HERB - Period poisons, a little off topic

[MdmMalice1@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/18/99 7:16:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
kkeeler at unlserve.unl.edu writes:

<< > I mean...Poinsettia's for heaven's sake!
 
 (Melistra, can you get me a reference on that:  I've read both is/isn't and
 would like a source -A) >>

Sure.  My favorite is "Deadly Doses" by Serita Deborah Stevens with Anne 
Klarner.

And with apologies to the authors, here's the bit on Poinsettia:
"Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima), a popular Christmas plant of the spurge 
family, the colorful leaves gathered at the top are often mistaken for 
flowers.  They are bred in Hawaii and grow much larger in tropical climates.  
All parts of the plant contain a milky sap (toxicity level 4).  Symptoms 
include abdominal pain with vomiting and diarrhea.  Only two documented cases 
of death from poinsettia poisoning have been found in the literature."

<<And, as was recently commented here by someone I didn't record (sorry!), if 
you
wanted to poison someone, you might use chemistry (something inorganic) rather
than a plant.  And if the goal was just hurting someone--cars or knives or 
guns
are much more dramatic than a seed or two.
[mental image of the distraught worker threatening someone with a monkshood
leaf!]<<

LOL.. True..but people tend to follow that which comes more naturally to 
them.  My 'crazed fantasy' doesn't involve knives or guns, etc, etc,...  I'm 
more subtle than that.  I'd be the psycho that tried to feed my 'victim'  
hydrangea buds.

People in period times had access to all sorts of "inorganic" and very 
physical means of dealing death...or injury.  But poison had it's place too.  
Especially where the poisoner wanted NOT to be associated with the deed or 
had limited access to his/her target.

Guns, knives and such really don't often make it look like it was accidental. 
 Mistaking water hemlock for wild radishes on the other hand......


Melistra
Trimaris
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