The
government used great vigilance to detect the poisoners, and suspicion
at length fell upon a society of young wives, whose president appeared
to be an old woman, who pretended to foretel future events, and who had
often predicted very exactly the death of many persons. By means of a
crafty female their practices were detected; the whole society were
arrested and put to the torture, and the old woman, whose name was
Spara, and four others, were publicly hanged. This Spara was a Sicilian,
and is said to have acquired her knowledge from Tofania at Palermo.
Tophania, or Tofania, was an infamous woman, who resided first at
Palermo and afterwards at Naples. She sold the poison which from her
acquired the name of Aqua della Toffana (it was also called _Acquetta di
Napoli_, or _Acquetta_ alone), but she distributed her preparation by
way of charity to such wives as wished to have 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 in a certain time. Labat
says, that Tofania distributed her poison in small glass phials, with
this inscription--_Manna of St.
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