615 
COCHINEAL COLOURING. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—After having tried many forms for the preparation of Cochineal 
Colouring, all of which I found had some objections to urge against them, I 
tried the following with most perfect success. Perhaps expense may be urged 
against it, but where that is not so much an object, I think it will be found the 
best receipt hitherto published :— 
Best Carmine, S'j- 
Liq. Ammon. Fort.iss. q.s., about £vj. 
Macerate for a few days, and when the carmine is dissolved, gently heat the 
mixture, so as to drive off the excess of ammonia, taking care not to carry it too 
far, so as to precipitate the carmine. Put this into a wine quart bottle, add— 
Sp. Yin. Rect. ~iv. 
Saccli. Alb. Ibiij. 
Then fill up the bottle with warm water, and shake it occasionally, till the 
sugar is dissolved. 
I am, Sir, yours obediently, 
Robert Palmer. 
ON THE ARSENIC-EATERS OF STYRIA. 
BY CRAIG MACLAGAN, M.D., EDINBURGH. 
In the spring of this year, at the conclusion of a short residence in Vienna, I resolved 
to visit Italy, and finding that my route led me through Styria, I thought it might be 
interesting to endeavour, by personal inquiry, to gain some information as to the 
reputed arsenic-eaters of that country; and as my travelling companion Dr. Joseph 
Rutter, of London, was also professionally interested in i he question of their existence, 
we determined to make a short stay at Gratz, the capital of the duchy, and thence to 
make any excursions into the country, which the knowledge I might acquire should 
point out as necessary. 
My object in the present paper is succinctly to narrate what I learned by actual 
observation; but before doing so I ma} r be permitted to glance rapidly at the existing 
condition of our information on the subject. 
Although medico-legal observations on this practice had already been made so early 
as between 1817 and 1820 (Professor Schallgruber, ‘ Medicin-Jahrbuch des Oestreich 
Staates,’ 1822) in Gratz, the first time that any great interest was manifested in Britain 
on the subject seems to have been when a paper by I)r. You Tschudi, which had 
originally been published in one of the Viennese medical journals (‘Wiener Mediciniscbe 
Wochenschrift,’ October 11, 1851), appeared in an English dress, and found its way into 
many of the popular as well as scientific publications of the time, including ‘Chambers’s 
Journal,’ and the late Professor Johnston’s ‘ Chemistry of Common Life.’ 
The embellishments which Yon Tschudi’s narrative received from other writers, as 
well as the apparently incredible nature of the original statement, caused it to become 
a subject of much discussion. The general opinion of scientific men in this country was, 
that the statements of Yon Tschudi were not worthy of belief, and this view of the 
subject was specially maintained by Mr. Kestevcn, of London, in a series of papers which 
appeared in the ‘Association Medical Journal’ for 1856, in which he quotes the opinions 
of the most celebrated toxicologists of the time, in confirmation of his own belief of the 
practice. 
Careful inquiry, however, was set on foot by other scientific men, both British and 
Austrian. Mr. Ileisch, of the Middlesex Hospital, having put himself in communication 
with persons living in the districts where the practice existed, was enabled to quote 
several very interesting cases, which were very thoroughly authenticated (‘Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Journal,’ 1859-60, p. 556), and Dr. Yon Vest, the Landesmedicinalrath for Styria, 
residing in Gratz, having issued a circular to the medical men in his district, asking for 
