The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-09-24
FAMOUS ITALIAN polsoNERs,
ORs of Them said TO Have Helped KiE
600 Peoplo-Hoth Executed.

Oas of Them said TO Have Helped KiE
900 Peoplo-lsoth Executed.
The most famous compound of ar
scnic is arsenious oxide, or white ar
senic," known to the general public
simply as arsenic. 1t is used exclusive
ly in the arts. 1t is very poisonous and
in the sixteenth and seventeeth CEN
tnries was commonly used in removing
persons who were conceived by their
enemies, to have ootlived their useful
ness. Nearly all of the great poisoners
fn those times were women. In 1859 n
secret society of young wives was dis
severed in Rome. some of whom be-
longed to the first families of the city.
the sole or chief object OF which was to
make away with the husbands of the
members. They met at the house of
Hieronyma Spara, woman who was
reputed to be witch, and who pro-
vided them with the poison and in
structed them in the use of it. When
the existence of the society was discov-
cred, the hardened old hag, La Spara,
passed the ordeal of the rack without
confession;" but another woman yielded
up the secrets of the sisterhood, and La
Sparta and twelve other women were
hanged, and many others, guilty in a
lesser degree, were publicly whipped
through the streets of the city. Equally
notorious, ana far more destructive in
her operations, was another woman
named Tophania, native of Palermo,
who in that city, and subsequently in
Naples sold a mysterious poison of her
own concoction to wives plagued with
obnoxious husbands.
Four drops of this preparation were
sufficient to give spouse his quietus,
and so extensively was it sold mat 1t
was known throughout the country as
| aqua Tophania, or aquetta di Napoli
1t is now known to have been solution
of white arsenic" We arc asked to
believe that this creature of wickedness
| carried on her nefarious trade from
girlhood until nearly seventy years of
age without ever having fallen into the
| meshes of the law, and that upward of
six hundred persons were poisoned
| through her instrumentality.
Tophania was more artful than La
! Spara. She dealt only with individuals,
after due safeguards had been built up,
and she changed her abode so frequent
| ly and adopted so many disguises that
| her detection was rendered very diff
cult. She also called in the aids of
religion and superstition. Her aquetta
she sent forth in small walls labeled
"Manna of St. Nicholas of Barri," and
| those who were uninitiated in the
history of the potent elixir imagined it
to be certain miraculous oil, which
was supposed to ooze from the tomb of
the saint in question. When the manu-
facture and sale of poison had at last
been traced to Tophania she took
refuge in convent, from which the
abbess and archbishop refused to give
her up. After some time the convent
was broken into by body of soldiers,
Tophania was removed, tortured until
she confessed, and strangled Her dead
body was then thrown into the garden
of the convent from which she had been
taken.
Detection almost certainly awaits
the poisoner of to-day who uses arsenic.
Marshs test for it, described in all the
books on chemistry, will prove the
presence of incredibly small amounts OF
it. In cases of death from poisoning
the greater amount of the arsenic is
found in the liver and intestines. The
prominent symptoms of acute arsenical
poisoning come on half an hour or sc
after the substance is swallowed
Faintness and Il feeling of depression
are followed by an intense burning
pain in the stomach. Nausea and vom.
iting usually follow, but no relief comes
from the election of the contents of the
stomach. Purging follows next, blood
being frequently distinguishable in the
excavations. The victim is thirsty, hi!
pulse is feeble and irregular, and his
skin is clammy and damp. Deatt
usually results in from eighteen to sew
enty-two hours. The treatment con
sists in the use of the stomach pump
the administration of emetics large
amounts of magnesia emulsion anC
either freshly precipitated ferric
hydrate or the solution lln own as dial
lied iron. n.-Chicago Herald.