91 Poison Medicine, Murde , and Mystery

CHAPTER 1 The Story of Mary Ann Cotton COLD, CRUEL, AND PAINFUL, MURDER BY POISON HAS BEEN SEEN THROUGHOUT HISTORY AS A TRULY HORRIBLE CRIME. MORE HORRIBLE YET, IN MARY ANN COTTON'S CASE THE VICTIMS WERE MEMBERS OF HER OWN FAMILY. The background Mary Ann Cotton, a nurse, was born in the north of England in 1832 to a very religious family. In spite of her hard upbringing, Mary was described as a kind and open girl. Victims It is thought that in total Mary Cotton killed 21 people, including her mother, three of her four husbands, a lover, and twelve children. Mary's motives The main reason seems to have been money. All but one of her husbands had taken out insurance policies, and Mary received large payments upon their deaths.

玛丽·安·科顿的故事冷酷、残忍、痛苦，毒杀在历史上一直被视为真正可怕的罪行。 更可怕的是，在玛丽·安·科顿的案件中，受害者是她自己的家人。 玛丽·安·科顿是一名护士，1832年出生在英格兰北部一个非常虔诚的家庭。 尽管玛丽的成长环境艰苦，但她被描述成一个善良、开朗的女孩。 人们认为玛丽·科顿总共杀死了21个人，包括她的母亲、她四个丈夫中的三个、一个情人和12个孩子。 玛丽的动机主要的原因似乎是钱。 除了一个丈夫外，她的所有丈夫都买了保险，玛丽在他们去世后得到了大笔赔偿。

How she kept it all secret In those days, the average rate of death was much higher in England, especially among children, so no one thought the deaths were strange. Also, communication was slow, and Mary moved around to avoid suspicion. How she did it All of Mary's victims apparently died from stomach illnesses, but in fact this condition has very similar symptoms to the deadly poison arsenic. In the 19th century, arsenic was freely available and was often used as a cleaning product. A lucky escape Her third husband James Robinson became suspicious when, after the deaths of their children, she tried to convince him to get life insurance. He threw her out and saved his own life. Brought to justice Eventually, Mary's strange behavior and the death of her fourth husband's son caused suspicion, and the case was investigated. The dead boy was found to have huge quantities of arsenic in his stomach. In 1873 Mary was arrested, put on trial, found guilty of murder, and hanged. Even at the end, she continued to say she was innocent.

在那些日子里，英国的平均死亡率要高得多，尤其是儿童的死亡率，所以没有人认为这些死亡是奇怪的。 此外，沟通也很缓慢，玛丽四处走动以避免被怀疑。 玛丽的所有受害者显然都死于胃病，但事实上，这种情况与致命毒药砷的症状非常相似。 在19世纪，砷是免费的，经常被用作清洁产品。 她的第三任丈夫詹姆斯·罗宾逊（James Robinson）在他们的孩子相继去世后，试图说服他购买人寿保险，他对此产生了怀疑。 他把她扔了出去，救了自己的命。 最终，玛丽的奇怪行为和她第四任丈夫儿子的死亡引起了怀疑，案件被调查。 这个死去的男孩被发现胃里有大量的砷。 1873年，玛丽被捕，受审，被判犯有谋杀罪，并被处以绞刑。 即使到了最后，她仍坚称自己是无辜的。

CHAPTER 2 The Nature of Poison WHAT IS A POISON AND HOW DOES IT WORK? TAKE A LOOK AT SOME FASCINATING -AND DEADLY— CHEMICAL MIXTURES. A poison can be thought of as any chemical substance that causes a harmful change in the body. Medically, it is hard to define a poison, because any substance introduced in large enough quantities can cause illness, harm bodily functions, or cause death. This difficulty has been understood since ancient times, and the Ancient Greeks even used the same word, pharmakon, for both medicines and poisons. A poison that exists naturally in an insect or animal, and which is often introduced into the victim by biting or stinging, is known as a venom, while one in a plant is generally known as a toxin. Until the advance of the science of chemistry in the 19th century, most poisons used by humans were either venoms or toxins.

第二章毒药的性质什么是毒药？它是如何起作用的？ 让我们来看看这些迷人而又致命的化学混合物。 毒药可以被认为是任何导致身体有害变化的化学物质。 从医学上讲，很难给毒药下定义，因为任何物质如果摄入足够多，都可能导致疾病、损害身体机能或导致死亡。 这一困难自古以来就被人们所理解，古希腊人甚至用同一个词pharmakon来指代药物和毒药。 一种天然存在于昆虫或动物体内的毒素，通常是通过咬或刺而进入受害者体内的，这种毒素被称为毒液，而植物中的毒素通常被称为毒素。 在19世纪化学科学进步之前，人类使用的大多数毒药要么是毒液，要么是毒素。

Plant poisons Plants cannot move to escape the animals that feed on them, so they have other ways to protect themselves. Many have become toxic as a means of defense. Plant toxins range from those that simply bother the skin to those that cause pain or death when eaten. It is surprising just how many common plants, flowers, and fruits are poisonous. Even fruits that we eat on a daily basis, such as apples, have seeds that contain deadly poisons, though in very small amounts. Interestingly, many plants are also toxic to other plants, so certain plants should not be placed together in a garden. Traditionally, plants have been used as medicines to help people and as poisons to kill them. Some plants can be used as both. The plant wolfsbane, for example, was used as a weapon to poison water and arrows, but was also highly valued by doctors for treating the flu and high blood pressure.

植物毒素植物不能移动来躲避以它们为食的动物，所以它们有其他的方法来保护自己。 许多已经成为有毒的防御手段。 植物毒素的范围从那些仅仅对皮肤有影响的到那些在食用时引起疼痛或死亡的。 令人惊讶的是，许多普通的植物、花和水果是有毒的。 即使是我们每天吃的水果，比如苹果，它们的种子也含有致命的毒素，尽管含量很低。 有趣的是，许多植物对其他植物也是有毒的，所以某些植物不应该放在花园里。 传统上，植物被用作药物来帮助人们，也被用作毒药来杀死他们。 有些植物可以兼而有之。 例如，狼子草被用作毒水和箭的武器，但也被医生高度重视，用于治疗流感和高血压。

Insects The use of venoms is very common in the insect world, and most people are familiar with the venomous sting of bees or wasps. To people, both stings are painful, but these venoms serve different purposes. Bee venom is used for defense and is designed to cause pain; wasp venom is used to immobilize prey. Frogs There are many types of poisonous frogs. Most produce their venom through their skin and are poisonous to eat or to touch. Many South American tribes have traditionally used the venom of the poison dart frog on their arrows when hunting. Some types of poison dart frog venom contain enough poison to kill ten adult humans. Scientists believe that these frogs do not actually produce their own venom, but take it from ants and other insects that they eat.

在昆虫界，毒液的使用是非常普遍的，大多数人都熟悉蜜蜂或黄蜂的毒刺。 对人来说，这两种毒液都是痛苦的，但它们有不同的用途。 蜂毒用于防御，并被设计成引起疼痛；黄蜂的毒液被用来使猎物动弹不得。 有毒的青蛙有很多种。 大多数动物通过皮肤分泌毒液，食用或触摸都是有毒的。 许多南美部落传统上在狩猎时使用箭毒蛙的毒液。 某些类型的毒镖蛙毒液含有足以杀死十个成年人的毒素。 科学家们认为，这些青蛙实际上并不产生自己的毒液，而是从它们吃的蚂蚁和其他昆虫身上获取毒液。

Snakes When people talk of poisons, the one animal that usually comes to mind is the snake. Snakes have been feared and admired for thousands of years for their terrible venoms. The venom is usually introduced into the victim through little tubes in the snake's teeth, or fangs, and is mostly used to immobilize the prey. Many snakes have enough venom to kill an adult human easily. Fortunately, snakes are naturally shy and try to stay away from people. But every year tens of thousands of people, as well as many more farm animals, die from snakebites. This has led to serious interest in producing antidotes to snakebites. One antidote against snake venom is to use the venom itself in small amounts to help the body's defense system "learn" about it. The body gradually learns to defend itself.

当人们谈论毒药时，通常想到的一种动物就是蛇。 几千年来，蛇因其可怕的毒液而受到人们的敬畏和崇拜。 毒液通常通过蛇牙齿或毒牙上的小管进入受害者体内，主要用于使猎物无法动弹。 许多蛇的毒液足以轻易杀死一个成年人。 幸运的是，蛇天生害羞，会尽量远离人类。 但是每年都有成千上万的人和更多的农场动物死于蛇咬伤。 这引起了人们对生产毒蛇咬伤解毒剂的浓厚兴趣。 对付蛇毒的一种解药是使用少量的蛇毒来帮助身体的防御系统“学习”它。 身体逐渐学会了自我保护。