Item Description
Amazon Exclusive: Author Deborah Blum's Top Ten Poisons On a recent radio show, I heard myself telling the host "And carbon monoxide is such a good poison.â We both started laughing--thereâs just something about a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist waxing enthusiastic about something so lethal. But then he became curious--âWhy?â he asked. âWhy do you like it so much?â These days, as I travel the country talking about The Poisonerâs Handbook, Iâm frequently asked that question or variations on it. Whatâs your favorite poison? Whatâs the perfect poison? The answer to the latter is that it doesnât exist--except in the plots of crime novels. But in reality, poisons really are fascinatingly wicked chemical compounds and many of them have fascinating histories as well. Just between us, then, hereâs a list of my personal favorites. 1. Carbon Monoxide (really)--Itâs so beautifully simple (just two atoms--one of carbon, one of oxygen) and so amazingly efficient a killer. Thereâs a story I tell in the book about a murder syndicate trying to kill an amazingly resilient victim. They try everything from serving him poison alcohol to running over him with a car. But in the end, itâs carbon monoxide that does him in. 2. Arsenic--This used to be the murdererâs poison of poisons, so commonly used in the early 19th century that it was nicknamed âthe inheritance powderâ. Itâs also the first poison that forensic scientists really figured out how to detect in a corpse. And it stays in the body for centuries, which is why we keep digging up historic figures like Napoleon or U.S. President Zachary Taylor to check their remains for poison. 3. Radium--I love the fact that this rare radioactive element used to be considered good for your health. It was mixed into medicines, face creams, health drinks in the 1920s. People thought of it like a tiny glowing sun that would give them its power. Boy, were they wrong. The two scientists in my book, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, proved in 1928 that the bones of people exposed to radium became radioactive--and stayed that way for years. 4. Nicotine--This was the first plant poison that scientists learned to detect in a human body. Just an incredible case in which a French aristocrat and her husband decided to kill her brother for money. They actually stewed up tobacco leaves in a barn to brew a nicotine potion. And their amateur chemical experiments inspired a very determined professional chemist to hunt them down. 5. Chloroform--Developed for surgical anesthesia in the 19th century, this rapidly became a favorite tool of home invasion robbers. If you read newspapers around the turn of the 20th century, theyâre full of accounts of people who answered a knock on the door, only to be knocked out by a chloroform soaked rag. One woman woke up to find her hair shaved off--undoubtedly sold for the lucrative wig trade. 6. Mercury--In its pure state, mercury appears as a bright silver liquid, which scatters into shiny droplets when touched. No wonder itâs nicknamed quicksilver. People used to drink it as a medicine more than 100 years ago. No, they didnât drop dead. Those silvery balls just slid right through them. Mercury is much more poisonous if itâs mixed with other chemicals and can be absorbed by the body directly. Thatâs why methylmercury in fish turns out to be so risky a contaminant. 7. Cyanide--One of the most famous of the homicidal poisons and--in my opinion--not a particularly good choice. Yes, itâs amazingly lethal--a teaspoon of the pure stuff can kill in a few minutes. But itâs a violent and obvious death. In early March, in fact, an Ohio doctor was convicted of murder for putting cyanide in his wifeâs vitamin supplements. 8. Aconite--A heart-stoppingly deadly natural poison. It forms in ornamental plants that include the blue-flowering monkshood. The ancient Greeks called it âthe queen of poisonsâ and considered it so evil that they believed that it derived from the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of hell. 9. Silver--Swallowing silver nitrate probably wonât kill you but if you do it long enough it will turn you blue. One of my favorite stories (involving a silver bullet) concerns the Famous Blue Man of Barnum and Baileyâs Circus who was analyzed by one of the heroes of my book, Alexander Gettler. 10. Thallium--Agatha Christie put this poison at the heart of one of her creepiest mysteries, The Pale Horse, and I looked at it terms of a murdered family in real life. An element discovered in the 19th century, itâs a perfect homicidal poison--tasteless and odorless--except for one obvious giveaway--the victimâs hair falls out as a result of the poisoning! Now that Iâve written this list, I realize I could probably name ten more. But I donât want to scare you. --Deborah Blum
Product Details
- Author: Deborah Blum
- Publication Date: 2010-02-18
- Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
- Product Group: Book
- Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
- Binding: Hardcover, 336 pages
- Features:
- ISBN13: 9781594202438
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
- Package Dimensions:
- Dimensions: 900L x 640W x 130H
- Weight: 120
- List Price: $25.95
- ISBN: 1594202435
- ASIN: 1594202435
Customer Reviews
Average Amazon User Rating:
Fascinating and well written
2010-08-24
Reviewer: Elizabeth B. Gibbs
A doctor in my book club recommended this one. A great dose of history sweetened by mystery and suspense.
Mysterious Mayhem Explained for the Non-Scientist
2010-08-16
Reviewer: J. L. Rubenking
This book is a pretty enlightening, entertaining look back at the history of poison detection at the start of the 20th century. For centuries, getting away with murder by poison was pretty easy, but thanks to science and its begrudging acceptance by law enforcement under Tammany Hall, people started getting caught and paying the price. The cases presented are interesting, and the forensic detective work that went on is intriguing for those who like that sort of thing. The dry science is readable and understandable even for those whose strong point may not be the sciences (like me).
Perhaps most shocking here, though, is the role that the American government played in making illegal booze lethal during Prohibition. To discourage people from distilling and drinking alcohol, an impossibility, government agencies made sure that the cheapest ingredients moonshiners could find to create their product were also the most poisonous to the human body. Great, huh? Of course, warnings were given out to the public that illegal drinking could very well kill you, but we all know that people who want to drink will drink. The medical examiner's office was rife with victims before Prohibition ended.
The last fourth of the book becomes a little repetitious, but up until that point, it recreates an age and makes heroes out of some great scientific minds. Worth it for the mysteries and the murderers who thought themselves too clever for capture.
A fascinating book that shows how little we know about how things will work out...
2010-08-07
Reviewer: Thomas Duff
With all the books I receive for review (and given that I have a library a block away from my house), I rarely *buy* a book any more. But on a recent trip, I wandered into a bookstore and had a particular title jump out at me... The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. I found this book fascinating on multiple counts, and I had a hard time putting it down.
Contents:
The Poison Game; Chloroform; Wood Alcohol; Cyanides; Arsenic; Mercury; Carbon Monoxide (Part 1); Methyl Alcohol; Radium; Ethyl Alcohol; Carbon Monoxide (Part 2); Thallium; The Surest Poison; Author's Note; Gratitudes; A Guide to the Handbook; Notes; Index
Handbook covers a 20 year period from 1915 to 1935, back when Prohibition was starting and forensic medicine was a relatively unknown concept. The coroner's office in New York was staffed with political cronies who were quite happy to write off most deaths in ways that were more expedient than accurate. This all changed when Charles Norris (chief medical examiner) and Alexander Gettler (toxicologist) took over in 1918. These two took their jobs seriously, and started to apply rigorous discipline and science to their jobs. Because of their efforts, the public was able to get a true picture as to causes of death due to shoddy medicine, cost-cutting companies, and out-right murder. In fact, the papers and research from Norris and Gettler are still considered definitive resources today.
Blum frames much of her book around Prohibition and how it was responsible for innumerable deaths. The illegality of alcohol led to increased prices for those who wanted a drink. And most everyone *still* wanted their drinks. The profits available from bootlegging were incredible, and everyone was willing to try their hand at making their own hootch. Drinking liquor made of cheap wood and methyl alcohol became little more than a game of Russian roulette as there was no way to tell just how toxic your next drink would be. Interspersed with the rise and fall of Prohibition, she also covers other toxins that Norris and Gettler traced down as killers. For instance, radium was used to create watch dials that would glow in the dark. The women who painted the dials thought little of licking the brushes to maintain their sharp tips. In fact, it was even required by the company. But after a couple of years, mysterious ailments afflicted nearly all the workers, and it was a battle to get the US Radium Corporation to admit fault and pay the workers a settlement. And even then, it was a mere pittance for all their suffering and eventual deaths.
I'm very glad that The Poisoner's Handbook was strategically placed on the shelf where I found it. On top of it being fascinating (in a morbid way), it opened my eyes to a different view of Prohibition, and how (once again) something can turn out far differently than what was originally planned.
Disclosure:
Obtained From: Bookstore
Payment: Purchased
Science and history
2010-08-03
Reviewer: Linda Bulger
In the early 1900s New York, like any sprawling city, exhibited the best and the worst of human behavior. Some of New York's worst came under the lax scrutiny of the elected coroners, not always the sober and honest guardians of the public that they should have been. Poisoners, among other criminals, were often able to walk away scot-free because the devious ways of poison were poorly understood.
In 1918 the city established its first true medical examiner system, and the wealthy and well-educated Dr. Charles Norris took over as its leader. Norris and his top forensic chemist, Alexander Gettler, were in the vanguard of the new science of forensics. The Poisoner's Handbook is the story of these innovative men, and of the toxic substances they worked so hard to understand.
Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum devotes each chapter of The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York to a different poison, explaining its chemistry and effects, a case or two in which it's used with nefarious intent, and the work of Norris and Gettler in developing tests and conducting forensic examinations. Blum discusses arsenic, chloroform, mustard and other toxic wartime gases, cyanide, mercury, carbon monoxide, radium (pity the clock-dial painters who sharpened their brushes between their lips!), lead, and less well-known but deadly substances such as thallium. These poisons are used for fumigation, to hurry inheritances, in support of sheer greed, and sometimes out of desperation or ignorance.
The science is not at all overwhelming, if you don't mind some talk of minced organs and dismemberment. Blum's vivid language describes the chemistry in terms of icy crystals, brilliant layers in beakers and tubes, and "the sizzle of gas burners...and the bubbling of flasks over flames."
Blum frames her book around the years of Prohibition, the so-called Noble Experiment, which was ratified as the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in January 1919 (and repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment in December 1933). Blum makes thorough work of the harm that accrued to the public from drinking poisonous methyl alcohol and concoctions such as "smoke" and "Ginger Jake." By government policy, industrial alcohol was "denatured" by toxic additives; Norris and Gettler saw so much death from this policy that they became ardent crusaders against Prohibition.
It's interesting to read social history through a very specific lens; and this book is a fascinating social history. Yes, it's about poison, and about the birth of forensic science, but there's also much to be considered about public policy and the growing awareness of industrial responsibility in this cross-section of American life from 1915 to 1935.
Linda Bulger, 2010
A little too much artistic licence
2010-07-23
Reviewer: Aubrey Kagan
I found the book interesting and certainly worth the read. However I did find some of the author's embellishments to be irritating. For instance describing the colour of the night sky or the detailed layout of the lab, I kept wandering "how could she know that?"
Also this is a technical book (albeit about chemistry and biology), but where the author describes the execution of two characters (page 174) using "a current of 2000 Volts" my antenna started flashing that there may be other possibly incorrect facts in the book. Current is measured in Amperes!
I also did find the description of the executions as not germane to the rest of the book.
