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399 BCE
Socrates
The philosopher Socrates, charged with religious heresy and corrupting the morals of local youth, dies by hemlock poisoning (the active chemical is the alkaloid coniine). Conium maculatum is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa -
1534
Pope poisoned
Pope Clement VII (1478–1534) died (possibly murdered) after eating Amanita phalloides, the death cap mushroom. Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the death cap, is a deadly poisonous basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita. Widely distributed across Europe, A. phalloides forms ectomycorrhizas with various broadleaved trees. -
Husbands Poison
Hieronyma Spara, a Roman woman and fortune-teller, forms a secret organisation that sells an arsenic potion to women so they can murder their husbands. People long ago recognised that depending on the dose, arsenic could either treat an illness or be used as a poison to cause death. Arsenic-based compounds are currently used to treat some forms of cancer. As a poison, arsenic trioxide has several desirable qualities: looks like sugar, is tasteless and only a fraction of a gram can kill an adult. -
Father of toxicology
Considered the father of modern toxicology, Orfila (1787–1853) establishes a systematic correlation between chemical properties and biological effects of poisons. He writes Traite des Poisons, which describes the symptoms of poisons. -
HABs in NZ
Many harmful algal blooms (HABs) are reported in New Zealand along with the discovery that these are really toxic. A harmful algal bloom (HAB) is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms via production of natural toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are often associated with large-scale marine mortality events and have been associated with various types of shellfish poisonings.
