6 oO POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 772 . 
(see p. 573), 1 as well as the possible entrance of arsenic into the body 
after death from various sources, such as arsenical earth, etc. 2 
§ 772. Imbibition of Arsenic after Death. —The arguments which 
are likely to be used in favour of a corpse having become arsenical may 
be gathered from a case related by Sonnenschein :—Certain bodies were 
exhumed in two churchyards ; the evidence went to show that they had 
been poisoned by arsenic, and this substance was actually found in the 
bodies, while at the same time it was discovered to exist also in traces in 
the earth of the churchyard. The theory for the defence was that, 
although the arsenic in the earth was in an insoluble state, yet it 
might.combine with lime as an arsenite of lime; this arsenite would 
become soluble by the action of carbonic acid set free by vegetation, and 
filter down to the corpse. Sonnenschein suspended a quantity of this 
earth in water, and passed C0 2 through it for twelve hours ; on filtering, 
the liquid gave no evidence of arsenic. A similar result was obtained 
when an artificial mixture of 1 grm. of arsenious acid and 1 pound of 
earth was submitted to the same process. 
The fact would appear to stand thus : oxide of iron in ordinary earth 
letains arsenic, and requires treatment with a concentrated acid to dis¬ 
solve it. It therefore follows that, if a defence of arsenical earth is 
likely to be set up, and the analyst finds that by mere extraction of the 
tissues by water he can detect arsenic, the defence is in all probability 
unsound. The expert should, of course, deal with this question on its 
merits, and without prejudice. According to Eulenberg, 3 in arsenical 
earth if, after having been crushed and washed, it lies for some time 
exposed to the disintegrating action of the air—soluble arsenical salts are 
formed, which may find their way into brooks and supplies of drinking- 
water. We may infer that it is hardly probable (except under very 
peculiar circumstances) for a corpse to be contaminated internally with 
an estimable quantity of arsenic from the traces of arsenic met with in 
a few churchyards. 
It occasionally happens that an exhumation is ordered a very long 
To solve this question, it has been at times considered necessary to analyse 
an extraordinary number of things. In the “affaire Danval” {Joam. $ Hygiene, 
2 e ser., No. 108, July 1878), more than sixty different articles, comprising drugs, 
drinks, perfumes, bed-curtains, wall-paper, and other matters, were submitted to the 
experts. 
The following important case is related by Sonnenschein :— 
Nicholas Nobel and his wife, Jerome, were buried two metres from each other 
in the churchyard at Spinal, the earth of which notoriously contained arsenic. A 
suspicion of poisoning arose. The bodies were exhumed, and arsenic was found in 
t u stomach and intestines of Nobel, but not the slightest trace in the corpse of 
the wife. The remains of the bodies were reinterred, and after six months, on a 
fresh suspicion of poisoning arising, again exhumed. The corpse of the woman had 
been put naked in the moist earth during a heavy shower, but this time also no 
arsenic was detected in it. 
3 Gewerbe Hygiene, p. 284. 
