Poison is amongst the most deadly and prominent substances on the planet. It can be found in nature amongst plants, amphibians, and reptiles. It is part of our myths, from the apple eaten by Snow White to the “double, double, toil and trouble” of the witches from Macbeth. It has taken the lives of philosopher Socrates and Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra. It was the source of multiple murders within the novels of Agatha Christie and even crafted in Potions Class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the books of Harry Potter.
In November 2013, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City premiered The Power of Poison, a traveling exhibit that made its way to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh over the summer of 2017. Filled with examples from nature, myths, literature, history, and science, The Power of Poison tied these disparate disciplines into a coherent narrative that told the story of poison from multiple perspectives.
That poison can kill is obvious. Within nature, however, death is part of an ongoing struggle for survival. Although rooted in the ground and continually assaulted by insects, herbivores, and even similar species, plants have primarily been able to survive for 450 million years because of chemical defenses that discourage them from being eaten. Even the ants that plants provide shelter for help out, emitting their own venom in an effort to keep the plants – and thus themselves – safe.
One of the most lethal creatures on the planet, meanwhile – the golden poison frogs of South America – contains batrachotoxin on their skin that is 250 times more powerful than strychnine, and their secretion has even been used by ancient tribes to make their darts more deadly. Yet the bright colors of the frogs also act as a warning to other animals to “stay away,” keeping both the potential prey and hunter alive.
The poisons manufactured by various plants have inevitably found their way into the diets of humans, albeit in short doses. Eating too much cinnamon, for instance, can cause liver problems while a simple dash of the substance can add flavor to baked goods. The same holds true for chili peppers, whose leaves and fruits are toxic. Then there’s coffee – caffeine is just as deadly when overconsumed as much as any other substance.
While poison acts as a way to keep nature in balance, within the world of myths and legends it is used for more nefarious purposes. The worst of human traits – revenge, jealousy, and greed – have fueled many such narratives and likewise brought about the ruin of those who used poison as a weapon. A jealous Queen, for instance, constructed a poison apple for “fairest in the land” Snow White to eat, causing the heroine to fall into a deep sleep until awakened by the kiss of a Prince. The Queen, meanwhile, met her demise when she slipped and fell into the sea while being chased by seven dwarfs.
Although the myths of the past relied on the supernatural to explain the unknown of their times, modern day correlations can now be found in the known world of today. In the case of Snow White, a parallel can be drawn between her infamous apple and the anesthetics that are used to put a person to sleep before surgery, as well as the neurotoxins found in numerous animals that causes paralysis. If the poison from a Pufferfish, for example, was placed within an apple, the same effect that inflicted Snow White would seemingly befall whoever ate it.
This likewise holds true for Romeo and Juliet – the poison taken by Juliet at the end of William Shakespeare’s play so realistically simulated death that Romeo himself ended his life rather than live without his true love. The witches of Macbeth, meanwhile, brewed potions that directly corresponded to those crafted in the real world. While some of these potions were meant as cures, others had nefarious motivations as well.
Then there’s the case of the Mad Hatter. Within Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the main character stumbles across a tea party hosted by a hat maker who rambles such epitaphs as “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you’re at!” Lewis was influenced by the actual strange behavior of hat makers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that which gave rise to the phrase “mad as a hatter.” Although not known at the time, this “madness” was the result of mercury poisoning – mercury was used in the production of felt, which in turn was used in the manufacturing of hats.
It is not only within myths that humans have fallen victim to the effects of poison. Hemlock and a snake bite ended the lives of Socrates and Cleopatra, while the Roman emperor Augustus, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Lucrecia Borgia – daughter of Pope Alexander VI – and explorer Ponce de León all met their demise when exposed to fatal substances.
Throughout history, poison was such a popular way to remove rivals – both real and imaginary – that arguably the greatest mystery writer of all time, Agatha Christie, relied on poison as the preferred method of murder in 28 of her 66 novels. Amongst the specific poisons used by Christie were the well-known arsenic, cyanide, and hemlock, in addition to strychnine, nicotine, thallium, cocaine, digitalis, monkshood, belladonna, morphine, yew berries, and snake venom.
From creating balance within nature, reshaping history, fueling the myths of the past and the literature of the present, bringing death as well as saving lives, and even adding a touch of seasoning to our foods, poison has had an influential role since the dawn of creation. The Power of Poison exhibit explored each of those components and brought them together to tell a bigger story – one that demonstrated just how powerful a role poison continues to play on planet Earth.
Anthony Letizia
