acqua tofana

Definition 
Acqua Tofana, a favorite potion of young wives in 17th-century Italy who wanted to get rid of their rich, elderly, or ineffectual husbands, recalls a woman who peddled her deadly home brew on such a large scale that she has achieved immortality of a kind. Her first name is unknown, but Miss or Mrs. Tofana was either a Greek or Italian lady who died in Naples or Palermo, Sicily about the year 1690. Apparently she died a natural death, although five others headed by an old hag named Spara, who had bought her secret formula, were arrested and hanged in 1659. Tofana's poison was a strong, transparent, and odorless solution of arsenic that she sold in vials labeled Manna di S. Nicolas di Bari (the "Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari"), in honor of the miraculous oil that was said to flow from the tomb of the saint. See brucine.