Poisons: From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean of Calabar

Was Lincolns volatility caused by mercury poisoning? Was Jack the Ripper an arsenic eater? Can wallpaper kill? Poisons permeate our world. They are in the environment, the workplace, the home. They are in food, our favorite whiskey, medicine, well water. They have been used to cure disease as well as incapacitate and kill. They smooth wrinkles, block pain, stimulate, and enhance athletic ability. In this thoroughly entertaining and fact-filled book, science writer Peter Macinnis considers poisons in all their aspects. He recounts stories of the celebrated poisoners in history and literature, from Nero to Thomas Wainewright, and from the death of Socrates to Hamlet and Peter Pan. He discusses the sources of various poisonsfrom cyanide to strychnine, from Botox to ricin and Sarin gasas well as their detection. He analyzes the science of their action in our bodies and their uses in medicine, cosmetics, war, and terrorism. For anyone who has ever wondered and been afraid to ask, here is a rich miscellany for your secret questions about toxins.