The Fine Art Of Making Poison Essay

, Research Paper

Ed Schantz and his apprentice, Eric Johnson, work in a

very strange field of science. They grow and Harvest the

worlds strongest poison. It is, in their words, ?six million

times stronger than rattlesnake venom.? The toxin is

produced by a single-celled bacteria called Botulinum. The

botilin poison produced by the bacteria causes a form of

food poisoning called botulism. Botilin shuts down nerve

pulses from the brain making the victim paralyzed. The

victims usually suffocate to death when their diaphragm

becomes paralyzed. However, Ed and Eric do not use the toxin

for morbid acts of terrorism; they use it to heal people

with muscular disorders.

Electric impulses from the brain cause muscles to

contract. The toxin attaches itself to the nerve endings and

cuts the flow of neurotransmitters, a nerve signal

transmitting chemicals. Some disorders, called dystonias,

send too many and or random impulses. Ed has learned that by

inserting the toxin in very small amounts into the nerves

these extra impulses will be cut off. The nerve endings will

be weakened for a few months until new nerve endings can

grow around the toxins.

In Schantz?s early years of toxin making, he met up

with a doctor named Alan Scott. Scott contacted Ed to see if

he could use botilin to cure Strabismus ,or cross-eye, a

disorder that acts like many dystonias. After testing the

process on monkeys, Ed was given an affirmation in 1978 by

the FDA to proceed with the treatment on humans. Scott also

learned to use the toxin as a cure for blepharospasm; or

excessive and uncontrollable blinking, which previously had