296 
EFFECTS OF ARSENIC. 
several medico-legal cases which have occurred since the 
universal existence of this impurity has been made known, 
the ordinary copper, in gauze and foil, has been employed by 
gentlemen who, at the time, believed they were using pure 
copper; they have relied for purity only on the negative 
mode of testing the metal suggested by Reinsch. A chemist 
who does this must always incur some risk, and the result 
may be, that a jury will be induced to reject his evidence, 
simply because he has employed an article actually contain¬ 
ing the poison for which he was seeking. Whatever expla¬ 
nation he may give as to the non-solution of the copper, and the 
proportion of arsenic found being much greater than any 
arsenic contained in the copper which he used could possibly 
account for, it may always be suggested that he actually put 
the arsenic into the liquid. This equally applies to the use 
of the impure metal for the detection of antimony, as 
antimony is not an uncommon impurity in copper. To 
meet this objection, it will therefore be absolutely neces¬ 
sary, in future, to seek for copper free from either arsenic or 
antimony. 
(To be continued .) 
EFFECTS OF ARSENIC. 
Schmidt and Sturzwag have made experiments on birds 
and animals, from which they draw the conclusion that arse- 
nious acid introduced into the organism occasions a con¬ 
siderable diminution in the secretion of matter, which ex¬ 
plains a fact, they say, well known to horse-dealers—that 
horses fatten after the administration of small doses of arse- 
nious acid. That quantity of fat and of albumen, which 
corresponds to the depression in the secretion of carbonic 
acid and urea, remains in the body ; and if the animal receive 
adequate nourishment, its weight increases. 
