Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-04-04
EATING ARSENIC.
Attaining n Fashionable Complexion Mt
Terrible Expense.-Pigs and Arsenic.

EATING ARSENIC.
| Attaining n Fashionable Compile xion Mt
| Terrible Expense.-Pixs and Arsenic.
Talbot" q writer in the Cleveland
Herald, says: Speaking Of weakness Of
the gentler sex, met my friend, the
doctor, and, as he and | stood and
surveyed the passing show, a plump,
fair woman passed by, and | said to
him: "What charming complexion"
'Short-lived, though, my dear boy"
quoth he. | expressed surprise, for
my charmer was young. Arsenic,
Talbot, arsenic, " said he, calmly. Then
it dawned upon me what he meant.
Resuming he said: ats use is increas-
ing. Women eat it in two forms; the
white powder that caused poor Jennie
| CramerS death, or arSeniouS acid,
as the drug dealers have it,
and Fowler's solution, which the
pharmacopia says is mixture of
arsenic with potash in a fluid form.
Either way of taking arsenic produces
the plumpness of face and beauty of
complexion that you noticed in yon fair
lady. It's influence is principally on
the capillary surface of the skin, which
produces the plumpness. In plain Eng
glish, water is the influence at work,
and in the end it shows itself. The
skin assumes a watery transparency,
which in its turn gives way to ghastli-
ness and whitening of the lips, That
is the awakening from the blissfu
dream Beauty vanishe5 and the end
comes. Horrible? Oh, no! call it
retribution. Cynical? Perhaps. but
plain truth generally is, my dear boy,
in these days of ours. Arsenic eating
can be stopped at any time, without any
effort, except that which vanity breads.
1t has none of the soporifc effects of
opium or morphine. Used as a medi-
cine it is an excellent tonic, one of the
best known"
GLOW long can arsenic be used be-
fore it produces the ghastliness you
speak Of" | asked my mentor.
"SiX weeks unbroken dosing will do
the work well and effectually," answered
he, "but woman is skillful, and using it
a week she pauses and before the effect
of the cessation comes she takes another
interval of arsenic dosing. Thus fate is
held off. The end must come, however,
and it comes all too soon for the arsenic
eaters. Some systems agree with the
drug longer than others, but few years
of the periodical eating settles it.
Verify was it said Vanity, thy name is
woman"
at is an astonishing thing" went on
Esculapius the Cynic, "that you cannot
kill pig with arsenic. bad friend
who was an enthusiastic chemist. He
had preserved lot of cherries in an
arsenical solution, and having no fur
ther use for them threw them one
morning from his laboratory window.
A rambling porker, on the lookout for
edible tritles, saw them drop, and look
ing them over and contrasting them
with the usual eXpanse of tile, brick
bat and old tin cans on which it had
been his daily wont to brouse, eagerly
swallowed them. My friend was
alarmed and visions of bill for the
value of dead and UNBEATABLE pig rose
like specter before his eyes. He chased
the pig away and thought that per-
haps its death might not be laid at his
door if the pig was not there when it
expired. The incident warned him,
but on the following morning he was
dumbfounded to see the pig waiting
for more of the deadly fruit. Some
was prepared, for our friend was an
investigator, and doled out to his hog
ship. He devoured them, and grunted
a muflled paen in their praise. Each
morning that pig returned, and each
morning the dose was increased until
my friend was ruined and the pigs
confidence in arsenical cherries strong.
er than ever"
left my mentor with the fear that
he had not been abiding in the path of
truth that his honored parents had pre-
scribcd.