The effects of arsenic upon the human frame, were illustrated in a curious case which occurred a few years since in the northern part of France. A domestic at a country seat wished to cause the death of his mistress, and mixed arsenic in small quantities with her food, hoping that the slow operation of the poison would prevent any suspicion of murder. To his great astonishment, she gained rapidly in health, flesh, and spirits. At length he gave her a larger quantity, which occasioned serious illness, and led to the discovery and punishment of the crime. We have as yet applied arsenic only to some of the purposes for which it is applicable. The roses of England possess enough of bloom without resorting to the bloom of the smelting furnace. Although we use it to preserve with all the appearances of life the deceased zoological curiosities of our museums, we do not seek its aid to enhance the charms of those living specimens of beauty which are the glory and the pride of our hearths and homes. Fortunately, we have no Andes to climb, and no Alps to scale, and the summits we have to gain are arrived at by dint of perseverance, and no small amount of puffing, in which latter circumstance it seems to be our nature to glory as much as the Peruvian or the Austrian in its absence. Now and then we become suspicious of its presence in our green paper hangings, and in that menial office are almost content to dispense with its services. Or anon, we are treated to a scramble of Bradford drops, which, finding the temperature of the climate uncongenial, melt away to a stray ghost or two that haunt the stoppered bottles of our chemical museums. Grumble as we may at _our_ precious metals, we— “Rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.”