Not uncommon at all in the underworld cultures in France and Britain in Victorian times.
A vitriol-throwing figures largely in a Sherlock Holmes story ("The Illustrious Client"). The perp is "that hell-cat, Kitty Winter," a member of the demi-monde.
9 posted on 04/17/2006 10:14:16 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother
(Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))