People's perception of toxic substances (based on data on arsenic poisoning in the Urals in the 19th — early 20th century)

Abstract

The article examines the criminal practices of people handling toxic substances based on data on arsenic poisoning from investigation materials and publications on forensic medicine of the 19th — early 20th century. Residents of the Urals treated arsenic as a poison/potion (“zel'e”). This ambivalent perception did not prevent people from having a significant amount of objective knowledge in toxicology. Persons with medical education passed on this knowledge, skills and abilities to the people. The contingent of such persons during the 19th century increased in the Urals: doctors, physicians (“lekar's”), pharmacists, paramedics, and most often apprentice physicians (“lekarskie ucheniki”) appeared in court cases. The most common route of arsenic entering the body was oral (through the mouth). Women added poison to food and drink and poisoned their husbands. Knowledge about the way poison enters a woman’s body through the genitals was classified as “secret”. This method was used by men against women. It was identified by forensic experts extremely rarely and considered as doubtful. The criminals also varied the dose of arsenic (toxic — fatal), the state of aggregation of the poison (solid — liquid), and the degree of dissolution of this hardly soluble substance. These parameters changed the speed and intensity of poisoning (acute — chronic). Their different combinations changed the symptoms of poisoning: signs of damage to either the gastrointestinal tract or the nervous system were observed. The variety of symptoms of poisoning made it difficult to establish an accurate diagnosis, allowed disguising the crime as different diseases, prevented the victim from receiving proper medical care, and helped the criminal evade responsibility for the poisoning.

Keywords

• folk medicine
• “knowledgeable”
• toxicology
• arsenic
• yekaterinburg district court