InsaneJournal

toxicology | day 235 (backdated to afternoon) | open to all!
[ another day, another tox lecture. piter is his usual self today, observant and enigmatic; though he may not particularly enjoy all that tox entails, he quite likes speaking, and his voice has its usual resonant, melodious cadence as he speaks. ]

Conium maculatum, commonly known as poison hemlock, is yet another of the many devilish toxins of the natural world. The unobservant may mistake it for wild carrot, daucus carota, owing to its flowers, but hemlock is nothing so innocuous, though it is indeed a lovely, delicate-looking killer. Every part of the plant is acutely poisonous— even the dead canes remain toxic for up to three years. The Greek language lends hemlock its forename, "conium," from the word konas— "to whirl," for vertigo is a common symptom of poisoning. [ to punctuate this, he gets up from his desk in one quick, calculated movement, and slowly advances on the class. his whiteless eyes gleam as he scours the room, watching any eyes that may be on him. ]

Among the many toxins found in Conium is coniine, similar to nicotine in structure and pharmacological properties. It is markedly potent. Even a small dose can easily result in death: for an adult, the ingestion of more than a tenth of a gram— that is, approximately six to eight fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root— may easily prove fatal. Coniine disrupts the central nervous system and kills by blocking the neuromuscular junction; this results in an ascending muscular paralysis with eventual paralysis of the respiratory muscles, which in turn results in death due to lack of oxygen to the heart and brain. Generally, symptoms appear twenty minutes to three hours after ingestion. [ he continues on for a while, describing further symptoms. in humans: dilation of the pupils, dizziness, and trembling, followed by slowing of the heartbeat, paralysis of the central nervous system, and muscle paralysis; in animals: nervous trembling, salivation, lack of coordination, pupil dilation, rapid weak pulse, respiratory paralysis. in all cases, coma and death are possible, with death typically occurring because of respiratory failure. ]

It is a most dreadful demise. [ piter doesn't seem terribly torn up about that. ] The doomed are helpless, imprisoned in their own failing bodies: limbs heavy and lifeless, heart weak, tongue languid and immobile in the mouth.

A consequence of being from the time that I am is that humanity has grown so vast and dispersed to so many planets, each with their own history, yet Earth has not remained relevant. I know admittedly little of its— indeed, your —history, but there are many things I have come to learn. For instance: in the ancient times of the planet, the country of "Greece" thrived, its city-states populated most famously with philosophers and ruthless warriors, and those that were condemned to death were executed with none other than hemlock. The philosopher Socrates is perhaps the most famous victim of hemlock on Earth; in 399 BC, convicted of impiety, he was to drink a potent mixture imbued with hemlock— and the rest, as they say, is history.

Hemlock, like arsenic, is yet another of those classics that I would be remiss not to pay homage to. So many assassins are taken with its symptoms, for paralytic poisons may be the most merciless of all. Ultimately, however, I find these "classics" to have become dreadfully unimaginative. [ a theatrical frown, followed by a moment of feigned pensiveness. ] Were I to die by any poison, I would prefer that a new and remarkable innovation be christened in my blood— but I believe it goes without saying that I would prefer not to die at all, for I know that you all would be simply lost without Piter.

[ guess who doesn't know how he dies. ]