Anne Mette Seines

• Poison and the history of poison
• Social history
• History of psychiatry
• History of medicine

Poison in Scandinavia? 

A study of poisons, poison protocols and poison practicesfrom 1800 - 1970.

Poisons exist on all levels and arenas in society, therefor my PhD-project has a wide perspective on social- and culturalhistory. I will be following dangerous substances such as arsenic, strychnine, mercury and cyanid into peoples houses, gardens, farms, small factories and small businesses by studying a clearly defined but varied source material. I will explore weather stories of poison and poisonings reflect the present. Poison and poisonous are fleeting and constructed consepts, can a traditional understanding that dangerous substances were sold only from pharmacies facilitated in defusing newer substances danger because they were -and are- sold elsewhere?

       The overarching issue in my project Poison in Scandinavia? is: Which substances were acknowledged and recorded as poisons at what times by whom, and who made these definitions. By whom and to which ends were they applied. How were these dangerous substances administrated and which discourses, practices and kinds of knowledge tied to these substances did the people who were surrounded by them have.

 Poison to the Beasts (2018) 

Between 1845 and 1967 deadly poison was often used to kill and eradicate unwanted wild animals in the Norwegian fauna. The major targets of these poison practices were rats, predators and crows. This article presents the main types of poisons used, the main methods of poison administration and the legislation covering the poisoning-practices in regards to the various species, as well as negotiations over the killing methods and wildlife eradication programmes