57 2 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 751 . 
arsenical caustic ; the patient showed symptoms of violent poisoning, and 
died on the sixth day. 1 In another, a lady suffering from some form of 
tumour of the breast applied to an unqualified practitioner, who made 
from fifteen to twenty punctures with a lancet in the swelling, covered a 
piece of bread with an arsenical compound, and applied the bread thus 
prepared to the breast. Twelve hours afterwards symptoms of violent 
gastric irritation commenced ; and vomiting and a sanguinolent diarrhoea 
followed, with death on the fifth day. Arsenic was found in all the 
organs. 2 Such examples might be multiplied. Arsenic has been in 
more than one case introduced criminally into the vagina with a fatal 
result. 3 Fodere,. e.g., has recorded the case of a maid-servant who 
poisoned her mistress by intentionally administering several arsenical 
enemata. 4 Arsenious acid, again, has been respired in the form of vapour. 
One of the best instances of this is recorded by Taylor, and was the sub¬ 
ject of a trial at the \ork Lent Assizes, 1864. The prisoner placed some 
burning pyrites at the doorway of a small room, in which there were 
eight children, including an infant in the cradle. The other children 
were removed speedily, but the infant was exposed to the vapour for an 
hour ; it suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea, and died in twenty-four 
hours. There was slight inflammation of the stomach and intestines, the 
brain and lungs were congested, and the lining membrane of the trachea 
of a bright red colour. Arsenic was detected in the stomach, in the lungs 
and spleen. The pyrites contained arsenic, and the fatal fumes were in 
effect composed of sulphurous and arsenious acids. 
§ 751. Arsenic in Wall-Papers.— It is now an accepted fact that 
arsenical colours on wall-papers cause illness. The symptoms are those 
of chronic poisoning, and present nothing distinctive from the effects 
produced by small doses of arsenic. 
Kirschgasser 5 has described the symptoms in detail of twenty-six 
cases. That arsenic is actually present in patients suffering is often 
susceptible of proof, by examining skilfully and carefully a considerable 
volume (from one to two days’ collection) of the urine ; in most of the 
cases thus. examined arsenic has been discovered. This poisoning 
is produced, sometimes from the dust, at others from diethylarsine, 
(C^Hg^AsH, a gas produced by moulds 6 such as Mucor mucedo, 
1 Mean, Bibliotheque Med., lxxiv. 401, 1821. 
2 Tardieu, op. cit., Obs. xxix. ; Dr Vernois, Ann. d'Hyg. et de Med. Lea.. 1st ser., 
xxx vi. 141, 1846. 
3 Ansiaulx, Clinique Chirurgicale. Mangor ( Acta Societ. Reg. Hafniens., iii. 178) 
gives the case of a man who poisoned his three wives successively with arsenic_ 
the last two by introducing into the vagina a powder composed of flour and arsenic. 
Another similar case is related by Brisken. Mangor made experiments on mares, 
showing that when arsenic is applied to the vagina, death may result from inflammation! 
4 Med. Legale, iv. 5 Vierteljahr. f. gericht. Med., N.F., ix. 96. 
6 Gosio, Archives Itdliennes de Biologie, 1892; R. Abel and P. Buttenberg Zeit. f. 
Hygiene, 1899. 
