SCIENTIFIC NE^VS. 



[Feb. 17, lE 



ARSENIC-EATING. 



MORE than thirty years have passed away since 

 Professor Johnstone, in his well-known 

 " Chemistry of Common Life" first called public attention 

 to the internal use of arsenic in various parts of the 

 world, especially in the Austrian province of Styria. 

 His statement was received with no small surprise and, 

 as it often happens in case of anything novel, even with 

 derision. To sift the matter to the bottom was a matter 

 of some difficulty, as the consumers of this formidable 

 drug keep their practice a secret. At last, however, after 

 not a few denials and re-assertions, the truth of Professor 

 Johnstone's disclosures was established. 



An Austrian physician has recently had the opportunity 

 of examining the physical and mental condition of several 

 arsenic-eaters, who had been taking variable quantities 

 of ordinary white arsenic or red orpiment at intervals for 

 a long period, in one instance even during thirty years. 

 The presence of arsenic in the urine showed the average 

 dose of the drug taken daily to be nearly half a grain, or 

 three times the amount of the largest dose prescribed in 

 medicine. Physicallythe persons examined were quite up 

 to the average, and able to perform ordinary manual 

 labour, while their intellectual level was not below that 

 of their class. Some of the arsenic-eaters were thin, 

 others normally stout, and the arsenic habit did not 

 appear to prevent the formation of fat. In several cases 

 the cause of the habit was alleged to be the strengthening 

 influence of arsenic on the digestive organs. None of the 

 eight cases under examination showed symptoms of slow, 

 chronic poisoning. The drug is principally taken in 

 order to facilitate respiration when climbing steep moun- 

 tains, and it is said to answer this purpose exceedingly 

 well. Habitual arsenic-eaters allege that the drug acts as 

 a preservative against disease and raises the spirits during 

 fatiguing journeys. 



Another motive for its use, especially among girls, 

 is that it improves the complexion, rendering the skin 

 remarkably smooth and clear. Grooms occasionally 

 administer arsenic to horses with the alleged effect of 

 giving a beautiful gloss to their coats. 



It must not be supposed that in an age so given to 

 quackery, and so enamoured of unsafe cosmetics, this 

 practice would remain confined to Styria — if such ever 

 was the case. Accordingly Dr. Bilchner, a Munich 

 physician, who has recommended arsenic in tubercu- 

 losis, gives the authority of his name for the statement 

 that arsenic is habitually mixed with the dishes served 

 upon the tables of young ladies' boarding-schools in 

 Switzerland, and mentions that young persons are far 

 better able to assimilate the drug than middle-aged or 

 old people. 



We do not know in how far parents — at least English 

 parents — would approve of the fascinations of their 

 daughters being heightened in such a questionable 

 manner. It must obviously be unsafe for the cook at a 

 boarding-school to be entrusted with the responsibility of 

 so dangerous a poison. Even if the quantity for the 

 whole school is accurately weighed out, who is to 

 guarantee accurate mixing, so that each damsel may get 

 her allotted fraction and no more ? 



Accordingly we regarded Dr. Biichner's statement, 

 though given by a contemporary of good repute, with 

 some little doubt, and should probably have dismissed the 

 matter from our mind, save for a very unexpected confir- 

 mation. 



Looking over the transactions of the Pharmaceutical 



Conference of the State of New York, we saw a number 

 of queries proposed for investigation, against the next 

 yearly meeting in 1888, Amongst these was a question as 

 to arsenical complexion-wafers, how much arsenic did they 

 usually contain, and what ill effects, if any, were trace- 

 able to their use ? This seems to settle the matter. The 

 use of such arsenical wafers for improving the complexion 

 is, therefore, in America at least, something well known 

 to chemists and druggists, and the only questions are what 

 is the dose of the poison, and what may be its effects ? 

 We cannot help expressing a hope that this practice may 

 not gain ground in Britain. It is rumoured that persons 

 who have once habituated themselves to arsenic-eating 

 cannot lay it aside, and that if they are ever prevented 

 from obtaining their daily dose they experience the 

 horrors of slow arsenical poisoning. 



Another point on which more light is wanted is the 

 possible effect of arsenic-eating, not upon the individual, 

 but upon his or her posterity. We have in these days 

 so many factors contributing to racial degeneracy that 

 their possible increase is earnestly to be deprecated. 



ANOTHER REMARKABLE METEORITE. 



T N the first number of our new series we gave a de- 

 scription of the famous St. Croix meteorite, but Mr. 

 George F. Kunz, the distinguished mineralogist, has since 

 got into his possession a much larger specimen. This me- 

 teorite was found in Taney County, Missouri, twenty-eight 

 years ago, but was not considered at the time to be of 

 meteoric origin. Mr. Kunz, however, was informed about 

 it, and, knowing its value, at once secured it. The mass 

 measures 13 by 13 inches across the face and 12 inches 

 through, and weighs 197 lbs. The St. Croix meteorite's 

 dimensions are 8 by 8 inches across the face and 7 inches 

 through, and weighs 53 lbs. In the Taney meteorite 

 are two large crystals of olivine, one measuring 4 by 3 

 inches, and another 2\ inches by i| inches; this part 

 being so much lighter in colour than the rest of the mass, 

 and so much more easily detached that the larger crystal 

 has been almost entirely picked out to a depth of 2 inches. 

 At one corner of the mass there is an enclosure of augite, 

 which is grey in colour, and granular in structure, 

 and has all the appearance of a common grey pebble 

 (3 inches by I5 inches) inserted in the iron. The surface ot 

 the meteorite is deeply pitted, and in many spots traces 

 of a black crust are still to be seen. Mr. Kunz has made 

 microscopic sections, and in these he found that the olivine 

 did not occur in separate crystals, but rather in aggre- 

 gations of irregularly-shaped grains, surrounded by brown 

 iron veins, and with banded antholite grains interspersed. 

 These aggregations he found to be full of black microlites, 

 glass masses, and needle-shaped clear crystals, imbedded 

 in the metallic iron without any border of alteration. 

 The boundary line is perfectly sharp, fresh, and distinct, 

 the olivine appears to be fresh, but is clouded with the 

 brown iron stains abundantly scattered through it. The 

 specific gravity of the mass is 4-484, and it consists of iron 

 and nickel. According to Professor Swallow, the mass 

 belongs to the rather rare group of amygdaloidal meteoric 

 irons, in which the peridotic ingredient preponderates 

 over the nickelic iron. The iron is remarkable for its 

 whiteness, while the peridot is of a well marked green 

 colour and distinctly crystalline. A considerable num- 

 ber of meteorites fell on the 4th of July, 1859, and this 

 was among them. The discovery has caused some sen- 

 sation among mineralogists. 



