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ON POISONING BY ARSENIOUS ACID. 
ART. LXI. — ACADEMY OF MEDICINE OF PARIS. REPORTS 
ON POISONING BY" ARSENIOUS ACID. 
{Extract, ) 
Meeting of February 16th, 1841. M. Caventou, on 
behalf of M. Chevallier and himself, reported — 1. On a medico- 
legal experiment relative to a case of poisoning by arsenious 
acid, made by Mott, Fan, and Berges, before the court of 
Assize of Arriege. 
2. A second report in the name of M. Pelletier and him- 
self, upon an analogous case by MM. Girardin and Morin. 
The conclusions from these reports are conformable to the 
results and experiments of Orfila, on the same subject; the 
reporters suggest the publishment of the papers in the 
bulletin, and propose a vote of thanks to the authors. 
(Adopted.) 
M. Orfila rose, not to oppose these reports, but to thank the 
committee for the attention which they had bestowed upon 
an experiment which went to prove, that in proceeding in the 
mode which he had prescribed, there could not be procured, 
from the viscera of individuals not poisoned by arsenic, any 
trace of that metal, although putrefaction was fully established. 
His assertions on this point had been so positive that he had 
been several times surprised to read and hear repeated that 
he had developed arsenic from bodies in a state of putrefaction. 
He wished also, to call the attention of the Academy to a 
certain number of facts already partly published, and which 
would appear to invalidate many of the results announced to 
the Academy. In fact MM. Flandin and Danger had read 
to the Institute, a memoir of which the principle conclusions 
are: 1. That arsenic does not exist in the human body in its 
natural state. 2. That the earth of cemeteries does not contain 
it — at least that they were not able to detect it in that of 
Mount Parnassus and Pere-Lachaise. 3. That by means of 
