him his sin, the arsenic-eater always
conceals as much as possible the employment of these dangerous means.
Generally speaking, it is only the confessional or the death-bed that
raises the vail from the terrible secret.

The second object the poison-eaters have in view is to make them, as they
express it, "better winded!"--that is, to make their respiration easier
when ascending the mountains. Whenever they have far to go and to mount a
considerable height, they take a minute morsel of arsenic and allow it
gradually to dissolve. The effect is surprising; and they ascend with ease
heights which otherwise they could climb only with distress to the chest.

The dose of arsenic with which the poison-eaters begin, consists,
according to the confession of some of them, of a piece the size of a
lentil, which in weight would be rather less 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. The
peasant R----, living in the parish of A----g, a strong, hale man of upward of
sixty, takes at present at every dose a piece of about the weight of four
grains. For more than forty years he has practiced this habit, which he
inherited from his father, and which he in his turn will bequeath to his
children.

It is well to observe, that neither in these nor in other poison-eaters is
there the least trace of an arsenic cachexy discernible; that the symptoms
of a chronic arsenical poisoning 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 when, either
from inability to obtain the acid, or from any other cause, the perilous
indulgence is stopped, symptoms of illness are sure to appear, which have
the closest resemblance to those produced 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
personal anxiety, and various distressing sensations arising from the
digestive organs, want of appetite, a constant feeling of the stomach
being overloaded at early morning, an unusual degree of salivation, a
burning from the pylorus to the throat, a cramp-like movement in the
pharynx, pains in the stomach, and especially diffic