The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-03-31
Arsenic Eating.


Speaking of weakness of the gentler
sex, says Talbot, in his observations in
the Cleveland Herald, I net my friend,
the doctor, yesterday, and as he and
stood and surveyed the passing show, a
plump, fair woman passed by, and | said
to him: What charming complexionr'
"Short-lived, though, my dear boy"
quoth he. / expressed surprise, for nv
charner was young. Arsenic! Talbot!
arsenicP' said he calmly. Then it
dawned upon me what he meant. Re-
Stunning, he said: 'Its use is increasing.
Women use it in two forms; the white
powder, that caused poor Jennie Cra-
mer's death, or arsenious acid, as the
drug dealers have it, and Fowler's sOlu-
ton, which the pharmacopia says is a
mixture of arsenic with potash in fluid
form. Either way of taking arsenic pro-
duces the plumpness of face and beauty
of complexion that you noticed in yon
fair lady. Its influence is principally on
the capillary surface of the skin, which
produces the plumpness. In plain En-
glish, water is the influence at work, and
in the end it shows itself. The skin as
sumes Watery transparency, which in
its turn gives way to ghastliness and
whitening of the lips. That is the
awakening from the blissful dream.
Beauty vanishes and the end comes.
Horrible? o, no! l call it retribution.
Cynical? Perhaps! but plain truth gen
orally is, my dear boy, in these days of
ours. Arsenic eating can be stopped at
any time, without an effort, except that
which vanity breads. 1t has none of
the sOphorific effects of opium or NOR
phne. Used as medicine it is an ex-
cellent tonic, one of the best known"
'How long can arsenic be used before
it produces the ghastliness you speak
OPP | asked my mentor.
'SiX weeks unbroken dosing will do
the work well and etfectually," 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 a few years
of the periodical eating settles it. Verify
was it said vanity, thy name is
woman.
1T is an astonishing thing" went on
Esculapius the Cynic, "that you cannot
kill a pig with arsenic. had a friend
who was an enthusiastic chemist. He
had preserved lot of cherries in an ar
senical solution, and having no further
use for them threw them one morning
from his laboratory window. A rambling
porker, on the lookout for edible trifes,
saw them drop, and looking them over
and contrasting them with the usual ex-
panse of tile, brickbat and old tin cans
on which it had been his daily wont to
brouse, eagerly swallowed them. My
friend was alarmed and visions of a bill
for dead and UNBEATABLE pig rose like Il
spectre before his eyes. He chased the
pig away and thought perhaps its death
might not be laid at his door if the pig
was not there when it expired. The Incl
dent warned him, but on the following
morning he was dumbfounded to see the
pig waiting for more of the deadly fruit
Some were prepared, for my friend was
an Investigator, and doled out to his
hogship. He devoured them and grunted
a muffled paen in their praise. Each
morning that pig returned, and each
morning the dose was increased until
my friend was ruined and the pigs CON
fidence in arsenical cherries stronger
than ever"
left my mentor with the fear that he
had not been abiding in the path of truth
that his hOnored parents had prescribed.