Note 411 — Chapter XVII · 1774. DEATH OF CLEMENT XIV.
Reading edition
It is a popular tradition, and, indeed, not at all unfounded, that in Perugia some persons had the secret of composing a sort of water which, when drunk, produced certain death, although life was prolonged for more or less space of time, according to the quantity and strength of the dose given. The nuns, in particular, had a sad celebrity for composing this drug.