![]() ![]() The toxin in monkshood is aconitine, a powerful plant alkaloid. This originates from a custom of the ancient Greeks, who would douse the ends of their arrows in the poison and then hunt wild dogs: the “bane of wolves.” The plant is also known as wolfsbane, as it’s dubbed in my novel, The Lost Apothecary. Monkshood is a perennial, wild-growing plant with lovely, feminine flowers it garners the name “monks-hood” due to the flower’s cylindrical helmet appearance. Monkshood poisoning plays a role in Christie’s 1957 novel, 4.50 from Paddington. This is true for many plant alkaloids, in fact, and is the reason I set The Lost Apothecary in 1791 forensic toxicology did not yey exist, and a poisoner like my apothecary could more easily get away with her sinister work. Techniques to detect atropine in human tissue did not exist until the 1850s. The active chemical in belladonna is atropine, a dangerous plant alkaloid once in the bloodstream, it almost immediately targets the nervous system. The hallucinations caused by nightshade are well-known to give victims the sensation of disassociation, and even flying. The victim in this story suffers from insanity and hallucinations, which are-not so coincidentally-also the symptoms of belladonna poisoning. This poison is referenced in several Christie stories, most notably one of the short stories in the 1947 collection titled The Labours of Hercules. Ironically, an antidote to foxglove poisoning is atropine, discussed next. The apothecary in my novel understands this concept well, saying “even the most benign remedies may be deadly in great quantity.” How much, then, is too much? I don’t recommend you try to find out. I’m certainly not making a medical recommendation here, but in small doses, foxglove has been effective in treating edema and swelling given the manner in which it slows the heartrate and lowers blood pressure. This poison is an example of how some substances may be benign-even therapeutic-in small doses, but toxic in large quantities. The active chemical is digoxin, readily absorbed into the gastrointestinal track and acting quickly upon the heart. Proceed at your own risk.ĭigitalis is an extract of the foxglove plant, and it is the suspected poison in Christie’s 1938 novel, Appointment with Death. She sits within her hidden, candlelit shop, brewing and blending concoctions meant not to cure, but to kill.Ĭurious about such concoctions? There are only so many poisons to choose from, and inevitably Agatha Christie and I featured a few of the same poisons in our stories. But whereas Christie did her work for good, my apothecary is morally grey: much about her work is sinister. ![]() Like Christie in the dispensary, the apothecary in my novel spends her days doing dirty, intricate work amid the most toxic of substances. ![]() My debut novel, The Lost Apothecary, features a female apothecary in 18th-century London who sells well-disguised poisons to women seeking vengeance on the men who have wronged them. When I learned about Agatha Christie’s designation as an “apothecary’s assistant,” I couldn’t help but smile. She continued working among drugs and dispensaries for many decades. This required her to understand the substances themselves as well as their dosages and dispensing techniques. During this time in the hospital’s dispensary, she was responsible for concocting a number of remedies. In 1917, she passed the examinations required to qualify her an apothecary’s assistant. And these are not fictional poisons, nor passing references on the contrary, her toxins are well-known to science and often placed at the very heart of her stories.Ĭhristie’s ingenious ability to build complex narratives around poison-including their administration and macabre effects-was due, in part, to her time as a war nurse during WWI. “Give me a decent bottle of poison,” Agatha Christie reportedly said, “and I’ll construct the perfect crime.” As it turns out, she did it countless times: nearly half of Christie’s 85 mystery novels involve poison. ![]()
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