[PDF] The Inheritors Powder A Tale Of Arsenic Murder And The New Forensic Science eBook

Author : Sandra Hempel
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 45,74 MB
Release : 2013-10-15
Category : History
ISBN : 0393239713

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Explores how an infamous murder case led to the birth of modern toxicology.

Author : Sandra Hempel
Publisher : Phoenix
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 12,83 MB
Release : 2014-07-17
Category : Arsenic
ISBN : 9781780222226

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This is the story of how an infamous murder case led to the birth of modern toxicology. In the 19th century criminal poisoning with arsenic was frighteningly easy. For a few pence and with few questions asked, it was possible to buy enough poison to kill off an entire family, hence arsenic's popular name: the Inheritor's Powder. Yet if poisoning was easy, it was a notoriously difficult crime to prove. The popular press led to the nation becoming transfixed by the idea that danger lurked in every cup and on every plate. 'The fell spirit of the Borgias' was 'stalking through English society' wrote one commentator. Thus, armed with a coffee pot and some 'rat poison' one potential heir saw his opportunity. The case became a cause célèbre and led an unknown chemist, James Marsh, to develop a failsafe test. This proved a turning point in the way such crimes were investigated - but years later there was a twist in the tale!

Author : John Emsley
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 433 pages
File Size : 33,86 MB
Release : 2006-07-13
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 0192806009

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This book is about elements that kill. Mercury, arsenic, antimony, lead, and thallium can be lethal, as many a poisoner knew too well. Emsley explores the gruesome history of these elements and those who have succumbed to them in a fascinating narrative that weaves together stories of true crime, enduring historical mysteries, tragic accidents, and the science behind it all. The colourful cast includes ancient alchemists, kings, leaders, a pope, several great musicians, and amotley crew of murderers. Among the intriguing accounts is that of the 17th century poet Sir Thomas Overbury, who survived four attempts to poison him with mercury but died when given the poison in enema form - under whose direction remains uncertain. Here, too, is detailed the celebrated case of FlorenceMaybrick, convicted of poisoning her violent husband James with arsenic, but widely believed at the time to be innocent. The question of her guilt is still disputed.Threaded through the book alongside the history is the growing understanding of chemistry, and the effects of different chemical substances on the human body. Thousands suffered the ill effects of poisonous vapours from mercury, lead, and arsenic before the dangers were realized. Hatters went mad because of mercury poisoning, and hundreds of young girls working in factories manufacturing wallpaper in the 19th century were poisoned by the arsenic-based green pigments used for the leaves of thepopular floral designs. Even in the middle of the 20th century, accidental mercury poisoning caused many deaths in Minamata Bay, while leaded petrol poisoned the whole planet, and arsenic still continues to poison millions is Asia.Through vividly told stories of innocent blunders, industrial accidents, poisoners of various hues - cold, cunning, desperate - and deaths that remain a mystery, Emsley here uncovers the dark side of the Periodic Table.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 38,12 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Arsenic
ISBN : 9780753153819

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All was quiet in the Bodle home in Plumstead village on the morning of 2 November 1833. In the large farmhouse, the maid Sophia Taylor began preparing breakfast while, at the cottage down the track, Mary Higgins came down to set the fire. When the local doctor was summoned several hours later he found four women suffering from severe vomiting and stomach pains whilst the master of the house was delirious with pain. His suspicions raised, the doctor contacted Michael Faraday at his laboratory in Woolwich. So began a chain of events that would grip the entire nation as the race to find the definitive test began.

Author : Deborah Blum
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 19,44 MB
Release : 2011-01-25
Category : Medical
ISBN : 1101524898

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Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie." —The New York Observer “The Poisoner’s Handbook breathes deadly life into the Roaring Twenties.” —Financial Times “Reads like science fiction, complete with suspense, mystery and foolhardy guys in lab coats tipping test tubes of mysterious chemicals into their own mouths.” —NPR: What We're Reading A fascinating Jazz Age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice. In 2014, PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE released a film based on The Poisoner's Handbook.

Author : Roy Porter
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 11 pages
File Size : 47,79 MB
Release : 2006-06-05
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0521864267

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Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, 'The Cambridge History of Medicine' surveys the rise of medicine in the West from classical times to the present. Covering both the social and scientific history of medicine, this volume traces the chronology of key developments and events.

Author : Virginia McConnell
Publisher : Praeger
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 19,53 MB
Release : 1999-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 0275962970

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"The attorney Virginia A. McConnell provides a view of Connecticut in the late 1800s as revealed through the unrelated but disturbingly similar murders of two young women. The first, Mary Stannard, was an unmarried mother who worked as a domestic and believed herself to be pregnant for a second time. The man accused of her murder, Reverend Herbert Hayden, was a married lay minister whose seduction of Mary was common knowledge. Three years later, Jennie Cramer, another woman of low social status, was found floating facedown in Long Island Sound off West Haven. The characters involved in the commission, investigation, and prosecution of these crimes emerge as vibrant individuals, and their stories shed light on many aspects of the Victorian world: sex and marria drugs, from arsenic to aphrodisiacs; forensic medici and courtroom procedures."--BOOK JACKET.