The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-01-27
How Women Use Arsenic.

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/ One, OF the strangest, phenomena OF
/ the society in which we live is its taste
/ for poisons. The day has passed when
I The chemists blue bottle inspired awe.
7 The boud0ir~ is rapidly assuming the
appeaGance of a, dispensary... and the
i-toilet-table is a medium for instruct Dg
I inquisitve house maids in the sc ence of
tox ooiogy. . A few months since the
'di coyery, was made, or rather bru ted
in Paris, that the practice of taking
1morPhia by hypodermc injections had
| risen to such favor with ladies who
| plunged deeply into the excitement of
i the capital, thattke jewellers were sell
/ ing largely q curious and novel kind of
| personal adornment viz. a tile phi al
to hold lmprphia, with injection needle
attached, Indulgence in this poison,
however, entails such q greedy revenge
l,of nature that, generally speaking. even
| those women who live for society are
in no great danger of falling victims
| to its nfattiat on. l5 a' it.ti {'H .t.
| BUTT is otherwise with another poi
son which of late years has been steadi-
~ rising in the favor, OF, ladies, and whose
consumption is now enormous. No
| doubt the doctors are primar.l y respon-
sible for this fashionable vice. They
prescribe arsenic as a tonic. 1t is I'M
| questionably q very efficacious one, and
| when used discreetly, an excellent
blood purifier. But no sooner does
many q fair patient perceive that it
makes a complexion very clear and
white than it has fatal fascination for
her; and as a preparation OF the drug
is TO be. obtained of any chemist she is
not obliged to make q doctor conidant
of her weakness. IT is in France, how
ever, where this poison is chiefly In
! vogue; and we may be sure that, until
our ideal of beauty grea ly changes for
the worse, the habitual arsenic-takers
will remain in a very small minority
of the drug lareD dtwolfola:: it
makes the skin of marble white
ness; but it also rapidly produces a
conflict with orr prevailing notions of
I feminine charms. Frenchmen and
Moors agree in thinking that the more
| closely the female form resembles that
of the quail the more divine it is. We
stand aloof from the worshipers, of en-
\ bonpoint, and have as little admiration
2 for the fat kline as we have for the lean.
| Those who,arei familiar with French
Ii e know with what ardor a French
woman cultiyates . well,rounded form.
With cunning arrangement of padding
y and putting, the dreSsmaker may do
good deal 10 produce, the much desired
| outline; but the result, ter all, is only ar
tistie. Onthe other hand the embonpont
| whichcomes of arsenic is natural, orwill
easily pass as such. If this drug is not
| the elixir of perpetual youth. it is at all
events, the constructive elixir of beauty
of the contemporary French type. and
the name of its deyotees across the chan
| mel is legion. '''''' '''"
No doubt The habit of arsenic-taking,
| like other virus that is poison ng society,
originated with those jim speak NJ OF
whom the cant of modern polteness
| has borrowed word from the Greeks;
| "Hetaire'' and arsenic seem to have
natural affinity In Paris arsenic only
needed the patronage of the ladies who
cause such heart burnings to estimable
| patrons at Longchamps for the latter to
become feverfshly anxious to try the
effects of the elixir on themselves.
Neither of the two words can hold
any secret from the other. and the
agency employed to liproduee those
physical results Of, which we have been
speaking has long ceased to be a mys-
terry in Paris. Now whether it be on
the greenswaftisl of Longchanps. the
gilded rooms of othe ,Elysee, or at an
afternoon reception of the, Princess
Ar, one, does not need,to be learned
in medicine to perceive that arsenic has
| taken the lead iIf tttht-nhia bhef1 adnnna
or any other noxious drug that ever en-
tered Into conspiracy. With femin ne
| vanity to make the genuine woman of
mans delightful ideal the finsiest of
distractions, as the favorito poison of
the ladies of France, 5->LondON Hor(d.
| IJJf0 N7T--TT-7' ~-7--T-ngo.sa s
Herman papers take delightin com
menting upon the TACT that beside the
! three German American members in the
| present (Forty seventy United States