POISONING, SECRET. When the knowledge of the nature of mineral, vegetable, and animal compounds was. less known than at present, it was not uncommon for individuals to become acquainted with the poisonous properties of bodies, and to keep this a secret for the purpose of exercising a control over the lives of their fellow creatures. The entire ignorance that existed of the means of ascer taining the presence of poisons, or of the systems of poisoning as distinguished from other diseases, gave to persons who had acci dentally discovered a poison a great power, and offered a temptation to crime. In ancient history many instances are recorded of persons who died under auspicious circumstances, and who were supposed to have been secretly poisoned. Beck, in his Medical Jurisprudence,' says that " Theophrastus speaks of a poison prepared from aconite which could be moderated in such a manner as-to have effect in two or three years, or at the cud of a year or two years ; and he also relates that Thrasyas had discovered a method of preparing from other plants a poison which, given in small doses, occasioned an easy but certain death without any pain, and which might be kept back for a long time without causing weakness or corruption. This last poison was much used at Rome about two hundred years before the Christian era." During the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, a woman named Locusts seems to have been frequently employed for the purpose of administering poisons, whose powers were known to herself alone. Locusts was employed by the second Agrippina to poison her husband the emperor Claudius, and also by Nero to poison Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina. (Tacitus, Anna.; xii. 66 ; xiii. 15.) The poisons used by the Greeks and Romans seem to have belonged principally to the vegetable kingdom, and were chiefly obtained, it is supposed, from the aconite, hemlock, and poppy. One of their animal poisons is said to have been the acrid jtfice secreted by a species of Tectibranchiate mollusca, called the sea-hare, the Aplysia depilans of Linnxus. They did not seem to be acquainted with mineral poisons.
in modern times secret poisoning has often been carried on to a great extent ; although the relation of many of the incidents has been so con nected with superstition, and a belief in supernatural powers, that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the true and fictitious. The aid of poisons appears sometimes to have been resorted to in order to obtain credence for the powers of the witch and the wizard. A singular combination of poisoners was discovered at Rome during the pontificate of Alexander VII. in 1659. It was observed that many young married women became widows, and that many husbands died who were known to have become disagreeable to their wives. Great exertions were used
to detect the poisoners, when at length suspicion fell upon a society of young wives, whose president was an old woman who pretended to foretell future events, and who had often predicted very accurately the death of many persons. At length the society was detected, arrested, and every member put to the torture, and the old president, by name Spars, and four others, were publicly hanged. It appeared that Spars was a pupil of Tofania, an infamous woman who lived at Palermo, and afterwards at Naples. The poison used by Tofania went by the name of Aqua Tofana [Apia Toramt], but its composition was never accu rately made known.
The practice of secret poisoning was carried to a great extent in France about the year 1670. One of the most distinguished agents in this business was Margaret d'Aubray, wife of the Marquess de 13rin villiers. She formed an improper intimacy with a villain named Sainte Croix, who taught her the art of poisoning, which she put in practice in order to better her circumstances. For the purpose of ascertaining the strength and action of her poisons, she assumed the dress of a nun, and distributed food to the poor, nursed the sick in the HOtel Dieu, and administered to them her poisons. Sho poisoned her father and brother, but was at last discovered. She was publicly beheaded in Paris on the 16th of July, 1676. She left behind her a complete catalogue of all her crimes. The principal poison used by herself and accomplices was the corrosive sublimate. The practice at tide had extended so widely in France that the government thought it necessary in 1679 to institute a court under the title of Charubre de Poison, or Cluunbre Ardente. The powers of this court, however, were abused, and very shortly after its institution it was suppressed.
Wherever evidence has been loft sufficiently positive to admit of an Inquiry into the nature of these secret poisons, it has been found that they contain ingredients well known at the present day. It is only where the science, of chemistry and medicine are not sufficiently known, or where they are neglected in the inquiry, that secret poisoning can take place. The tests are now so accurate, and the investigations so strict, that it is no longer possible to administer any poison, vege table or mineral, of which traces cannot be discovered in the body of the person poisoned, though of course it may not always lead to the discovery of the person bi whom it was administered.
(Beckmann, Ilistory o Inrentiens ; Beck, Medical Jurisprudence ; Adams, Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, voL xxxiii.)