ARSENIC EASTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

ARSENIC EASTERS.

Styria, a duchy having a population o£about a million and a hal| and lying south!; of Gartz, in the mountainous portion 05~ the great German confederation, is note<2 for its arsenic eaters. According to Dr., Norman Kerr, in his 'Inebriety and Nar-<" comania,' arsenic eaters abound in eversf city, village and neighbourhood, and inf thousands of cases every adult in a fam- 1. ily uses it almost the same as Sugar. Heiland tells of a Styrian peasant who con-, tracted the poison eating habit by taking:: one and a half grains, of arsenic on thei j first day,, three on: the second, and five and one half on the third. This man in-' creased the doses so that by the end of. the first year he was regularly easing, twelve grains of the drug thi'ee times a" day without visible.harm. Maclagan men-, ttions the case of a man who daily,' con-,* sumed twenty two and one half grains^ (seven and one half before each meal) o£ the poisonous drug. In his estimation; this was! something truly extraordinary. Heiland's case is, of course, much more wonderful, but Dr. Kerr reckons both as» freaks, and gives it .as'his opinion that, the regular poison takers of Styria do not, average more than five and one half grains , during each twenty four. houra,;f The remarkable part of this German od-, dity is the fact that, nearly everybody in the entire province \is addicted to the habit. They are at once recognised by; .their sallow, waacy looking faces. ».;-•. ~■