incapable of graduating the strength of her poisons to the different purposes for which they were applied. The records of modern times will furnish examples no less atrocious than those we have just related. _Tophana_, a woman who resided first at Palermo, and afterwards at Naples, may be considered as the _Locusta_ of modern history; she invented and sold those drops so well known by the names of _Aqua Toffania_; _Aqua della Toffana_; _Acquetta di Napoli_, or simply _Acquetta_. This stygian liquor she distributed by way of charity to such wives as wished for other husbands; from four to six drops were sufficient to destroy a man, and it was asserted that the dose could be so proportioned as to operate within any given period.[116] It appears that in order to secure her poison from examination, she vended it in small glass phials, inscribed, “_Manna of Saint Nicolas Bari_,” and ornamented the vessel with the image of the Saint. Having been put to the rack she confessed that she had destroyed upwards of six hundred persons, for which she suffered death by strangulation in the year 1709[117]. In 1670 the art of secret poisoning excited very considerable alarm in France; the _Marchioness de Brinvillier_, a young woman of rank and great personal beauty, having intrigued with, and subsequently married an adventurer named _Saint Croix_, acquired from him the secret of this diabolical act, and practised it to an extent that had never before been equalled. She poisoned her two brothers through the medium of a dish at table. She also prepared poisoned biscuits, and to try their strength she distributed them herself to the poor at the Hotel Dieu. Her own maid was likewise the subject of her experiments. To her father she gave poisoned broth, which brought on symptoms characteristic of those induced by corrosive sublimate. Her brothers lingered during several months under much suffering. The detection of this wretch is said to have been brought about in the following manner. _Saint Croix_, whenever engaged in the preparation of his poisons, was accustomed to protect himself from their dangerous fumes by wearing a glass mask, which happening to fall off by accident, he was found dead in his laboratory.[118] A casket directed to the Marchioness, with a desire that in case of her death it might be destroyed unopened, was found in his chamber, a circumstance which in itself was sufficient to excite the curiosity and suspicion of those into whose hands it fell. The casket was accordingly examined, and the disclosure of its contents at once developed the whole plot, and finally led to the conviction of this French Medea, who after a number of adventures and escapes, was at length arrested and sent to Paris, where she was beheaded, and then burnt, on the 11th of July, 1676. The practice of poisoning, however, did not cease with her execution, and it became necessary in 1679 to establish a particular Court, for the detection and trial of such