Dr. Macgowan of Ningpo, says, “We are told that Mongolian hunters, beyond the wall, eat arsenic to enable them to endure cold when patiently lying on the snow to entrap martins. In this part of China arsenic is taken by divers, who in cold weather plunge into still water in pursuit of fish, which are then found hybernating among stones at the piers of bridges. We perceive with regret, that the modern Chinese have added arsenic to their habitual stimulants. The red sulphuret in powder is mixed with tobacco, and their joint fumes are smoked in the ordinary manner. We have met with no habitual smokers of this compound of mineral and vegetable poisons; but persons who have made trial state that dizziness and sickness attend first attempts. After a few trials, arseniated tobacco may be taken without any apparent inconvenience. From reports given of it, we infer that its effects on the Chinese are analogous to what is observed among the arsenic-eating peasants of Austria. “At Peking, where arseniated tobacco is most in use, it costs no more than the unmixed article; it may be known by the red colour imparted to the vegetable by the powdered proto-sulphuret. Its introduction is attributed to Cantonese from Chauchau. If this be correct, it is probable that these southerners, unable at the north to procure the masticatory to which they are addicted, sought to appease a craving for the pungent but harmless lime and betel nut, by substituting the deleterious mineral gas. Many of the miserable victims of opium, to whom that narcotic is a necessity, and not a pleasure, have eagerly employed the new stimulant to prop and exhilarate their exhausted bodies, and, perhaps, have thereby meliorated and prolonged their existence. We would fain hope that the use of arsenical stimulants will not become general; yet that pernicious custom is extending, and we know our race too well not to entertain fears on that subject. It is even stated that, for a time at least, the reigning Emperor in his boyhood preferred tobacco thus mineralized. In domestic economy, the red sulphuret is employed for making away with rats and husbands.”[33] One of the best things that Hahnemann ever did was to write a treatise on arsenic. This he did well, and therefore deserves to be remembered; but for this he is often forgotten, and is only extolled for a less important labour—the introduction of homœopathy. Chemists deserve well of mankind for the assiduity with which they have studied this subtle poison, so that now it may be detected in the minutest quantities. One point, however, seems to be hardly clear, and on this, perhaps, the Styrian peasant could enlighten us, namely, the taste of arsenic, some declaring that it has no distinguishable taste, others, that it is sweetish, and others saline. The only means of arriving at the truth is rather too hazardous a one to be ventured upon.