Ingested poisons: How effective?

[gloriousbattle]

More of a historical or perhaps chemical question than pure D&D, though it certainly fits the genre.

Anyway, I was reading a book on the Ottoman Empire in which the author stated that only a very few ingested poisons of the type available in the Middle Ages were really effective. Evidently, the body is pretty good at picking out what will hurt it, and most things (with a very few exceptions,like arsenic) will either be vomited out before they can do any real damage, or smell/taste so bad that nobody will swallow them in the first place.

Obviously, this would not apply to many things available today.

Curious what others have read.

[Finarvyn]

I seem to recall reading similar things about early poisons. As an interesting aside, I also remember reading somewhere that Napoleon's death might have hastened from slow arsenic poisoning, or at least his symptoms seemed quite similar. A group was hoping to examine some locks of his hair that supposedly exist somewhere since they could detect the poison (if there is any) in the hair and could track dosage given with time. I wonder if anything came of this or if it was just some wacky theory.....

[chgowiz]

Here's what a bit of google-fu turned up:

BBC - article covers an independent study on Napoleon that concludes he was poisoned. The study was sponsored by someone who believes Napoleon was indeed poisoned.

From the Napoleon Society comes additional studies. Not sure how unbiased these are.

Probably not surprising, in 2008, there's evidence that he wasn't poisoned. Link to Science Daily article.

[snorri]

Studies of several ancient middle-ages popes also revelated high rates of lead, suggesting they could have been poisoned.

Use of cyanure, giving instant death, is not only in literacy. I has been reported several time in historical references. Comrade Lenin created a chemical laboratory for the study of poisons in early soviet union, considering it was an efficient weapon.

[jjarvis]

Poisons often had to be delivered in multiple small doses over multiple courses even multiple meals.
I was going to talk about how to masks poisons having read up on it years back for a history paper when I realized...I probably shouldn't post it on the internet.

[gloriousbattle]

Nov 26, 2009 7:29:36 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I seem to recall reading similar things about early poisons. As an interesting aside, I also remember reading somewhere that Napoleon's death might have hastened from slow arsenic poisoning, or at least his symptoms seemed quite similar. A group was hoping to examine some locks of his hair that supposedly exist somewhere since they could detect the poison (if there is any) in the hair and could track dosage given with time. I wonder if anything came of this or if it was just some wacky theory.....

I have read a similar account, that Napoleon was poisoned by the Comte Du Montholon with arsenic, though scholars go back and forth on whether the arsenic found in his body was just a preservative used later.