FEMALE TASTE FOR POISONS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1087, 23 February 1883, Page 4

FEMALE TASTE FOR POISONS.

One of the strangest phenomena of thk society in which wo live j- its tastes for poisons. Not to ape&k i.f the over, growingdeuimtid for tub icon and idc hoi there is scarcely a noxious drug iu the Pharmacopoeia that bus nor.been into the service of our artificial existence. The day has pass, d when the chemist’s blue bottle inspired awe A foison now becomes fashion like! a .ouis Qainze hoot, a Pompadour glove, or along neglected flower. The boudoir is rapidly assunrng the appearance of a dispensary, and the toilet-table is a medium for instructing inquisitive .housemaids in the science of toxicology. A few months since, thedi-covery was ■made, or tather bruited in Pans, that the p: notice of taking morphia by hypodermic injections had risen to such favour with the ladies who plunged d eply into the excitement of the capital, that the jewellers were selling largely a curious and novel kind of personal ornament, ' iz, a little phial to hold morphia, wih i jeeting needle attached. As we have had startling examples of so culled morphia-mania in our own country, there is no reason to believe that these surprising accounts we have read from time to time of Paris ladies taking a dose of morphia 1 efore going down to dinner or enter, ing a ball room, in order to shine by the vivacity of their conversation and manners were not wholly fantastic. Indulgence in this poison, however, entails such a speedy revenge of nature tha , general y speaking, even there woman who live for society are in no great danger of tailing victims to its Infatuation. Put it is otherwise with another poison which of late yravs has been steadily rising iu the favour of ladies, and whose consumption is now enormous. No doubt the doctors are primarily responsible ior this fashionable vice They prescribe arsenic as, tonic. It is «nque.stiouably a very efficacious one, and, when used discreetly, an excellent blood purifier. But no so tier does many a fair patient perceive that it makes the complexion very clear and white than it has a fatal fascination for her; and, as a preparation of the drug is to he obtained from any chemist, she is not obliged to make the doctor a confident of her weakness. It is in France, however, where this poison is chiefly in vogue ; and we may be sure (hat, until our ideal of beauty greatly changes for the worse, the habitual arsenic takers will remain in a very small minority iu this country For the effects of the drug are twofold; it makes the skin of marble whiteness, but it so rapidly ] produces a form of obesity that comes ■ itito violent conflict with our prevailing i oiionsoffemininecharms Frenchmen and Moors agree in thinking that ttie more closely the female form resembles that of the quail the more divine it is. We stand aloof from the worshippers of embonpoint, and have as little admiration for the fat kind as we have for the lean. Thosp who are nmiliar with French life know with what ardour a Fn nchwoman oul ivates a well-rounded form. With cunning arrangement of padding and puffing the dressmaker may do a great deal to produce the much-desired outline of which the sa ient feature is the bust en cffrand ; but the result, after all, is only artistic, and, moreover, the pincushion deception must often make those who practice it, when the “dogstar rages,” exclaimed inwardly, “O, | that this too so'id pad would melt.” On the other hand, the embonpoint which comes of arsenic is natural, or will easily pass as such. If this drug is not the elixir of perpetual youth, it is, at all events, the constructive elixir of beauty of the contemporary French type, and the name of its dev.-te-s y cross the Channel is legion. No dou' t the habit of arsenic taking, like ether aims that is poisoning so--nifty, origi nstcd with those in speaking of whorn the cant of modem politeness has borrowed a word from the 'Greeks; “ lietaiim” and arsenic seem to have natural affinity In Faria, where the deini monde gives to most •of the fashions the stamp that insures their success, arsenic only needed the patronage of the ladies who cause snch heartburning to estimable matrons at .I/mpcbamjv for the tatter to become feverishly anxious to try the effect of •ihe“e!ixii” on themselves. Neither ■of the two “ worlds” can hold any secret -from the other, and the agency employed to produce those physical results of which we have been speaking has long ceased to bo a mystery iu Paris, Nov, whether it be on the green sward of Longchampa, in the gilded rooms of tie Klysee, or at an afternoon reception of the Princes X —, one docs not need to be learned in medicine to perceive that arsenic has taken ihe lead of morphia, belladona, •or any other novious drug that ever entered into conspiracy with feminine vanity to make th; genuine woman of man’s delightful ideal the flimsiest of ab tractions, a# the favourite (mison of (the ladies of France. World.