captivated her friends in the pit and boxes. She was called for again and again. So long did this last that the theatrical arrangements began to proceed without reference to her ovation. The clouds began to disappear. Next, the cottage in front of which she sang went away on the shoulders of an able-bodied porter; and then the attendants got emboldened, and placidly prepared a banquet for the next scene under her nose. The audience did not at all mind. They and the young lady were all at home, and there were no strangers to make a fuss. So strong is this union between the audience and the stage, that the actors themselves behave like a second audience when the per mired, and draws capital houses. On the play-bill it is offered as a "Picture of Character," and the public evidently accepts it as a very creditable and philosophical creation. Now, this play has one very remarkable feature in it. It is in five acts, and the acts are of a very considerable length, but nothing whatever happens. We know at once that no reasoning, no wish to do itself credit, no anxiety for a new development of art, could possibly induce an English or French audience to sit through five acts of a play without any incidents. What takes the place of incidents is the one thing that to the spectators of Western Europe is most utterly repulsive. The substitute is a succession of dialogues between two persons de-formance of any one of their number espescribing their feelings. There is a girl who describes her feelings, and an old couple who describe theirs, and two brothers who describe theirs. Many of our readers will remember the dreadful passages that cast a gloom over Sheridan's Rivals, in which Julia and Falkland exchange the statements of their mental troubles. If all the Rivals had been like these passages-if Julia and Falkland had talked for five acts-then there would have been a play not unlike Die Grille. It is not a question of goodness or badness, of taste cultivated in a wrong or a right di-ence before him from a laughing audience rection, when such a play is liked or not liked. In England such a play would be impossible. In Germany it is not only possible but popular, and admired. The difference is too radical to admit of the one nation learning from the other. There are other features, too, in the public amusements of Germany which make us feel how far we are apart from them. A familiarity and an easy, sociable understanding binds together those who amuse and those who are amused. As in the games of children, the players and spectators are still one group. When a German player or singer has done his or her part, the audience testify their approbation by repeatedly asking to see the performer. In every theatre players are called for, and approval is shown by shouting when they come. But in Germany it is done in a different way. The audience do not much care about scenic proprieties so long as they and their favorites have a prolonged friendly meeting. At a summer theatre in a small German town for example, a prettyish actress sang a little song that cially delights them. This may be seen in places that might have been supposed to be too grand for such artless exhibitions. In Vienna, and at the principal theatre, a comic opera was lately given, in which the leading buffo fairly finished off his comrades. The prima donna broke down without shame or disguise, and hopped away behind his back to have her laugh out. The chorus was equally amused, and at one moment the funny man was literally in possession of the whole house, and separated a laughing audi behind him. This may show that the Viennese are very happy and are easily amused, and people who behave in a more reserved and decorous way may really have to regret their supposed superiority. But at any rate this degree of artlessness in amusement is unattainable for us. We cannot play our games in this way, and are fettered by our traditions of superiority. It is much the same in literature. Germans write novels in abundance, but their novels are almost unintelligible to us. Perhaps the only recent German novel known in England is Debit and Credit. This was considered a wonderfully good novel in Germany, and this speaks volumes. Its merit consisted in not being utterly vapid. It described, in a faint way, scenery, characters, and habits that were not utterly trite. It was therefore endurable, and for a German novel to be endurable is to be famous. Generally, German novels have, according to our ideas, nothing whatever in them. If Mrs. Hannah More had grown rather less moral in her old age, she might have written the midst of all their aberrations. But in them all. And yet this is in the country of in the people that commands our respect in Goethe, of Wieland, of Tieck, and of many other writers of imagination. This is the most astonishing thing about Germany, that its great writers and its ordinary writers are so very widely apart. Out of this harmless, innocent people, with its beer and tobacco, its theatrical pictures of character, and its sociable audiences, have arisen great men and writers. They have shown, in the midst of their greatness, that they were Germans, and the leading features of the German mind may be clearly traced even in the peculiar and original creations of Goethe. But this higher literature of Germany seems to have been a lucky accident in the history of the nation. The race of considerable writers has faded out of Germany with the most astonishing rapidity. Nor has the influence of these writers left the impress we might have expected on the national mind. If we are not to mince matters, we may say that the prevailing characteristic of all Germans, except the very best, is that of a placid and gentle mediocrity. At Berlin, in the circles of the better courts, in the best society of the best minor towns, there is undoubtedly abundance not only of intelligence, but of vigor of intellect. But the run of the nation is, we venture to think, essentially second-rate. In the width of separation which, with regard to intellectual cultivation and freedom, divides the great from the ordinary minds of the nation, Scotland presents a tolerably close parallel to Germany. But no one would think of calling the bulk of the Scotch nation second-rate. There is a vital force, a self-dependence, and a thoroughness It seems a simple and humble conclusion to say that, where nations are constituted so differently, where society has long moved in such different tracks, and where the interests of daily life are so dissimilar, the amusements of the people cannot be the same. But most Englishmen will be ready to confess that it is only slowly that this conclusion is brought home to them. It is not apparent without reflection and experience that the antidote to a pernicious excitement does not lie in childish pleasures. In the midst of a complex combination we long for something simple, as the French philosophers of the last century longed for the ideal savage and his ideal virtues. Gradually we discover, as the philosophers or their successors discovered, that these cannot be. The amusements of the Germans are as impossible in London as the philosophical savage was in Paris. Our amusements may be simplified, but the simplicity will be the simplicity of a higher refinement, and not that of a contented and puerile mediocrity. WOLSEY'S REPENTANCE-In "N. & Q" appears an historical parallel between two luckless statesmen, Cardinal Wolsey (1530) and Sir James Hamilton (1540), who, at their last hour, regretted "that they had not served their God as well as they had served their king." Perhaps the latter may have unconsciously borrowed from and copied the former. But may not the expression be derived from the East? So many oriental tales, proverbs, and maxims, were wafted from oriental marts in Venetian galleys to Italy, and thence dispersed over Europe, that they became household words, and the groundwork in many instances as well of amusement as of thought. I enclose a tale from the Gulistán of Saadi (A.D. 1258), which expresses the same idea in words so similar, that one can hardly suppose the resemblance to be accidental; but of this your readers will judge :— "One of the Viziers went before Zún' Nún of Egypt, and desired his opinion, saying: 'I am engaged day and night in the service of the Sultan, hoping good from him and fearing punishment." Zún' Nún wept, and said : ' If I feared God as you do the king, I should be one of the company of the saints."" "If a Durwaish hoped not ease, and (feared He would mount to the heavenly dome; He would be an angel." -Notes and Queries From Chambers's Journal. was consumed in quantities usually supposed ARSENIC-EATING AND ARSENIC-POISON- to produce death, we learn that Dr. Holler ING. of Hartberg was acquainted with forty, and Dr. Förcher of Grätz with eleven persons, who indulged in the habit; and that in one case recorded by Dr. Scäfer, and attested by Dr. Knappe of Oberzehring, a man in good health, aged thirty years, ate on the one day four and a half, and on the succeed THE practice of arsenic-eating, which prevails in Styria, was first brought before the world by Dr. Von Tschudi, in the Vienna Weekly Medical Times. We believe that the first mention of the subject in England was made in the pages of this Journal (No. 416, New Series, published on the 20th De-ing, five and a half grains of arsenic, withcember, 1851), in the form of a little paper out the least detriment. This man stated framed by a foreign contributor from the ob- that he was in the habit of taking like quanservations of Dr. Von Tschudi. That such tities three or four times a week. a practice existed was treated in scientific We shall see now the value of the evicircles with the usual sceptical derision; but dence brought forward by Mr. Heisch. in a little time the fact obtained credence Having put himself in communication with with the late Professor Johnston, and a few Dr. Lorenz, formerly of Salzburg, that genother chemists. It appears that in Lower tleman informed him that the practice of arAustria, which is an arsenic-producing coun-senic-eating was well known to exist, but that try, this deadly poison is eaten in small quan- access to individual cases was exceedingly tities with a view to producing plumpness difficult, since the vice was proscribed by a and good looks, and also for the purpose of government enactment, that arsenic be alimparting strength in long journeys. There lowed only under the sanction of a medical is reason to believe that it was first taken by certificate. Dr. Lorenz confirmed the statethe men engaged at the arsenic-furnaces, as ment so often made, that huntsmen and a means of warding off (on the principle of wood-cutters were in the habit of using it inoculation for the small-pox) the effects of to improve their wind and prevent fatigue. the poisonous fumes arising from the manu- The usual dose to begin with was about the facture. size of a pin-head, increasing from this gradually to that of a pea. Those who were in the habit of taking it, did not look so old as they really were, retained a more than usually healthy complexion, were long lived, and apparently exempt from infectious diseases, but were liable to die suddenly, if they did not break off the practice. Dr. Lorenz, however, was not prepared to endorse the opinions of Professor Johnston as to its power of increasing the beauty and charms of the fair sex. At the arsenic-works in the neighborhood of Salzburg, the only men who can long stand the fumes are those who are in In a paper on this subject, read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Dr. H. E. Roscoe mentioned that through the kindness of his friend, Professor Pebal of Lemberg, he had been furnished with copies of letters written by seventeen medical men to the government inspector at Grätz, one of the principal cities of Styria, concerning the practice of arsenic-eating. From that correspondence, containing reports by trustworthy persons, as well as the record of cases under personal notice, it appeared that arsenious acid, under the name of hidrach, was well known to, and distrib-the habit of eating portions of this poison, uted amongst, the Styrian peasantry. That this substance is pure arsenious acid, Dr. Roscoe proved by an accurate chemical analysis of six grains of a white substance forwarded by Professor Gottlieb of Grätz, accompanied by a certificate from the district judge of Knittefeld in Styria, stating that this substance was brought to him by a peasant-woman, who told him that she had seen her farm-laborer eating it, and that she gave it up to justice, to put a stop to so evil a practice. On the question whether arsenic and the director of one of these establishments furnished Mr. Heisch with the particulars of his own case. Destined at an early age to enter the arsenic factory, with the view of eventually becoming the superintendent, he was advised by his teacher M. Bönsch of Eisleben, to become an arsenic-eater, as otherwise the fumes from the smelting ore would soon destroy his health, and render it imperative that he should leave his employment. From an early age, therefore, up to the time at which he wrote to Mr. Heisch (being then forty-five years old), he had been in the habit weekly of consuming a large amount of arsenic. This gentleman forwarded to Mr. Heisch a quantity equal to the dose he first took, and also the amount he was at that time taking. The latter was weighed at the factory, as well as by Mr. Heisch on receipt, and it was found that this gentleman, who had begun with three, was now taking "twenty-three grains of pure white arsenic in coarse powder," three or four times a week! This was the only instance of which Mr. Heisch was able to obtain full particulars, but many others were mentioned to him by gentlemen who knew the individuals, and could vouch for the truth of their statements. dren, and the old age which a large proportion of the inhabitants of the village attain, are to be attributed to the arsenic present in the water." It is well known that this poison is, of all others, the most readily detected after death, even at a period so remote from the interment as six or seven years; and on re-opening graves which had been closed for twelve years in Styria, the bodies of arsenic-eaters were found so unaltered as to be at once readily recognizable by their friends. This must be owing to the strong antiseptic powers of the mineral, and would lead us to infer that the tissues had become so thoroughly impregnated as to be able to resist for a longer period the process of decay. What a stumbling block is here to the The practice of arsenic-eating can barely be physiologist, what a mine of cross-questionsaid to exist in England. Mr. Heisch men- ing from which the judge may furnish himtions the case of a gentleman in Lincoln- self with arguments, to torture and perplex shire, who began taking it for some skin dis- the medical witnesses! Those who consume ease, and eventually reached the quantity of this substance tell us, that the first dose of five grains daily. This, according to the re- arsenic invariably produces symptoms of poiport, he had taken for six years, till at length soning, such as burning pain in the stomthe remedy became so necessary to him, that ach and sickness, which, when it subsides, is he could not leave it off without great incon- followed by a keen appetite, and feeling of venience, and a return of his old complaint. excitement. Like symptoms, with the exIn the Pharmaceutical Journal for Novem- ception of pain, are produced by every inber, 1860, we observe mention made of a crease of the dose. The superintendent of village of arsenic-eaters in the north of Eng- the factory at Salzburg, previously alluded land, where the mineral is found in appreci- to, informed Mr. Heisch that he never exable quantity in the water drunk by the in-perienced any ill consequence from the prachabitants. "A stream called Whitbeck, tice, except when he endeavored to give it rising in the Blackcombe Mountains, in West Cumberland, contains arsenic in determinable quantity. Ducks will not live if confined to it, and while trout abound in all the neighboring rivulets, no fins are ever found in the arsenicated stream. But its use by the villagers does not give rise to any symptoms of arsenical poisoning, but rather to the effects which are observed in Styria among the arsenic-eaters there. When the railway was being carried past Whitbeck, the first use of the water produced the usual marked effects on the throats both of the men and horses employed on the works. The soreness of the mouth from which they at first suffered, soon, however disappeared, and the horses attained that sleekness of coat assigned as one of the effects produced by the administration of minute but repeated doses of arsenic. It is a question how far the rosy looks of the Whitbeck chil up. He was then attacked with such violent palpitation of the heart, fainting, depression of spirits, and mental weakness, followed by long confinement to bed, as necessitated his return to the habit-a habit he resolved never to leave off, until he attained the age of fifty, as originally directed by his instructor, M. Bönsch, and then only by gradually retrograding to the dose from which he started. Like most arsenic-eaters, he scrupulously avoided spirits, and took his stimulant in some warm liquid on an empty stomach. If in Styria the old adage has been realized, that familiarity breeds contempt, and this deadly poison has become a thing of every-day use in almost every dwelling in that district; on the other hand, for two or three years back, a perfect arsenicophobia has raged in England, hunting up suspicions of poisoning from manures, ferreting out death in the paper of our walls, the covers, dividuals from the quantity of arsenic used of our sofas, the very paint upon our shelves, in paper for covering walls. As was to be and threatening the absolute condemnation expected, arsenical pigment-makers and paof green pigments in every branch of manu-per-hangers immediately raised the cry of facture. the craft in danger, and each party marshalled their witnesses and adduced their evidence. The makers of the pigment averred that the men engaged in their manufactories never experienced any bad effects, though employed for years in the production of it on a very large scale, and naturally expressed surprise that though these hangings had been so long in use, no instance of poisoning from them had ever been previously adduced; and if they were to be charged with being noxious and dangerous to health, why were not leather, cotton and woollen stuffs, which alike owed their brilliant green color to the same poisonous mineral. Some years ago, a toxicologist of great note, Dr. A. S. Taylor, was one morning about to cut the loaf on the breakfast-table, when he observed upon the outer crust some green stains which appeared exceedingly like mould. On paring these off, and applying a strong power of microscope, he was much surprised to find the substance resolve itself into a mineral powder resembling Sheele's green, a chemical analysis of which substantiated the correctness of his suspicions. On examining several other loaves which were in the house at the time, and had come from the same baker's, he found them in like manner stained with patches of the green arsenite of copper. As this was a very serious affair, and threatened to be the cause of inflicting much bodily injury, if not death, upon other customers who were less observant than Dr. Taylor, he posted off to the baker's shop, carrying with him his crusts of bread and extracted arsenic. On entering, he immediately detected the unintentional cause of so much danger. The baker had but recently refitted his shop with shelves, and to enhance its appearance, had been having them decorated with paint of a bright grass-green color. When the loaves, smoking hot from the oven, were placed upon these shelves, the paint immediately adhered to them, and they became the accidental medium of administering arsenic. The baker was readily persuaded of the error into which he had fallen, and promptly followed the suggestion of having the remaining loaves rasped, and the shelves The public mind had not been long replaned over; but the painter was not so will-lieved from the exaggerated fear of being ing to yield to the sanitary caution, but main-poisoned by every green paper that decotaining that no good green could be obtained rated their walls, before a similar agitation without arsenic, seemed resolved to wait till was raised against the occurrence of arsenic some more practical and fatal experiment in manures. A communication was read should undeceive him. This is but one of many instances which might be adduced in proof of the impropriety of allowing preparations of arsenic to be injudiciously or carelessly employed. When the Sale of Poisons Bill was before the House of Lords in 1858, the above eminent chemist, while under examination before the Select Committee, adverted to the danger likely to accrue to the health of in THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. 763 The evidence brought forward to condemn the paper-hangings, consisted in the detail of several instances of suspected poisoning, occurring to parties living in rooms the walls of which were covered with green papers. So insensibly does this deleterious agent become detached, and mingle with the air of the apartment, that a gentleman whose suspicions were aroused as to the green paperhangings being the cause of his bad health, discovered arsenic in the dust which had slowly accumulated on the top of his books, carefully preserved within a glass case. very air of the room, though in constant use, and well ventilated, presented evidences of arsenious acid, on suspending in it sheets of paper saturated with one of the most delicate tests for this poison, and a chemical analysis of the paper showed a drachm of arsenite of copper to every square foot. The before the Dublin Agricultural Society by Professor Davy, stating that certain plants which he had watered with a solution of arsenic, not only throve well, but absorbed the poison to such an extent that it could be detected in any part of them; consequently, that the growing of turnips and other esculent roots in manures containing this mineral, might lead to symptoms of poisoning, more especially so if arsenic was not expelled |