THE OLD POISON-LORE. 
7 
§ 6 .] 
was not, indeed, until the fifteenth century that the Popes, silencing 
ancient scruples, authorised dissections ; and it was not until the 
sixteenth century that Vesalius, the first worthy of being considered 
a great anatomist, arose. In default of pathological knowledge, the 
ancients attached great importance to mere outward marks and discolora¬ 
tions. They noted with special attention spots and lividity, and supposed 
that poisons singled out the heart for some quite peculiar action, altering 
its substance in such a manner that it resisted the action of the funeral 
pyre, and remained unconsumed. It may, then, fairly be presumed that 
many people must have died from poison without suspicion, and still 
more from the sudden effects of latent disease, ascribed wrongfully to 
poison. For example, the death of Alexander was generally at that time 
ascribed to poison ; but Littre has fairly proved that the great emperor, 
debilitated by his drinking habits, caught a malarious fever in the 
marshes around Babylon, and died after eleven days’ illness. If, added 
to sudden death, the body, from any cause, entered into rapid putrefac¬ 
tion, such signs were considered by the people absolutely conclusive of 
poisoning : this belief, indeed, prevailed up to the middle of the 
seventeenth century, and lingers still among the uneducated at the 
present day. Thus, when Britannicus died, an extraordinary lividity 
spread over the face of the corpse, which they attempted to conceal by 
painting the face. When Pope Alexander VI. died, probably enough 
from poison, his body (according to Guicciardini) became a frightful 
spectacle—it was livid, bloated, and deformed ; the gorged tongue 
entirely filled the mouth ; from the nose flowed putrid pus, and the 
stench was horrible in the extreme. 
All these effects of decomposition, we know, are apt to arise in coarse, 
obese bodies, and accompany both natural and unnatural deaths ; indeed, 
if we look strictly at the matter, putting on one side the preservative 
effects of ceftain metallic poisons, it may be laid down that generally the 
corpses of those dying from poison are less apt to decompose rapidly than 
those dying from disease—this for the simple reason that a majority of 
diseases cause changes in the fluids and tissues, which render putrefactive 
changes more active, while, as a rule, those who take poison are suddenly 
killed, with their fluids and tissues fairly healthy. 
When the Duke of Burgundy desired to raise a report that John, 
Dauphin of France, was poisoned (1457), he described the imaginary 
event as follows :— 
“ One evening our most redoubtable lord and nephew fell so grievously 
sick that he died forthwith. His lips, tongue, and face were swollen ; 
his eyes started out of his head. It was a horrible sight to see—for so 
look people that are poisoned.” 
The favourite powder of the professional poisoner, arsenic, was known 
to crowned heads in the fourteenth century, and there has come down 
