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Dec 14, 2009
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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—A

Aqua Tofana

or Acqua Tofanica. A poisonous liquid much used in Italy in the seventeenth century by young wives who wanted to get rid of their husbands. It was invented by a woman named Tofana, who called it the Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari, from the widespread notion that an oil of miraculous efficacy flowed from the tomb of that saint. In Italian called also Aquella di Napoli.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Aqua Vitæ
Aqua Regia
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