The poison find itself mentioned in history books where emperor Claudius is said to have been poisoned by his wife, Agrippina, in a plate of mushrooms which contained aconite. Mumbai cops launch inquiry against Sameer Wankhede, other officials over alleged extortion claims.
Horoscope October Stalled work of Libra people will be completed, know about other zodiac signs. Vicky Kaushal-Katrina Kaif to tie the knot by December? Govt invites applications for chief economic adviser post.
Apple rolls out iOS Opinion Refusing bail to Aryan Khan is unjustified. Haqikat Kya Hai: Shami bowls Pakistani handlers troll. Kurukshetra: Kranti Redkar replies to allegations put on Sameer Wankhede. Tamil Nadu: 5 killed in blast at firecracker shop in Sankarapuram. Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong convicted, fined for illegal anesthetic medication use. US to lift restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers from November 8; new guidelines issued.
Communal tension continues in Bangladesh; rumours surface on social media sites. Ranveer Singh's quirky 'Tuesdays' post puzzles wife Deepika Padukone, her reaction is priceless. Gold Price Today: Gold declines marginally; silver falls Rs Home loan: Now avail facility via post offices in villages across India. National Stock Exchange's registered investors base crosses 5 crore unique investors.
Zoom brings live captioning feature to everyone: Here's how it works. YouTube starts rolling out 'New to You' feature: Here's how it works. Young Sheldon to Joey, 5 beloved side characters who got a show of their own. Safe and clean drinking water a priority for young mothers. Right food can help beat depression, say nutritionists. Is pregnancy related low back pain sciatica? Explained: Inverse relationship of good metabolism and weight management.
Why is listening to your gut important? Sameer Wankhede's wife shares wedding pics, says 'We have never converted to any other religion'. Karwa Chauth Netizens celebrate festival with funny memes and rib-tickling jokes. Share Via. Get our Daily News Capsule Subscribe. Thank you for subscribing to our Daily News Capsule newsletter. Whatsapp Twitter Facebook Linkedin. Sign Up. Edit Profile. Subscribe Now. Your Subscription Plan Cancel Subscription. Then there were the inevitable mistakes as shopkeepers were allowed to sell bacon, butter and cheese from one side of their shops and poison from the other.
People had lived with the dangers of environmental arsenic poisoning for centuries. In 19th-century Britain, a rich green pigment containing large amounts of arsenic was widely used in paints, wallpaper, fabrics, soap, toys, sweets, cakes and candles, making it hard to avoid in one form or another.
Throughout history women had also used the poison as a cosmetic in the form of a paste or ointment, or by swallowing it in sub-toxic doses as a tonic. It was women who were most to be feared. Though physically and politically weak, they exercised terrifying power through their domination of the kitchen and the sick room. Doctors were adding to the menace, prescribing arsenic for practically everything from asthma to typhus, malaria, period pain, worms, anaemia, syphilis, neuralgia and as a general pick-me-up.
In fact, the element called arsenic passes quite safely through the human body provided it remains in that elemental state. Arsenic trioxide, or white arsenic which most people mean when they refer simply to arsenic , is a very different proposition. A harmless-looking powder, resembling flour or sugar at a quick glance, white arsenic is tasteless, easily dispersed in hot food and drink, and fatal in tiny doses. French aristocrat Marie Lafarge in prison; she was convicted of poisoning her husband with arsenic.
In the s and 50s, though, what had been a growing public concern was ramped up into something close to national panic by some high-profile criminal cases, along with colourful reporting in the popular press.
Editors found that stories of poisoners in kitchens and behind bed curtains, their little bags of white powder at the ready, did wonders for circulation. In , the day before poisoner Sarah Chesham was hanged, a late amendment was slipped into the Sale of Arsenic Regulation Bill, banning women and children from buying or possessing arsenic. And in this poisoning epidemic, it was women who were most to be feared. Women were by nature scheming and duplicitous, so the thinking went, and though physically and politically weak, they exercised terrifying power through their domination of the kitchen and the sick room.
Like poison itself, women operated at a subliminal level, their dreadful purpose hidden until too late. But if women did indeed resort to poison more often than men, there was perhaps another explanation than their natural proclivity to evil.
Poison of any sort was often the only weapon available to them in a society where male violence against them, particularly wife-beating, was both common and widely tolerated, including by the courts.
His heroine was said to be modelled on the French aristocrat Marie Lafarge, convicted of murdering her husband by spiking his food with arsenic. He had, his critics said, not only produced a perfect do-it-yourself guide for poisoners but, just as bad, he had presented his murderess as an intelligent, refined, even sympathetic character.
Fear of women poisoners went off the scale when a perceived deadly sisterhood was uncovered in Essex. If Marie Lafarge personified the menace that lurked behind a sweet face and an elegant figure, then the likes of Sarah Chesham and Mary May pandered to another stereotype — that of the brutalised creature from the lower orders. When the boys were exhumed, a toxicologist reported finding arsenic in both bodies.
Sarah stood trial but, despite some lurid allegations — she was said to have skulked around the countryside with poisoned sweets in her pocket — she was acquitted.
0コメント