According to Chapuis (“Traité de Toxicologie”), Simon at first dropped a little of the liquor in the phials on oil of tartar and sea water, but nothing was precipitated. Then he digested some of it in a mattrass on a sand-bath, but on distilling it no substance of acid or acrid taste was yielded, and no fixed salts were left. Having poisoned a pigeon, a dog, and a fowl with the liquid, he could only discover on opening the dead bodies a little clotted blood in the ventricule of the heart. Some of the powder deposited by the liquid was given to a cat which vomited for half an hour and then died.
Simon explains that poisons generally sink to the bottom of water, and when tested by fire the innocent part is dissipated and only the acrid and piquant principle remains. But this poison of Ste. Croix’s, floated on water, and tried by fire, left only something sweet and innocent. It in fact ruled the elements, and killed animals without leaving any trace. Utterly baffled, the expert concludes: “It is a terrible, diabolic, intangible (insaissable) poison.”
Tofana.
About the same time the woman Tofana was selling her Aquetta di Napoli in Italy, but she was not brought to justice until 1709, when she confessed to the Pope and the Emperor Charles VI that her drops contained arsenic, and that by them she had caused the deaths of more than six hundred persons. The Emperor repeated her story to his physician, Garelli, by whom it was communicated to Hoffmann, who published it in his “Rational Medicine.” She preferred to prepare her drops by rubbing arsenic into the broken joints of a hog just killed and then collecting the juice. Tofana took refuge in a convent and lived for some twenty years after her condemnation. A letter from the English Secretary of State to the Commissioners of Customs, dated July 29, 1717, is on record, cautioning them against admitting a liqueur called Aqua Tufania from Italy, as accounts of its dangerous character had been received from the British envoys at Naples and Genoa.
The Chambre Ardente.
After the execution of the Marchioness of Brinvilliers, secret poisoning, far from being suppressed, appears to have become almost fashionable. The Government at least pretended to believe in widespread conspiracies. It may have been a political trick, as has been alleged, to get rid of some inconvenient opponents; but, however this may have been, a special commission was appointed by the French Government to inquire into the truth of certain rumours, and this commission acquired the title of the Chambre de Poisons, or Chambre Ardente. Louis XIV consented to the institution of this special court on learning that the notorious Ste. Croix, the coadjutor of Mme. de Brinvilliers, had at one time nearly secured the position of maître d’hôtel in his palace at Versailles. It principally concerned itself with the revelations made by two women who called themselves La Voisin and La Vigoureux, who with an unfrocked priest, who had assumed the name of Le Sage, had carried on a fortune-telling business of enormous extent in the city. They claimed the power of exhibiting the devil to their clients, and it was charged against them that they had sold a powder of succession to those who would pay for it. Many highly connected aristocrats were implicated, and some faced the commission while others left the country rather than expose themselves to the shame of exposure. La Voisin had kept records of her business, but those which were produced displayed rather the ridiculous than the criminal side of the conspiracy. The Duchesse de Foix had come to her for bosoms; Madame de Varsi wanted hips. Others had paid her fancy prices for petitions written with a special ink guaranteed to make them loved by the king. La Voisin was extremely insolent to her judges, and apparently she and her accomplices were all sentenced to be burned. According to Voltaire the sentence was executed in the case of all of them; but the account given by Madame de Sévigné, and by historians who lived nearer the period, go to show that the death punishment was only inflicted on La Voisin.
Negro Cæsar’s Antidote.
In Prestwich’s “Dissertation on Poisons” (1775) an extract is given from the “Carolina Gazette” of May 9, 1750 stating that the General Assembly, the governing body of the colony, had authorised the publication of “Negro Cæsar’s Cure for Poison.” The General Assembly had purchased Negro Cæsar’s freedom, and granted him £100 a year for life as the price of this formula. It consisted of roots of plantain and wild horehound (? of each) 3 oz. boiled together in two quarts of water down to 1 quart and strained. Of this the patient was to drink one-third every morning fasting for three consecutive mornings. Certain conditions of diet were laid down, and it was quaintly added that if after the three days’ treatment no benefit had resulted it was “a sign that the patient has either not been poisoned, or has been by such poison as Cæsar’s antidote will not remedy.”
Arsenic Eating.
About the middle of the 19th century some discussion took place in various popular and medical journals in reference to the alleged practice of eating arsenic in Styria and the neighbouring countries. Drs. Christison, Swaine Taylor, and Pereira were somewhat more than sceptical, but several doctors and others wrote confirming the statements from their personal knowledge. One of the most notable testimonies was contributed by Dr. Craig Maclagan of Edinburgh in the “Edinburgh Medical Journal” (1865). Dr. Maclagan had visited Styria and had introductions to several doctors in that country who had reported cases known to them. Two men were brought to Dr. Maclagan at the village of Liegist in Middle Styria, and in his presence took, one about 4½ and the other 6 grains of white arsenic. Dr. Maclagan brought home some of the substance which the Styrian doctor had given to these men, and on testing it found it to be genuine white arsenic. He also brought back some samples of the urine voided by the men some time after eating the arsenic, and found in it distinct evidence of the presence of the poison. The arsenic was taken by the men on a piece of bread, and in one case was washed down with a draught of water. How extensive was the habit, Dr. Maclagan could not say. The peasants called it Hydrach or Huttereich; the correct word was said to be hutten-rauch, furnace smoke. One of the men took his dose about twice a week, the other generally once a week. They had of course begun with doses of less than a grain. It was understood to be a tonic and stimulant, and to aid the respiration in climbing. It was also believed to promote sexual desire. Having acquired the habit the occasional dose was much missed if omitted for long.