Agatha Christie knew her poisons, scientists say

April 21, 2002

By Hannah Cleaver

BERLIN, Mar 18 (Reuters Health) - Two forensic scientists who have

examined the deaths invented by the most famous of crime writers, Agatha

Christie, say her descriptions of poisonings were dead-on.

They say her symptomatic descriptions were textbook stuff, and even

helped a child to be diagnosed and saved when a nurse suggested that

baffled doctors compare the child's symptoms with those described in one

of the British author's books.

Dr. Benno Riesselmann and Professor Volkmar Schneider carefully examined

the poisoning descriptions in two of Christie's books-- " The Pale Horse, "

featuring thallium poisoning, and " Three Act Tragedy, " in which the

murderer used nicotine.

" They really were like reading textbook descriptions, they were so

precise, " Riesselmann, a toxicologist at the Institute for Legal

Medicine in Berlin, told Reuters Health.

" They're so detailed too, she obviously took great care over her

poisonings, either researching them very well or having had experience

herself. She worked at a chemist's shop between 1915 and 1918 in

Torquay, southwest England.... She would certainly have learned a lot,

had a lot of experience with medications such as morphine and how it

works as a toxin when taken in too-large doses.

" If you look at her first novel, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles,' from

1920, where she introduced the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, you can

see that poisoning was already a theme. In her 66 criminal novels there

are more than 40 which feature poisonings. "

Riesselmann said Christie's description of thallium poisoning was so

accurate that it helped save a young girl's life in 1977.

" This girl was in the Hammersmith Hospital, London, and doctors were at

a loss as to what was wrong with her until a nurse who had read 'The

Pale Horse' suggested it might be the same kind of poisoning as in the

book and the doctors eventually diagnosed and treated her, " Riesselmann

said.

" I'm not even really a fan of the novels, but would recommend them to

any student for the accuracy of the symptomatic descriptions, " he added.

Riesselmann and Schneider have written a pamphlet dissecting Christie's

pathological descriptions, in conjunction with the exhibition " Agatha

Christie and Archaeology, Mystery in Mesopotamia, " which was in Berlin

and is currently at the British Museum in London.

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