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1 Introduction
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From page 1... ... Anxiety about arsenic is not difficult to comprehend, inasmuch as arsenic compounds were the preferred homicidal and suicidal agents during the Middle Ages and arsenicals have been regarded largely in terms of their poisonous characteristics in the nonscientific literature. For example, an almost clinical description of acute arsenic poisoning appears in the novel Madame Bova~y.255 Flaubert's extensive account 1 Read the entire page →
From page 2... ... An editorial concerning this controversial hypothesis577 set on a large measure of debate ~05 ~32 337 370 666 667 s65 The original hypothesizers later analyzed ad ditional hair samples attributed to Napoleon and found a distribution of arsenic along the length of the hair shaft that indicated a periodicity of exposure that coincided relatively well with the course of his disease.260 744 However, the evidence of chronic arsenic poisoning of the Emperor was described as "unsatisfactory, irritating, and tortuous."~04 Another viewpoint was that Napoleon may indeed have received arsenic, but "only in an honest endeavour to help him."836 The possibility that arsenic compounds were prescribed for Napoleon reveals another side of arsenic- its widespread use in eighteenthand nineteenth-century medicine as a tonic, or "alterative." At about the same time that Flaubert was writing Madame Bovary, there were a half-dozen "official" arsenicals listed in the U.S. Dispensatory.870 The prevailing professional opinion at that time concerning the medicinal use of arsenic was summarized as follows :29 "Arsenic is a safe medicine; none of the respondents having found it permanently detrimental. Read the entire page →
From page 3... ... The nineteenth-century medical establishment, however, especially in the English-speaking world, remained highly skeptical of the phenomenon: "Upon the whole, it is not improbable that the accounts received of the habitual use of arsenic by the peasants of Styria are either untrue or greatly exaggerated."870 Maclagan508 later claimed that two habitual arsenic-eaters took their dose in the presence of a scientific meeting on the Continent, thereby providing "public testimony to the accuracy of the observations previously made." Unfortunately, this is one aspect of the biochemistry of arsenic that will probably never be totally resolved. Although the earlier medicinal uses and criminal abuses of arsenicals provide a helpful background of information about these compounds, the primary purpose of this report is not to determine the human hazards of such large direct exposures. Read the entire page →

From page 1...

... Anxiety about arsenic is not difficult to comprehend, inasmuch as arsenic compounds were the preferred homicidal and suicidal agents during the Middle Ages and arsenicals have been regarded largely in terms of their poisonous characteristics in the nonscientific literature. For example, an almost clinical description of acute arsenic poisoning appears in the novel Madame Bova~y.255 Flaubert's extensive account 1

Read the entire page →

From page 2...

... An editorial concerning this controversial hypothesis577 set on a large measure of debate ~05 ~32 337 370 666 667 s65 The original hypothesizers later analyzed ad ditional hair samples attributed to Napoleon and found a distribution of arsenic along the length of the hair shaft that indicated a periodicity of exposure that coincided relatively well with the course of his disease.260 744 However, the evidence of chronic arsenic poisoning of the Emperor was described as "unsatisfactory, irritating, and tortuous."~04 Another viewpoint was that Napoleon may indeed have received arsenic, but "only in an honest endeavour to help him."836 The possibility that arsenic compounds were prescribed for Napoleon reveals another side of arsenic- its widespread use in eighteenthand nineteenth-century medicine as a tonic, or "alterative." At about the same time that Flaubert was writing Madame Bovary, there were a half-dozen "official" arsenicals listed in the U.S. Dispensatory.870 The prevailing professional opinion at that time concerning the medicinal use of arsenic was summarized as follows :29 "Arsenic is a safe medicine; none of the respondents having found it permanently detrimental.

Read the entire page →

From page 3...

... The nineteenth-century medical establishment, however, especially in the English-speaking world, remained highly skeptical of the phenomenon: "Upon the whole, it is not improbable that the accounts received of the habitual use of arsenic by the peasants of Styria are either untrue or greatly exaggerated."870 Maclagan508 later claimed that two habitual arsenic-eaters took their dose in the presence of a scientific meeting on the Continent, thereby providing "public testimony to the accuracy of the observations previously made." Unfortunately, this is one aspect of the biochemistry of arsenic that will probably never be totally resolved. Although the earlier medicinal uses and criminal abuses of arsenicals provide a helpful background of information about these compounds, the primary purpose of this report is not to determine the human hazards of such large direct exposures.

Read the entire page →

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1 Introduction Pages 1-3

1 Introduction
Pages 1-3