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 tion of cantharides and opium; but this is perfectly inconsistent both with its appearance and effects. By no preparation can the smell and taste of opium, if the quantity be sufficient to produce any effect, be concealed, and the acrimony of cantharides is equally connected with its activity. The one of these drugs is highly stimulant, the other a sedative, and neither of them capable of remaining latent in the system, or injuring the constitution. Erndtel, but without any probability, has conjectured that the chief ingredient was lead: Halle (Die deutchen Giftpflanzen, Berlin, 1783) believes, that it was prepared from the frothy saliva gathered round the mouth of a person tortured to death. Garelli, on the contrary, positively asserts it to have been nothing but a solution of crystallized arsenic in a large quantity of water, with the addition, for some unknown reason, of a very innocent herb, the Antirrhinum cymbalaria. The same account is given by Bertholinus, Lobel (Der freymüthige Heilkunstler, Berlin, 1786), Plenk (Toxicologia, p. 335), Haller, Molitor (Commerc. Lit. Noric. 1737, p. 182), and Möhsen, and is received by the most judicious systematic writers, as Gmelin and Hahnemann. (Ueber die Arsenikvergiftung, 8vo, Leipzig, 1786, p. 35.) Wildberg, however, considers its composition to be unknown.

From Italy this poison seems to have found its way to Paris. In 1672 Godin de Sainte Croix, an adventurer, who lived in a scandalous intimacy with the Marchioness Brinvilliers, was suddenly killed by suffocation, as it is said, in consequence of the falling off of a mask of glass, which he wore to protect him from the fumes of certain chemical operations about which he was employed. As he had no known relations, his effects were examined by a public officer, and among them was found a casket, containing many packets of poisonous articles, sealed up in a mysterious manner, together with a kind of last will, directing the whole to be delivered to the Marchioness, and, in case of her having predeceased him, to be burnt unopened. This led to the discovery of his having been instructed in the art of preparing poison, by an Italian, called Exili, with whom he had become acquainted, when confined in the Bastille; and of his having furnished the Marchioness with the means of poisoning her father and her two brothers, besides others on whom she tried the effect of her preparations. One of these afterwards was called from her by the name Eau de Brinvilliers. She is also said to have employed a powder called Poudre de Succession. La Chaussée, who had been valet to Sainte Croix, was convicted of being accessory to these murders, and was broken alive on the wheel. The Marchioness herself, who had escaped to Liege, was also seized, and her execution, which took place on the 17th of July 1676, is described with revolting levity by Mad. de Sevigné in a letter to her daughter of that date.

The practice of poisoning, however, did not seem to terminate with the death of this infamous woman; and a particular court called Chambre des Poisons, or Chambre Ardente, was established in 1679, to endeavour to put an end to it. In consequence of the investigations which took place in it, many persons, some of the highest rank, especially the Duc de Luxembourg, were implicated. More than forty persons were at one time confined in the Bastille; but it was ascertained, that almost all of them had been guilty of no crime, but were merely the dupes of a few impostors, who pretended to raise spirits, foretell future events, and to possess many secrets of a similar nature. Two women, La Vigoureux and La Voisin, with the brother of the former, and a priest called Le Sage, pretended fortune-tellers, were convicted of being dealers in poison, and burnt alive, on the 22d Feb. 1680; some others were hanged, and others acquitted. This closed the proceedings of this inquisitorial court, which has been accused of being a political engine, contrived to serve the purposes of Louvois and the Marchioness de Montespan. Voltaire, however, admits that the crime of poisoning infected Paris from 1676 to 1680.

Concerning the effects of the Eau de Brinvilliers, Pitaval tells us (p. 271.) that the Marchioness’s father experienced violent effects from the poison,—extraordinary vomiting, insupportable pain at stomach, and great heat in the bowels. He died soon after his return from his country-seat to Paris. The brothers, and five other persons, were all taken ill, and affected with vomiting, after partaking of a tart at dinner. On their return from the country to Paris, the brothers had the appearance of persons who had been long ill; and after suffering, the one for two, and the other for three months, from nausea and vomiting, they died extremely emaciated, and as it were dried up, without fever, though experiencing a burning sensation in the stomach. On opening the bodies, the stomach and duodenum were black and tender, and the liver gangrenous and burnt. Mad. Sevigné relates, that the Marchioness often poisoned her husband, that she might marry Sainte Croix, but that the gallant, having no desire for a wife of her disposition, as often gave the poor husband an antidote. She is also said to have attempted to poison her sister; but did not succeed; and that she was in the habit of trying the effects of her poisons on the Rh