Poison romance and poison mysteries / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Charles Thompson
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Poison romance and poison mysteries / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    during the Middle Ages it was esteemed a valu- able remedy for the plague, and was employed for that purpose in Austria as late as the year 1712. Cantharides, or Spanish fly, was very commonly used as a poison in mediaeval times, the usual method of administering being, to chop it up and mix it with pepper. It is said to have been the first poison tried on the unfortunate Sir Thomas Overbury, although his murderers finally finished him off with corrosive sublimate. Poisoned rings are said to have been the invention of the Italians, who fashioned rings in which the poison was inserted in a receptacle where the jewel is usually set. Attached to the inner part of the ring was a sharp point which, when the hand of the wearer was grasped, scratched the flesh and injected the poison. Rings were also used for carrying strong poisons secretly—such as arsenic, or corrosive sublimate—and in this manner many were enabled to commit suicide after being imprisoned.
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