Machine generated contents note: 1.The Big Square House in the Village - 2.A Great Chain and Dependency of Things - 3.Death by Toad or Insect - 4.That Good and Pious Man - 5.There's Not Much in Dying - 6.A Great Degree of Inquietude - 7.Corroborative Proof as to the Deleterious Article - 8.Those Low Incompetent Persons - 9.A Very Active Constable - 10.The Introduction of Irritating Matter - 11.I Never Saw Two Things in Nature More Alike - 12.She Would Not Risk Her Soul into Danger - 13.Oh My Poor Mother - 14.From the Very Brink of Eternity - 15.The Sequel of These Proceedings - 16.What if the Chymist Should Be Mistaken? - 17.The Freezing Influence of Official NeglectĪccess-restricted-item true Addeddate 18:04:47 Autocrop_version 0.0.14_books-20220331-0.2 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40571221 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Yet if poisoning was easy, it was a notoriously difficult crime to prove

For a few pence and with few questions asked, it was possible to buy enough poison to kill off an entire family, hence arsenic's popular name: the Inheritor's Powder. In the 19th century criminal poisoning with arsenic was frighteningly easy. New members welcome.This is the story of how an infamous murder case led to the birth of modern toxicology. Were innocent men and women now going to the gallows? And would George Bodle's killer be found? In doing so, however, he would cause as many problems as he solved. The investigation, which gained international attention, brought together a colorful cast of characters: bickering relatives a drunken, bumbling policeman and James Marsh, an unknown but brilliant chemist who, assigned the Bodle case, attempted to create a test that could accurately pinpoint the presence of arsenic. Three days later, after lingering in agony, wealthy George Bodle died in his bed at his farmhouse in Plumstead, leaving behind several heirs, including a son and grandson-both of whom were not on the best of terms with the family patriarch. That evening, the local doctor John Butler received an urgent summons: the family and their servants had collapsed and were seriously ill.

On the morning of Saturday, November 2, 1833, the Bodle household sat down to their morning breakfast.

Available at any corner shop for a few pence, arsenic was so frequently used by potential beneficiaries of wills that it was nicknamed 'the inheritor's powder.' But it was difficult to prove that a victim had been poisoned, let alone to identify the contaminated food or drink since arsenic was tasteless. In the first half of the nineteenth century, an epidemic swept Europe: arsenic poisoning.

An infamous murder investigation that changed forever the way poisoners were brought to justice.

The Inheritor's Powder by Sandra Hempel