Most Execrable and Abominable or Irreligious | Lapham's Quarterly
In 1524 Pope Clement VII ordered a test of an antidote oil created by surgeon Gregorio Caravita. A test subject took a dose of poison in front of a small crowd of invited personages. In both of the antidote’s two trials, apothecaries provided the poison—a good quantity of a deadly aconite called napellus in the first test, arsenic in the second. Although a pharmacist was present, the papal physician, Paolo Giovio, oversaw the trial. Pope Clement commanded that the antidote be tried on “condemned bodies, faithfully and diligently, for the benefit of the public.” The use of condemned cr...
Source: laphamsquarterly.org