In the early 19th century, arsenic was most widely used to kill rats and insufferable husbands alike. The chemical element was odorless and had a mild taste which allowed a scheming wife to mix it with a wide variety of flavored foods and feed the unsuspecting victim. A medical examiner usually couldn’t tell whether the poison was involved, because the symptoms—diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain—were similar to those of cholera, which was common at the time. Chemical tests to detect the presence of arsenic existed, but these were time consuming and the results were often inconclusive.
Marie Lafarge, lithograph by Gabriel Decker.
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Marie Lafarge: The Arsenic Poisoner
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