_Lionardo di Capoa_ relates the case of a child killed by the violent vomiting and purging arising from a slight wound made in the head by a comb, wet with oil in which arsenic had been infused for the purpose of killing vermin; and we have numerous instances on record, where the application of arsenical cerates and ointments has been followed by violent and dangerous symptoms. We also learn from the different historians of the Plague of London, that the arsenical amulets which were worn, as preservatives, on that occasion, were sometimes attended with deleterious consequences; _Crato_[224] observed an ulcer of the breast produced by them. _Verzascha_, violent pains and syncope. _Diemerbroeck_,[225] and Dr. _Hodges_,[226] death itself. Amongst the foreign authors who have related cases of poisoning by the external application of arsenic we may mention _Desgranges_,[227] who records the history of a chambermaid, poisoned by having rubbed her head with an arsenical ointment for the purpose of destroying vermin; and _Roux_,[228] who confessed to have killed a girl of eighteen by an application of the “_Pâte Arsenicale_” to a cancerous breast. _M. Renault_ has also given us the results of his experiments upon Arsenic when applied externally to dogs; when the skin was sound, it excited a pustular eruption without inflammation; but, when the skin was broken, more serious effects followed, both general and local, and in some cases death.[229]. In an experiment performed by Mr. _Hunter_, and Mr. _Home_, in which arsenic was applied to a wound in a dog, the animal died in twenty-four hours, and the stomach was found to be considerably inflamed. Mr. _Brodie_ repeated the experiment several times, always with the precaution of tying a bandage, to prevent the animal licking the wound; the results were uniform; the stomach was, in every case, not only more violently, but more rapidly, inflamed, than when the poison had been internally administered, and it even preceded any inflammatory appearance of the wound. In the _Journal de Medecine_, the following case is related of a woman who was killed by her husband having insinuated powdered arsenic into the vagina,[230] at the moment of enjoying the conjugal rites. “A woman at _Leneux, departement de l’Ourthe_, aged forty, having died after a short illness, attended with considerable tumefaction of the genital parts, uterine hemorrhage, vomiting, and purging, the body was inspected by order of the mayor, when the surgeons reported that they found the vulva in a state of gangrene, the abdomen much distended with air, and the intestines inflamed and gangrenous. The culprit was arrested, convicted, and executed.” In the _Acts of the Society of Copenhagen_, a similar crime stands recorded, and which was also committed by a peasant; in this latter case, although some small pieces of arsenic were found within the vagina, yet some doubts arose respecting the possibility of such a