edgment, thrown away. The royal
tribunal adjudged him to be deprived of his appointment, and to be
banished from the kingdom. This decision would not of course, diminish
the suspicion already excited; and among other physicians, who were
consulted on the case, M. Lodin, professor of Medicine at Lynkoping,
presented two memoirs, in which he stated it as his opinion, that a
_slow poison_ of a vegetable nature, and probably analogous to the _aqua
tofania_, had been administered to the Prince, and that this had caused
the apopletic fit of which he died. His reasons were:

1. That the Prince had always enjoyed good health previous to his
arrival in Sweden, and, indeed, had not been ill, until after eating a
cold pie at an inn, in Italy. He was shortly after seized with violent
vomiting, while the rest of the company experienced no ill effects.

2. The Prince was naturally very temperate.

3. Ever since he arrived in Sweden he had experienced a loss of
appetite, with cholic and diarrhoea; and

4. That on dissection, the spleen was found of a black colour and in a
state of decomposition, and the liver indurated and dark coloured.
Whilst during life he had experienced no symptoms corresponding to these
appearances. Dr. Lodin confessed, however, that he was unacquainted with
the effects that indicate the administration of a slow poison, but
thought the previous symptoms were such as might be expected from it.

For the credit of the profession, this conjectural opinion met with
decided reprobation from other medical men. It appeared that the Prince
had, for several days previously, been subject to giddiness and pain in
the head, and that all the symptoms were readily referable to a simple
case of apoplexy, while the appearances on dissection showed that rapid
tendency to putrefaction, which is frequently observed in similar cases.

The public are highly indebted to professor Beckman for a very elaborate
article, in which he has concentrated nearly all that is known
concerning _secret poisoning_. Of this we shall here present our readers
with an abstract, as peculiarly adapted to the demonology of medicine,
aided with some facts from other sources.

Professor Beckman considers it unquestionable, that the ancients were
acquainted with this kind of poison, and thinks that it may be proved
from the testimony of Plutarch, Quintilian, and other respectable
authors. The former states that a slow poison, which occasioned heat, a
c