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In 15th and 16th century Europe killing with poison was common - especially in Italy and France.
在15世纪和16世纪的欧洲，用毒药杀人很常见，尤其是在意大利和法国。
At this time Arsenic was the most usual poison.
在这个时候，砒霜是最常见的毒药。
People would mix small amounts of it into food - the way Mary Blandy did.
人们会像玛丽·布兰迪那样，在食物中加入少量的砒霜。
They knew the poison had no taste or smell.
他们知道这种毒药没有气味。
And their victims would get sick little by little.
他们的受害者会渐渐地生病。
There are stories that even royal babies were murdered with arsenic.
有传闻说，就连皇室的婴儿也被砒霜毒死了。
An older son of a king would secretly kill his baby brothers.
国王的大儿子会偷偷杀死他的小弟弟。
He would do this to make sure he would follow his father to be the next king.
他这样做的目的是确保他能继承他父亲的王位成为下一任国王。
But he would do it in a very tricky way.
但他会以一种非常狡猾的方式进行。
He would put arsenic in the food of the woman who breast fed the baby brother.
他会在给小弟弟喂奶的女人的食物中放入砒霜。
So the breast milk was poisonous.
所以母乳是有毒的。
And the baby would die.
孩子会死。
For this reason people called arsenic the poudre de succession.
正因为如此，人们把砒霜称为“继承粉”。
This French term is loosely translated “the powder to become king”.
这个法语术语可以大致翻译为“成为国王的粉末”。
Finally, scientific methods improved enough to prove arsenic poisoning was a cause of death.
最后，科学方法的进步足以证明砒霜中毒是导致死亡的原因。
This stopped people from using it to kill their enemies.
这阻止了人们使用它来杀死他们的敌人。
But arsenic was not always used to kill.
但砒霜并不总是用来杀人的。
It was also used to heal.
它也被用来治愈疾病。
2,400 years ago, the famous Greek doctor Hippocrates used arsenic.
2400年前，著名的希腊医生希波克拉底使用了砒霜。
He gave it to people with ulcers.
他把它给了溃疡患者。
Ulcers are skin sores that take a long time to heal.
溃疡是一种需要很长时间才能治愈的皮肤疮。
Later, arsenic was used in medicines such as Fowler’s solution.
后来，砒霜被用于福勒溶液等药物中。
This medicine was popular in Europe in the 1700-1800s.
这种药在18世纪至19世纪的欧洲很流行。
People used it to treat many sicknesses like asthma and cancer.
人们用它来治疗许多疾病，如哮喘和癌症。
In fact, arsenic was one of the first treatments for syphilis.
事实上，砒霜是最早治疗梅毒的药物之一。
Today doctors use arsenic to treat African sleeping sickness.
如今，医生使用砒霜来治疗非洲昏睡病。
And they use arsenic to treat severe forms of leukemia - cancer of the blood.
他们还使用砒霜来治疗严重的白血病——血癌。
In this case arsenic is part of chemotherapy - a drug treatment used to kill cancer cells in the body.
在这种情况下，砒霜是化疗的一部分，化疗是一种用于杀死体内癌细胞的药物治疗。
