Bitter Nemesis: The Intimate History of Strychnine

330 Pages·2007·9.23 MB·English

by  John Buckingham

B
ITTER
N
EMESIS
The Intimate History of Strychnine
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B
ITTER
N
EMESIS
The Intimate History Strychnine
of
J B
OHN UCKINGHAM
Boca Raton London New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Buckingham, J.
Bitter nemesis : the intimate history of strychnine / John Buckingham.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN‑13: 978‑1‑4200‑5315‑9 (alk. paper)
ISBN‑10: 1‑4200‑5315‑9 (alk. paper)
1. Strychnine‑‑History. I. Title.
RM666.S8B83 2007
615.9’52‑‑dc22 2006101010
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Picture Credits ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Weights and Measures xiii
Note on Nomenclature xv
Introduction xvii
1 Some Disadvantages of a Weak Constitution 1
2 Nuts 19
3 The Patient Generally Lies on His Back 33
4 M. Vauquelin’s Lack of Fame 47
5 Perfidious Dutchmen Bark up the Wrong Tree 57
6 You Will Be Careful as to the Second Article 63
7 You Hold Him Down, I’ll Pour It Down His Throat 83
8 Overture to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice 97
9 The Fop, the Scotsman and the Opium-Eater 111
10 It Will Be the Test-Tube and the Retort That Will Hang
Him 125
11 Shaken in Every Possible Way 141

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i • Contents
12 Mrs. Dove’s Brush with the Media 167
13 That Clever Dr. Letheby, So Ugly and Terrific 181
14 Tigers, Lions, etc.; Six Hundred Kilograms 201
15 The Blue Anchor Murder and Other Outrages 221
16 I Didn’t Know It Was Used for Poisoning 239
17 Is There a Faceless Fiend? 247
18 Another Round of Pay Phone Hysteria 259
Bibliography 269
Index 277
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List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Traditional medicine in India. Servant and Hakeem
(physician).
Figure 2. Strychnos nux-vomica, after M.A. Burnett, 1847.
Figure 3. Strychnine; nux vomica seeds; Parke Davis & Co.
strychnine sulphate for injection, circa 1900.
Figure 4. Taking an Emetic, by Cruickshank, 1800.
Figure 5. Eight leading French doctors of the early 1800s.
Figure 6. Knowledge of nux vomica reaches the West. Part of a
manuscript in the Vienna state archives.
Figure 7. The ruins of the Chateau de Bitremont in Belgium.
Figure 8. Edmé-Samuel Castaing and his two victims, Auguste
and Hippolyte Ballet.
Figure 9. Sir Robert Christison, Thomas De Quincey, and Thomas
Wainewright.
Figure 10. A Victorian phrenology chart incorporating William
Palmer as the criminal archetype.
Figure 11. A victim of tetanus.
Figure 12. The Old Town Hall, Rugeley, during the inquest on
Walter Palmer.
Figure 13. Alfred Swaine Taylor and Dr. Rees.
Figure 14. Christiana Edmunds.
Figure 15. Thomas Cream.
Figure 16. 1904 Olympic marathon winner Thomas Hicks under
the influence of strychnine and alcohol.
ii
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iii • List of Illustrations
Figure 17. Who says there was no strychnine in beer? Cartoon
from Punch, 1855.
Figure 18. Jean Pierre Vaquier and Mabel Jones.
Figure 19. Robert Robinson and R.B. Woodward.
Figure 20. The 1917 assassination plot. The three female conspira-
tors.
Figure 21. Transvestite cabaret artiste Molly Strychnine with her
accompanist Fuckoffsky.
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Picture Credits
Figure 1: Reproduced with permission of the British
Library, London, UK
Figure 2: Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome
Medical Library, London, UK
Figure 3: Used with permission of Petra Laidlaw (also cover
illustration)
Figure 4: Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome
Medical Library, London, UK
Figure 5: Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome
Medical Library, London, UK
Figure 6: Reproduced with permission of the Öster-
reichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
Figure 7: Photograph by the author
Figure 8: Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome
Medical Library, London, UK
Figure 9a: Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome
Medical Library, London, UK
Figure 9b: Reproduced with permission of the National
Portrait Gallery, London, UK
Figure 9c: Reproduced from Curling, Jonathan, Janus
Weathercock; the Life of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright,
1938, location of original unknown
Figure 10: Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome
Medical Library, London, UK
ix
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