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The Phenomenon of the Styrian Arsenic Eaters from the Perspective of Literature, Chemistry, Toxicology, and History of Science—“Strong Poison” or “Simple‐Minded Reasoning”?
Author(s) -
Wallau W. Martin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201505675
Subject(s) - phenomenon , perspective (graphical) , simple (philosophy) , arsenic , chemistry , epistemology , toxicology , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry , philosophy , computer science , biology , artificial intelligence
The arsenic eaters of Styria , who were supposedly immunized against the toxic effects of arsenic (As 2 O 3 ), appeared increasingly in scientific and popular literature in the second half of the 19th century. This Essay starts with a depiction of this phenomenon from a detective novel and questions whether the observations and scientific knowledge at that time can confirm this legend. Figure from J. H. Pepper, The Boy’s Book of Metals , p. 433.