Ah, Thallium. Part one in our poison series. It's arsenic's lesser-known cousin and one that no one suspects. While arsenic had a chemical test developed way back in 1836, Thallium had a while to go, (I couldn't find the year, sadly.) with its most famous poison cases being 1950s.
The symptoms of Thallium poisoning are just like a hundred different cases: Abdominal pain, hair loss, increased heart rate, and pain in the extremities. It sounds to me a lot like arsenic... But it was still used to treat several medical conditions.
Found by William Crookes in 1861, it was noted that several of the animals used in the testing of the element died within several days. They used it in rat poisons and in anti-insect spray, but it was banned in the 1970s.
The lethal dosage of Thallium is 10-15mg/kg. It really doesn't take a lot to kill someone with this poison. It's slow and extremely difficult to find in someone. It's odorless, colorless, and tasteless.
It takes days to affect someone. They start feeling kinda icky, and they probably just presume it's a case of food poisoning. After this mild case, it takes a darker turn with extreme amounts of pain (because of the destruction of nerves), Insomnia, and excessive thirst. Two weeks into this nightmare, the victim gets something characteristic of Thallium: The darkening of the skin around the scalp, which leads to hair loss. Then, (man, there is a lot to cover with Thallium...) they get dry and scaly skin and white lines (Called 'Mee's lines') on their fingernails. Then, and only then, they die. Quite dramatic, right?
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