Dripping poison into someones ear...

[sandyRoe]

Hamlet's father was murdered using this method. Is it an efficacious method of administering poison?

[HowardKennitby]

I wouldn't think it had any effect on a person.

[Psybbo]

Anybody in mind, Sandy?

[albaqwerty]

Wouldn't have thought so. I know the ears are linked to the throat somehow but surely it would have to get past the ear-drum?

[bookbinder]

I have no experience of this, so I can only surmise. If it was a corrosive acid, it would dissolve away the eardrum and penetrate the brain, so there might be something to go on there.

[sandyRoe]

No. It's just that I can't find my ear plugs anywhere.

[Sqad]

What an interesting question.

In a normal ear which is lined with skin and an intact eardrum...then NO chance of the poison being absorbed into the body.

However...with a perforated eardrum. which were very common in those days, then the poison would pass through the perforation, down the Eustachian tube, down the back of the throat and into the stomach and HEY PRESTO absorbed into the body.

Clever!

[albaqwerty]

efficacious, wonderful word!
Wasn't it Lily the Pink had a wonderful drink?

What's up with the ears Sandy? Noisy neighbours?

[sandyRoe]

Fiendishly clever.

[bookbinder]

Does Shakespeare say that Hamlet's father had a perforated eardrum?

[HowardKennitby]

For Sqad

"with a perforated eardrum. which were very common in those days, "

Why were they common in those days?

[sandyRoe]

Alba, I live in a semi. Next door has just been rented out to people who come in about midnight and make noise to about 2 in the morning. I was thinking of sneaking in and experimenting with the ear dropper.

[sandyRoe]

It those days people would give you a clip around the ear as quick as look at you.

[sandyRoe]

though maybe not the king

[albaqwerty]

Howard, they were common in those days, just read one of Shakespeare's plays to understand how common they were.

To kill someone, whack 'em with a frozen leg of lamb, defrost and cook. Serve with mint sauce, gardens peas and roasts.

[Sqad]

Because measles and middle ear infections plus poverty with no antibiotics or immunisation made perforated ear drums very common in children, persisting throughout the patient's life.

This is still seen in under developed countries and still in the Western world.

Now, with microsurgery and anaesthesia perforations can be closed by using graft material.

[bookbinder]

A poison pellet in an umbrella might be more efficacious, nowadays. No need to creep into the victim's bedroom and hope that the security men aren't paying attention.

[ummmm]

Can perforated eardums heal on their own?

[sandyRoe]

poison pellets in umbrellas? We're getting into the realms of fantasy now. :-)

[guilliebrougues]

Sometimes when I and other persons have had eardrops administered, both I and others have said that they could taste the drops in the mouth. So maybe it is a good way of poisoning someone.

[albaqwerty]

Don't say that Sandy, I'm comfy in the sanity of CB :-D