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33. ArsenicName: Arsenic
Elemental arsenic occurs in two solid modifications: yellow, and grey or metallic, with specific gravities of 1.97, and 5.73, respectively. The element is a steel grey, very brittle, crystalline, semimetallic (metalloid) solid. It tarnishes in air, and when heated rapidly oxidises to arsenous oxide which has a garlic odour. Upon heating arsenic and some minerals containing arsenic, it sublimes (transfers from the solid to the gaseous state, without passing through the liquid state). The word Arsenic is borrowed from the Persian word "Zarnik" meaning "yellow orpiment". Zarnik was borrowed by Greek as arsenikon. Arsenic has been known and used in Persia and elsewhere since ancient times. As the symptoms of arsenic poisoning were somewhat ill-defined, it was frequently used for murder until the advent of the Marsh test, a sensitive chemical test for its presence. During the Bronze Age, arsenic was often included in the bronze (mostly as an impurity), which made the alloy harder. Albertus Magnus is believed to have been the first to isolate the element in 1250. In 1649 Johann Schroeder published two ways of preparing arsenic. In Victorian times, arsenic was used by women to improve the complexion of their face. Arsenic and many of its compounds are especially potent poisons. Arsenic kills by massively disrupting the digestive system, leading to death from shock. Quick links
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