ARSENIC. 
§ 748.] 
nervous symptoms are more marked and constant. 1 There are vomiting, 
purging, and often convulsions and paralysis before death. It has been 
noticed that the muscles after death are in a state of great contraction. 
The slow poisoning of a dog, according to Lolliot, 2 produced an erythe¬ 
matous eruption in the vicinity of the joints, ears, and other parts of the 
body ; there were conjunctivitis, increased lachrymal secretion, and 
photophobia ; the hair fell off. 
§ 748. Effects of Arsenious Acid on Man. —The symptoms produced 
by arsenious acid vary according to the form of the poison—whether 
solid, vaporous, or soluble,—according to the condition of bodily health 
of the person taking it, and according to the manner in which it is intro¬ 
duced into the animal economy, while they are also in no small degree 
modified by individual peculiarities of organisation and by habit, as, for 
instance, in the arsenic-eaters. 
Arsenic-Eaters. —In all European countries grooms and horse-dealers 
are acquainted with the fact that a little arsenic given daily in the corn 
improves the coat, increases, probably, the assimilation of the food, and 
renders the horse plump and fat. On the Continent grooms have been 
known to put a piece of arsenic, the size of a pea, in a little oatmeal, make 
it into a ball, tie it up in a linen rag, and attach it to the bit; the saliva 
dissolves, little by little, the poison, while both the gentle irritation 
and physiological action excite a certain amount of salivation, and the 
white foam at the mouth, and the champing of the horse, are thought 
vastly to improve the appearance. Shot, which contains a small quantity 
of arsenic, has been used for the same purpose, and from half a pound 
to a pound of small shot has been given to horses. When a horse has 
been for a long time dosed with arsenic, it seems necessary to continue 
the practice ; if this is not done, the animal rapidly loses his condition. 
The explanation probably is, that the arsenic stimulates the various cells 
and glands of the intestinal tract to a superaction, the natural termina¬ 
tion of which is an enfeeblement of their secreting power—this especially 
in the absence of the stimulus. Turning from equine involuntary arsenic- 
eaters, we find the strange custom of arsenic-eating voluntarily pursued by 
the races of Lower Austria and Styria, especially by those dwelling on the 
mountains separating Styria from Hungary. In India also (and especially 
in the Punjaub) the same practice prevails, and here it is often taken as 
an aphrodisiac. The mountaineers imagine that it increases the respira¬ 
tory power, nor is there wanting some evidence to show that this is 
actually the fact, and medicinal doses of arsenic have been in use for 
some time in cases of asthma and other diseases of the chest. The 
arsenic-eaters begin with a very small dose, which is continued for several 
weeks or months, until the system gets accustomed to it. The amount 
1 Archiv f. exper. Path. u. Pharmakol., Leipzig, 1882. 
2 Etude physiol. d'Arsene, These, Paris, 1868. 
