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maderrI don't know if I ever mentioned it (I probably did, so sorry to repeat), but awhile ago I bought a Book of Poisons guide for writers.
It's really fsking cool *_*
There are tons I could post about, it's really fascinating to read (and sort of creepy, to be given methodical instructions on how to kill person X in your book, with handy suggestions for how it might be slipped to the poor victim).
One, however, caught my eye, because I have seen it used more than once -- more than a few times -- in slash and yaoi stories, and possibly even het once upon a time, as an aphrodiasic slipped to Poor Victim About to Be Molested/Raped. I thought I would post, just for fun, as I'd never bothered to actually look it up before and did not expect to read what I did:
Cantharidin
Scientific Name: Cantharis vericatoria.
Other: Spanish Fly.
Toxicity: 6*
Form: Liquid.
Effects and Symptoms: The principal manifestations are vomiting and collapse. Other symptoms are severe skin irritation, blister formation on the mucous membranes, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting of blood, severe fall in blood pressure, hematuria, coma, and death due to respitory failure.
Reaction Time: Immediate.
Antidotes and Treatments: None.
Notes: A white powder with very little taste, cantharidin is used as a skin irrtant or vesicant (blister inducer). A potent irritant to all cells and tissues, it has an undeserved reputation for being an aphrodisiac.
This myth originated in the Middle Ages, when Spanish fly was used as a painful stimulus to assist with cattle breeding. While it causeed the cattle penis to be erect, the experience couldn't have been pleasant.
Autopsy findings are necrosis of esohageal and gastric mucous membranes, intense congestion of blood in genital and urinary organs, damanged cells in the renal tubules, and hemorrhagic changes in the ovaries.
Case History
One of the most sensational cases involving cantharidin was in London's Old Bailey in 1954, when a pharmicist, Arthur ford, was tried on the charge of manslaughter of the two women who worked for him. Apparently happily married, he had heard while in the army of the aphrodisiac qualities of Spanish fly. One day, discovering that cantharidin was the technical term for Spanish fly and that supplies were available at this shop, he asked the senior pharmicist for some, sayig one of his neighbord bred rabbits and that he thought the drug might be useful in the mating process. He was told the drug was a "number one" poison and that, if administered to a human in anything but a minute dose, it could be fatal. Ford bought a bag of pink-and-white coconut ice candy and, back at the office, pushed quantities of Spanish fly into the candy with a pair of scissors. He gave a piece to each of the women and then took one himself. Within an hour, all three were violently sick. The two women died shortly, though he survived somehow. The autoposies showed the internal organs had literally been corroded by the drug.
End.
This book is so cool.
*Toxicity Level 6 = Supertoxic = Takes less than 5 mg/kg to kill you = You be fucked.
It's really fsking cool *_*
There are tons I could post about, it's really fascinating to read (and sort of creepy, to be given methodical instructions on how to kill person X in your book, with handy suggestions for how it might be slipped to the poor victim).
One, however, caught my eye, because I have seen it used more than once -- more than a few times -- in slash and yaoi stories, and possibly even het once upon a time, as an aphrodiasic slipped to Poor Victim About to Be Molested/Raped. I thought I would post, just for fun, as I'd never bothered to actually look it up before and did not expect to read what I did:
Cantharidin
Scientific Name: Cantharis vericatoria.
Other: Spanish Fly.
Toxicity: 6*
Form: Liquid.
Effects and Symptoms: The principal manifestations are vomiting and collapse. Other symptoms are severe skin irritation, blister formation on the mucous membranes, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting of blood, severe fall in blood pressure, hematuria, coma, and death due to respitory failure.
Reaction Time: Immediate.
Antidotes and Treatments: None.
Notes: A white powder with very little taste, cantharidin is used as a skin irrtant or vesicant (blister inducer). A potent irritant to all cells and tissues, it has an undeserved reputation for being an aphrodisiac.
This myth originated in the Middle Ages, when Spanish fly was used as a painful stimulus to assist with cattle breeding. While it causeed the cattle penis to be erect, the experience couldn't have been pleasant.
Autopsy findings are necrosis of esohageal and gastric mucous membranes, intense congestion of blood in genital and urinary organs, damanged cells in the renal tubules, and hemorrhagic changes in the ovaries.
Case History
One of the most sensational cases involving cantharidin was in London's Old Bailey in 1954, when a pharmicist, Arthur ford, was tried on the charge of manslaughter of the two women who worked for him. Apparently happily married, he had heard while in the army of the aphrodisiac qualities of Spanish fly. One day, discovering that cantharidin was the technical term for Spanish fly and that supplies were available at this shop, he asked the senior pharmicist for some, sayig one of his neighbord bred rabbits and that he thought the drug might be useful in the mating process. He was told the drug was a "number one" poison and that, if administered to a human in anything but a minute dose, it could be fatal. Ford bought a bag of pink-and-white coconut ice candy and, back at the office, pushed quantities of Spanish fly into the candy with a pair of scissors. He gave a piece to each of the women and then took one himself. Within an hour, all three were violently sick. The two women died shortly, though he survived somehow. The autoposies showed the internal organs had literally been corroded by the drug.
End.
This book is so cool.
*Toxicity Level 6 = Supertoxic = Takes less than 5 mg/kg to kill you = You be fucked.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 01:14 am (UTC)You do find the neatest books. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 01:19 am (UTC)It was dumb luck. I was wandering past a bargain table that's usually cluttered with the Crap No One Wants and saw it and went O_O *_* YOINK MINE ALL MINE
Oooh, body trauma *_* Must have. *hears FBI move her up another notch on the watchlist*
no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 01:39 am (UTC)I want that book.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 02:11 am (UTC)wtf.
typos ftw
Date: 2007-05-20 02:58 am (UTC)*laughs and laughs and laughs*
Re: typos ftw
Date: 2007-05-20 03:11 am (UTC)I so fucking hate my inability to type correctly.
Re: typos ftw
Date: 2007-05-20 03:33 am (UTC)Re: typos ftw
Date: 2007-05-20 03:36 am (UTC)I suppose I can live with that ^____^
Re: typos ftw
Date: 2007-05-20 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 07:07 am (UTC)*hugs* How're you, sweet? I would've logged on when I came home (i.e. 5.30am) but I was so close to crashing I wouldn't have made much sense anyway.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-21 12:12 am (UTC)Apparently during the Algerian civil war, there was a group of French troops who randomly developed really painful priapism [sustained erection - kinda like a viagra overdose] that wouldn't go away. The camp doctors eventually figured out that the source of the problem was the fact that the soldiers had been eating frogs from a local pond, and these frogs had been feeding on the beetles that carry the toxin. Apparently the problem eventually went away on its own, but its a case like that shows how the myth about it being a sex aid is promulgated. I’m not completely sure of how true the story is, but I think its awesome.
Cool book!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-21 01:52 am (UTC)