216 PROFESSOR H. E. ROSCOE ON THE ALLEGED 



arsenic, he stated that when he was forty-five years old he 

 had been overseer of a chamois -hunt, and that in this 

 capacity he had so over-exerted himself that he became 

 very ill, and by the advice of an old hunter began to take 

 arsenic. His health then improved ; he was able to return 

 to his duties ; and he had continued to take regular doses 

 of arsenious acid for ten years up to the date of my com- 

 munication with him. I have every reason to believe his 

 statement, as he appeared to be a respectable, truthful 

 person, and only gave me this information upon my re- 

 peated cross-examination. 



2. Arsenic is used in Styria to flavour cheese, for the 

 purpose, it is said, of giving it stomachic properties. J. was 

 once eye-witness of the preparation of such cheese. I 

 happened to be in the Ensthal, in a hut where the dairy- 

 woman was making cheese. A pot of curds was standing 

 ready to be put into the wooden cheese moulds, when 

 the woman took out from a small box as much powdered 

 white arsenic as covered the end of a table knife, and 

 shook it into an earthen vessel, in which about a pint of 

 water was boiling. She stirred the water with a stick, and 

 after it had boiled for ten minutes she poured the liquid in 

 a thin stream into the curds, so that it was equally distri- 

 buted throughout the mass of about eight quarts. She 

 then kneaded the curds about for a long time, and after- 

 wards filled the wooden moulds. Upon my asking her 

 what the powder was, she said it was " Hiittenrauch" 

 (arsenious acid), and that the Styrian cheese must be 

 thus prepared in order that no accident may occur. She 

 pointed out to me an inn in the valley where I could buy 

 such cheese. There I went, and after much opposition on 

 the part of the maid-servant, who was afraid that I should 

 poison myself, obtained some of the cheese, but eat only 

 such a quantity as the maid told me would be harmless, a 

 piece the size of two walnuts. I eat some bread and drank 



