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 the whole city, if she was not delivered up to him, and the people were ready to rise. But the sagacious Viceroy caused a report to be spread, that she and her accomplices had determined upon the same day, to poison all the springs in the city, the fruits brought to market, and the public granaries. The manœuvre succeeded. The credulous people were now clamorous for her punishment, and saw with satisfaction the persons whom she accused of having purchased her Aquetta, taken from the Churches and Monasteries. Some of inferior birth were executed publicly; those of higher rank secretly in prison; and the whole city resounded with the praises of the Viceroy, whose energy had saved it from general destruction. A kind of compromise was entered into with the Cardinal; in consequence of which, after being strangled, her body was thrown at night into the court of the Convent, by way of testifying some respect for the rights of the Church. But the reverend traveller must have either been misinformed as to the actual execution of this Medea, or she must have been resuscitated; for Garelli expressly says that she was alive in prison at Naples, when he wrote to Hoffmann, not long before 1718; and Keysler, who visited Naples in 1730, likewise asserts, that she was then living in prison, and that few strangers left the city without going to see her. He describes her as a little and very old woman.

The Roman ladies very quickly availed themselves of Tofania’s dicoverydiscovery [sic]; for it was remarked in 1659, that many husbands died when they became disagreeable to their wives; and several of the clergy also gave information, that, for some time past, various persons had confessed themselves guilty of poisoning. This led to the detection of a society of young married women (who had, for their president, an old woman of the name of Hieronyma Spara, a pretended fortune-teller), as the perpetrators of these murders. On being put to the torture they all confessed except Spara, who seemed to rely upon the protection of powerful individuals whom she had formerly served. But she was left to her fate, and was hanged along with her assistant, one Gratiosa. Others were afterwards hanged, or whipt and banished. Spara, who was a Sicilian, had acquired her knowledge from Tofania at Palermo.

Pope Alexander VII., immediately on the discovery and punishment of those who dealt in poison in his capital, published an edict forbidding the distillation of aquafortis, or the purchase of any of its ingredients, without the permission of the Government; which Gmelin considers as an artifice to misload the people as to the real composition of the poison, or as originating in the absurd nomenclature of the Chemists of former times, who called arsenic, concrete aquafortis. But the prudence of the Pope was rendered fruitless; for we are informed by Gayot di Pitaval (Causes Celèbres, Vol. I. Amsterd, 1764, p. 317.), on what authority he does not state, that Tofania’s fatal secret was disclosed by the indiscretion of the judges at Naples, to whom she had made confession of her crime. The whole city soon knew that she employed in its composition a very common herb, and that its preparation was otherwise easy; and in this way the art of poisoning became very common in Naples, where, Keysler says, it was still secretly practised when he visited Italy; and Archenholz, who was there in 1780, states, that Aqua Tofana was them in use, although its composition was only known to a few; but Joseph Frank, who was long Professor in Pavia, and has written a work on toxicology (Handbuch der Toxicologie, Wien, 1803, p. 168.), regards this as an unfounded calumny, and asserts that it no longer exists or is heard of.

Aqua Tofana is described as being as limpid as rock water, and without taste, and hence it could be administered without exciting suspicion. The Abbé Gagliani adds, that there was not a lady in Naples, who had not some of it lying openly on her toilet among her perfumes, in a phial known only to herself.

It was generally believed, that the effect of this poison was certain death; and that it could be so tempered or managed, as to prove fatal in any determinate time, from a few days to a year or upwards. Four or six drops were reckoned a sufficient dose, and they were said to produce no violent symptoms, no vomiting, or but very seldom, no pains, convulsions, inflammation, or fever; but only a feeling of indisposition, without any very definite symptoms, except sometimes inextinguishable thirst; the victim, however, sunk into a languid state, and his weakness increased daily. Disgust at all kinds of food, and weariness of life, succeeded; the nobler organs were then attacked, the lungs were wasted by suppuration, and death closed the miserable scene. This termination was the more certain, that the true cause of these symptoms was not at first suspected, and the remedies commonly prescribed rather aggravated the evil. Indeed, even when known, no treatment was of any avail, although a Dr Branchaletti, according to Keysler, wrote a book on its remedies, until it was discovered by accident that lemon-juice, when very early administered in large doses, sometimes proved effectual (Bertholinus), after which, Keysler tells us, that the poison fell into some disrepute.

Various accounts of the composition of this detestable liquor have been given. Abbé Gagliani, and more lately Archenholz, state it to be a prepara- 1em