NOTES. 443 



sometimes four or six, as will be perceived in the directions for 

 singing. It is then taken up by the nest, and thus it proceeds 

 through as many as choose to join in the pastime, twice round, 

 and ending with the person that began." 



Note.— Page 121. 

 POISON-EATING* 



For those who have to climb mountains, one essential quality 

 is, not easily to get out of breath. Any means therefore of ob- 

 taining such a desideratum will naturally be eagerly sought after, 

 and when found as eagerly employed. 



In some districts of Lower Austria and Styria, especially in 

 those parts bordering on Hungary, arsenic is taken for this pur- 

 pose, as it makes the respiration much easier in ascending moun- 

 tains. Whenever the individual has to mount a considerable 

 height, a minute morsel of the poison is taken and allowed gra- 



# These observations on arsenic-eating are condensed from papers 

 which I sent to Chambers' Journal in 1851, 1853, and 1856, and which at 

 the time attracted so much attention that more than thirty-two journals, 

 English, French, Italian, and German, copied them into their pages. 

 From England and Ireland letters reached me, requesting information 

 on the subject. One poor gentleman, imagining, no doubt, I was a phy- 

 sician, wrote to me about the close he was to take ; for he said, " I have 

 almost decided on trying the effect of arsenic on me, as I cannot find 

 anything else to fatten me, and I have scarcely any flesh on my bones, 

 and seem to get thinner every day." I answered his letter according to 

 his request ; urgently counselling him however not to think of acquiring 

 the habit, and representing to Mm the evils attendant on its practice ; 

 saying, in short, everything to dissuade him from his intention. My cor- 

 respondent probably died soon after from consumption, or may-be from 

 an over-dose of self-prescribed arsenic, for my letter was returned to me 

 some months afterwards by the post-office authorities, it never having 

 been called for or claimed by any one. The papers in question were re- 

 ferred to by the ' Times ' in connection with a certain " slow poisoning 

 case ;" and at Madeline Smith's trial they were also again alluded to : 

 proofs sufficient that the novel information they contained was found in- 

 teresting, and an adequate excuse therefore for introducing the subject 

 here. 



