ON  THE  ARSENIC  EATERS  OF  STYRIA. 
441 
the  cause  of  much  mischief."  This  report  is,  I  believe,  men- 
tioned in  Orfila's  Toxicology,  and  one  or  two  other  works,  but  I 
have  not  seen  it  quoted  myself ;  it  is  interesting,  as  being  early 
and  official  evidence  of  arsenic  eating.  Since  I  received  the 
above  information,  a  gentlemen  who  was  studying  at  this  hospi- 
tal, told  me  that,  when  an  assistant  in  Lincolnshire,  he  knew  a 
man  who  began  taking  arsenic  for  some  skin  disease,  and  gradu- 
ally increased  the  dose  to  five  grains  daily.  He  said  he  himself 
supplied  him  with  this  dose  daily  for  a  long  time.  He  wrote  to 
the  medical  man  with  whom  he  was  assistant,  and  I  have  been 
for  a  long  time  promised  full  particulars  of  the  case,  but  beyond 
the  fact  that  he  took  five  grains  of  arsenic,  in  the  form  of  Fow- 
ler's solution,  daily,  for  about  six  years,  and  could  never  leave  it 
off  without  inconvenience,  and  a  return  of  his  old  complaint,  I 
have  as  yet  not  received  them.  I  have  delayed  publishing  these 
facts  for  some  time,  hoping  to  get  information  on  some  other 
points,  for  which  I  have  written  to  my  friends  abroad  ;  but  as 
considerably  delay  takes  place  in  all  communications  with  them, 
I  have  thought  it  better  to  publish  at  once  the  information  I 
have  already  received.  All  the  parties  spoken  of  are  people  on 
whom  the  fullest  reliance  can  be  placed,  and  who  have  taken 
much  pains  to  ascertain  the  foregoing  particulars.  The  ques- 
tions which  still  remain  unanswered  are  these  : — 
1st.  Can  any  official  report  be  obtained  of  the  trials  of  the 
two  people  mentioned  by  Drs.  Kottowitz  and  Lorenz  ? 
2nd.  Do  medical  men  in  these  districts,  when  using  arsenic 
medicinally,  find  the  same  cumulative  effects  as  we  experience 
here  ?  Or  is  there  anything  in  the  air  or  mode  of  living  which 
prevents  it  ? 
3rd.  Can  any  evidence  be  obtained  as  to  how  much  of  the 
arsenic  taken  is  excreted  ?  To  show  wThether  the  body  gradually 
becomes  capable  of  enduring  its  presence,  or  whether  it  acquires 
the  power  of  throwing  it  off.* 
I  have  proposed  to  the  gentleman  who  furnished  me  with  the 
particulars  of  his  own  case,  either  to  make  an  estimate  of  the 
arsenic  contained  in  his  own  urine  and  faeces  during  twenty-four 
*Thefact  of  the  preservation  of  the  bodies  shows  that  some  considerable 
quantity  must  be  retained. 
