Conium maculatum the difficulty in associating malformations with the much earlier maternal poisoning. Since no specific antidote is available, prevention is the only way to deal with the production losses caused by the plant. Control with herbicides and grazing with less-susceptible animals (such as sheep) have been suggested. "C. maculatum" alkaloids can enter the human food chain via milk and fowl. "Conium maculatum" is the plant that killed Theramenes, Socrates and Phocion. In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners. Socrates, the most famous victim of hemlock poisoning, was accused of impiety and corrupting the young men of Athens in
Poison "gu" poison. Poison was also employed in gunpowder warfare. For example, the 14th-century Chinese text of the "Huolongjing" written by Jiao Yu outlined the use of a poisonous gunpowder mixture to fill cast iron grenade bombs. The term "poison" is also used in a figurative sense. The "[s]lang sense of "alcoholic drink" [is] first attested 1805, American English." (e.g., a bartender might ask a customer "what's your poison?") Figurative use of the term dates from the late 15th century. Figuratively referring to persons as poison dates from 1910. The figurative term "poison-pen letter" became well known in "...1913 by a