Venomous Earth: How Arsenic Caused the World's Worst Mass Poisoning

209 Pages·2005·1.46 MB·English

by  Andrew Meharg

VENOMOUS EARTH
This page intentionally left blank
VENOMOUS EARTH
How arsenic caused the world’s worst mass poisoning
AndrewA.Meharg
Macmillan
©AndrewA.Meharg2005
Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis
publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission.
Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted
savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe
Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence
permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency,90
TottenhamCourtRoad,LondonW1T4LP.
Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothispublication
maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages.
Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork
inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988
Firstpublished2005by
Macmillan
Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XSand
175FifthAvenue,NewYork,N.Y.10010
Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld
ISBN-13:978–1–4039–4499–3
ISBN-10:1–4039–4499–7
Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully
managedandsustainedforestsources.
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
PrintedandboundinChina
Hegatheredallthatspringstobirth
Fromthemany-venomedearth;
Firstalittle,thencetomore,
Hesampledallherkillingstore;
A.E.Housman,Terence,thisisstupidstuff,fromA
ShropshireLad,1896
This page intentionally left blank
FürCaroline
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Listoffigures xi
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Thedevil’swater 1
2 Anaturaldisaster 25
3 Fools’gold 36
4 Theverdantassassin 63
5 Healingarsenic 93
6 Tofrustratetheaimofjustice 109
7 Nothinggreenmettheeye 129
8 Theextraordinarilyprotractedprocess 157
9 JoiBangla! 170
Furtherreading 184
Index 186
ix