page_title: Arsenic poisoning
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Arsenic poisoning / History
caption_attribution_description: English: November 9, 1889 newspaper advertisement for "Arsenic Complexion Wafers" in The Helena Independent newspaper, Helena, Montana, U.S.
context_page_description: Arsenic poisoning is a medical condition that occurs due to elevated levels of arsenic in the body. If arsenic poisoning occurs over a brief period of time, symptoms may include vomiting, abdominal pain, encephalopathy, and watery diarrhea that contains blood. Long-term exposure can result in thickening of the skin, darker skin, abdominal pain, diarrhea, heart disease, numbness, and cancer.
  The most common reason for long-term exposure is contaminated drinking water. Groundwater most often becomes contaminated naturally; however, contamination may also occur from mining or agriculture. It may also be found in the soil and air. Recommended levels in water are less than 10–50 µg/L. Other routes of exposure include toxic waste sites and traditional medicines. Most cases of poisoning are accidental. Arsenic acts by changing the functioning of around 200 enzymes. Diagnosis is by testing the urine, blood, or hair.
  Prevention is by using water that does not contain high levels of arsenic. This may be achieved by the use of special filters or using rainwater. There is not good evidence to support specific treatments for long-term poisoning.
context_section_description: Beginning in about 3000 BC arsenic was mined and added to copper in the alloying of bronze, but the adverse health effects of working with arsenic led to it being abandoned when a viable alternative, tin, was discovered.
  In addition to its presence as a poison, for centuries arsenic was used medicinally. It has been used for over 2,400 years as a part of traditional Chinese medicine. In the western world, arsenic compounds, such as salvarsan,  were used extensively to treat syphilis before penicillin was introduced. It was eventually replaced as a therapeutic agent by sulfa drugs and then by other antibiotics. Arsenic was also an ingredient in many tonics (or "patent medicines").
  In addition, during the Elizabethan era, some women used a mixture of vinegar, chalk, and arsenic applied topically to whiten their skin. This use of arsenic was intended to prevent aging and creasing of the skin, but some arsenic was inevitably absorbed into the blood stream.
  During the Victorian era (late 19th century) in the United States, U.S. newspapers advertised "arsenic complexion wafers" that promised to remove facial blemishes such as moles and pimples.
  Some pigments, most notably the popular Emerald Green (known also under several other names), were based on arsenic compounds. Overexposure to these pigments was a frequent cause of accidental poisoning of artists and craftsmen.
  Arsenic became a favored method for murder of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly among ruling classes in Italy allegedly. Because the symptoms are similar to those of cholera, which was common at the time, arsenic poisoning often went undetected.  By the 19th century, it had acquired the nickname "inheritance powder," perhaps because impatient heirs were known or suspected to use it to ensure or accelerate their inheritances. It was also a common murder technique in the 19th century in domestic violence situations, such as the case of Rebecca Copin, who attempted to poison her husband by "putting arsenic in his coffee".
  In post-WW1 Hungary, arsenic extracted by boiling fly paper was used in an estimated 300 murders by the Angel Makers of Nagyrév.
  In imperial China, arsenic trioxide and sulfides were used in murder, as well as for capital punishment for members of the royal family or aristocracy.  Forensic studies have determined that the Guangxu Emperor (d. 1908) was murdered by arsenic, most likely ordered by the Empress Dowager Cixi or Generalissimo Yuan Shikai.  Likewise, in ancient Korea, and particularly in Joseon Dynasty, arsenic-sulfur compounds have been used as a major ingredient of sayak (사약; 賜藥), which was a poison cocktail used in capital punishment of high-profile political figures and members of the royal family.  Due to social and political prominence of the condemned, many of these events were well-documented, often in the Annals of Joseon Dynasty; they are sometimes portrayed in historical television miniseries because of their dramatic nature.
caption: An 1889 newspaper advertisement for "arsenic complexion wafers".[126] Arsenic was known to be poisonous during the Victorian era.[127]
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