| rdfs:comment | - When murder by poison is depicted in fiction, it never takes more than a drop of clear liquid or a pinch of white powder in order to make the victim grip their throat, cough a bit, and fall over. Quick, clean, and quiet. The reality is not so simple. Poisoning someone to death in a way to avoid suspicion and police detection is a very complex process. The sort of poisons that can kill very rapidly at small doses tend to be staggeringly dangerous to the poisoner, not to mention exceptionally hard to come by and hazardous to manufacture.
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| abstract | - When murder by poison is depicted in fiction, it never takes more than a drop of clear liquid or a pinch of white powder in order to make the victim grip their throat, cough a bit, and fall over. Quick, clean, and quiet. The reality is not so simple. Poisoning someone to death in a way to avoid suspicion and police detection is a very complex process. Outside of highly controlled chemical munitions, there are very few substances available to the average murderer that can kill a human being as easily as the poisons of fiction. Famous poisons like arsenic, strychnine, cyanide, etc. require small, repeated doses to build up enough concentrations to kill without arousing the suspicion of the victim... in significant quantity, such poisons taste extremely bitter (hence the need for medieval food tasters). The mechanisms by which these poisons kill can cause dramatic physical reactions in the victim. And these old standby poisons are easily and routinely detected by modern forensic pathology. The sort of poisons that can kill very rapidly at small doses tend to be staggeringly dangerous to the poisoner, not to mention exceptionally hard to come by and hazardous to manufacture. This is generally assumed to be the kind of poison used in a case of Finger-Licking Poison. Frequently has an Improbable Antidote. May or may not be purple or green. Naturally, part of its perfectness is usually that it works on everything.
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