Introduction

The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World From the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean is just as exciting as it sounds. Who would've thought a chemistry book could be a page-turner? I find myself actually interested in this history-chemistry crossover . . . which is coming from a high-school student where history and chemistry had probably been the two most challenging subjects in her school career.  Mr. Kean does an extraordinary job of compiling interesting tidbits about the elements and combining them with educational facts. It's enough to keep any reader interested in the subject. Well, that's enough of me giving my review. Let's continue on to the actual book.

The first chapter has many different aspects in it. A lot of it is chemistry 101: what the rows and columns on the periodic table mean, what the symbols and numbers on it mean, the properties of protons, electrons, and neutrons, among other chemistry basics. But there are also personal stories from Sam's childhood run-in with chemistry.  His favorite element is mercury. When he was little, he broke many a mercury thermometer. He sat, fascinated, as he watched his mother collect the perfect beads of mercury from the floor with a toothpick, corralling them together and rolling the quivering puddle of silver-colored mercury onto an envelope, then into an old pill bottle. Over time, the bottle would collect more mercury as Sam dropped more thermometers.  Sometimes his mother would let him look at the mercury whisk around, always merging flawlessly into another shimmering, metallic puddle. This is how our author's interest in chemistry was born.

Sam was so fascinated with mercury, he'd keep an ear out for whenever it was mentioned in hopes to learn more about it. In school, he learned that on Lewis and Clark's exploration across the Great Plains, they carried with them 600 laxatives made of mercury. Each pill was four times the size of an aspirin. They were dubbed Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills, after the "doctor" who made them. Benjamin Rush, who is perhaps better known as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, lived in Philadelphia during the nasty yellow fever breakout there in 1793. He developed a mercury-chloride treatment that, theoretically, used a poison to battle a poison. Patients' hair and teeth fell out, and many died. More died from this treatment rather than the fever. He gave Lewis and Clark these pills for their journey to help combat the constipation caused by an explorer's unpredictable diet. Mercury deposits show the paths that the exploration party took, where someone had excreted the treatment along with whatever else was in their systems.  Sam also learned that mercury was used to separate fur from pelts used to make hats, which is why hatters (much like the Mad Hatter in Alice and Wonderland) went mad. The fumes from mercury practically fray the wiring in the brain, causing symptoms similar to that of Alzheimer's.  I wonder if that's why the phrase "mad as a hatter" came about.  I love learning tidbits and facts like that.  Little explanations for things that no one bothered to question.  I think I'm really going to enjoy this book.