Today’s Perpetual Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Antimony is an element that is gram-for-gram about as toxic as arsenic but on a dose-for-dose basis it is less life-threatening simply because antimony salts rapidly cause violent vomiting which expels most of the toxin from the body before it can be absorbed. This curious ability of antimony to trigger the muscles of the stomach to expel its contents generally prevented antimony’s misuse as a murder weapon. Antimony in one form or another has been used in the treatment of disease for more than 3000 years. Antimony metal appeared in two guises in the Middle Ages: emetic cups and perpetual pills, the former to cure a hangover and overindulgence, the latter to cure constipation. At the end of an evening of eating and drinking to excess, some wine was left in a special goblet made of antimony to be drunk the following day, whereupon it would soon provoke vomiting and empty the stomach. Perpetual pills were small balls of antimony which were swallowed. These would irritate the gut thereby promoting it to action to eject the irritant. The pill was then retrieved from the expelled excrement, washed, and stored for further use. There are reports that such pills were highly effective and passed from generation to generation.
Culled from: The Elements Of Murder
Ugh. I’m so glad to be living in the era of single-use suppositories.
I feel a song coming on:
“Jeremiah Peabody’s Powerfully Poisonous, Potentially Painful, Poop-Plastered Pass-’em-on Perpetual Pills!”
And I’m going to start a band: Antimony and the Emetic Cups!
Why not? IN eighth grade when we studied the periodic table, I thought it would be cool to be named either Astatine or Antimony.
I’m a very “elemental” person.
Aimee, you’re so mercurial.
Ugh, some things just shouldn’t be shared. But I guess it does save the waste of millions of single-use pills. This could be a good idea!
Once we iron out all the little technicalities, it’s golden.
And my song will sell platinum!