that girl is poison ☠️ (spooky book breakdown pt. 1)
notes on the intro of history of potions, powders, and murderous practitioners by ben hubbard
this halloween season, i intentionally decided to read something “spooky.” i don’t ever need it to be october to do this (hence the quotation marks around spooky in the previous sentence; i’m a spooky girl! i have the capacity to watch, read, and listen to the most diabolical stuff at any time of the year), but since the history of potions, powders, and murderous practitioners by ben hubbard has been sitting idly on my shelf for over a year now, I thought october was the perfect month to finally give it a go.
when i picked it up at a cute bookshop in brooklyn, the first detail i noticed was the incredibly creative and eye-catching book cover:
look at that! i totally judged a book by its cover here and assumed that because of how intrigued i was by the cover art and subject matter, that it would be a treat. & it is! good thing i wasn’t tricked. 😉🤣
i want to share some fascinating facts that i’ve learned thus far in the intro alone. i hope you enjoy!
poison - a recurring story
i am reminded by the above title chosen by hubbard that poison has been around for centuries, since the ancient times. that girl has been around for, as hubbard decribes it, as long as humans have existed. hubbard kicks off the first small portion of his book by introducing readers to a few examples—modern and ancient—of how poisons have been used by humans throughout history. here’s what i learned:
☠️ salisbury, england - 2018 - a former soviet spy named sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, were poisoned by novichok, a military-grade nerve agent. it was sprayed on their door handle and when it took affect, members of their community called emergency services, reporting that an elderly man and a younger woman were unresponsive on a bench outside. both sergei and yulia were in comas for weeks, but miraculously survived. read more about the poisoning here.
☠️ novichok, which has no odor or color, was first created in clandestine labs in the soviet union.
☠️ poisonings were in their prime in the 1800’s, and forensic investigations for them did not begin until this time.
☠️ hubbard describes the poison, arsenic, as easy enough to obtain as a loaf of bread in the 1800’s. 😮
☠️ arsenic was once in wallpaper, kids’ toys, and soap! deaths caused by accidental arsenic poisonings were common during this time.
☠️ low doses of arsenic were once thought to boost the immune system and elongate the life span of a human.
☠️ the above theory was heavily championed by an ancient king, mithridates, who believed that concoctions of poisons ingested daily would guard him against assassination attempts. (omg lol 😭)
☠️ “all things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not poison.” - paracelsus, a swiss physician who is said to have founded the field of toxicology in his discovery that the only difference between medicine and poison is the dose.
this quote deeply fascinated me when i first read it. you know those facts that, once said or written in plain terms, make so much sense, but you’d never thought about it in the way that it was just presented to you before? that’s how i felt about this quote. so simple, yet so profound.
☠️ the ancient egyptian papyrus is one of the world’s most ancient medical documents and contains 700+ formulas and remedies.
☠️ cleopatra was said to have used criminally condemned people (the word criminals is used, but that word is so loaded, to me) as test subjects for experimentation with poisons.
☠️ cleopatra herself is reported to have died by suicide, specifically by the venom of an asp, which is a small european viper.
☠️ women are historically great at concocting poisons! hubbard mentions professional poisoner, giulia tofana, who lived in 17th century italy and reportedly helped over 600 women kill their (likely abusive) husbands using poisonous concoctions.
poisonous plants & predators
this section of hubbard’s book focuses on animals and plants that have provided humans with toxins throughout the centuries.
plants 🌱
🖤 our biological neighbors, chimpanzees and apes, ingest pharmacologically-active plants to assuage stomach pain and other ailments.
🖤 determining how toxic a plant is was damn hard until the creation of artificial synthesis.
🖤 two identical plants that are located in the same exact place can still have different toxicity levels.
🖤 plants henbane, aconite, and belladonna can cause hallucinations, specifically ones that cause people to feel like they are flying. female curers used to extract ointment from said plants to their genitals using broom sticks during the medieval times. witch mythology is said to have originated from this practice! why do some of the best stories in history stem from humans getting a little bit high? LOL!
fungi 🍄
🖤 mycotoxins are poisons that certain fungi produce and they are extremely potent.
🖤 toadstools are the fruiting bodies of a fungus that bear spores. poisoning is common with these because people often mistake them for edible mushrooms.
🖤 the fly agaric mushroom above is typically associated with christmas because of its red and white color, its hallucinogenic properties that provide the sensation of flying, and reindeer’s consumption of them.
🖤 the indigenous people of siberia used fly agaric mushrooms for rituals. a shaman would ingest the mushroom and people would drink the shaman’s pee afterwards. this process filtered out the more negative effects of consuming the mushroom.
animals 🐍
⚠️ zootoxins are animal poisons.
⚠️ poisons are used by animals to both defend themselves and to attack.
the cane toad has a toxic hide and releases a poison called bufotoxin when threatened.
⚠️ the blister beetle uses a poison called cantharidin to protect its eggs. sometimes people mistake cantharidin for an aphrodisiac.
⚠️ spiders, snakes, and scorpions are the world’s most notoriously venomous animals.
⚠️ vipers, cobras, and taipans are some of the world’s most poisonous snakes. they use their fangs to wreak havoc on the body of their victim (paralysis, the breaking down of tissue, and cardiac and respiratory failure).
elements of the earth ☢️
the first humans accessed poisons through plants and animals. hubbard uses this portion of the intro to briefly delve into the more modern discovery and creation of elemental and man-made poisons.
elements ∈
☠️ there are 80 ish elements in the earth’s crust.
☠️ high doses of elements can provide antimony, mercury, lead, and thallium, which have commonly been used in dyes, cosmetics, rat poison, and even medicines.
☠️ Lead was used to poison many people in the roman empire and many people attribute this was a catalyst for its fall.
bacteria 🦠
☠️ bacteria attacks the cells of humans by disrupting their normal activity and/or completely obliterating them. i think about how vulnerable the human body is and shudder a bit. we are but an assortment of trillions of cells that bacteria can break down and/or destroy.
☠️ bacteria destroy our cells by
cracking their outer membranes’ walls and releasing their contents (omg!)
putting our cells’ protein synthesis to a stop
blocking messages at our cells’ nerve junctions
☠️ anthrax is an example of a bacteria that is used as a deadly weapon
man-made 🤦🏾♂️
once again, men are the problem. (LOL kidding, or am I?)
☠️ man-made chemicals are used for agriculture and to control pests. however, sometimes these chemicals are also used against humans.
☠️ chemical manufacturing plants were sometimes transformed into labs with the purpose of producing toxic weapons. (e.g. rat poison cyanide)
the science of poisoning 🧪
in this portion of the intro, hubbard focuses on the human body’s reaction to poison and the different ways through which humans can be exposed to it. i touched a little bit upon the body’s reaction to poison under man-made, so here, I’ll focus on the latter point of the two.
🖤 humans can be exposed to poison through the following avenues:
ingestion - humans are exposed to solid poisons through ingestion. since this is the same way we digest food, the body has built-in defense mechanism against this avenue of exposure.
inhalation - fast and dangerous. when we inhale a poisonous vapor, gas, or aerosol, the poison moves into the body’s respiratory tract, then our bloodstream, and then through our lungs.
absorption - poisons can be absorbed through the skin and eyes. liquid poisons that are absorbed this way can damage our bodies’ tissue. once the poison enters our bloodstream, it eventually reaches our organs.
injection - poison can enter the human body through the the fangs of a poisonous animal or a needle. this is the fastest route to our bodies’ bloodstream besides ingestion and inhalation.
cover photo courtesy of reptilesmagazine.com
that’s all for the intro, folks. stay tuned for the outline of chapter 1! happy spooky season. let me know if you learned anything new in the comments! as always, thanks for reading! 🖤