280 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CURES 



poison and the occurrence of symptoms was ten horns ; 

 in this case however the action was delayed by much 

 food having been taken previously. The usual interval 

 is from half an hour to an hour. The earliest period of 

 death on record took place two hours after the poison 

 had been swallowed. Deaths have occurred as late as 

 two or three weeks after the poison has been taken. 

 The average period however of the fatal termination 

 is eighteen hours, but more than half the cases terminate 

 within six hours of the time at which the poison was 

 swallowed " (Ref. 3). 



This terse simimary may be augmented by remem- 

 bering that two grains of arsenic is the usually accepted 

 poisonous dose ; that the irritant action is generally first 

 felt in the stomach, causing pain, nausea, and, later, 

 vomiting ; that arsenic takes about twenty-four hours to 

 pass through the body, being lost more quickly by 

 vomiting and purging when taken in fluid than when 

 taken in solid form. It is a tissue poison and acts 

 quickly on the kidneys, i.e., within twenty-four hours, 

 finally causing fatty degeneration, but acts slowly on 

 the peripheral nerves, not causing symptoms of arsenical 

 neuritis until the lapse of ten or fourteen days. Acute 

 poisoning also damages the heart by fatty degenera- 

 tion, causing dilatation and quickened action ; similar 

 degeneration is set up in the liver. Arsenic arrests 

 decomposition, especially when large and repeated doses 

 have been administered at short intervals during life. 



The total amount of arsenic found by analysis in the 

 various organs after death mdicates that a much larger 

 quantity was given during life — e.^., the presence of two 

 grains in the liver may mean that the poison was given 

 in a number of large doses extending over a period of 

 probably not less than three days or a week before death. 

 It would certainly indicate that the terminal poisonous 



