Weekly Trinity Journal

At a meeting of the Imperial Royal Society of Physicians at Vienna, Dr. Knapp introduced two arsenic eaters from Styria: the one ate .30 grammes of yellow sulphuret of arsenic, the other .40 grammes of arsenic acid in sight of the assembly.
In his lecture on arsenic eaters, Dr. K. said among other things: "It is difficult to give any particulars as to the increase in the number of arsenic eaters. I have convinced myself that many of them exist in Upper Styria, and also in Middle Styria; very many stable boys, hostlers, wood cutters, and foresters are known to me as arsenic eaters; even the female sex is addicted to the practice. Many began already at seventeen or eighteen years of age, and continued it until very old. Most arsenic eaters keep the matter secret, so it is impossible to give accurate statistics. They all assign as their motive for indulging in the habit that it prevents illness, furthers their wish to become rosy and healthy; that it is a remedy against difficulty of breathing, and assists the digestion of indigestible food.
A poacher in Upper Styria, who made experiments in my presence of eating arsenic, told me he had acquired courage by the habit. The appearance of the arsenic eaters, in all cases known to me, is robust and healthy. I think only robust persons can become accustomed to the practice. Some of them attain a great age. Thus in Zoiring I saw a charcoal burner upward of seventy, still strong and hearty, who, I was told, had taken arsenic for more than twenty years. I heard, too, of a chamois hunter who had long been used to eat arsenic, now carrying the age of eighty one years. I never saw an arsenic cachexy in those given to the habit. It certainly happened that an arsenic eater—a leather dresser's apprentice in Ligist-Augle—intoxicated took too much, thereby poisoning himself severely. According to his own account, he had taken a piece as large as a bean. He entirely recovered, however, and afterward ate arsenic, but more carefully. As far as my observations extend, white arsenic, namely arsenic acid, AsO3 also called flowers of arsenic and the yellow arsenic, AsS3, orpiment are taken, and that in a dry state, alone or on bread. The dose is of course very small at first, and is gradually increased, the largest quantity eaten in my presence by the poacher at Zoiring being 11 grammes. A certain Matthew Schuber, of Ligist, ate before me seven and one half grammes, on the 18th of April, 1873. The intervals too, at which arsenic is taken vary very much—every fortnight, every week, twice or three times a week. But all doubts that have hitherto existed are now removed by the present experiments."