Upon the Score of such a Texture and Make as this, _Arsenick_ makes no Ebullition either with _Alcalies_ or _Acids_ (135); and _as_ the _Regulus_ of It being cleared from most of its Salts, is by much less hurtful than the crude Mineral it self; _so_ on the other Hand, the _Factitious White_, in which there is a much greater Proportion of the Saline to the Metallic Parts, is the most Violent of all the kinds, superiour in Force to _Mercury Sublimate_.
The several Histories related by _Wepfer_ (136) do put this out of Question; It is sufficient to our Purpose to mention One.
A Dog having eat some Fat mixt with _White Arsenic_, died the next Day; The upper Part of the Stomach, when opened, was red and inflamed, the Coats thinner than ordinary, the bottom of It was covered with a fætid Slime, and some Pieces of Fat; the Thin Guts were so Corroded as to be Pervious in Three Places, Two of the Ulcers so large that they would easily admit a _Bean_. The Cavity of the _Abdomen_ contained a yellowish _Ichor_ tinged with Blood.
The Case being thus, one would wonder what should induce Authors to prescribe so Corrosive a Mineral to be worn upon the Pit of the Stomach, as an _Amulet_ against the Plague. This Trick we may well believe to be Dangerous, when _Lionardo di Capo_ (137) tells Us of a Child a kill’d by the Violent Vomiting and Purging, occasion’d from a slight Wound made in the Head by a _Comb_ wet with Oil in which _Arsenick_ had been infused; for the Pores of the Body being opened by Heat and Exercise, some of the Noxious _Effluvia_ may easily Insinuate themselvs into the Part; accordingly _Crato_ (138) observ’d an Ulcer of the Breast caused by this Application; _Verzascha_ (139) Violent Pains, and fainting Fits; _Diemerbrock_ (140), and Dr. _Hodges_ (141), Death it self.
The Truth of the Matter is, This Practice seems to owe its Origine to a Mistake (142), some of the _Arabian_ Physicians had commended _Darsini_ worn in a Bag for a Preservative in Plague time; This in their Language signifies _Cinnamom_; but the _Latin_ Interpreters retaining the same Word in their Translations (as was frequently done), one or other afterwards not understanding its meaning, and deceived by the likeness of the sound, substituted in its Place _De Arsenico_, as if _Darsini_ were all one with _Zarnich_. The Authority of the first Author served to propagate the Error; nor were Those wanting who reason’d upon the Matter, and found it agreable to their Philosophy, that this Mineral should draw to it self and concenter the _Arsenical Effluvia_ out of the Air, and thus secure the Body from their Infection; These being, as they imagined, the Common Cause of Pestilential Diseases.