wisdom

Something that is not mine, but I lust after anyway- a cobalt blue owl-wing poison bottle. Poison bottles were usually green or blue, always textured and usually had a skull and/or the word 'poison' on them. Not quite sure why this one has the owl on it- it is Swiss and I haven't seen one in person- yet.

I brought this up cause I am working on a new art piece that came about rather by accident... I was happily tearing up an old book and realised that it was a true story of a poisoning. So today, today I will tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a Doctor known as Dr. Edward Willam Pritchard...now this was way back in 1865 in bonny ol' Scotland. Dr. Pritchard wasn't the best of doctors, he was vain and had questionable skills, thought he was God's gift to women. Now, he was married- and they had five children- and his in-laws thought him perfect. But so did the serving girls. Or anyway, he convinced them as such. The first victim was Elizabeth, who died mysteriously in a fire (she didn't even bother to get out of bed) that everyone else escaped. The next girl, Mary, was only 15 when she turned up pregnant... he was fond of her though, and said that he would marry her if only his wife was not around.

Well, his wife began a slow decline... stomach problems. Her mother came to nurse her, but soon fell ill as well. After a bit, they both died- of 'natural' causes as a result of the mystery illness. Another doctor became suspicious and called for the bodies to be exhumed. It was found that both the mother and daughter had been poisoned with Antimony.

This was quite clever, because antimony was both a poison and a drug. As a poison it was fast acting and deadly, so as a drug it had to be carefully controlled. Being a metal, antimony was used as an alloy to create metal drinking cups, and to use it as a drug, liquid would be left in the cup over night to leach the antimony, which could then be consumed in non-lethal doses. The dear doctor kept ALL of his wife's beverages in antimony containers, from which the helpful Mary would serve drinks to the wife and mother.

Mary was acquitted, the doctor convicted and hung. (Last public hanging in Scotland). Interesting, curious... a good singing bones story. I am happily working on the art and will have it posted in a bit- mean time, watch your drink!