THE Assioric Comrnormisv.—At an inquest in Westbury, last week, on
the bodies of two infants who seem to have been poisoned with arsenic, five and eight years ago, Mr. Herapath called in question a recent doctrine as to the natural existence of arsenic in human remains— "Ridiculous notions have gone abroad, owing to some sayings which have been attributed to the French chemists. Respell, for instance, is reported to have said that be could produce arsenic from the legs of chairs, and Orfila that be could do so from the common soil. I have made experiments on hundreds of bodies of human beings and brutes, but have never discovered arsenic unless it had been administered medicinally or for a criminal purpose. I have also made many experiments on sous, and I believe the Statement of Orfila to be a mistaken one."
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