6 Quotes by Kathryn Harkup

Ricin is classed as a ribosome-inhibiting protein, which is abbreviated to RIP.

Strychnine has been used many times in poisonings; it is listed third in the top ten poisons by number of criminal cases, behind only arsenic and cyanide.

By around 1850, the annual consumption of opium averaged 5g per person. It was even spooned into the mouths of infants to relieve teething troubles. The result was that many people became addicted, including the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary, and even Queen Victoria herself.

It was claimed that the Borgias spread arsenic on the entrails of a slaughtered pig, which were then left to rot. The resulting mess was gently dried to a powder which they called La Cantarella, a pale solid that was added to food or drink. If the arsenic did not claim the victim, the toxins from the rotting entrails would probably finish them off.

Consequently diamorphine acts more quickly than morphine, and it is therefore far more potent. It makes you feel like a hero, so they called it heroin.

Arsenic-eaters were often found so well preserved, even after twelve years, that they were recognisable to family and friends when they were disinterred. The presence of arsenic in corpses may lie behind some vampire legends, which began in central and eastern Europe.