4A Dr John Davy on Oxide of Arsenic. 
tion, its wholesomeness has never been called in question. 
The one exception has been in the instance of ducks, which, 
according to report, never could be reared there. 
No attempt that I am aware of was made to account for 
this exceptional effect until about two or three years ago, 
when the water was examined by Mr Arthur H. Church, 
and was found by him, it was said, to contain arsenic,—an 
alkaline arseniate, and in a determinate quantity. The first 
notice of this gentleman’s results that I saw was in an 
extract from the Whitehaven Herald, in which it was stated 
that “the arsenical water is habitually used for every pur- 
pose by the inhabitants of the little village of Whitbeck, 
and with beneficial results so apparent that one might be 
justified in paradoxically characterising it as a very whole- 
some poison, the deadly elements in solution being pro- 
ductive of the most sanatory effects.” It is immediately 
added, ‘“‘ It is true ducks will not live if confined to Whit- 
beck; and whilst trout abound in the neighbouring rivulets, 
no fins are ever found in this arseniated stream.” Further, 
it is said, that ““ when the railway was being carried past 
Whitbeck, the first use of the water produced the usual 
marked effects on the throats both of the men and horses 
employed on the works. The soreness of mouth from which 
they first suffered soon however disappeared, and in the’ 
horses gave rise to that sleekness of coat assigned as one of 
the principal effects produced by the administration of 
minute but repeated doses of arsenic.” 
This notice, which I have since found is nearly a travesty 
of Mr Church’s, published in the ‘‘ Chemical News” for 
August 25, 1860, exciting my curiosity, I paid a visit to the 
stream on the 27th August of last year, ascending to one of 
its sources, probably 700 feet above the level of the sea, 
where it issues from the gallery of a forsaken mine, and . 
thence followed it in its descent to the village. In this its 
course, of about a mile, it was joined by other small streams, 
and by one from a lateral valley equal in size to that which 
it meets. The temperature of the water close to the mine- 
gallery was 48° at the time that the open air was 60°; lower 
down, just before entering the village, it was 58°. I then 
collected a portion of water for examination, and had other 
