You know those drops they put into your eyes at the eye doctor, the ones that dilate your pupils? The dilating stuff is called atropine sulfate, and it’s extracted from the Atropa belladonna plant (known as deadly nightshade). I don’t… Read More
Recently I visited the Poison exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It included a toxicological explication of the witches’ poem in MacBeth, which, by happy coincidence, my son is reading in English class right now… Read More
In 1853, Dr. John Snow administered recently-discovered chloroform to Queen Victoria for the birth of her eighth child. From that point on, the use of anesthetics for pain relief in childbirth became widely accepted.