Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    936/968 (page 922)
    APPENDIX. Piige 7. Influence of habit on arsenic. The arsenic-eaters < f Btyrin.—In the text I have stated that there is no satisfactory proof that any human being has ever accustomed himself by hahit to take these substances (arsenic and corrosive subli- jnate) in doses that would prove poisonous to the generality oi adults. Since this was written, I have seen a paper by Dr. Roscoe of INIanchester on the alleged practice of arsenic-eating in Styria (^lanchester, It^Gl), in which he has published fact.*, procured apparently from respectable sources, which tend to .show, contrary to the opinion here expressed and gcneralh' en- tertained in this country, that there are certain persons in Styria who are capable of eating arsenic in (AnvUri) poisonous doses for many years together; and tiuit they not only do not suffer from symptoms of poisoning, but retain a good appetite, and enjoy, as they believe, more than ordinary health and strength. In a ca.se wliich he (piotes, a man took, in one day. Ah grains, and on the day following .'i.^ grains of white arsenic. Cnishing the mineral between his teeth and swallowing it. The man stated to Dr. Hoscoe's informant that lie took this dose thrive or four times a week,—his weekly allowance thus amounting to about a scruple of arsenic, a (piantity sufficient to kill ten Knglish adults! The day after he had swallowed the second dose, tb.e man left the place in his usual health. There is no further record of him : but as two days had (lassed without any symp- toms : and arsenic was found to be eliminated in his urine, this toxo|)lK'.!;ist must have been arsenic-proof. The iuimuniiy. which it seems the man liad accpiired. by regularly taking arsenic for twelve years (p. 7), ajipears. Iiowever. to be an ex- ce])li(mal eonditicm in Styria. Dr. Uoscoe has furnished other cases which show llial arsenic can exert the same deadly power there that it does in Kngland. Among eleven cases of arsenic- eating quoted at p. I'J. - in No. 1 the man began with pieces of the size of a iiin's Iiead (J-i gr.). and gradually increased the (piantity up to the size of a grain of oats ( J',' grs.). DieJ of the rfl'i'cts n/'tlie piiisnn. No. 2 ate arsenic. Died of typhus (?) No. 4 took arsenic, and raising tiie dose was seized with symptows of ji<)isimin<f. lie recovered. No. .'> was in the habit of eating arsenic in doses of the size of a grain of wlieat (2^ grs.), a practice