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Greek Fire and re-usable laxatives.


Pertinax

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I have encountered a case today of a person suffering systemic poisoning by antimony trisulphide. This is fairly unusual , but not impluasible as he has been working with heavy machine bearings which contain an alloy of antimony .Antimony has a very strange history as a medicine, a cosmetic , part of a weapon system and a medieval re-usable laxative. Antimony is toxic if one has more than 100 milligrams in the body, indeed 2 mg is the norm for an adult. Rather unfortunately it has had a long vogue as a medication, and indeed in some modern contexts is used in the eye as a granular powder by certain devout Muslims emulating the Prophet (I am told that its stings unpleasantly).

 

It is not a true metal rather a metalloid and its sister element is our old friend arsenic, but unlike arsenic it is not easily lost from the body.Antimony converts to a far more deadly gaseous form , stibine (a hydride of antimony, SbH3).Dioscorides was familiar with the sulfide stibi as it was then known , which was used for skin complaints and burns. The vogue for medication gathered pace in the 16th C , doctors and vets using it abundantly as an antimony salt of tartaric acid ..inducing instant vomiting and purging "ill humors" from the body At this time wine was often left overnight in an antimony receptacle to achieve a similar purpose.It is suggested that Mozart died (or hastened his own end) by being fond of using antimony tartrate , his death throes being identical to those caused by antimony poisoning.

 

Stibinite (the sulphide mineral compound) was used by the Ancient Egyptians as mascara, kohl being the term you may well be familiar with, and the pigment "Naples yellow" made well into the 20th C is from the same mineral base (if precipitated out of solution the mineral is orange red rather than black as the natural mineral).

 

So how does Greek Fire get into the equation? The suggestion is that , given the impossibility of extinguishing this ordnance once the siphons had launched it, that the possible admixture was crude oil , stibinite and saltpetere. This mix is highly flammable and cannot be extinguished with water.Once stibinite ignites it produces a great deal of heat. We cannot know the recipe as, of course, divulgence meant death. In modern warfare oddly enough the sulfide is used in paints to reflect infrared , so your camo paint contains antimony.

 

And the laxatives? In the middle ages antimony metal pills were sold as "re-usable" pills..the constipated person swallowed one (about pea size) vomited and otherwise discharged effluvia, and the pill was retrived from said discharge for future use.It is said that such pills were passed down from generation to generation...

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And the laxatives? In the middle ages antimony metal pills were sold as "re-usable" pills..the constipated person swallowed one (about pea size) vomited and otherwise discharged effluvia, and the pill was retrived from said discharge for future use.It is said that such pills were passed down from generation to generation...

 

Uh... From which "discharge" was this pill retrieved? Fore or aft?

 

Not that it would make that much of a difference to me, when collecting my inherited goodies from whatever ancient, purgative-obsessed geezer had passed away in the family tree. I think I'd expeditiously "discharge" the metal pill myself -- through an auction house.

 

-- Nephele

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Alas, we are talking aft. Interestingly the skin flushes violently and body temperature rises quickly upon ingestion of around 10 mg of antimony, likewise blood raeches the "extremities", like some modern medications for , er, "strength".

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And the laxatives? In the middle ages antimony metal pills were sold as "re-usable" pills..the constipated person swallowed one (about pea size) vomited and otherwise discharged effluvia, and the pill was retrived from said discharge for future use.It is said that such pills were passed down from generation to generation...

 

:disgust:

 

EWWWW.....

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Did Agatha Christe ever use any of this stuff to bump off some unlucky lout? :)

 

:)

She was big on poisons, id be very surprised if she didnt use what was a celebrated late Victorian murder weapon.

 

Some more info: tartar emetic (the brand name) can be hidden in food , but it tastes very bitter ..I recall a woman trying to poison her loving husband by spiking his coffee, the bitter taste caused him to reject it, she then tried antimony paste on a sandwich which made him very ill , but was rumbled and prosecuted for attempted murder. The effects appear similar to arsenic poisoning, "gastric fever" , jaundiced appearence and anemia with complaints of dizziness , loss of appetite and a very dry throat.

Catherine De Medici and the Borgias used antimony as a weapon of choice alongside arsenic.

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