Re: Should we be developing nonlethal means of

Patrick Wilken (patrickw@cs.monash.edu.au)
Sun, 3 Oct 1999 12:05:15 +1000 (EST) 

> << I'm pretty sure there's something useful out there. Perhaps

> some animal toxin (http://www.uq.edu.au/~ddbfry/menu.html
> has quite a list). "Zombie powder" is made from some kind
> of fish poison, afaik. It would certainly take someone out,
> but perhaps there would be some, uh, brain damage (though
> it is also suggested that the brain damage is a result of
> oxigen deprivation in the coffin, and not the toxin itself).>>

Puffer fish poison is not a non-lethal toxin. You have to be extremely careful about dosage. A little too high and the person dies a quick and horrible death. Check out stories on fugu poisioning. Interestingly the fish do not directly produce the poison (those raised from eggs in captivity are non-poisonous - it is created by symbiotic bacteria. For those Australians on the list this same bacteria produce the poison used by blue-ringed octopus (though in this case the octopus actually collects the toxin in its poison fangs).

Have a look at:

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/fugu.html

for some case histories of poisoning.

best, patrick