ARSENIC IN THE HUMAN BODY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 25, 24 October 1921, Page 5

ARSENIC IN THE HUMAN BODY

ECHO OF A FAMOUS TRIAL. On January 24 of this year a report was made to tho Academy of Science in which it was stated that no. notice should be taken when very small quantities of arsenic were found in a body, says a Reuter message from Paris. It is on the strength of this report that a certain Mj. Danval, who was condemned to penal servitude for life 43 years ago, is appealing for a reversal of. the judgment and the establishment of his innocence.

M. Danval was a chemist of the Rue Maubeuge, and was accused of having poisoned his wife with arsenic, the trial being one of the causes celebres of the early days of the Third Republic. The somewhat mysterious death of Madame Danval and the result of tho autopsy, which showed a minute quantity of arsenic in the body, were sufficient in tho eyes of the Court to prove tho guilt of her husband, and ho was accordingly given a life sentence.

At the beginning of this century three leading,French chemists, who had been studying the case, expressed their belief that the sentence delivered in 1878 had been pronounced on insufficient evidence. The discovery that there is always a very minute quantity of arse.nic in the human body corroborated their contention, and M. Danval was reprieved, although the Supremo Court rejected his appeal to have his name cleared. He has now renewed his-appeal, pointing out that the evidence given at the trial showed that the total quantity of arsenic found in the body of; his wife was less than a milligram, whereas it is now admitted that a milligram may very well normally be present. He claims that the Court should reconsider tho case from the standpoint of scientific knowledge in 1921. The famous chemist, Raspail, is quoted by the French Press in connection with tho present case as having declared, when giving evidence at a poison trial, that ho could discover arsenic in any animal or vegetable product, even in the legs of tho judge’s chair. This was as long ago as the Second Empire. The harmlessness of small quantities of arsenic is further illustrated by the declaration in one paper that a single glass of mineral water from the spa of La Bourbonle, which is recognised by doctors as of considerable medicinal value, contains more than a milligram of arsenic.