Please Don’t Judge Me By My Search History - Reflections on Mushrooms
Way back in 2000/2001, I wrote my honours thesis on poisons in antiquity. While my research coalesced into the xenophobic perception of poisoners in the classical world, this was after spending years (yes years - I decided on this topic in early 1998) collecting references to poisons in Greek and Latin literature. This interest is likely because I had extended family suggesting “natural” remedies to treat the arthritis I have suffered from since I was five years old. My mother would hand the pamphlets to me, and I would sit down with the family’s set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica and look up the ingredients. All of this is to say that I have been fascinated with toxicology following a childhood. If you have been living under a rock, you might have missed the case of Erin Patterson who has just been found guilty of poisoning four people, killing three, with the inclusion of dehydrated mushrooms in beef wellingtons. With all the reporting on this case, especially the focus on her inte...
