Dr. Chnstison's Treatise on Poisons. 219 



following passage. " It has been stated by Hahnemann in his ela- 

 borate work on arsenic, that the pure sulphurets are somewhat so- 

 luble in water,— that the native orpiment is soluble in 5000 parts 

 of water with the aid of ebullition, and that the artificial orpiment 

 by precipitation is soluble in 600 parts of water. Hahnemann, 

 however, was mistaken in supposing that the water dissolved these 

 sulphurets. It does not dissolve, but decomposes them. Very 

 lately M. Decourdemanche has found that, by slow action in cold 

 water, and much more quickly with the aid of heat, the arsenical 

 sulphuret is decomposed by virtue of a simultaneous decomposition 

 of the water, sulphuretted hydrogen being evolved, and an oxide 

 of arsenic remaining in solution. And he has further remarked, 

 that this change is promoted by the presence of animal and vege- 

 table principles dissolved in the water." 



Much difference of opinion has prevailed regarding the influence 

 of arsenic over the putrefaction of the bodies of persons who have 

 been poisoned with it. Till lately the prevailing opinion was, that 

 the putrefactive process is accelerated ; and in some instances this 

 really appears to have been the case. But others maintain that 

 arsenic sometimes proves powerfully antiseptic; and several re- 

 markable cases, in proof of this opinion, are quoted by Dr. Christi- 

 son from German writers, by whom the subject has of late been 

 much discussed. That arsenic acts as an antiseptic on the parts with 

 which it is in contact, is clearly established by the following evi- 

 dence : — 



" Arsenic is a good preservative of animal textures when it is di- 

 rectly applied to them in sufficient quantity. This is well known 

 to stuffers of birds and beasts, was experimentally ascertained by 

 Guyton Morveau, and has also come under myl own observa- 

 tion. I have kept a bit of an ox's stomach four years in a solu- 

 tion of arsenic, and, except slight shrivelling and whitening, I could 

 not observe any change produced in it." 



" Dr. Kelch of Konigsberg, buried the internal organs of a 

 man who had died of arsenic, and whose body had remained with- 

 out burial till the external parts had begun to decay ; and on ex- 

 amining the stomach and intestines five months after, he found that 

 the hamper in which they were contained was very rotten ; but 

 that ' they had a peculiar smell, quite different from that of putrid 

 bowels, were not yet acted on by putrefaction, but as fresh as when 

 first taken from the body, and might have served to make prepara- 

 tions. They had lost nothing of their colour, glimmer, or firmness. 

 The inflamed spots on the stomach had not disappeared ; and the 

 small intestines also showed in some places the inflammatory red- 

 ness unaltered.' " 



" In the case of the girl Warden, which has been several times 

 alluded to, the internal organs were also preserved somewhat in 

 the same manner. The body had been buried three weeks; yet 

 the mucous coat of the stomach and intestines, except on its mere 

 surface, was very firm, and all the morbid appearances were conse- 

 quently quite distinct. Nay, three weeks after disinterment, ex. 



cept 



