Arsenic and Old Lace

In the play, Arsenic and Old Lace, elderberry wine was laced with arsenic to put old men out of their misery. One of my favorite. French movies is The Sorceress, where elder is used for its many healing virtues by the main character, a medieval herbalist and wise woman. 

Arsenic is one of the oldest and best known of poisons. It is so well known, in fact, that when the wonderful Frank Capra comedy Arsenic and Old Lace was released, everyone knew that it was going to be a murder mystery in which someone would be poisoned. In fact, it has even been rumoured that Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning, the arsenic coming from the green dye on his wallpaper. We deduce that even a small amount of arsenic will cause death, or at least an unpleasant and lingering illness. 

The common use of arsenic for murder inspired John Kesselring s 1939 play Arsenic and Old Lace, where some older women spike elderberry wine with arsenic and other poisons to kill off suitors (Nriagu, 2002), 8-9. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, arsenic continues to be a popular poison among murderers, including serial killers. For example, 718 people were poisoned in Argentina in 1987 when vandals added arsenic to meat in a butcher shop (Gorby, 1994), 3. 

The Kf value for the Ag(CN) 2 complex ion is5.6xl018. Cyanide ions (CN ) would be better removers of silver ions than thiosulfate ions. However, most of us know that cyanide is a deadly poison if inhaled or ingested. In the play Arsenic and Old Lace, it was used very effectively to rid the cast of unwanted characters. Refining the process of film developing, which included not only the discovery of proper fixing solutions but also the development of film surfaces and developers that were reliable, helped to plunge us into the age of modern photography. 

This element, perhaps more than any other, has long been associated with poisoning, especially of the homicidal and suicidal type. Thus Agatha Christie called one of her plays Arsenic and Old Lace and the author Gustave Flaubert had his character Emma Bovary use an arsenic compound to commit suicide in the novel Madame Bovary. This aspect of arsenic poisoning will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 9 (pp. 221-2). 

Arsenic and its compounds are great poisons. They arc quite popular and have been a good subject for comedies such as "Arsenic and Old Lace." The nice thing about arsenic is that it is almost tasteless and it doesn t start to act until a half hour to an hour after it is taken. That way you can zap just oodles of people who would get off scot free if you used a fast poison like cyanide. Cyanide is terrific for individual hits but disappointing when working with groups. 

Arsenic and Old Lace was already mentioned above among the literary arts as a famous toxicology-oriented play. It found, of course, another life in the memorable 1944 film version directed by Frank Capra. Toxic themes have been adopted by many movies. 

Kesserhng J. Arsenic and Old Lace A comedy New York, Random House, Inc, 1941,... 

J Kesselring. Arsenic and Old Lace. New York Random House, 1941. 

While many Americans learn of arsenic poisoning from the classic play Arsenic and Old Lace, this element rep-... 

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