Customer Reviews

The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We are mere bundles of chemicals, most of which are shuttled back and forth with astonishing speed, accuracy, and efficiency. It is so fine-tuned a system that it is not hard to find chemicals that will make it all go wrong. Some of these chemicals are so basic as to be the very elements of the universe around us, and in _The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison_ (Oxford University Press), John Emsley has given us a chemistry text dressed in the entertaining garb of famous poisoning cases in history and in popular culture. Chemistry is often presented as neither exciting nor fun, but Emsley (whose most recent book was an entertaining history of phosphorus) knows that even a big book on the big five elements (arsenic, antimony, lead, mercury, and thallium) is going to be attractive reading for many of us, if the elements are connected with lethality. The publisher, staid old Oxford, knows it, too, and has dressed the book with a lurid picture of a fearsome bearded man holding a small bottle with a skull and crossbones on it. Students of the physical sciences: prepare for a bit of morbid fun.

The alchemists developed poisons, but mostly set about poisoning themselves. Newton's hair, for instance, has been analyzed, and it had greatly elevated levels of mercury, lead, arsenic, and antimony; he often tried to volatilize compounds of these, and could not help breathing them in. He did live to be 84, and was certainly productive, but he was an unpleasant and paranoid man; to what extent the poisons (especially mercury) addled his brain we will never know. Hatters (as in "mad as a hatter") were famously subject to the derangement mercury brought since they used mercury nitrate to make felt. Another career field that had a surprising danger from mercury: detective work. The dusting powder that used to be used for finding fingerprints would be breathed in by the one doing the dusting; it was only in the 1940s that the elemental culprit for the tremors, irritability, and other symptoms in detectives was identified and the powder formula changed. Emsley gives many anecdotes of deliberate poisonings, often by serial killers like Hélène Jegado, who poisoned an unknown number of people during her career, using arsenic. She was a pious and intelligent servant, who was distressed at each of the funerals she had to attend. "My masters die wherever I go," she sobbed at one funeral, and many sympathized with her bad luck. Her last poisoning occurred in 1851, a time when forensic arsenic levels could be obtained from the stomach contents of her last victim, fingering her positively. She didn't get any financial gain from the deaths, but arsenic was used so consistently that in France it was known as _poudre de succession_ (inheritance powder).

Emsley's history covers his elements well, and not just their histories in poisoning. Much of the book is an examination of the history of chemistry itself, from pre-scientific days to the current ones when poisoners are much more at risk of discovery than ever before. There are welcome side trips, like the one about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome being blamed on the release of antimony from infant mattresses. The antimony had been used as a fire retardant, but after much scientific hand-wringing, was found not to be an issue in SIDS. There is good humor in the ghoulishness; Emsley writes that thallium used to be "... sold in over-the-counter products for removing unwanted hair. It was also used to remove unwanted relatives." There is plenty of well-explained chemistry here, for those who need it as justification for enjoying lurid stories of poisoners; the stories may be morbidly fascinating, but fascinating nonetheless.

Professor John Emsley is my favorite guide to the world of chemistry and I look forward to every book that bears his good name. The Elements Of Murder was no exception and I ordered it long before it came out. I wanted to give it a 5 star rating even before I read it, but I must give it a 4 star rating after a thorough reading. Professor Emsley has authored many books: The Elements and Nature's Building Blocks are references [for professional and layperson respectively], Molecules at an Exhibition is a collection of essays, and The 13th Element takes on a single subject [phosphorus]. Vanity, Vitality, and Virility, his previous book, seems to be the model for The Elements of Murder. In Vanity, Vitality, and Virility, Emsley takes on multiple chemical subjects in short vignettes, has an introduction and postscript, and includes a glossary. The problem I have with The Elements of Murder involves what it is missing: there is no postscript or epilogue. I enjoyed the stories of death and murder involving the elements mercury, arsenic, antimony, lead, and thallium. I enjoyed the short tales of other poisonous elements in the last chapter. I also felt that the book ended rather abruptly. I still recommend this book to anyone with an interest in chemistry [especially chemistry and history], but I hope that when it comes out in paperback [or in the later hardback printings] that some kind of conclusion is added to the book.

The poisonous elements spotlighted in this book--mercury, arsenic, antimony, lead, and thallium--also served as medications for most of recorded history. It is amazing what people would concoct and swallow to cure constipation, including mercury laxatives and antimony `perpetual pills' that passed through the gut and irritated it into expelling its contents. These pills could be washed off and recycled. In fact, "there are reports that such pills were highly effective and passed from generation to generation."

"The Elements of Murder" makes it clear that it was sometimes impossible to determine whether a victim was poisoned by his enemies or his doctors.

The author, John Emsley is both a chemist and an award-winning science writer. He chronicles the characteristics of each element with a magisterial British presence that eludes many American science writers, who sometimes place a heavy reliance on adjectives. Emsley goes for the telling anecdote. The insanity of men slowly poisoned by lead is revealed in a list of items they stored in a lifeboat: "button polish, silk handkerchiefs, curtain rods, and a portable writing desk." The largest mass poisoning by arsenic was actually funded by UNICEF in an effort to provide clean drinking water to the people of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh.

Although the stories of individual poisoners and their victims are interesting, the author's investigations into the wholesale slaughter of people by insidious, omnipresent elements in their environment are equally compelling. Were both the Roman AND British Empires brought low by lead?

Read "The Elements of Murder" and decide for yourself.

John Emsley made chemistry 101 come alive in this book! I was never good at chemistry but have had a fascination with the mysteries of certain toxic elements that occur in nature. The book weaves lurid, shocking, and even comical tales of the use and abuse of such elements as arsenic, mercury, antimony, and thallium. I couldn't put this book and finished it in a couple of days! It is absolutely great and one that I highly recommend to anyone interested in science and true crime-this book is the perfect blend of both genres. Truly a great read!

Engaging technical descriptions of poisonous elements are woven together with fairly detailed accounts of ghastly murders. There are also very well done descriptions of the consequences of environmental contamination both recent and in ancient times.
The murder stories start to have a certain sameness and my faith in human goodness was shaken.
The book was poorly edited and proofread, but still worth reading and at times both entertaining and educational.

Very interesting book about the chemistry, toxicology of poisonings some intentional, some industrial and some environmental due to elements including arsenic, lead, mercury, antimony and others. It reads well and is very informative.

There is a lot of interesting history that Emsley has compiled here, but this needed a second run through the editor's office. The grammar in this is so poor it makes it very hard to read and even harder to enjoy. Also, the organization is half-arsed at best. I was very, very disappointed with this - so much potential, and such a huge let-down after Elmsley's other book "The 13th Element".

Two stars in stead of one, because what I was able to flesh out before giving up was pretty entertaining.

Each section discusses a specific poison, its chemistry, historical and modern uses, and famous cases of it being used as a poison. This makes a fine reference for mystery writers and perhaps those involved in forensics (tho one is unlikely to see most of these poisons in modern cases).

One does come away with a certain feeling of paranoia about medicines, health food supplements, and worry when one's spouse or partner insists on preparing meals.

The only technical flaw I noted was in the discussion of compartive bullet lead analysis, which fails to mention the controversy over whether the method actually yeilds a meaningufl comparison. There was certainly dispute about this in 2004 (book was published in 2005). The National Academy of Science published a report highly critical of the FBI's test in late 2004. In early 2005, the New Jersey Appeals Court overturned a murder conviction, holding that compartive bullet lead analysis was essentialy junk science. (The FBI has since stopped doing this test.)

This flaw made me wonder if Emsley was not unaware of criticism of flaws in other forensic tests when discussing the cases of famed convicted poisoners.

I really didn't have an interest in poison until I heard Mr. Emsley on the radio. This book has a lot of history in it and being a history buff I found it really enjoyable. I've learned a great deal about the subject and was really suprised to find how much we are actually exposed to poisons on a daily basis. I was worried that perhaps this may be a rather dry book, but let me assure you it isn't. I found it very entertaing and would recommed it to anyone who has an interest in history or reading about true crime. Or even if you just want to make your boyfriend nervous!

There was nothing new to me in this book, regarding the toxicology of metals, except the collection of known facts into one singe volume that I will use as a single convenient reference. It deals, however, and as the title implies, only with 'the elements' that are toxic, not the vast array of toxins organic or otherwise that have been used for mayhem or murder. Perhaps these could be compiled in another volume?