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My wife needs to know* about how to make a slow acting poison that could be administered over the course of a few days or a week, not cause any illness, then cause people to die slowly over the next few months or year. It has to be consistent with the level of technology that a hypothetical society roughly consistent with the late mediaevel or early modern period in our history.
I was thinking that if your society were skilled miners and metal workers and you had access to urainum ore deposits you might have discovered urainum oxides which might be radioactive enough to work as poisons, maybe..? Any other ideas? I don't know if any biological poisons could be slow acting enough. It's vital that the people being poisoned don't get sick at the time.
* she is writing a novel
Arsenic?
Plot twist... it was the wallpaper all along.
has she mentioned her thoughts on 'refreshing' the patio?
Pitchblende is dangerous stuff, don't know if a few days exposure would do you in though...
Marriage?
Marriage?
Ouch...
Plot twist... it was the wallpaper all along.
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Isn't polonium 210 the poison du jour?
Radiation poisioning is ideal but I don't know if natural ores could easily be refined enough to provide a lethal dose.
We thought about having the baddie put his hosts up in a room full of radon but that apparently just gives you lung cancer, which is a bit hit and miss and also takes a long time to kill you.
In the thread heading, 'Chemists, doctors, etc..', would it not be better to address poisoners? 😀
Mercury - quite widely used in mining I think?
The contemporaries of the murderer would be ignorant of a lot of the medical stuff we know today so she could keep the cause hidden from the charachters even if the reader has inkling of what's going on
Thallium bromide.
The question is could you get enough mercury into a few meals to be sure of killing someone slowly enough some time later?
The woman who got dimethyl mercury on her gloved hand died in 10 months, due to mercury in her system..
she could keep the cause hidden from the charachters even if the reader has inkling of what's going on
That was the plan - the local miners say would know of a mineral that's poisonous, but not know why, nor would the baddie, so it wouldn't be mentioned - but she wants the actual process to be plausible otherwise it's just a plot device.
It's a story innit it only needs to 90% accurate, artistic license and all that?
I've got a 1:1 with my boss next week, I could conduct a trial?
Quick browse of Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle's works might yield an answer?
Asbestos, though doesn't the effect come from dust?
then cause people to die slowly over the next few months or year.
Marriage?
a slow acting poison that could be administered over the course of a few days or a week, not cause any illness, then cause people to die slowly over the next few months or year
A big hitter thread.
Expects to hear less from Molgrips in future, say 6 months.
Can I have your bikes?
They're 26". You'd be better off being poisoned.
Marzipan.. has cyanide in it.
*eaten in 10kg doses it can be lethal.
It's vital that the people being poisoned don't get sick at the time.
My mum once had a patient in ICU who was a medical student who'd been doing a thesis on whether its possible for the villains in bond movies to poison someones champaign without the victim tasting it. As the practical aspect of the thesis he did a demonstration to his fellow students by mixing lethal doses of various poisons with champaign and tasting them before spitting them out. The flaw was one tasted so bad it made him gag and he accidentally swallowed it 🙂
Marzipan.. has cyanide in it.
Bracken does too - or rather the component parts of cyanide that get mixed when chewed.
Cyanides a bit fast acting though.
Various heavy metals poison cumulatively rather than in single doses. The poisonee would still get ill over time though. A devious plot devise perhaps - the poisoner and poisonee could be eating the same tained meals but things like garlic in the diet flush lead back out of the system
(Historian hat on). Early modern and England rules out any radiation based stuff. Classic poison of choice was arsenic, either from a poison ring (Borgias), via pages of a book (Medici favourite) or via clothing. It is pretty quick acting in large doses too. Bella Donna was used by the Romans as a poison, and has been credited by some Historians, including Carlo Ginzburg, as being responsible for the Witch Craze in 16th and 17th Century Europe because it caused hallucinations which made people think they were flying,
Artistic licence, use something fictional? Characters exposed to lethal doses of Unobtainium 60? Or a concoction brewed by the local apothecary, you can give it any name you like then.
Early modern and England rules out any radiation based stuff.
It's not actually early modern, it's comparable. So I'm imagining what might have been known about if say, Cornwall had extensive uranium deposits and Britons had been dealing with it for 5,000 years.
Artistic licence, use something fictional?
You've not met my wife.. her relentless pursuit of plausability in all aspects of what is actually a fantasty novel is probably what's going to make it a good book 🙂
or it'll mean the book never gets finished
what if the protagonist asked the poisonee to cut a carbon fibre steerer without using breathing apparatus? the inhaled carbon just slowly make its way to their heart.
Your search history must be interesting 😆
So I'm imagining what might have been known about if say, Cornwall had extensive uranium deposits and Britons had been dealing with it for 5,000 years
Still not going to work. Uranium ore isn't that radioactive you'd have to purify for that to be the case and I'd have thought it unlikely that that could be done pre industrial revolution given the energy requirements.
Classic poison of choice was arsenic,
Arsenic - IIRC people can also build up a tolerance to if they are exposed to continuous low doses - so a dose can maybe be lethal to one person but not another. Back in the 90s when I lived in brum there were cases being reported of folk in the midlands who'd worked in the metal industries all their lives, being exposed arsenic daily. When they died they were considered too hazardous to be cremated because they'd accumulated so much of it in their system.
You've not met my wife.. her relentless pursuit of plausability in all aspects of what is actually a fantasty novel is probably what's going to make it a good book
Is it not plausible that there's some root or flower that they had their own localised name for and which has fallen into disuse / is now extinct, perhaps?
Stumbled across this, any help? http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/
Pffft, coming on to a web forum and asking others to do their research for free 🙄
her relentless pursuit of plausability in all aspects of what is actually a fantasty novel
Bit like your posts then 😛
Did you read any of the links I put at the top Molgrips?
There's 15-20 choices there all accurate to the timeline.
I did yes. None were appropriate. Needs to be delayed action, by weeks or months.
And the timeline is not the same as Earth's real history - I don't need to know what was actually available in the actual time period, I need to know what MIGHT've been available given the level of development but different circumstances.
or it'll mean the book never gets finished
That is a distinctly possible outcome.. the last time she got stuck it got put down for several years...
Smoking
[url= http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/07/chemist-guilty-murder-thallium-poisoning ]Thallium[/url]
sugar 🙂
[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia ]water[/url]. Although in the middle ages I guess the cholera would have finished you off before then. How about biological poisonings?
Many "radioactive" toxins are more toxic than radioactive. For metals, I'd say lead or mercury were your choices.
Iocane poison.
Tasteless, odourless and completely undetectable.
It's the deadliest poison know to man. You can also develop an immunity to it by taking tiny amounts on a regular basis.
Ergot?
Traces back to the Egyptians, through to the middle ages and up to the 1930's?
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Can she play with the age of the planet?
Push it back 2 billion years or so, slightly increase the oxygen conc and make something like the Oklo uranium ore deposits fission reactor.
Start killing people with a host of "natural" stuff like Xenon135.
Ricin from castor beans.
Mushrooms.
Ear wax on a blade or pin for a lovely infection.
Heavy water? Not sure its a killer, i think its just an element used in nuclear devices.
What about a parasite that can be induced to enter the victim's brain, and slowly munch away at it over the years?
Like a Daily Mail subscription?
gold dust
Ebola?
Or for a lethal STD caused by pierced condom?
*slow clap*
Or for a lethal STD caused by pierced condom?
syphilis
The tobacco barons have mastered slow acting poisons.
Guaranteed to kill you or ruin your physical wellbeing over many years.
Failing that, a boomslang snake could be used for delayed but deadly effects.
Heavy water would kill you eventually, but you'd have to be drinking it by the pint - if you managed to deuterate 50% of your body's water content that's reckoned to be enough to see you off.blader1611 - MemberHeavy water? Not sure its a killer, i think its just an element used in nuclear devices.
Bet it's bin dun, though, as a plot device - seems tailor made for a SF short story and heavy water was pretty well known as a substance in the nuclear era (although not itself radioactive, just isotopic).
Asbestos, though doesn't the effect come from dust?
Depends on the timeframe; it causes mesothelioma thirty years down the line...
what about carbon monoxide?
[url= http://oem.bmj.com/content/59/10/708.full ]http://oem.bmj.com/content/59/10/708.full[/url]
or, something along the lines of DDT or tetraethyllead which fat accumulates, followed by a substance to cause slow weight loss. as the body metabolises fat the poison is released and metabolised
Arsenic, again: it was used to make a green dye. In a damp room mould would attack the paper, disposing of the As as a gas, AsH3 I think, somewhat similar to ammonia.
So have a room or house decorated in spring or early summer, because of the mould and damp of the previous winter, then the victim kicks the bucket in the new year.
Napoleon was exiled to St Helena where he lived in a damp house, this has been suggested as a cause of his death.
I half remember Antimony does something similar. And I think the dye was Paris Green.