Abstract Summary
The ability of vegetable and mineral substances to affect the human body has long stood poised between the desirable (food and drugs) and undesirable (poisons and toxins). The demand for the intoxicating virtues of drugs both therapeutic and recreational has been paralleled by the aversion to harmful toxins. Chemists, pharmacologists and toxicologists took a correspondingly strong interest in understanding the material underpinnings of these desirable and hazardous properties, which were not only significant in themselves but also provided windows into the relationship between living nature and nonliving or human-made materials during the 19th and 20th centuries. The papers in this panel addresses these sciences of toxins and intoxicants, taking up chemists’ efforts to identify, map, and control the action of chemicals on the body, whether in the service of prevention or enhancement. These take place in the various contexts of the courtroom, borrowed hospital laboratories, drug companies, and regulatory agencies. Shared themes include the interplay between pharmacological or toxicological effects and sensory qualities like taste, smell, and appearance, the distinction between natural and artificial chemicals, and the challenge of rendering invisible agents legible.
