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"Poisons History."
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Hazardous chemicals : agents of risk and change, 1800-2000
Although poisonous substances have been a hazard for the whole of human history, it is only with the rise of industrial chemistry over the last two centuries that toxic, manmade pollutants have become such a varied and widespread danger. Covering a host of both notorious and little-known substances, the chapters in this collection investigate the emergence of specific toxic, pathogenic, carcinogenic, and ecologically harmful chemicals as well as the scientific, cultural and legislative responses they have prompted. Each study situates chemical hazards in a long-term and transnational framework and demonstrates the importance of considering both the natural and the social contexts in which their histories have unfolded.
Book
Dew of death : the story of lewisite, America's World War I weapon of mass destruction
Dr. Vilensky raises important concerns regarding the threats posed
by lewisite and other weapons of mass destruction. As he describes,
non-proliferation programs are a vital component in the War on Terror. --
Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator Joel Vilensky's book
is a detailed and immensely useful account of the development and history of one of
the major chemical weapons... We will always know how to make lewisite, the 'Dew of
Death,' but that does not mean that we should, or be compelled to accept such
weapons in our lives. -- from the Foreword by Richard Butler, former head of
UN Special Commission to Disarm Iraq In 1919, when the Great War
was over, the New York Times reported on a new chemical weapon with the
fragrance of geranium blossoms, a poison gas that was the climax of this
country's achievements in the lethal arts. The name of this substance was
lewisite and this is its story -- the story of an American weapon of mass
destruction. Discovered by accident by a graduate student and
priest in a chemistry laboratory at the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., lewisite was developed into a weapon by Winford Lewis, who became
its namesake, working with a team led by James Conant, later president of Harvard
and head of government oversight for the U.S.'s atomic bomb program, the Manhattan
Project. After a powerful German counterattack in the spring of 1918, the government
began frantic production of lewisite in hopes of delivering 3,000 tons of the stuff
to be ready for use in Europe the following year. The end of war came just as the
first shipment was being prepared. It was dumped into the sea, but not forgotten.
Joel A. Vilensky tells the intriguing story of the discovery and
development of lewisite and its curious history. During World War II, the United
States produced more than 20,000 tons of lewisite, testing it on soldiers and
secretly dropping it from airplanes. In the end, the substance was abandoned as a
weapon because it was too unstable under most combat conditions. But a weapon once
discovered never disappears. It was used by Japan in Manchuria and by Iraq in its
war with Iran. The Soviet Union was once a major manufacturer. Strangely enough,
although it was developed for lethal purposes, lewisite led to an effective
treatment for a rare neurological disease.
eBook
Healing with poisons : potent medicines in medieval China
\"Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749013 At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China's formative era of pharmacy (200-800 CE), poisons were strategically employed as healing agents to cure everything from abdominal pain to epidemic disease. Healing with Poisons explores the ways physicians, religious figures, court officials, and laypersons used toxic substances to both relieve acute illnesses and enhance life. It illustrates how the Chinese concept of du-a word carrying a core meaning of \"potency\"-led practitioners to devise a variety of methods to transform dangerous poisons into effective medicines. Recounting scandals and controversies involving poisons from the Era of Division to the Tang, historian Yan Liu considers how the concept of du was central to how the people of medieval China perceived both their bodies and the body politic. He also examines the wide range of toxic minerals, plants, and animal products used in classical Chinese pharmacy, including everything from the herb aconite to the popular recreational drug Five-Stone Powder. By recovering alternative modes of understanding wellness and the body's interaction with foreign substances, this study cautions against arbitrary classifications and exemplifies the importance of paying attention to the technical, political, and cultural conditions in which substances become truly meaningful. Healing with Poisons is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Buffalo\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Botany meets archaeology: people and plants in the past
This paper explores the close links between botany and archaeology, using case studies from the ancient Mediterranean. It explains the kinds of palaeobotanical remains that archaeologists can recover and the methods used to analyse them. The importance of iconographic and textual evidence is also underlined. Examples of key research areas that focus on ancient plants are discussed: diet and palaeoeconomy; medicines, poisons, and psychotropics; perfumes, cosmetics, and dyes; and prestige.
Journal Article
The poison diaries. Nightshade
In late eighteenth-century Northumberland, England, sixteen-year-old Jessamine Luxton is so desperate to find Weed, who her father says deserted her when she was at death's door, that she asks for help from the evil Oleander.
Book
Coup d'oeil sur les poisons et les sciences occultes
Extrait: \"Orphée, médecin et poète, est le premier auteur de l'antiquité qui, sans la nommer, se soit occupé de la science Toxicologique. En effet, dans son poème des Pierres, il parle des différents poisons tirés des végétaux, et du règne animal; et de quelques pierres précieuses, que l'on considérait comme antidotes; il ne nomme point l'arsenic.\"
eBook
Hazardous Chemicals
Although poisonous substances have been a hazard for the whole
of human history, it is only with the development and large-scale
production of new chemical substances over the last two centuries
that toxic, manmade pollutants have become such a varied and
widespread danger. Covering a host of both notorious and
little-known chemicals, the chapters in this collection investigate
the emergence of specific toxic, pathogenic, carcinogenic, and
ecologically harmful chemicals as well as the scientific, cultural
and legislative responses they have prompted. Each study situates
chemical hazards in a long-term and transnational framework and
demonstrates the importance of considering both the natural and the
social contexts in which their histories have unfolded.
eBook
On Anecdote and Antidotes
This article describes the use of poison trials, in which an animal or a condemned criminal was poisoned, to test antidotes in sixteenth-century Europe. In contrast to most drug testing in medieval and early modern Europe, which was gathered in the normal course of therapeutic experience, the poison trial was a contrived, deliberate event. I argue that poison trials had an important function in both medical testing and medical writing in the period between 1524–1580. While poison trials dated back to antiquity, they tended to be described in medieval texts as theoretical possibilities rather than empirical tests that had already occurred. In contrast, early modern physicians conducted poison trials and described them as anecdotes in medical texts. Although physicians did not explicitly separate poison trials from evidence gathered in the course of regular therapeutic experience, they did imbue the outcome of poison trials with considerable epistemological weight.
Journal Article
Venom as a cure--some notes on ancient medicine
Very little is known today about the linguistics and facts relating to venoms in the ancient world. The article concerns itself initially with the terminology: How were venoms conceptualized and what position did they occupy among medicines and other poisons? Additionally ancient knowledge of the constitution and location of the venoms will be examined. Furthermore, it shall be outlined how it was perceived that the poisons actually took effect. The results of our investigations indicate that it was unlikely that venoms were used for medicinal purposes in ancient times.
Journal Article