Lead, mercury, and other (mostly heavy) metals. Look up mad hatters. Also phosphorus and match girls
Heavy metals in artists’ oil paints.
You can always dig into true crime, see what methods are used to kill husbands.
Check out ChubbyEmu on YouTube. He’s a pharmacist who presents strange and interesting medical stories (with dramatic re-enactments) involving unusual chemical exposures that damage and sometimes kill people. Examples: soda, coconut water from a bad coconut, a fermented soup, ivermectin ordered online, lab chemicals stolen by a student and given to a disliked roommate, and so on. Maybe something there will inspire you. ChubbyEmu does a good job of breaking down complex medical into an easily digestible format.
Doing research like this is really interesting, but also makes me think if I'm on a list now.
Time. It's very slow but will get them in the end.
Apple seeds contain cyanide. You'd have to crush and eat anywhere from 150 to a few thousand seeds for it to be fatal though. I'm sure that hasn't stopped authors from using it before.
Cyanide is legendarily fast acting. Among the fastest known poisons.
"Honey, I've made your favorite meal! Crushed up pulp from 150 to a few thousand apple seeds!"
How slow are you talking? Days? Weeks? months?
Alcohol is a very effective slow acting poison.
how slow acting? As in months, or as in time to get the fuck outta dodge?
Ricin will kill you in a couple of days, was first extracted in 1888, and the plant grows in the mediterranean.
Like takes at least a day or more for the poisoned character to notice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides
you also get points for historical accuracy, as it was used as far back as ancient rome
also, how low tech is low tech? Litvinenko was dying for three weeks after polonium poisoning, and radium will have similar effects, first extracted 1898
Good luck with your writing! I too have had to search for some very silly things for things I've written! As for slow acting poisons, only ones I could think of that would be really available modernly would be like, antifreeze and such, but I don't think that's so slow acting. And usually it's kids and dogs that get into that.
Go ask chatgpt or something similar for old medical herbs used back in the day that might also posion you. I inspire to write a book one day, and ive found ai to be really informative. The best part is, even if they're wrong its going in a fiction story(i hope) where it wouldn't matter.
I hope since you want to write this will be appreciated: for that sentence you're looking for "aspire" not "inspire".
Hey i said i want to write one, i never said it was going to be good.
That's what editors are for 🤷♂️
Mistletoe berries i think. Otherwise mercury depending on dosage.
Ok I looked into mercury and it might be what I'm looking for. Any idea how long it'd take before the effects become noticeable?
It used to slowly drive haters insane, hence mad haters. There was a theory Napoleon was exposed to excess levels of Arsenic over time although that might have well been background exposure. Nevertheless over time it's not good for you. Neither is lead.
Hatters? Haberdashers?
Mercury poisoning of hat-makers – In 18th and 19th century England, mercury was used in the production of felt, which was commonly used in the hat-making trade at the time. Long-term use of mercury products often resulted in mercury poisoning-induced erethism among hat-makers. In the late 19th-century United States, a notable example occurred in Danbury, Connecticut, where hat making was a major industry. Instances of erethism were so widespread among hat-makers, the condition became known locally as the "Danbury Shakes." It was characterized by slurred speech, tremors, stumbling, and in extreme cases hallucinations.
Look above.
At my hat?
Mushrooms are a good option, and you can just make up a species if you want specific time frames/symptoms. Mushrooms can cause a lot of weird symptoms.
There's also a brain eating amoeba or other sickness from still water (people back in the day were very aware of tainted water).
If you have access to polar animals, a unique poisoning would be vitamin A toxicity from their livers. It's a horrific way to die, though (skin sloughing off).
Was going to say that. They to go through the digestive track, so it needs a day or so to work. The toxin of amanita is heat resistant so you can make a stew of it, and when the first symptoms show up your liver is probably already beyond repair. If you want it to be more interesting, there are some species that are poisonous only with alcohol, like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinopsis_atramentaria , although the symptoms are less severe as in death cap, but maybe it's not unimaginable to give a hearty stew a day before a known heavyweight drinking run to kill the dude(ette).
Yeah look at the Death Cap
Ongoing case here in Australia with a lady accused of murdering her ex and ex-inlaws. Invites them to lunch of beef Wellington and death cap mushrooms.
3 died fairly awful deaths in the following days/weeks, 1 survived after intensive care.
Accused of trying to murder the ex 4 prior times too.
The "Mushroom lady" case absolutely captivated us for weeks
There was a theory a while back that Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning due to the damp Mediterranean climate causing the decay of a green wallpaper using an arsenic based dye. It didn't end up being entirely true but he may have been slowly poised by environmental arsenic throughout his life. Here is an article about it.
Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the Earth's crust as metallic crystals or combined with other elements. Being a heavy metal, arsenic bioaccumulates. That is, it builds up in the body over time, so slow poisoning is possible.
I recommend an American diet: ultra-processed foods, excess sodium, saturated fat, refined grains, calories from solid fats and added sugars, and avoid vegetables like the plague! The target will be dead within 50 years...
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