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upon cases which they themselves have observed. Professor 
Roscoe proceeded to bring forward, in the first place, evidence 
bearing upon the question, — Is or is not arsenious acid, or 
arsenic in any other form, well known to, and distributed 
amongst the people of Styria? He said that he had received 
6 grms. of a white substance forwarded by Professor Gottlieb, 
in Gratz, accompanied by a certificate from the district judge 
of Knittelfeld, in Styria, stating that this substance was 
brought to him by a peasant woman who told him that she 
had seen her farm-labourer eating it, and that she gave it up 
to justice to put a stop to so evil a practice. An accu- 
rate chemical analysis showed that the substance was pure 
arsenious acid. Extracts from many of the reports of the 
medical men were then read, all stating that arsenious acid, „ 
called “Hidrach” by the Styrian peasants, is well known and 
widely distributed in that country. The second question 
to which Mr. Roscoe sought to obtain an answer was, whether 
arsenic is or is not regularly taken by persons in Styria 
in quantities usually supposed to produce immediate death ? 
The most narrowly examined, and therefore the most interest- 
ing case of arsenic eating is one recorded by Dr. Schafer. 
In presence of Dr. Knappe, of Oberzehring, a man thirty 
years of age and in robust health, eat, on the 22nd February, 
1860, a piece of arsenious acid weighing grains ; and, on 
the 23rd, another piece weighing 5^ grains. His urine was 
carefully examined and shown to contain arsenic ; on the 
24th he went away in his usual health. He informed Dr. 
Knappe that he was in the habit of taking the above quanti- 
ties three or four times each week. A number of other cases, 
witnessed by the medical men themselves, of persons eating 
