Here is an old story that I believe originated in 1800.
Remedy against Lying.
A Chinese silversmith, to whom the English gave the name of Tom Workwell, brought home some silver spoons, as he called them, to a captain of a ship, who had ordered them. The gentleman suspecting that his friend Tom had played him a trick, common in China, of adding no small quantity of tutenague to the usual proportion of alloy, taxed him with the cheat, which he denied with the strongest asseveration of his innocence. The captain then told him, that he had brought with him a famous water, called lie-water, which being placed on the tongue of a person suspected of telling an untruth, if the case were so, burned a hole in it; if otherwise, the party escaped with honour, and unhurt. Tom thinking it a trick, readily consented; upon which, with much form, a single drop of aquafortis was put upon his tongue: he instantly jumped about the room in violent pain, crying out, Very true, half tutenague, half tutenague, in hopes that confessing the fact might stop the progress of the lie-water, which, from the pain he felt, he had some reason to think possessed the quality ascribed to it. Several Europeans, who were present, and who had bought different pieces of plate from him, now put similar questions to him; and he confessed that it had been his uniform and constant practice, to add a very large quantity of tutenague to every article made at his shop, for which, during the continuance of the pain, he promised ample reparation.
I've read that the exportation from China of tutenague (pakfong, paktong) was prohibited by Edict in January 1833. Does anyone know why?
Trev.