Arsenic was by far the preferred tool of assassination for many would-be heirs and usurpers. Arsenic has been called the King of Poisons and the Poison of Kings. This silvery metalloid appears abundantly in the Earth and naturally in living things. Just like most other poisons, a little could cure and a lot will kill, and the difference is miniscule.
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Arsenic has no smell or taste. The advantage of using arsenic for assassination and other murders is slow buildup in the body, causing gradual worsening of symptoms. Symptoms of arsenic poisoning are mild at first, mimicking flu with attacks of diarrhea, vomiting and intestinal pain.
As the poisoning process continues, the victim experiences tingling or numbness, muscle cramping and eventually death. Arsenic is a favorite poison of women wanting to get rid of family members. In more than one case an unhappy bride or stepmother poisoned kids and adults alike under the guise of treatment and concern.
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Poison was once the murder weapon of choice for many women, who found it a more genteel way of killing someone than the violence of guns or knives. It was particularly popular from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The non-fictional King Midas of the 8th century BCE is said to have committed suicide by taking red arsenic, known as bull's blood.
At the age of fourteen, Nero of Rome had his stepbrother Britannicus killed with arsenic. It might have been under the direction of his mother, Agrippina. Britannicus was a rightful heir to Rome.
Poisons were well known. Besides arsenic, popular poisons for murder include the death cap mushroom, destroying angel, hemlock and one of Nero's inventions, cyanide infused cherry laurel water.
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Although arsenic compounds had been known for centuries, German scholar Albertus Magnus discovered the element in 1250. In the 1830s a test for arsenic poisoning was created. Arsenic shows up in the hair and nails. Tests don't mean much unless the doctor suspects poisoning, and still some murders went undetected for years.
The 19th century case of Mary Ann Cotton is just one example of familial mass murder. Arsenic was easy to get as coating for flypaper, which could be soaked off. Mary Ann used arsenic to poison four husbands and twice as many children. A doctor finally became suspicious in 1873.
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Arsenic is often found together with sulfur, an important element in alchemy, other metals or more rarely as pure crystal. The three common types are grey, yellow, and black arsenic. Of these, grey occurs most often.
Arsenic is associated with swans due to its transmutative ability to change from one form to another. Symbols of arsenic include two connected circles perhaps referring to the alembic invented by Cleopatra the Alchemist in Greece. The alembic is a tool for distillation and separation, two vessels joined by a tube or pipe. Some use two overlapping triangles to denote arsenic. Another symbol is a coiled snake ready to strike.
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During the Bronze Age, arsenic was often used with copper to form a harder bronze, and when tin, the usual 12% partner, was unavailable. As a result arsenic built up over time in the bodies of blacksmiths giving substance to the stereotype of the lame or disabled smith.
Arsenic had many uses in science and around the house. It was used in late-18th century wallpaper dyes to increase the pigment's brightness. An account of the illness and 1821 death of Napoleon Bonaparte implicates arsenic poisoning from wallpaper. He's also thought to have taken a medicinal dose of mercury the day before he died.
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Two shades of green were achieved using arsenic. When the harmful qualities of arsenic came to light, they were used as insect sprays instead, to great effect. In the 1860s a hue of purple, London Purple, was derived from arsenic but couldn't be used due to extreme toxicity.
Often it was alchemists who found these pigments. Alchemists made bright red vermilion by grinding the mercury-containing ore cinnabar while searching for the Philosopher's Stone, and also discovered Prussian Blue.
During the Victorian era, arsenic was commonly used in home decor, especially wallpapers. Some ladies drank arsenic in vinegar to enhance their white complexions. It's also used in wood preservation.
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Natural causes of human exposure to arsenic include volcanic ash, weathering of minerals and ores, and mineralized groundwater. Arsenic occurs in food, water, soil, and air. It exists in all plants, more concentrated in leafy vegetables, seafood, rice, apple and grape juice. Inhalation of atmospheric gas and dust is another possible source of exposure.
In the early 20th century, Paul Ehrlich discovered an arsenic derivative to treat syphilis. For centuries syphilis ravaged high and low classes alike. In the Victorian era, one in five people suffered from syphilis. Ehrlich's arsenic derivative was a miracle. It wonders until penicillin became popular in the 1940s.
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