UNASSIGNED: From at least the fifteenth to late nineteenth centuries, peasants in the Austrian province of Styria ate up to several hundred milligrams of arsenic trioxide or sulfide daily or weekly for periods up to a number of years. Taking these doses of arsenic was believed to increase muscular power and enhance the beauty and sexual attractiveness of peasant girls. There do not appear to be contemporaneous records of the known consequences of chronic arsenic exposure. The historical records of arsenic eating there are reviewed and appear to be valid. The benefits are subjective judgements by arsenic eaters. The lack of objective reports of the anticipated external and internal clinical and pathological effects of arsenic poisoning depends on a smaller number of clinical accounts and autopsy reports and the general medical literature of those times, so it is weaker, but it is consistent.
UNASSIGNED: Why the arsenic eaters did not show the well-known consequences of prolonged exposure to high doses of arsenic is not known. Possible explanations include increases in detoxifying metabolism in the consumers due to induced genomic changes and selection in people and in the gut microbiome, as shown in other populations. Whether these effects would suffice to protect people against their high doses of arsenic has not been explored.
UNASSIGNED: Although the nature and mechanisms of arsenic toxicity have been extensively described, much still remains to be discovered.

The Second World War created a caesura in various spheres of life, including medical care. Many doctors and nurses in Slovenia joined the Partisan movement and helped organise medical care. The first activities were undertaken in 1942, followed a year later by the development of the first rudimentary, clandestine partisan medical stations acting as hospitals. Nearly 15 000 patients with injuries and illnesses were treated in such partisan medical facilities. The staff included 244 doctors and dentists, 260 medical students, 38 nurses and more than 3 000 ad hoc trained medics. This article presents the \"Celje\" partisan hospital from the Upper Savinja Valley, focusing on the testimonies of Partisan doctors and other witnesses who provided first-hand accounts about everyday life in this and other Partisan medical facilities. The main source of information was the notes of surgeon Dr Robert Kukovec, which date from the final year of the war. Dr Kukovec was among the few individuals who left behind a written account of the wartime events they had witnessed, offering an insight into the tragedy of war. His account also depicts many sombre moments but also rare bright ones, in particular the yearning for the freedom that destiny prevented Dr Kukovec from experiencing, given that he was killed less than a month before the end of the war.