The Poisoner’s Handbook,
written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Deborah Blum and published in 2010, constructs
a comprehensive history of forensics and toxicology in New York during the Jazz
Age, a period spanning the years of 1915 to 1936. In this work of science
writing, Blum explains the complicated chemistry of the most widely used poisons
at the time in a way that is simple to understand yet still engaging to read,
while also detailing the criminal cases that led to the advancement of forensics.
She simultaneously contextualizes the time with vivid and captivating tales of
New York City, ranging from the local politics to underground dealings of
corrupt coroners and the questionable and grotesque experiments conducted for
the sake of progress.
The book is structured like a collection
of short stories with each chapter consisting of intriguing cases featuring different
poisons being investigated by Dr. Charles Norris, the first chief medical examiner
of New York City, and Alexander Gettler, his toxicologist. Together, they
advanced the field of forensics from a laughing-stock in criminal court to a
respected science necessary for murder investigations. Whether you love the
suspense of unraveling a good mystery or just have an interest in chemistry, The Poisoner’s Handbook is a book sure
to appease and satisfy.
Blum’s simple yet masterful
explanations of the chemistry and applications of each poison are a defining
feature of The Poisoner’s Handbook. A
prominent example is her description of cyanide and its lethal effects on the
victim’s body before their excoriating death:
“Cyanide’s action is murderously precise.
It attaches with stunning speed to protein molecules in the blood—called
hemoglobins—that carry oxygen throughout the body. Thus the poison is rapidly
circulated by the bloodstream and delivered to cells through the body. There it
shreds cellular energy mechanisms, breaks down cellular respiration, and causes
rapid cell death due to oxygen starvation. Cellular respiration suffers an
instant “paralysis,” as Gettler once put it, and the body begins to die. Enzyme
production is stymied, electrical signals falter, and as muscle cells and nerve
cells explosively fail, body-rattling convulsions frequently result.”
This excerpt on the effects of
cyanide is succinct enough to maintain the reader’s attention while also containing
the necessary detail and accuracy needed to convey the science. Through her
masterful writing, Blum evokes aversive emotions with the vivid descriptions
and use of powerful vocabulary and personification of arsenic to demonstrate
its vicious nature. Besides that, the science is completely on point. She not
only describes the complex mechanisms of arsenic, but also further reveals how
the body reacts to it afterwards in a terrifying manner.
The descriptions of the other
poisons are just as striking. For example, Blum describes chloroform as a silent
killer molecule consisting simply of a carbon atom, a hydrogen atom, and three
chlorine atoms. Its overall effect on the body needs no further explanation
than the one offered by Frederic Mors, a nurse in the story who murdered
several sick elderly patients: “When you give an old person chloroform, it’s
like putting a child to sleep.” Reading through Blum’s evocative passages on
each poison was certainly a highlight of my reading experience.
The tale of the development of
forensics as a science, one of the primary themes of the book, prompted me to
ask questions about what the science looks like today. While toxicology has
significantly advanced since Gettler’s time, many of his tests developed to
identify poisons are still widely being used today in some form. For instance,
he was the first scientist to employ spectrometry – an analytical technique
still widely used that measures the refraction of light on different molecules
and compounds – to identify thallium as the poison used during the criminal
investigation of four murdered Brooklyn children in 1935.
The invention of computers,
compilations of enormous biological data, and an improved understanding of the
nature of many poisons and chemicals have been some of the most important
advancements for these fields that allow for analyses now that Gettler and
Norris could only dream of in their time. However, they did achieve their goal
of proving to the world that forensics is a credible and necessary science and
speared the charge of its advancement, so for that we have them to thank.
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