River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-11-21
THE ARSENIC HABIT.
Present Beauty at the Expense of
Future Ugliness.
"She is one of the arsenic-caters.

Future Ugliness.
"She is one of the arsenic-eaters.r
Zone of our patients7"
mo. / never saw her before. But her
vice and folly are written on her face so
plainly that he who runs may read"
why does she eat arscnicl"
"To make her pretty, as she fendly i'm
AGNES. And it does seemingly do so
temporarily. | will tell you the
signs by which you may know
arsenic-eaters, and you will be astonished
a. the number who are addicted to the
vice. When you see woman with
swollen skin and puffy eyelios, plump
and with milky whiteness of complex
case. They think they are plump, but i
is fictitious plumpness. Instead of good
adipose tissue filling out the skin there
is only watery secretion. They have
brought about dropsical condition of
the skin. And the first most prominent
place in which it becomes apparent is in
the eyelids, first the lower, then the up
per. Examine the skin, and you will see
that the pores seem enlarged and the skin
between them swollen and Of an unnatural
whiteness. And this is not confined TO the
face alone, you under ,tand. / speak of
the face simply because that you can Sc
And when you look for the Transparent
white color on their faces, don't be de
ceived by delicate tInge Of red. II the
brow and nose have that corpsey white,
the red on the cheeks is paint. And ne
woman who uses arsenic can do without
paint"
Are there many arsenic-eaters in New
York.'
"a very great many" tbs aged physi-
clan replied. "They are OF two classes,
actresses and the ladies OF fashionable
society After arsenic has been taken for
long time,n the doctor continued, lit is
demanded by the system. II NOT only
affects the skin, but It lessons the excre-
ton of carbonic acid and urea checking
the retrograde metamofphosis stimulates
the cerebral functions, induee sense of
well-being, and in some subjects causes
decided mental exhilaration. Further
more, cessation of its use permits the wa
ter distended skin to collapse, and then
wrinkles and yellowness follow instead of
plumpuess and transparency. What
woman could you expect TO accept that
change when nothing more than her
sanity and life was in danger: 1t is also
said that the sudden stopplgc OF the
habit will produce all the symptoms of
arsenical poisoning, and even result ia
tally"
A leading physician says at is true
that many women, especially profession
ais, become arsenicophagi through physi-
clans prescriptions given for the cure of
cutaneous disorders induced by the pois.
on of lotions and washes for the face; but
assure you, OF my own positive knowl.
edge, that sn infinitely greater number OF
women of the stage employ this poison
to heighten their charms. / can tell an
arsenic.eat at sight unerringly. An
Indian painted for the war path is not a
mole conspicuous object to q physician
eye than woman who habituaily uses
arsenic. The pulled, watery skin is I'm
mistakable. Fowler's solution, which is
very common form in which arsenic is
taken, is the arsenite Of potassa. Each
fluid dram contains halt-grain of ARISEN
ious scid--each drop, say the liz OF a
grain-and when il is administered
incidentally the dose is three to five drops
three times a day. Some patients and
others accustomed to it Can take, how
ever, forty. five drops per diem. Dono-
vans solution is the iodine of arsenic and
mercury, and is much weaker, only about
one third as strong, if remember Alright.
De Valangin's solution is the {, chloride
of arsenic, and is only three eighths
as strong as Fowler's solution. The
weakest preparation of al! is Pearson g
solution, the arseniate OF soda, which is
generally used externally only.
II esteem arsenic as a most yalua b. @
remedial agent, but it must be used with
care, and beyond doubt it is an exceed
ingly dangerous thing to addict ones
self to. But what can you say or do 10
prevent its use by women, creatures who
use belladonna and atropin and morphine,
and every other des dly drug they imagine
can be made to serve to heighten their
PHYSICAL destinations or give them a
temporary semblance of vivacityf You
tell them, 1T will give you loathsome and
almost ineurable cuttaneous diseases,
your scalp will become scurfy, your hair
will fall out. you will become pulled
up and'dropsical of;form, and they simp-
ly reply, with sslf-satisied smirk at
the mirror, while poision still gives them
fictitious beauty, 'Ah, well, We will stop
it before we come to that 1t is not an
easy thing to leave of. The arsenic hab-
it is almost as (ifiicult to put away as the
opium habit. Its victims do not care to
stop it. / could tell you of one bright
little lady who only few years ago was
most charming soubrvtte on our New
York stage. She bad pretty face, a
beautiful soprano voice, and vivaoity
that fairly electrified her audience. But
she was very thin. She was SO thin
that TO conceal her meagaeness in the
days of fitting hoops she used to wear
her pads all the time, even in summer.
She took TO using arsenic. She is now
too big to dance; her voice is no longer
clear, but muffied, as though by fat in
her throat. She has brought about a
physical condition that has crowded her
out of her line OF business, and threatens
soon to retire her altogether from the
stage, and yet she dare not leave off the
use of the drug that has wrought the
change in her. And she will keep on
getting stouter and stouter, or rather
more and more dropsical, until it kills
her, probably, if she cannot renounce the
habit.
1T is true that woman can get arsenic
at almost any drug store with very little
question. Ii is sufficient for Mrs. A. to
know that MrT. B. gets an arsenical solu-
ton from particular drug store, and go
ing there, to say, Put me up an ounce of
the same arsenica! solution that you
furnish Mrs. B. Ninety-nine chances to
one she gets it, without prescription and
without difficulty 1t would aston ish
you were to tell you Of the number of
fashionable women who, to my certain
knowledge, GO habitually to leading drug
stores, stop their carriages at the door,
enter, and get their ounce or two of
Fowlers solution just as readily as you
could procure glass of soda-water in the
same places. ~. Y. Sun.