How does a chemical sitting in a bottle doing no harm to anyone end up as a poison inside a dead body? Whatever the poison may be, there are three distinct stages that occur before death: delivery, actions, and effects.
Historically some poisons have been created by mixing together several different poisons, as seen in aqua tofana, a mixture of lead, arsenic, and belladonna.1 Similarly, foxglove plants are also poisonous, but the single chemical digoxin can be purified from the plant. For example, crude extracts from the deadly nightshade plant (also known as belladonna) are quite dangerous, but from these extracts comes the purified chemical atropine. Poisons obtained from living organisms are often mixtures of many chemicals. The first appearance of poison in the English language appeared in 1200, meaning “a deadly potion or substance.”
The word poison is derived from the Latin word potio, which simply means “drink.” This slowly morphed into the Old French word puison or poison.
When the word toxikon was combined with the Greek term logia, meaning “to study,” we ended up with toxicology, or the study of toxins. The word toxikon comes from ancient Greek, meaning “a poison into which arrows are dipped,” and describes plant extracts smeared onto arrowheads to induce death. If you are on the receiving end of either though, the difference is somewhat academic. Poisons are any chemicals that cause harm to the body, and can be natural or man-made, whereas toxins usually refer to deadly chemicals made by living things. The words poison and toxin are often used interchangeably, though strictly speaking they are not the same thing. In other cases knowledge of the poison is not of therapeutic benefit, because there is simply no antidote. In a few instances such knowledge has led to appropriate treatment and full recovery. Each poison kills in its own unique way, and the varied symptoms experienced by the victims often give clues as to the nature of the poison used against them. This book is not a catalog of poisoners and their victims, but rather explores the nature of poisons and how they affect the body at the molecular, cellular, and physiological levels. Some poisons can kill within minutes others can be given slowly over time, gradually accumulating in the body but still leading inexorably to the victim’s death. It requires consideration of how the poison will be administered. Poisoning requires planning and a knowledge of the victim’s habits. Compared with hot-blooded spur-of-the-moment murders, the planning and cold calculations involved in murder by poison perfectly fit the legal term malice aforethought. And among the means of killing, few methods generate such a peculiar morbid fascination as poison. Within the annals of crime, murder holds a particularly heinous position. I love the old way best, the simple way of poison, where we too are strong as men.
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