In the process of understanding the world, human beings have discovered many toxic elements, such as mercury, arsenic, lead, thallium and antimony. Their use has driven the progress of our civilization, but on the other hand, they are also harmful to our health. Exposure to toxic elements is a process that human beings have to go through to understand and change the world. And this process bears witness to human courage, intelligence and irrepressible curiosity.

The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison is a well-known popular science book about the love and hatred between mercury, arsenic, lead and other toxic elements and human. The author describes several toxic elements that have been discovered by human beings for thousands of years, and introduces them from three aspects of “useful, toxic and influential”. Through observation from multiple angles, we can feel the influence of these elements everywhere on our lives throughout the course of human civilization.

This book provides us with a history of the discovery, exploitation and utilization of these elements, as well as the benefits and harms they bring to us; explains the pathogenesis, symptoms, and detoxification methods of these toxic elements when they are ingested by the human body; also is interspersed with mysterious illnesses, strange deaths of some of the greatest people in history and some murder cases that are still controversial, which makes this book as interesting as a novel. But the book is about real events, which makes it sobering and thought-provoking.

// Table Of Contents //

• Introduction
  • 1 The poisonous elements of alchemy
• Mercury
  • 2 Mercury poisons us all
  • 3 Mad cats and mad hatters: accidental mercury poisoning
  • 4 The poet and the poison
• Arsenic
  • 5 Arsenic is everywhere
  • 6 Insidious arsenic
  • 7 Malevolent arsenic
  • 8 Murder revisited: the guilt of Florence Maybrick
• Antimony
  • 9 Antimony, the great cure-all
  • 10 Requiem for antimony
  • 11 Severin Klosowski alias George Chapman
• Lead
  • 12 The empire of lead
  • 13 Lead and dead
  • 14 Lead murders
• Thallium
  • 15 Driving you hairless
  • 16 Graham Young
  • 17 Other poisonous elements

// Key Features //

• A fascinating narrative that weaves together stories of true crime, enduring historical mysteries, tragic accidents, and the science behind it all.
• Explains the chemistry of poisons, and the history of our growing understanding of their ill effects.
• Topical, covering the history, chemistry, biochemistry, medical and forensic aspects of chemicals and their impact on the world today.
• Written by one of the top authorities in the field of famous for his encyclopedic knowledge of chemicals.

// Download URLs //

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