the.com/thallium
the poisoner's favorite metal — odorless, tasteless, and lethal long before anyone suspects a thing
means A soft, highly toxic metallic element (atomic number 81) once used in rat poison and now infamous as a stealthy instrument of murder.
from From the Greek 'thallos,' meaning a green shoot or twig — named by its discoverer Sir William Crookes in 1861 for the brilliant green line it flashed in his spectroscope, the same color, fittingly, as new spring growth. A bright, leafy name for a thoroughly deadly thing.
- murder weapon
- nicknamed the poisoner's poison and inheritance powder
- hair fallout
- victims lose their hair before dying
- agatha clue
- Christie's novels helped doctors diagnose real poisonings
- named for
- Greek thallos, a green budding twig
- once a cure
- sold to treat ringworm and night sweats
for instance
george marsh thallium case — australian murder case where thallium was used to poison a husband in 1953
rodenticide ban 1975 — thallium-based rat poison banned in most countries due to high human toxicity and accidental poisonings