Sex, drugs, rocks, gold, murder, war, mass poisonings, the deaths of Napoleon, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and others are all linked by one element - arsenic! Arsenic has been around since the beginning of time and the word has become a metaphor for poison with associated shock value. The general public are fearful of any possible exposure to it and yet it holds a certain dark and eerie fascination!

Up until now, there has been no book that covers arsenic with such breadth. This book is a general appreciation of how much the element, arsenic, has become part of our lives. Written in an entertaining style, it covers the years 1000 BC to the present day.

The coverage of the chemistry, toxicology, and medicinal aspects is deliberately kept at a level for the general reader to understand. Is Arsenic an Aphrodisiac? The Sociochemistry of an Element covers the way in which this ubiquitous element and its compounds have influenced the lives of the people of the world. This relationship has gone through many stages from Chinese medicine to the beginning of Chemotherapy with salvarsan - Ehrlich's cure for syphilis; from homicidal poison, arsenic trioxide; to herbicide, lead arsenate; to the chemical warfare agent, Lewisite; from environmental scrounge, arsenic in the ground water of millions of people; and back to useful medicine, Trisenox for leukaemia.

Other chapters cover a variety of topics including:

A proposed connection between arsenic and Cot Death (SIDS)

How toxic is arsenic anyway, and how do you assess the risks of exposure?

How did Napoleon die?

Essential reading for everyone with a general interest in science, this illuminating text covers a broad range of topics.

Content - Chapter 1 Medicinal Arsenic: Toxic Arsenic, Chapter 2 Arsenic Where You Least Expect It, Chapter 3 Arsine, Scheele's Green, Gosio Gas, and Beer, Chapter 4 Arsenophobia: A Connection between the Deaths of Infants and Napolean I, Chapter 5 Arsenic and Crime: The Law of Intended Consequences, Chapter 6 Arsenic at War: Mass Murder, Chapter 7 Arsenic and the Environment, Chapter 8 Accidental Exposure to Arsenic: The Law of Unintended Consequences, Subject Index