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Poisons
- From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean Calabar
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A wide-ranging and provocative look - teeming with little-known facts and engaging stories - at a subject of the direst interest.
Poisons permeate our world. They are in the environment, the workplace, the home. They are in food, our favorite whiskey, medicine, well water. They have been used to cure disease as well as incapacitate and kill. They smooth wrinkles, block pain, stimulate, and enhance athletic ability. In this entertaining and fact-filled audiobook, science writer Peter Macinnis considers poisons in all their aspects. He recounts stories of the celebrated poisoners in history and literature, from Nero to Thomas Wainewright, and from the death of Socrates to Hamlet and Peter Pan. He discusses the sources of various poisons - from cyanide to strychnine, from Botox to ricin and Sarin gas - as well as their detection.
Then he analyzes the science of their action in the body and their uses in medicine, cosmetics, war, and terrorism. With wit and precision, he weighs such questions as: Was Lincoln’s volatility caused by mercury poisoning? Was Jack the Ripper an arsenic eater? Can wallpaper kill? For anyone who has ever wondered and been afraid to ask, here is a rich miscellany for your secret questions about toxins.
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What listeners say about Poisons
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- EinsteinzVice
- 11-07-19
#MyNonFictionAddiction
Fascinating details and such interesting historical tidbits! I thoroughly enjoyed it! It went too fast for me!
!📚☕📖🙃💅⏳
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Catherine Carney
- 03-05-17
Better organization
Great info, entertainingly presented, but all over the place and somewhat difficult to follow. Stream of consciousness doesn't work for this kind of book.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Marsha L. Woerner
- 03-03-16
Interestin compendium on poisons and their history
Any additional comments?
This was a great book! I did get kind of bored when it got into history of people poisoning each other, but when it got back to poisoning and poisons in general, it was very enlightening. I particularly liked the concept that the black plague may, in fact, not have been the bubonic plague, but it may in fact have been due to a poison from rye plants! Always intriguing to learn about more to research!
