Word: marinus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...began collecting his own samples. "The principal ingredients are consistent in three of four localities," he reports in his paper. Several plants containing skin irritants are used, a charred human bone is thrown in just for show, but the active ingredients are a large New World toad (Bufo marinus) and one or more species of puffer fish. The toad, Davis reports, is a "veritable chemical factory," containing hallucinogens, powerful anesthetics and chemicals that affect the heart and nervous system. The fish is more potent still, containing a deadly nerve poison called tetrodotoxin...
...unrelated flashback to the Nazi past, a West Berlin court last week revived memories of one of the key stepping stones in Hitler's assumption of power: the fire that gutted the Reichstag (parliament) in 1933. The court declared a "miscarriage of justice" in the 1933 trial of Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, whom the accused of started the blaze. By blaming the fire on the Communists, the Nazis nailed down their hold on the nation. The decision last week did not specifically exonerate Van der Lubbe, who was tried by a Nazi court, found guilty...