A Brief History Of Poisons: From Hemlock To Botox And The Killer Bean Calabar

by Peter Macinnis

Poisons permeate our world. They are in the environment, the workplace, the home. They are in food, our favourite whiskey, medicine, well water. They have been used to cure disease as well as to incapacitate and kill. They smooth wrinkles, block pain, stimulate, and enhance athletic ability.

In this 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 poisons-from cyanide to strychnine, from Botox to ricin and Sarin gas-as well as their detection.

Then he analyses the science of their action in the body and their uses in medicine, cosmetics, war, and terrorism.

With wit and precision, he weighs such questions as : Was Lincoln's volatility caused by mercury poisoning? Was Jack the Ripper an arsenic eater?

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Medicine, Chemistry, Medical, Biology

239 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

During 2021, Macinnis has republished revised versions of all of his out-of-print books. The website listed above tells you how to get them. In 2024, he published The Lesser of Two Eagles, where you can learn that in an auction, you get something for nodding

Happy grandfather, travels, writes for adults and youngsters, mainly history or science. Published by the National Library of Australia (Australian Backyard Naturalist May 2012, another book Curious Minds October, 2012, Big Book of Australian History, 2013, 2015, 2017). Talks on ABC (RN), translated into 7 other languages. Winner of the W.A. Premier's Prize for Children's Literature 2013 and other awards.

Writing blog Old Writer on the Block. Google it and say g'day!

McManly on most social media. His Kokoda Track: 101 Days was a 2008 Eve Pownall Honour Book in the CBCA 'Book of the Year' awards. His Australian Backyard Explorer was the 2010 Eve Pownall Book of the Year (listed in 2011, in the prestigious international White Ravens list of children's literature). In 2012, his Australian Backyard Naturalist won a Whitley award, and the WA Premier's Children's Literature Award in 2013. After a few busy years doing other stuff, his Australian Backyard Earth Scientist won the long-winded Educational Publishing Awards Australia prize for best "Student Resource – Arts/Science/Humanities/Social Sciences/Technologies/Health and Physical Education/Languages ".

He has had half a dozen titles rated as "Notable Books" by the Children's Book Council of Australia: that's equivalent to short listing.

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely foray into the world of everything poisonous and dangerous and how it all might have come to be that way.

[Peter Macinnis]

I wrote it, so I shall remain neutral.

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Half-Priced bookstore guy had promised that this book was "really great" and I listened to him. Fortunately, I only paid $4.99 for it, so I wasn't too disappointed when, after finishing it, I found I had learned not much more than I knew before starting it -- namely, that things like cyanide, arsenic, hemlock, lead, mercury, pesticides, nicotine, -- if consumed in sufficient quantities -- will kill you. I was hoping to learn exactly HOW it is (physiologically speaking) that various poisons kill you, not because I'm planning anything nefarious, but simply because I was curious. But the book doesn't really focus on the "HOW" and most of its contents are neatly summed up in Wikipedia's "History of Poisons" page. Give this book a pass. It's just regurgitated facts.

[James Oden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure exactly when I read this book but I found it on my shelves recently and remembered it was a fun read. However the most interesting part of the book was the looks I got while reading it in public.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm used to reading pop-science books by Mary Roach, and Poisons was a disappointment in comparison. The chapter themes are too broad for substantive exploration, and the author uses choppy historical vignettes in attempt to cover a vast historical swath of poisonings. There is also excessive focus on the chemical names of poisons and an absence of explanation for non-scientist readers. Finally, I was not a fan of the author's political interjections, which were inappropriate rather than funny.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of a slog at times, between the author's detours into chemical formulae that mean nothing to me and the itty-bitty, pale-gray typeface. It was worth it because of the interesting stories about every kind of poison. The author even reframes many infections as poisonous, even as he does the more conventional thing by pointing out that in the right dose, even mercury and arsenic are medicinal rather than deadly. The book takes you all over the world -- Africa, China, Lapland -- and rethinks a lot of common wisdom, asking whether the Black Plague was really a global outbreak of ergot poisoning and pointing out that the French were using poison gas in the Great War before the Germans. I would have it enjoyed it much more with a page magnifier.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be interesting, though the content was not quite what I expected after reading a summary about it. It covers the lengthy history of poisons and how they've been used, but the book never really delved into the more in-depth information relating to how they act on the body. Basically, I was hoping for a more scientific perspective of poisons rather than a historical record of their use. It was still an interesting read though.

[Zenith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but it's all over the place. Its lack of good structure made me wonder what its point was.. sure it's a collection of facts, historical anecdotes and a bit of chemistry, but it's not worth the time spent reading it.

[Ryan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, good overview. I was impressed to learn something very interesting about a poison I thought I knew well; tetrodotoxin. I won't spoil it for you.
Using the star system as follows: 0 = trash, angry I even tried to read it, 1 = regrettable, 2 = ok, preferable to not reading, 3 = a good and enjoyable read, 4 = important, enhancing, and/ or a great read, I'd likely recommend it and read it again, 5 = transcendent, incomparable, and/ or life changing.

[Christian West · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting introduction to the history of poisons, including little snippets on poisoners, poison victims and the people who created poisons. Each chapter is relatively short, around 20 pages or so, and covers a different category of poison or how poisons were used.

[Arlene Kropp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting but way more technical than I expected

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, though it is ‘brief’. Nothing is covered too deeply and a little bit technical at times. But an interesting subject nonetheless.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poisons was an enjoyable read, though not as zesty or engaging as Simon Winchester’s histories tend to be. Organization had a lot to do with it. Macinnis organizes the book by kind of poisoning, rather than using a couple interesting anecdotes to frame the stories. While there are certainly interesting tidbits, this division makes the book feel a bit more dry than I was looking for. That said:

* I was happy to see a discussion, once again, of Dr. Crippen. That guy shows up everywhere.
* Hemlock shares a plant family with parsley, so it’s not uncommon for the two to be confused. One story told of a man who was poisoned to death by a salad his kids made for him.
* Napoleon may have died from arsenic poisoning–because of his wallpaper. Apparently a certain shade of green was given its luster using an arsenic-based dye. When mold and fungi grew in the tasty glue behind the wallpaper, it sent the arsenic airborne as a defense mechanism and people in the room inhaled it. Researchers have found samples of the wallpaper from Napoleon’s exile that used this kind of dye.
* There’s a tree that’s so poisonous, that if you sleep under it during a rainstorm, you most likely won’t wake up.

Overall an enjoyable read, but not stellar.

[Paris Pierce · Rating 1 out of 5]

Filled with random fascinating facts but none of the facts were really expanded upon and the book was way to technical throughout. It could have been a lot better. Sorry, skip this one unless you already are a chemist.

[MJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a really hard time following this book. I like the author's voice for the most part, but it felt almost stream of consciousness and I couldn't really keep up when it kept jumping from topic to topic.

[Kurt Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Content: 4 stars. Delivery: 1 star. average 2.5 stars, rounded down.

From the Prologue, "I was sure nobody had written a book called Lives of Great Poisoners, and within a few minutes I was arguing to write Mrs. Pugh's Breakfast Tabel Book.

Well, as a table book, this fails...

"DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which may be more easily read as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane (real chemists don't use hyphens, but I find it easier to understand that way)." - p 176... quite a dig at your reader while simultaneously pointing out your snobby chemist attitude.

"The lethal concentration/exposure measure (LCt50) of phosgene is about 3200 mg/min/m3." - p 169

"There are two monochloro or octachloro, ten di or hepta, 14 tri and penta, and 22 tetrachloro dibenzodioxins, one of which, referred to as 2,3,7,8 TCDD, is the nastiest" - p 179

and if you survived the book long enough to reach page, 212, you find this gem, "His 606th trial was on arsphenamine [and aside, I honestly had a Freudian slip where I wrote arse-phenamine] known today as salvarsan, C12H12N2O2As.2HCl.2H2O, or dioxy-diamino-arsenobenzol-dihydochloride."

Yes, this is certainly an easily read "tabletop book" for Mrs. Pugh. (did you note the sarcasm? it's intended).

Oh, not to mention (but I will), the non-fiction book filled with editorials on abortion, capital punishment, and global warming (wherein he constantly references changes in climate over the centuries impacting things like ergot, but only this latest round of overly higher temperatures are human-caused, with no proof... ). None of those editorials belong in a book on Lives of Great Poisoners.

Did I mention the abysmal delivery? He has paragraphs of descriptions of events that might be worthy of Lives of Great Poisoners, but it is so convoluted that it bears several readings to understand (sometimes not) what he is trying to relate. There are dozens of references of "more on this later," but when we return later, he rarely reminds us of the backstory ... the, "oh, this is where we come back from previously mentioned story." Sometimes this is 100 pages later, and we are supposed to recall all the intimate details and someone who has studied and memorized his confusing, but light-hearted, easily read "tabletop book" for Mrs. Pugh.

It could have been so much better.

[Hafeez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically, from the title we have already know what the book is about. It tells us about the poisons that have been used from the ancient Greek era to the modern era. The poisons itself were used widely for medicine, war and also for murder. Our foods also consist of poisons and we ourselves are "poison's children". Something from the book that make me laugh was oxygen is also one of the poisons. This is legit though, since the oxygen is poisonous to the anaerobic bacteria.

If you think you will lost while reading this book, don't worry because there is glossary of poisons section that introducing you to the poisons. But, there are many chemical terms that might confused you with long chemical names that will twist your tongue. There's also a dramatis personae section that described famous people that involved with poisons (used/killed/involved in research etc) throughout the eras such as Napoleon, Socrates, Cleopatra and many more.

Most of the times, the writer only explain the poisons from historical perspective instead of scientific perspective. It's feels like reading a mystery/murder novel. There is a fragment explanation about chemical reaction and biology-thingy in this book, definitely bring back my memories while studying about organic chemistry and plant physiology before.

Overall, this book is fun to read.

[Danni Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other reviewed here I exepcted a deeper look into the physiology and history of posion similar to 'song of the cell' what I got was a bit of a disorganised mess.

The random page length grey boxes with asideds will splice mid sentence making the book difficult to follow at times. When phyisiology is explained its done either too vaugely or with a bunch of long chemical names thrown in. Some of the asides are overly judgemental in the same way your boomer Dad who hates protesters is, he also targets 'womens vanity' making the same tired 'women put posion in their face' comparisons.

The book completely lost me though in the back half. Before then some of the claims made me raise my eyebrows; but due to how poorly the bibliography is written it is very difficult to check sources. This comes to a head with the claim ergot caused the salem witch trials. I would again love to examine the sources peter used I would guess the 1976 science magazine as Peter cited this in other areas. From reading information from the Salem witch museum this theroy appears to have been almost immidiately debunked.

Overall a frustrating and dissapointing read occasionally interrupted by a fun fact or observation which would require a lot of googling and reading other better works to verify.

[George F Greenwald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's descriptions are a mixed "bag." Sometimes he uses terms totally unfamiliar, at least to me. At other times he went into great length describing how particular poison was formulated or occurred in nature. Still, in some instances he did gave examples of possible uses of poisons, but had very little real information to back up his suppositions.

I still found the concept that poisons are essentially "everywhere" and that we often use poisons (such as penicillin) to kill off bacteria that also poison our system a unique way to describe the chemistry of our world. Although there are many phrases describing poisons that did not and will not have meaning to me, the descriptions were sufficiently fascinating that I would give a modest recommendation to readers who are interested in learning more about our world.

[Michelle Luplow · Rating 2 out of 5]

bought this book because of my interest in the public health sciences. I could be slightly mentally challenged when it comes to reading comprehension and this book proved difficult to comprehend.
Maybe it's because the author is from Australia, and so communication and writing styles are different than in the U.S., but it was hard to follow, especially through the first 3/4 of the book. To me it felt like a stream of consciousness essay that entwined and wove and snagged all these ideas together.
I recognized where he was trying to use humor, and sometimes it made me chuckle, but overall, it's not a book I would keep. I'm slightly more informed on poisons - both the good and the bad, but the book definitely didn't live up to my expecations.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

With all the murder mystery books I read, this book sounded like a great way to learn more about the poisons used in many of those books. To a degree, it was, but not to the extent I was expecting.

While I was looking for more about the poisons themselves - symptoms, how they are administered, the speed of their efficacy, antidotes - what I got instead was a little of this information, but more anecdotal stories about how they have been used in the past. While interesting, it wasn't what I'd hope to read, thus my three-star rating.

[richard mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poison and its effect on man and environment.

One of those books which are of interest to those who enjoy having a bit of knowledge on many subjects. Not filled with charts and statistics. Simple short stories of posions that have shaped our lives. Easy read, not so dry that it's difficult to get thru. Wetted my interest enough as to where i will probably follow up with more detailed reading.

[Efguirguis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Encyclopedic in scope, written with wit and erudition. A delightful if exhausting read. Not likely to be to everybody's cup of tea. For those who are interested it is captivating if complex and wide ranging dissertation that is an eye opener.
Excels as a writer. His research into ergot is stunning and his reflections on apoptosis is nothing short of amazing and quite alarming.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read to be sure but definitely not what I expected. They didn’t cover many of the topics that I’m interested in the biggest being poisonous plants being associated with witchcraft and superstition as well poison employed in ancient days by the first priestesses and herb wives of old. Most of the information consisted of occupational toxicology with many dry anecdotes about criminal cases from the Victorian era. Quirky and informative to be sure but a little boring. I wasn’t familiar with many of the compounds listed.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poison could be defined as any substance that destroys the health or life of a living organism, but 100 cups of coffee, 250 grams of salt, and 200 kilograms of potatoes will all kill an adult human. Vitamin D is essential insmall doses, but large doses will kill. As Alfred Taylor said, “A poison in a small dose is a medicine, and a medicine in a large dose is a poison.”

[Christine Rothrock · Rating 3 out of 5]

"As we've seen, we are prepared to poison the world, so long as there is a profit to be made" that quote pretty much sums up human nature. This book was alright, the book was interesting but didn't really go into the poisons they way I would of liked. I would give 3.5 starts if I could.

[Oliviaolivia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, unorganized, and crap writing

[Andrew Buckel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

Just ok. Boot great writing on subject rather drawn out and booring regarding the scope of subject matter available. That's all

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting research for some writing. Nothing too complex to read and understand but it’s not an easy read. Factual and informative

[Martin Willoughby · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know how to pioson someone, this is the book you'll need. Ideal for Crime writers.