208 PROFESSOR H. E. ROSCOE ON THE ALLEGED 



XIV. — On the alleged practice of Arsenic-Eating in 



Styria. 



By Henry Enfield Eoscoe, B.A., Ph.D., 



Professor of Chemistry at Owens College, Manchester. 



Read October 30th, i860. 



It has been frequently stated tliat among the peasants of 

 Styria the habit prevails of regularly taking into the system 

 large quantities, from two to five grains daily, of arsenious 

 acid. This extraordinary practice is said to be indulged 

 in for the purpose of improving the health, avoiding the 

 danger of infection, and raising the whole tone of the 

 body. 



Dr. Taylor shows in his excellent treatise on poisons,* 

 that this widely spread notion is traceable to the state- 

 ments on the subject of Dr. Von Tschudi, in a paper 

 published by him in the Wiener Medicinische Wochen- 

 schrifi for October wtli, 1851. The late Professor John- 

 ston repeats these statements of Von Tschudi^s in his 

 popular work on the Chemistry of Common Life, and this 

 seems to be the som^ce whence the assertion has gained 

 some credence in this country. Dr. Taylor points out 

 that Von Tschudi does not give satisfactory evidence in 

 proof of this singular and very improbable statement, 

 inasmuch as he did not either submit the so called 



* Taylor On Poisons, second edition, 1859, p. 91, &c. Dr. Taylor states 

 that from two to three grains of arsenious acid may be regarded as the 

 smallest dose usually producing death. 



