POISON EATERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 11, 18 March 1893, Page 257

POISON EATERS.

AN APPETITE FOR ARSENIC. It is not generally known that the strange habit of eating poison prevails very extensively on the Continent, and in recent years the number of persons in Great Britain ad, dieted to this injurious and dangerous practice has greatly increased. The aim of the poison eaters is twofold, one object being to obtain a fresh, healthy appearance, and acquire a certain degree of embonpoint. On this accourt many young ladies make use of the dangerous agent arsenic, that they may make themselves attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex, and it is really astonishing with what favourable results their efforts are attended. The second aim of the poison eaters is to improve their breathing capacities, and render respiration easier. With this object in view, the practice of eating arsenic is almost universal among the peasantry of the mountainous distiicts of Austria, Hungary, and France, and they ascend with ease heights which they couldonly otherwise climb with great distress to the chest.

THE DOSE. The dose of arsenic with which the poison-eaters begin consists, according to the confessions of some of them, of a fiiece the size of a lentil, which in weight would be rather ess than half a grain. To this quantity, which they take fasting several mornings in the week, they confine themselves for a considerable time ; and then gradually, and very carefully, they increase the dose according to the effect produced. It is well to observe that the symptoms of chronic arsenical poison never show themselves in individuals who adapt the dose to their constitution, even although that dose should be considerable. It is not less worthy of remark, however, that if from any cause the perilous indulgence is stopped symptoms of illness are sure to appear, which have the closest resemblance to those pioduced by poisoning from arsenic. These symptoms consist principally in a feeling of general discomfort, attended by a perfect indifference to all surrounding persons and things, great anxiety, and a number of distressing sensations arising from the digestive organs, and for all these symptoms there is but one remedy—a return to the enjoyment of arsenic. THE DOOM. The misfortune, however, is that poisons swallowed for the sake of the agreeable sensations they occasion owe this effect to their action upon the nervous system, and the action must be kept up by a constantly increasing dose till the constitution is irremediably injured. In the case of arsenic, so long as the excitement is undiminished, all is apparently well ; but the point is at length reached when to proceed or to turn back is alike certain death. The moment the dose is diminished or entirely withdrawn symptoms of poison appear, and the victim perishes because he has shrunk from killing himself. An individual deliberately condemning himself to devour this horrible poison on an increasing scale dining his whole life places himself in the certain position that if at any time, through accident, necessity, or other cause, he holds his hand, he must die the most agonising of all deaths.