In these timeless and witty essays George Orwell explores the English love of reading about a good murder in the papers (and laments the passing of the heyday of the 'perfect' murder involving class, sex and poisoning), as well as unfolding his trenchant views on everything from boys' weeklies to naughty seaside postcards.
What's your poison? Fethering residents, Jude and Carole, get more than they bargained for when a lunchtime meal in their local pub leaves everyone with food poisoning. The landlord is horrified and when a series of disasters start to befall his business it looks like it could be the end of the road for the Crown and Anchor. Left with a bad taste in their mouths - and not just from the food - the two amateur detectives wonder if it might just be more than a run of bad luck, which is forcing their favorite pub into bankruptcy.
Dr. Kim Reggis, one of the country's top cardiac surgeons, finds himself ill equipped to deal with a medical catastrophe involving his own daughter, Becky. Newly divorced, Kim takes Becky to her favorite fast-food restaurant on a special night out. The quintessential American meal of burgers and fries leads to tragedy. Over the following week Becky becomes gravely ill from E. coli bacterial poisoning. Beginning with the initial emergency room visit, Kim is driven to distraction by the realities of current medicine.
The Arsenic Century - How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work and Play
Arsenic is rightly infamous as the poison of choice for Victorian murderers. Yet the great majority of fatalities from arsenic in the nineteenth century came not from intentional poisoning, but from accident. Kept in many homes for the purpose of poisoning rats, the white powder was easily mistaken for sugar or flour and often incorporated into the family dinner. It was also widely present in green dyes, used to tint everything from candles and candies to curtains, wallpaper, and clothing (it was arsenic in old lace that was the danger).
The Color Atlas of Human Poisoning and Envenoming is the only full-color resource available for the immediate visual association and the rapid identification of envenoming species, resultant lesions, clinical outcomes of envenoming or poisoning, and recommended treatment strategies to limit toxic exposures and injuries. With no-nonsense, bulleted text, tables, figure legends, and diagrams, this atlas provides an immediate reference for use in emergency differential diagnosis.
