NOTES. 445 



He who was never ill before, grows an invalid ; and tlie only cure 

 is a return to the customary poison. 



It has been discovered lately that among the chamois-hunters 

 of Salzburg as well as those of Styria, the custom of arsenic- 

 eating is very general. All who practise it, however, deny that 

 they do so with the utmost obstinacy : and there is nothing hardly 

 that will make them confess their propensity. It is the same with 

 the opium-eater, of whom there are many more in England than 

 most people suppose. 



To give horses, pigs, and cattle arsenic in order to improve their 

 appearance, is a common custom ; and it would not be uninterest- 

 ing to inquire whether the favourable effect produced on animals 

 by small doses of arsenic, first led men to apply it to them- 

 selves, or whether it was tried on the brute after having been 

 found so serviceable in the economy of the human being. 



A circumstance has come to my knowledge lately, which is in- 

 teresting, inasmuch as it shows that the fact of arsenic being taken 

 otherwise than medicinally is known more generally than at first 

 seemed to be the case. I was told by a person of whom I made 

 inquiries concerning the use of arsenic in stable economy, that 

 he remembered long ago to have read that Napoleon was in the 

 habit of taking arsenic, to ensure himself against being poisoned. 

 As I had never heard this report before, I inquired of other per- 

 sons in quite another sphere of life, and of them too I learned 

 that the tale was not new. Now, whether true or not that Napo- 

 leon did take arsenic, — though his known inclination to stoutness, 

 later in life, might seem to lend additional probability to the 

 story, — it is sufficient that such report was current, to show that 

 arsenic-eating not only existed, but was generally known to exist ; 

 for without such foundation, no one would have ever thought of 

 building up so seemingly improbable a fiction. All popular tra- 

 ditions, if traced back, will be found to derive their strength and 

 vitality from having sprung up in the atmosphere of truth ; al- 

 though by the time they have come down to us they may be 

 overgrown with the moss of ages, till their outward appearance 

 is changed, and they look wizard-like and unearthly. 



For further information see three papers in Nos. 416 and 493, 

 Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, New Series ; and No. 110, Cham- 

 bers' Journal of Popular Literature. 



