The book “The Poisoners Handbook” by Deborah Blum revolves around the stories of Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, New York City’s first toxicologists. Before the two main characters began working in the medical examiner’s office, the author points out in her book, that poisoners could get away with murder as poison was basically unidentifiable, and thus untraceable. The book covers the Jazz Age years from 1915 to 1936, which the author describes as a “coming-of-age” for forensic toxicology. Throughout the course of the book the author covers the development of knowledge in the poisons chloroform, wood alcohol, cyanides, arsenic, mercury, carbon monoxide, methyl alcohol, radium, ethyl alcohol and thallium. In the process of explaining the development in forensic science, the author shows Norris and Gettler’s contribution to the medical world in their success in revolutionizing the poison game.

In the beginning the author states that “until the early nineteenth century few tools existed to detect toxic substance in a corpse. Sometimes investigators deduced poison from the violent sickness that preceded death, or built a case by feeding animals a victim’s last meal, but more often than not the poisoner walked free.” (p.1). This sets the scene for the beginning of the chemical revolution, before which investigators didn’t have the tools and knowledge to solve crime. Throughout the book scientists had always been testing and experimenting in order to find more efficient ways to detect poison. One time when they were investigating mercury it says that “it wasn’t a particularly difficult poison to detect in a body. But Gettler had been experimenting with it in smaller and smaller amounts, pushing the limits of Reinsch’s test, following those careful steps of heating, distilling, and condensing it until the pure poison separated out. He tried to improve the sensitivity until he could detect a mere trace.” (p.109-110). This shows the scientists testing and improving their methods of detecting poison.

Towards the end of the book the author concludes that “Norris’s and Gettler’s often thankless work – the long nights in the laboratory, the endless fights with the mayor’s office, the battles against the federal government and big business alike – had produced real results. Norris and Gettler had, indeed, changed the poison game.” (p.272).

Overall the poison game has dramatically changed during this time period. Poisons that used to be untraceable could now be detected easily. Poisoners who used to get away with their crimes were now (in 1936) sent the electric chair.

In this 8th grade PE unit of aquatics there were two main areas of focas was one water polo and second swimming. My focus stroke of swimming was freestyle. At the beginning of our 12 lesson unit we first started with righting smart goals. Smart stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. The smart aspect was intended to conform that our goal was reasonable. Throughout the 12 lessons I feel like that there has been some improvements of my stroke. Improvements include head position which helps with the stream line position. Another improvement is the pull aspect of freestyle. My pull used to be very bendy with no fixed position each time I took a stroke. Now my pull is much nicer plus I have a much more extended entry and straighter arm. Also now in my recovery my elbow is much higher. Our swim training was based on the HIIT (high intensity interval training) and FITT (frequency intensity time type). These practices helped me improve my stroke position but also helped with my overall consistency of good quality swimming over longer periods of time with little rest.