70)Arsenic is a very potent poison that works quickly, especially when ingested in a fairly large dose. Just over a hundred milligrams of arsenic trioxide would kill. In a large dose, arsenic can kill fairly quickly and the victim would die before the start of the archetypal manifestations to the nervous system. Symptoms of arsenic poisoning include inflammation of the gastric and intestinal areas along with severe vomiting and diarrhea spotted with blood. Excruciating pain, a severe thirst, and a general attack on all the systems of the body is experienced by the patient. If the patient is fortunate, the cardiovascular system would collapse and death would intervene within a few hours. However, some victims remain alive for several days. This torture is made worse because the patient remains rational and intelligible. Other symptoms include hyperkeratosis, which hardens and thicken the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. The patient's skin coloring might also become a coffee color and scabby. (Bodin and Cheinisse 1970) It is often difficult to recover from an arsenic poisoning. Severe damage is done to many parts of the body. Treatment includes (according to the book Treatment of Acute Poisonings):"1. Intensive supportive therapy2. Treatment with dimercaprol should be initiated at once; 4 mg/kg intramuscularly every four hours for 48 hours, followed by 3 mg/kg twice daily for eight days constitutes the maximum recommended dosage. These injections are painful and locally irritant. They should therefore be given in different sites successively.3. Renal damage may be severe and require peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis.4. Liver damage may require conventional therapy, and where this fails exchange blood transfusion." (Matthew and Lawson 1970) If arsenic does not kill you outright, it causes cancer. The studies done in Taiwan were due to the epidemic of bladder cancer, believed to be caused by arsenic in the wat...
