History : Middle ages

Europe
Later, in Europe during the Middle Ages, when the nature of poisons were known better than simply magic and witchcraft, there were sellers and suppliers of potions and poisons, known as apothecaries.[21] Despite the fact that the medicinal uses of poisons were now known, it was no secret that people bought poisons for less useful and lawful reasons. The alchemists who worked in these apothecaries suffered a considerable risk to their health, working so invariably close to poisonous substances. [22]
At the same time, in other areas of the world, the technological advancement of poisons was expanding, and, in the Arab nations, some had succeeded in making arsenic transparent, odourless and tasteless when applied to a drink, a method which would allow poison murderers to remain undetected for at least one millennia.[23]
An excerpt from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a text that existed sometime in the 14th century to the 15th century describes a killer buying poison from an apothecary to rid a rat infestation:
And forth he goes – no longer he would tarry –Into the town unto a ‘pothecaryAnd prayed him that he woulde sellSome poison, that he might his rattes quell…The ‘pothecary answered: "And thou shalt haveA thing that, all so God my soule save,In all this world there is no creatureThat ate or drunk has of this confitureNot but the montance of a corn of wheatThat he ne shall his life anon forlete.Yea, starve (die) he shall, and that in lesse whileThan thou wilt go a pace but not a mileThe poison is so strong and violent—Canterbury Tales - The Pardoner's Tale. Lines 565-581.
This is one example of a large literature related to poison, and poisons and potions were a very popular subject in fiction. There were also academic texts discussing the subject, and both non-fiction and fiction were written for the most part by monks, whose knowledge and wisdom were respected, and as such authored a large portion of published works.[21]
One example of a non-fiction work is The Book of Venoms, a book describing the known poisons of the time, their effects and uses, written by Magister Santes de Ardoynis in 1424. It also recommended the best known treatments for a given poison. Despite this, it is considered probable that these factual works were not released to the public, but kept within appropriate learned circles for study and research.[21]
The troubled 14th and 15th centuries in Rajasthan, India saw invasions in the Rajput heartlands. Rajput women practiced a custom of jauhar ( literally the taking of life) when their sons, brothers, or husbands faced certain death in battle. Jauhar was practiced within the Kshatriya warrior class to avoid the fate of subservience, slavery, rape, or slaughter at the hands of the invading forces.[24]

[edit] Public reaction
If the truth was indeed kept from the public, it did not prevent the spawning of folklore and rumors about poisons, and use of them for purposes that were distasteful to the public. This caused a level of paranoia within some areas of the societies of England and Europe.[21] This wave of concern was furthered by the availability of 'medicine' potent enough to be lethal when secretly administered in sufficient quantity - it provided an easy way to kill, and one which was subtle, quiet, and generally allowed the criminal to remain undetected.[21] Perhaps it was this wave of paranoia that swept the streets, or the public need for answers about these toxins, but books about ways of counteracting poisons became sought for, and fed off the mounting anxiety, even though generally being wholly inaccurate.[21]
Naturally, crafty book salesmen would have sought to inflame the issue as a marketing ploy, and exaggerate the risk so that people would buy their books in search of a non-existent security. Other salesmen such as jewelry traders offering a supposedly poison-weakening amulet, or a doctor selling a magical cure would have profited greatly in such times of doubt. The information the public craved was kept from them, a treasure only for scholars and scientists, and so the public was left to make their own assumptions.[21]

[edit] Persia
Despite the negative effects of poison, which were so evident in these times, cures were being found in poison, even at such a time where it was hated by the most of the general public. An example can be found in the works of Iranian born Persian physician, philosopher, and scholar Rhazes, writer of Secret of Secrets, which was a long list of chemical compounds, minerals and appratus, the first man to distil alcohol and use it as an anti-septic, and the person who suggested mercury be used as a laxative. He made discoveries relating to a mercury chloride called corrosive sublimate. An ointment derived from this sublimate was used to cure what Rhazes described as 'the itch', which is now referred to as scabies. This proved an effective treatment because of mercury's poisonous nature and ability to penetrate the skin, allowing it to eliminate the disease and the itch. [25]