This was prompted by a question on last Monday's University Challenge
- Cyanide (The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, And Then There Were None, A Pocketful of Rye, Sparkling Cyanide). A rapidly acting, potentially deadly chemical that can exist in various forms. Cyanide can be a colourless gas, such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN) or cyanogen chloride (CNCl), or a crystal form such as sodium cyanide (NaCN) or potassium cyanide (KCN)..
- Arsenic (4.50 From Paddington). A chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33.
- Strychnine (The Mysterious Affair at Styles). A white, odourless, bitter crystalline powder that can be taken by mouth, inhaled (breathed in), or mixed in a solution and given intravenously (injected directly into a vein). It is a strong poison.
- Digitalis (Appointment with Death). Poison derived form the foxglove.
- Morphine (Sad Cypress). An opiate painkiller that can kill in the right dosage.
- Thallium (The Pale Horse). A chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81.
- Coniine (Five Little Pigs) an alkaloid extracted from hemlock, it works peripherally as a neurotoxin, causing death by respiratory paralysis. Less than 200 micrograms is fatal.
- Bacillus anthracis (Cards On The Table). Gram-positive and rod-shaped bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease to livestock and, occasionally, to humans.
- Phosphorus (Dumb Witness). A chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15.
- Belladonna also known as Deadly Nightshade (The Caribbean Mystery, The Big Four). Poisonous plant.
(Sleeping tablets feature in Lord Edgware Dies).
.jpg)