without a doctor's certificate is contrary to law, and those who do so are very anxious to conceal the fact, particularly from medical men and priests. Dr. Lorenz was, however, well acquainted with one gentleman, an arsenic eater, with whom he kindly put me in communication, and to whom I shall refer again more particularly. He also says that he knows arsenic is commonly taken by the peasants in Styria, the Tyrol, and the Salzkammergut, principally by huntsmen and woodcutters, to improve their wind and prevent fatigue. He gives the following particulars:

“The arsenic is taken pure when fasting, in some warm liquid, às coffee, beginning with a bit the size of a pin's head, and increasing to that of a pea. The complexion and general appearance are much improved, and the parties using it seldom look so old as they really are, but he has never heard of any case in which it was used to improve personal beauty, though he cannot say that it never is so used. The first dose is always followed by slight symptoms of poisoning, such as burning pain in the stomach and sickness, but not very severe.

“Once begun, it can only be left off by very gradually diminishing the daily dose, as a sudden cessation causes sickness, burning pains in the stomach, and other symptoms of poisoning, very speedily followed by death.

“As a rule, arsenic eaters are very long lived, and are peculiarly exempt from infectious diseases, fevers, &c., but unless they gradually give up the practice invariably die suddenly at last.

"In some arsenic works near Salzburg with which he is acquainted, he says the only men who can stand the work for any time are those who swallow daily doses of arsenic, the fumes, &c., soon killing the others. The director of these works, the gentleman before alluded to, sent me the following particulars of his own case. (This gentleman's name I suppress, as he writes that he does not wish the only thing known about him in England to be the fact that he is an arsenic eater; but if any judicial inquiry should arise which might render positive evidence of arsenic eating necessary, his name and testimony will be forthcoming):

"At seventeen years of age, while studying assaying, I had much to do with arsenic, and was advised by my teacher, M. Bönsch, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at Eisleben, to begin the habit of arsenic eating. I quote the precise words he addressed to me:-'If you wish to continue the study of assaying, and become hereafter superintendent of a factory, more especially of an arsenic factory, in which position there are so few, and which is abandoned by so many, and to preserve yourself from the fumes, which injure the lungs of most, if not of all, and to continue to enjoy your customary health and spirits, and to attain a tolerably advanced age, I advise you, nay, it is absolutely necessary, that besides strictly abstaining from spiritous liquors, you should learn to take arsenic; but do not forget, when you have attained the age of fifty years, gradually to decrease your dose, till from the dose to which you have become accustomed you return to that with which you began, or even less.' I have made trial of my preceptor's prescriptions till now, the forty-fifth year of my age. The dose with which I began, and that which I take at present, I enclose; they are taken once a day, early, in any warm liquid, such as coffee, but not in any spirituous liquors.' The doses sent were No. 1, original dose, three grains : No. 2, present dose, twenty-three grains of pure white arsenic in coarse powder. Dr. Arbele says this gentleman's daily dose has been weighed there also, and found as above. Mr. continues :-' About an hour after taking my first dose (I took the same quantity daily for three months,) there followed slight perspiration with griping pains in the bowels, and after three or four hours a loose evacuation; this was followed by a keen appetite and a feeling of excitement. With the exception of the pain, the same symptoms follow every increase of the dose. I subjoin, as a caution, that it is not advisable to begin arsenic eating before the age of twelve or after thirty years. In reply to my question, if any harm results from either interrupting, or altogether discontinuing the practice, he replies, 'Evil consequences only ensue from a long continued interruption. From circumstances I am often obliged to leave it off for two or three days, and I feel only slight languor and loss of appetite, and I resume taking the arsenic in somewhat smaller doses. On two occasions, at the earnest solicitations of my friends, I attempted entirely to leave off the arsenic. The second time was in January 1855. I was induced to try it a second time from a belief that my first illness might have arisen from some other cause. On the third day of the second week after leaving off the dose I was attacked with faintness, depression of spir

its, mental weakness, and a total loss of the little appetite I still had; sleep also entirely deserted me. On the fourth day I had violent palpitation of the heart, accompanied by profuse perspiration. Inflammation of the lungs followed, and I was laid up for nine weeks, the same as on the first occasion of leaving off the arsenic. Had I not been bled, I should most likely have died of apoplexy. As a restorative, I resumed the arsenic eating in smaller doses, and with a firm determination never again to be seduced into leaving it off, except as originally directed by my preceptor. The results on both occasions were precisely the same, and death would certainly have ensued had I not resumed arsenic eating. One of the most remarkable points in this narrative is that this gentleman began with a dose which we should consider poisonous. This is the only case of which I have been able to obtain such full particulars, but several others have been mentioned to me by those who knew the parties, and can vouch for their truth, which I will briefly relate.

"One gentleman, besides stating that he is well aware of the existence of the practice, says he is well acquainted with a brewer in Klagenfürth who has taken daily doses of arsenic for many years; he is now past middle life, but astonishes every one by his fresh juvenile appearance; he is always exhorting other people to follow his example, and says, 'See how strong and fresh I am, and what an advantage I have over you all! In times of epidemic fever or cholera, what a fright you are in, while I feel sure of never taking infection.'

"Dr. Arbele writes, 'Mr. Curator Kürsinger (I presume curator of some museum at Salzburg,) notwithstanding his long professional work in Lungau and Binzgau, knew only two arsenic eaters, one the gentleman whose case has just been related, the other the ranger of the hunting district in Grossarl, named Trauner. This man was at the advanced age of 81 still a keen chamois hunter and an active climber of mountains; he met his death by a fall from a mountain height while engaged in his occupation. Mr. Kürsinger says he always seemed very healthy, and every evening regularly, after remaining a little too long over his glass, he took a dose of arsenic, which enabled him to get up the next morning perfectly sober and quite bright. Professor Fenzl of Vienna was acquainted with this man, and made a statement before some learned society concerning him, a notice of which Mr. Kürsinger saw in the Wiener Zeitung, but I have not been able to find the statement itself. Mr. Krum, the pharmaceutist here, tells me that there is in Stürzburg a well known arsenic eater, Mr. Schmid, who now takes daily twelve, and sometimes fifteen, grains of arsenic. He began taking arsenic from curiosity, and appears very healthy, but always becomes sickly and falls away if he attempts to leave it off. The director of the arsenic factory before alluded to is also said to be very healthy, ard not to look so old as forty-five, which he really is.'*

"As a proof how much secrecy is observed by those who practise arsenic eating, I may mention that Dr. Arbele says he inquired of four medical men, well acquainted with the people of the districts in question, both in the towns and country, and they could not tell him of any individual case, but knew of the custom only by report.

"Two criminal cases have been mentioned to me, in which the known habit of arsenic eating was successfully pleaded in favor of the accused. The first, by Dr. Kottowitz of Neuhaus, was that of a girl taken up in that neighborhood on strong suspicion of having poisoned one or more people with arsenic, and though circumstances were strongly against her, yet the systematic arsenic eating in the district was pleaded so successfully in her favor, that she was acquitted, and still lives near Neuhaus, but is believed by every one to be guilty. The other case was mentioned by Dr. Lorenz. A woman was accused of poisoning her husband, but brought such clear proof that he was an arsenic eater, as fully to account for arsenic being found in the body. She was, of course, acquitted.

"One fact mentioned to me by some friends is well worthy of note. They say: In this part of the world, when a graveyard is full, it is shut up for about twelve years, when all the graves which are not private property by purchase are dug up, the bones collected in the charnel-house, the ground ploughed over, and burying begins again. On these occasions the bodies of arsenic eaters are found almost un

* The man above mentioned seems quite to differ with Mr. — on the impropriety of taking arsenic with spiritous liquors, and actually employs it as a means of correcting their effects. All others that I have heard of concur in saying that it should be taken fasting.

changed, and recognisable by their friends. Many people suppose that the finding of their bodies is the origin of the story of the vampire.' In the Medicinischer Jahrbuch des Oster. Kaiserstaates, 1822, neuest Folge, there is a report by Professor Schallgruber, of the Imperial Lyceum at Grätz, of an investigation undertaken by order of government into various cases of poisoning by arsenic. After giving details of six post-mortem examinations, he says:- The reason of the frequency of these sad cases appears to me to be the familiarity with arsenic which exists in our country, particularly the higher parts. There is hardly a district in Upper Styria where you will not find arsenic in at least one house under the name of hydrach. They use it for the complaints of domestic animals, to kill vermin, and as a stomachic to excite an appetite. I saw one peasant show another, on the point of a knife, how much arsenic he took daily, without which, he said, he could not live; the quantity I should estimate at two grains. It is said, but this I will not answer for, that in that part of the country this poison is used in making cheese; and, in fact, several cases of poisoning by cheese have occurred in Upper Styria, one not long since. The above-mentioned peasant states, I believe truly, that they buy the arsenic from the Tyrolese, who bring into the country, spirits and other medicines, and so are the cause of much mischief." This report is, I believe, mentioned in Orfila's Toxicology, and one or two other works, but I have not seen it quoted myself; it is interesting, as being early and official evidence of arsenic eating. Since I received the above information, a gentleman who was studying at this hospital, told me that, when an assistant in Lincolnshire, he knew a man who began taking arsenic for some skin disease, and gradually increased the dose to five grains daily. He said he himself supplied him with this dose daily for a long time. He wrote to the medical man with whom he was assistant, and I have been for a long time promised full particulars of the case, but beyond the fact that he took five grains of arsenic, in the form of Fowler's solution, daily, for about six years, and could never leave it off without inconvenience and a return of his old complaint, I have as yet not received them. I have delayed publishing these facts for some time, hoping to get information on some other points, for which I have written to my friends abroad; but as considerable delay takes place in all communications with them, I have thought it better to publish at once the information I have already received. All the parties spoken of are people on whom the fullest reliance can be placed, and who have taken much pains to ascertain the foregoing particulars. The questions which still remain unanswered are these:

"1st. Can any official report be obtained of the trials of the two people mentioned by Drs. Kottowitz and Lorenz?

"2nd. Do medical men in these districts, when using arsenic medicinally, find the same cumulative effects as we experience here? Or is there anything in the air or mode of living which prevents it?

"3rd. Can any evidence be obtained as to how much of the arsenic taken is excreted? to show whether the body gradually becomes capable of enduring its presence, or whether it acquires the power of throwing it off?*

I have proposed to the gentleman who furnished me with the particulars of his own case either to make an estimate of the arsenic contained in his own urine and fæces during twenty-four hours, or to collect the same and forward them to me that I may do so, but as yet have received no answer."-Pharmaceutical Journal.

The only wonder is that direct experiments have not been made long ago upon the excretions of suspected arsenic eaters, or upon their bodies after death. In calling attention to the subject some months since, (Répertoire de Chimie Appliquée, February, 1860, ii, 44,) we took occasion to urge this point and to bring forward the observation of Prof. E. Koppt, who found in the course of his experiments upon arsenic acid-which was manufactured upon the great scale and largely employed in calico-print

* The fact of the preservation of the bodies shows that some considerable quantity must be retained [or rather offers an example of the well known fact that corpses loaded with fat decompose but slowly.-F. H. 8.]

† Comptes Rendus, 1856, xlii, 1063; J. pr. Ch. lxix, 273.

nega

ing by him—that the weight of his body rapidly increased, some 20 lbs. having been gained in the course of the two months, during which he was subject to absorb the acid, his hands having been frequently in contact with the arsenical solution: arsenic being detected the while in his solid and liquid excrements. As soon, however, as the exposure to the arsenic ceased, his weight began to decrease, and in the course of 9 or 10 weeks, fell back again to its normal-150 lbs. Believing that direct, positive evidence like this-though the instance be solitary-where the subject of the experiment was a healthy, vigorous man, and a trained observer, ought to outweigh almost any amount of tive testimony, such as has been brought forward by physicians who have not witnessed similar effects upon their diseased patients when the latter were treated with arsenical preparations. It should be observed that one of the strongest arguments brought up by toxicologists against the truth of the accounts of the arsenic eaters has been drawn from the result of medical practice. Without attempting to discuss the matter at length, it may, nevertheless be permitted to the non-professional reader of the medical literature bearing upon this subject to remark that the evidence there accumulated in spite of its apparent obscurity and of the contradictions with which it is involved seems to point clearly to the fact that in minute doses arsenious acid acts beneficially upon the general health of many patients. Thus, according to Dr. Henry Hunt:*

* * * *

"Arsenic operates most favorably on persons who are of lax fibre, accompanied by a languid state of the circulation and whose secretions are rather profuse than otherwise; the urine pale and plentiful, and more especially on those whose skin is cold and moist. In persons of this description, whilst arsenic to an extent far beyond other medicines, relieves the neuralgic pain, it improves the general health, and gives firmness and vigor to the constitution." While upon certain peculiar temperaments it is hurtful; thus Dr. Hunt continues, "when neuralgia is associated with the same morbid action in the spine, with anæmia; or arises from injuries of nerves; or local irritation of nerves by diseases, or unnatural growth of bone; or if it be complicated with engorgement of the liver and other viscera; arsenic is usually injurious, and I believe seldom useful."

Again, not to multiply instances further, Erichsen,t in treating of the use of arsenic in diseases of the skin, "lays great stress upon the necessity of attending particularly to the constitution, and temperament of the patient before commencing the use of the medicine. It will be badly borne by individuals of a plethoric habit of body or of a highly sanguine or sanguineo-nervous temperament, this arises from the stimulating properties of the metal. In such cases, the digestive organs become so ir* In his work upon Neuralgic Disorders, cited in Braithwaite's Retrospect of Pract. Med., 1844, No. ix, p. 34; also, ibid, No. x, p. 23.

Braithwaite's Retrospect, 1843, No. viii, p. 14.

ritated and the nervous system so excited under the use of the arsenic that it is impossible to employ it in any such dose as can be expected to produce a beneficial effect upon the cutaneous affection. There are other circumstances which contra-indicate the use of this remedy, namely, 'the complication of the cutaneous affection with other diseases,' and especially with irritative or inflammatory gastric dyspepsia, accompanied with a sensation of heat and oppression at the epigastrium, increased by food so well described by Dr. Todd. When this form of dyspepsia is present the smallest doses of arsenic will do harm, as the usual effect of the remedy when continued too long is to produce these very symptoms. Besides this form of indigestion any other local inflammatory condition of the system or the superinvention of phthisis, will contra-indicate the use of so powerfully stimulating a tonic as arsenic." Further on he remarks: "It has already been shown that the use of the preparations of this metal is exceedingly hazardous in individuals of a sanguine or sanguineo-nervous temperament and excitable habit of body, or in those who suffer from or are peculiarly disposed to irritative gastric dyspepsia, or any inflammatory disorder. On the other hand, they are in inost cases borne well by individuals of a somewhat phlegmatic, debilitated, or lax habit of body, more particularly, if they are past the middle age, with a pale cachectic complexion, languid weak circulation, and a general want of tone about the system, acting upon such patients as powerful and useful tonics. In persons of this habit of body the diseases of the skin appear rather to be dependent upon a degree of debility or want of power in the cutaneous capillaries; and it is in these patients that the preparations of arsenic are of great service in exciting in a peculiar manner a more healthy action in this class of vessels, thereby modifying or removing those morbid changes that are the results of an abnormal condition in their secernent and nutrient functions."

In this connection it must not be forgotten that in the opinion of many scientific men, the healing action of various mineral waters may depend, in part, at least, upon the arsenic which these springs are known to contain. A doctrine which is publicly taught by several of the chemical Professors at Paris.

Taken as a whole the medical evidence which has fallen under our notice, is adverse to the possibility of "arsenic eating," only in so far as relates to the large quantities of the poison which, as is affirmed, the human body can accustom itself by long continued habit, to support with impunity. This last enquiry, however interesting in itself, is one on which very little is known with certainty as yet, and is plainly of quite secondary importance in a scientific point of view to that of the beneficial action of moderate doses of arsenious acid, which would now appear to be proved. From the very general interest which attaches to the subject it is greatly to be hoped that further researches may soon decide the amount of this tolerance.

F. H. S.

* Compare Walchner, Ann. Ch. u. Pharm., lxi, 206; or Comptes Rendus, xxiii, 614. Figuier, Comptes Rendus, xxiii, 820. Chevallier and Schanefele, ibid. xxv, 750. Thenard, ibid. xxxix, 769.