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little longer , and Britannicus fell a victim to it at the first taste . Por this service she was pardoned and liberally rewarded , besides being entrusted with pupils to instruct in this elegant art . All these poisons were prepared from plants , particularly aconite ,
hemlock , and poppy , or extracted from animal substances . That prepared from the sea-hare , lepus marinus , is the most remarkable of those made from animals . It was by this that Domitian despatched Titus , according to Philostratus . The lepus marinus was , it is conjectured , what is now , in the Linnsean system , termed aplysia depilans .
No one was more famous for this dreadful art than was Tophana , or Toffania , a woman , who resided first at Palermo , and afterwards at Naples . She sold those drops , which took their name from her , and were called aqua Tophania , or aqua delta Toffana ; and sometimes acquetta di Napoli , or merely acquetta . She distributed her preparation by way of charity to such wives as desired to be rid of
their husbands . Between four and six drops were enough to destroy a man : and the dose could be so proportioned as to operate in a given time . As she was strictly watched by the government , she fled to an ecclesiastical asylum . She distributed her poison in small glass phials , with this inscription , " Manna of St . Nicholas of Bari , " and ornamented with a figure of the saint . An oil , which was supposed by
the superstitious people to perform miracles , drops from the tomb of that saint at Bari , in Naples , and is dispersed in great abundance under the above name . In choosing the appellation , Tophana , therefore , showed great tact , as the reputed sanctity of it prevented the customhouse officers from examining it too closely . When the
viceroy became acquainted with this , which was about 1709 , she fled from one convent to another , but being at length seized , was thrown into prison . The clergy raised much noise on account of this violation of ecclesiastical privilege , and made many attempts to excite the people to insurrection . But they were soon calmed when Tophana was reported to have confessed to poisoning all the springs in the
city . She was put to the rack , where she acknowledged her wickedness , and named those who had afforded her protection , who were immediately dragged from churches and monasteries . She was afterwards strangled , and to mitigate the anger of the archbishop , her body was thrown at night into the area of the convent from which she had been taken . But the secret was not buried with her , for others had
learnt the art . In 1659 , in the reign of Pope Alexander VII ., it was observed at Borne , that many young married women were left widows , when their husbands became disagreeable to them . It was asserted also , by the priests , that it was often told them at confession by young ladies of distinction , that they had been guilty of poisoning . At length suspicion fell upon a society of young married women , whose president was , as it appeared , an old woman who foretold future events , and had predicted very exactly many deaths to persons who had reason
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
little longer , and Britannicus fell a victim to it at the first taste . Por this service she was pardoned and liberally rewarded , besides being entrusted with pupils to instruct in this elegant art . All these poisons were prepared from plants , particularly aconite ,
hemlock , and poppy , or extracted from animal substances . That prepared from the sea-hare , lepus marinus , is the most remarkable of those made from animals . It was by this that Domitian despatched Titus , according to Philostratus . The lepus marinus was , it is conjectured , what is now , in the Linnsean system , termed aplysia depilans .
No one was more famous for this dreadful art than was Tophana , or Toffania , a woman , who resided first at Palermo , and afterwards at Naples . She sold those drops , which took their name from her , and were called aqua Tophania , or aqua delta Toffana ; and sometimes acquetta di Napoli , or merely acquetta . She distributed her preparation by way of charity to such wives as desired to be rid of
their husbands . Between four and six drops were enough to destroy a man : and the dose could be so proportioned as to operate in a given time . As she was strictly watched by the government , she fled to an ecclesiastical asylum . She distributed her poison in small glass phials , with this inscription , " Manna of St . Nicholas of Bari , " and ornamented with a figure of the saint . An oil , which was supposed by
the superstitious people to perform miracles , drops from the tomb of that saint at Bari , in Naples , and is dispersed in great abundance under the above name . In choosing the appellation , Tophana , therefore , showed great tact , as the reputed sanctity of it prevented the customhouse officers from examining it too closely . When the
viceroy became acquainted with this , which was about 1709 , she fled from one convent to another , but being at length seized , was thrown into prison . The clergy raised much noise on account of this violation of ecclesiastical privilege , and made many attempts to excite the people to insurrection . But they were soon calmed when Tophana was reported to have confessed to poisoning all the springs in the
city . She was put to the rack , where she acknowledged her wickedness , and named those who had afforded her protection , who were immediately dragged from churches and monasteries . She was afterwards strangled , and to mitigate the anger of the archbishop , her body was thrown at night into the area of the convent from which she had been taken . But the secret was not buried with her , for others had
learnt the art . In 1659 , in the reign of Pope Alexander VII ., it was observed at Borne , that many young married women were left widows , when their husbands became disagreeable to them . It was asserted also , by the priests , that it was often told them at confession by young ladies of distinction , that they had been guilty of poisoning . At length suspicion fell upon a society of young married women , whose president was , as it appeared , an old woman who foretold future events , and had predicted very exactly many deaths to persons who had reason