Deadly elements from arsenic to mercury
Bristol & South West Regional Group:
Elements of murder
26 January 2006, Bristol University, UK
 In front of a packed and expectant lecture theatre, John Emsley provided a thoroughly entertaining and informative lecture on the history of those elements that are intrinsically poisonous and bad for one’s health!
The joint event between SCI, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the University of Bristol School of Chemistry, held on 26 January 2006, attracted around 350 people of all ages who were enlightened intellectually and, more unusually, musically, of the poisonous properties of certain members of the periodic table, and the various nefarious uses to which they have been put over the ages.
| Mercury poisoning was the end of Charles II after one too many alchemical experiments |
After briefly touching on the instances of death caused by the more innocuous elements, we were given many tales of the use of more traditionally poisonous elements in society – instances of both deliberate attempts to do wrong with these elements, and more accidental occurrences, as well as proof that what is fatal in one case may prove not to be in another. For instance, mercury poisoning was the end of Charles II after one too many alchemical experiments, but the great Isaac Newton failed to kill himself through mercury poisoning, despite deliberately trying to do so! It was also revealed to the audience that mercury is also the source of the phrase ‘mad as a hatter’, after the practice of using the element in the hat-making process in days gone by.
Arsenic, of course, was another featured element, and we were regaled with tales of its use in wallpapers, through Scheele’s Green – copper arsenite – as a pigment. Always a popular topic of discussion at such events, the death of Napoleon from suspected arsenic poisoning surfaced once again – if ever there was a famous death through chemical poisoning that gets audiences talking, it seems to be that of Bonaparte.
Over the course of an hour, Emsley proved to be an informative, engaging and humorous speaker, easily able to keep an audience hanging on his next piece of information. With an impressively large audience, an ever-engaging subject matter and an infectious enthusiasm for the facts, he started 2006 in a manner that will be hard to follow!
Derek Gillespie
Honorary recorder
Bristol & South West Regional Group
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