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 [...]
The story of arsenic in Victorian Britain, looking both at its widespread presence in everything from candles to curtains, and also its more sinister use for murder and suicide.[...]