DIETING ON DEADLY DRUGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 115, 12 June 1909, Page 3

DIETING ON DEADLY DRUGS.

Arsenic-eating is indulged in in England to-day to «i. considerable extent There are dainty dames in West End mansions 'who sWullow the poison in profusion. So, too, do the foreign-born I-.ast London artilicial-llower maker--• the object in .both eases being the same', namely, the .beautifying of the complexion.

Very minute quantities of the dru" taken daily for long periods, give to the »kin a. dazzling purity and delicacy of coloring obtainable in no other "way. Eve,, a coarse, blotchy face is trailsfigured and .beautified .by it.

COX'SUMKI) ARSENIC DAILY. The girls timi women in the factories —-nios'tly aliens —are fully aware of hiosc fal'ts. and not only make use of tlie poison tlieiiMclves for that purpose, but smuggle it outside, and give or sell it to their friends and nvquaintMiices. Not long since a. Polish Jewess was prosecuted for this at a London police court, .when it tnraspircd that she had tor yeai's) been a victim to the arsenic lialut, her <avci',vgc daily dose .beimr half a grain. Her system, tlie police sur.-con explained, had undoubtedly .become inured to the effects of tine'.poison since MH-h.,a quantity; introduced daily into tlie .system gf an immune person' would very quickly !«• fofhnrcd by serious symptoms, and 'lirobablv by death.

LArDAXI'M AX-ACTICLE OF COMMKUCK. Opium, in the form of laudanum, is largely Used in the factory districts of the north and in certain of the -southern agricultural countTe.-!. Laudanum is a I'oismi scheduled iii the I'lnarimu'V Act. but it is also an ordinary article of commore, and there is, therefore, notliin" to preevnt a chemist from selling ~.„£ quantity of it to any .person giving anyCung like a plausible explanation of tile purpose for which he requires it. Some victims of the b:i,!,it will consume ns imicli as thiw ounces daily; yet a single dra.cnni has been known to cause death. I'.'t.lier-'drinking is common amongst the natives of Comiemur:!; who also are in the habit upon occasion of dosing themselves with tartar emetic, probably J;: 1 . I ', ""/l I'v.iHtsomc of all to.xie drugs. I Ins they do under the impression that it w a pvwfnta.ti.ve of-s'onie say a cure for—consumption.— l'earson's Weekly.