The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1883-01-27
How Women Use Arsenic.

One of the strangest phenomena OF
the society in which we live is its taste
for poisons. The day has passed when
the chemists blue bottle inspired awe.
The houdoir is rapidly assuming tho
appearance of dopensary, and the
toilet table is medium for instructing
inqustive house maids in the SC ence OF
toxicology. A few months since the
discovery was made, or rather bruitcd
in Paris, that the practice of taking
morphia by hypodermic injections had
risen to such favor with ladies who
plunged deeply into the excitement OF
the capital, that the jewellers were sell
ing largely curious and novel kind OF
personal adornment, viz. a little phi al
to hold morphia, with injection needle
attached. Indulgence in this poison,
however, entails such greedy revenge
of nature that, generally speaking, even
those women who live for society are
in no great danger of falling victims
to its infatuation.
But it is otherwise with another poi
son which of late years has been steadi-
ly rising in the favor of ladies, and whose
consumption is now enormous No
doubt the doctors are primarily respon-
blDlC 1Ot LillS ldSIlOHdOlC NiNC' lHOy
prescribe arsenic rs tonic II Is UNI
questionably very efiicacious one, and,
when used discreetly, an excellent
blood purifier But no sooner does
many fair patient perceive that it
makes complexion very clear and
white than it has fatal fascination for
her; and as preparation OF the drug
is to be obtained of any chemist she is
Ut .ll 30 m Mt
of her weakness. 1t is in France, how
ever, whore this poison is chiefly in
vogue; and we may be sure that, until
our ideal of beauty greatly changes for
the worse, the habitual arsenic-takers
will remain in very small minority
in this country. For the effects
of the drug are two-fold: it
makes the skin of marble white
ness; but it also rapidly produces q
form of obesity that comes into violent
conflict with our prevailing notions OF
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 am
bonpoint, and have as little admiration
for the fat kline as we have for the lean.
Those who are familiar with French
life know with what ardor French
woman cultivates well-rounded form.
With cunning arrangement OF padding
and putting, the dressmaker may do
good deal 10 produce the much desired
outline; but the result, alter all, is only ar
tistic. On the other hand, the embonpoint
which comes of arsenic is natural, or will
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 devotees across the chan
mel is legion.
No doubt the habit of arsenic-taking,
like other virus that is poisoning society,
originated with those in speaking of
whom the cant of modern poiiteness
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 estimabl0
patrons at Longchamps for the latter to
become feverishly anxious to try the
effects of the "elixir" on themselves.
Neither of the two worlds can hold
any secret from the other. and the
agency employed to produce those
physical results of which we have been
speaking has long ceased to be mys-
terry in Paris Now. whether it be on
the greenswards of Longchamps, the
gildea rooms of the Elysee, or at an
afternoon reception of the Princess
". one does not need to be learned
in medicine to perceive that arsenic has
taken the lead Of morphia, belladonna.
OF any other noxious drug that ever en-
tered into conspiracy with feminine
vanity to make the genuine woman of
mans delightful ideal the ilimsiest OF
distractions, as the favorite poison Of
the ladies of France. London World.
German papers take delight in conf
menting upon the fact that beside the
three German American members in the
present (Forty seventy United States
! ~ g.