§ 750.] 
ARSENIC. 
571 
1 . 
2 . 
Per cent. 
Per cent. 
Arsenious acid 
38-5 
38-3 
Starch (potato) 
54-8 
55-4 
Magnesia, etc. .... 
6-7 
6-3 1 
Although the children were poisoned by absorption through the skin 
(unless it is allowed that some may have found its way in the form of 
arsenical dust into the throat, or, what is still more probable, that the 
infants may from time to time have seized the puff-ball and sucked it), 
the large quantity of -421 grm. (6-5 grains) of arsenious acid was 
separated in the one case, and -194 grm. (3 grains) in the other. In 
these cases arose the question which is sure to recur in legal inquiries into 
poisoning by absorption, viz. whether the poison lying on the surface 
and folds of the skin could not have been mixed during the post-mortem 
examination with the organs of the body. In these particular cases 
special care appears to have been taken, and the answer was satisfactory. 
It is not amiss, however, to call attention to the extreme precaution 
which such instances necessitate. 
A woman, aged 51, had used a solution of arsenious acid to cure 
the itch ; erysipelas of the body, however, followed, and she died after 
a long illness—one of the symptoms noted being trembling and paresis 
of the iimbs. 2 In a case recorded by Desgranges, 3 a young chamber¬ 
maid had applied to the unwounded scalp an arsenical ointment for the 
purpose of destroying vermin. She also suffered from a severe erysipelas, 
and the hair fell off. Quacks have frequently applied various arsenical 
pastes to ulcers and cancerous breasts with a fatal result. Instances of 
this abound : in one, a charlatan applied to a chronic ulcer of the leg an 
1 Two recipes were handed in at the coroner’s inquest which pretty fairly represent 
the composition of ordinary commercial violet powder :— 
First Quality, sold at Is. per gross. 
Starch powder ....... 28 lbs. 
Magnesia . . . . . . . 1A lb. 
Orris-root. . . . . . . 1 lb. 
Violet perfume. . . . . . . 1 oz. 
Essence of roses ...... 5 drops. 
Second Quality, sold at 65 . per gross. 
Terra alba (sulphate of lime) - . . . .14 lbs. 
Potato Starch . . . . . . .21 lbs. 
Magnesia ........ 3 lbs. 
Orris-root . . . . . . 1A lb. 
Violet perfume . . . . . . 1| oz. 
Essence of roses ...... 5 drops. 
2 Belloc, Med. Leg., iv. 124. 
3 Becueil de la Soc. de Med. de Paris, vi. 22, An. vii. ; also Tardieu, Etude 
Med. Legale sur VEmpoisonnement, Obs. xxvii. p. 457. 
