Q 01/05

Heating arsenic in air releases fumes with which telltale smell, also noticed when a hammer strikes arsenic ores?

A) Almonds

B) Garlic

C) Rotten eggs

D) Fresh hay

Answer · why

B) Garlic

Garlic is the classic warning sign of arsenic, and the same reek clings to cacodyl, an arsenic compound named from the Greek word for stink.

Q 02/05

One theory blames Napoleon's 1821 death in exile on arsenic fumes from which green furnishing in his damp house?

A) Curtains

B) Carpets

C) Wallpaper

D) Lampshades

Answer · why

C) Wallpaper

Wallpaper coloured with arsenic green can give off toxic gas when mould grows on it, though most historians now think stomach cancer killed Napoleon.

Q 03/05

A 2006 study found which champion racehorse of Depression-era Australia died in 1932 of a massive arsenic overdose?

A) Phar Lap

B) Carbine

C) Peter Pan

D) Bernborough

Answer · why

A) Phar Lap

Phar Lap raced in an era when arsenic tonics were so routine in stables that one vet reckoned 90 per cent of horses carried the poison.

Q 04/05

Tube wells sunk to give villagers safe drinking water caused mass arsenic poisoning in which South Asian country?

A) Sri Lanka

B) Bhutan

C) Afghanistan

D) Bangladesh

Answer · why

D) Bangladesh

Bangladesh swapped germ-ridden pond water for groundwater that turned out to be naturally laced with arsenic, and nobody had tested the wells for it.

Q 05/05

In the comedy Arsenic and Old Lace, the Brewster sisters serve arsenic to lonely old men in which homemade drink?

A) Blackberry cordial

B) Elderberry wine

C) Dandelion wine

D) Plum brandy

Answer · why

B) Elderberry wine

Elderberry wine in the play hides arsenic, strychnine and a pinch of cyanide, and the curtain falls as the aunts offer one last glass.