Word: poison
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...best explanation, Douyon believed, was that Narcisse had been poisoned in such a way that his vital signs could not be detected. The psychiatrist obtained a sample of a coma-inducing toxin from a bocor. The poison is apparently used to punish individuals who have transgressed the will of their community or family. Narcisse, for example, said that he had been "killed" by his brothers for refusing to go along with their plan to sell the family land. Ti-Femme, a female zombie also under study by Douyon, had been poisoned for refusing to marry the man her family...
...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...
...learn how these poisons might relate to zombiism, Davis turned to an unlikely source: Japanese medical literature. Every year a number of Japanese suffer Botanist Davis tetrodotoxin poisoning as a result of eating incorrectly prepared puffer fish, the great delicacy fugu. Davis found that entire Japanese case histories "read like accounts of zombification." Indeed, nearly every symptom reported by Narcisse and his doctors is described, from the initial difficulty breathing to the final paralysis, glassy-eyed stare and yet the retention of mental faculties. In at least two cases, Japanese victims were declared dead but recovered before they could...
...Ruckelshaus, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, laments that the nation seems caught up in a quest for the "chemical of the month." He was referring to once obscure substances, such as dioxin and PCB, that suddenly get catapulted into the public spotlight. Enter October's celebrity poison...
...ptomaine poisoning, which had compelled him suddenly to abandon his tour, was followed by a slight attack of pneumonia. For a day or two it did not seem as if he were throwing off the poison. Then gradual improvement followed. His temperature abated, his pulse approached normal. The bulletins of physicians in attendance had at first pronounced his condition "serious." Succeeding bulletins gave more and more encouragement to the hope that he would recover. Public apprehension was allayed...