Fear and attraction. Poison in urban imagination. Chile, 1880-1920

During the second half of the 19th century, the increased circulation of goods and manufactures, most of them derived from new productive processes, contributed to picture poison as a dormant risk of the material world in early modernity. This study explores poison embedded in those things and focusses on the fear and attraction they inspired in Chilean urban society. Specifically, is reviews poison and its main features in the context of consumer society, considering the connexions poison contributed to establish between justice and science, through judicial institutions and toxicological expertise. From a broader perspective, this study aims to explore the status of material culture, its relationship with scientific practice, and the role of latter one in its meanings.