THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
\0L. XXXIII. TTTT v l Q£n Fourth Series. 
No. 391. JUL.X, I»bU. No. 67. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON THE USE OF ARSENIC. 
Such are the effects of habit, that some of the most active 
and destructive mineral substances, from long-continued 
use, have ceased to act perniciously on the system; nay, 
even, after a time, a want of them has been experienced. 
Markedly do we see this exemplified in the custom of the 
peasants of Styria, the Tyrol, and the Salzhammergut— 
principally the huntsmen and woodcutters of these places— 
who eat arsenic to improve, as they say, their wind, and pre¬ 
vent fatigue. 
Mr. C. Heisch, in a paper on the subject, in the Pharma - 
ceutical Journal , gives some very interesting illustrative cases. 
He states that— 
“The arsenic is taken pure,in some warm liquid, as coffee, 
fasting, beginning with a bit the size of a piff s head, and 
increasing to that of a pea. The complexion and general 
appearance are much improved, and the parties using it 
seldom look so old as they really are, but he has never heard 
of any case in which it was used to improve personal beauty, 
though he cannot say that it never is so used. The first dose 
is always followed by slight symptoms of poisoning, such 
as burning pain in the stomach and sickness, but not very 
severe. 
“ Once begun, it can only be left off by very gradually 
diminishing the daily dose, as a sudden cessation causes 
sickness, burning pains in the stomach, and other symptoms 
of poisoning, very speedily followed by death. 
“As a rule, arsenic eaters are very long lived, and are 
peculiarly exempt from infectious diseases, fevers, &c., but 
xxxiii. 46 
