving a diamond, 
and returning arfenic, or powdered quartz; like the apo¬ 
thecary in the very-ltrange life of Benvenuto Cellini, 
who confiders the diamond as a flow poifon, and enters 
into the rationale of its mode of aftion, from the mecha¬ 
nical effects of its fpicula. From the narrative of Cellini, 
who alcrihes his elcape from certain death to the dilho- 
nefty of the apothecary, who appropriated the diamond, 
and returned glafs or land, the poifonous effect of dia¬ 
mond would l'eem to have been confidered as a familiar 
fa< 5 t in Italy in the fixteenth century; and the fail, or the 
error, in both countries, may have a common fource, 
which it would be at leait an obje£t of curiofity to invef- 
tigate. 
II. Of Aerial Poisons. 
The term aerial poifon is an erroneous one; the real 
caufe of death, being in thefe cafes the abfence of air, of 
at leaft of that peculiar corporeal of air on which the 
health of the blood depends. It is well afcertained, that 
the mode in which death is produced when deleterious 
gafes are inhaled is this. The blood not having been 
duly impregnated with air, black or venous blood is car¬ 
ried to the brain. The brain immediately lofes all its 
power ; the mufcles of the cheek no longer move obe¬ 
dient to the will ; laftly, the heart flops. All this takes 
place fo rapidly when deleterious gafes are inhaled, that 
we cannot attribute any fpecific agency to the gas itfelf, 
but we are obliged to conclude that it is the abfence of air 
that kills. The fame is the cafe in drowning, hanging, 
or other kinds of I'uft’ocation. 
It is only after a certain time, in various cafes, that 
thefe caufes produce permanent death. Moll commonly 
the body may be rellored to life by proper ineafures 
adopted in due time. 
1. Place the body in a proper temperature. It is of 
courfe known to every body, that a cooling of the corple 
takes place after death. This is nor, however, the caufe 
of death ; neverthelefs a certain degree of warmth excites 
the motions of all the organs; fo let the body be placed 
carefully in a warm (ituation, either near the fire, or in 
bed covered with warmed blankets. But if the (apparent) 
death has been produced by cold, this change would be 
too fudderi; the firlt advance towards increaiing the heat 
mull be to rub the body with fnow or water. In drown¬ 
ing, as the cold does not produce the death, we may put 
the patient at once into the warm temperature. This 
in general is all that can be done till profeflional aid 
arrives. 
2. Inflate the Lungs. This is the mod important itep, 
and there are various ways of performing it. The belt 
is to introduce from the mouth a large metallic curved 
tube into the larynx ; a circular piece of leather which 
Hides on this tubs is to be then preffed down on the 
glottis, and thus the top of the larynx is clofed. A pair 
of bellows is now to be fixed to the other end of the 
tube, and therewith the lungs inflated. The lungs 
are emptied again by preffure on the cheft, and again 
filled by the bellow?. While occupied in deprefiing 
the cheft, the operator fiaould at the fame time rub 
it with a warm flannel. Now it is clear that a common 
catheter will make a very good inftrument for the 
above 
