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Toxicology

• Alle Dinge sind Gift
  und nichts ist ohne Gift,
  macht nur die Dosis etwas
  ein Gift oder kein Gift,
  so dass ein Gift
  ist zu viel von etwas,
  und zu wenig von allem,
  ohne Ausnahme,
  ist kein Gift.

Difficult man

• His real name was Philippus
• Aureolus Theophrastus
• Bombastus von Hohenheim,
• and he annoyed everybody.
• He advocated keeping wounds clean,
• which annoyed his colleagues who wrapped them
• in cow dung and feathers because they believed
• infection was part of the healing process.
• He ridiculed the theory that disease
• arises from an internal imbalance
• of the four humors and can be restored
• by purging and bloodletting.
• He said that disease
• was an entity that attacked
• the body from the outside,
• not an internal imbalanced state.
• He said that bloodletting
• disturbed the harmony of the body
• and you cannot purify blood
• by lessening its quantity.
• He angered his colleagues
• by lecturing in German instead of Latin
• to make medical knowledge
• more accessible to common people.
• He condemned the authority
• of Avicenna and Galen
• and publicly threw their books
• into a bonfire on Saint John’s Day.
• He arrogantly told professors
• that their tassels and titles
• didn’t matter as long as
• their theories were never tested.
• He said, “if disease put us to the test,
• all our splendor, title, ring, and name
• will be as much help
• as a horse’s tail.”
• He quarrelled about religion
• and about fees for his services,
• and viciously slandered his opponents
• until they drove him out of town.

Some toxins

• Alcohol’s a toxic drug
• with interesting effects
• including inhibiting stress
• suppressing social graces.
• Even mercury or arsenic
• can trick a cure with low doses,
• which is called “sufficient challenge.”
• For some toxic chemicals
• maybe it’s true—there’s
• no safe minimum dose. But not sunlight,
• which can cause skin cancer
• but also produce vitamin D in the skin.
• Cobalt pigment is highly toxic,
• but in vitamin B₁₂
• it’s essential to all animals.
• The low dose of a drug
• like salt or sugar
• can have a paradoxical effect,
• not simply overwhelm the system
• like a chemotheraputic drug.
• You’ve gotta eat a peck
• of dirt before you die, they say.
• What doesn’t kill you
• might only make you stronger.