Witches, newts, Napoleon star in Fernbank’s ‘Power of Poison’

Was it homicide? Suicide? Accidental? It was too late to ask the camper.

A curious ranger carefully took an inventory of the campsite. Everything looked OK, until he looked in the coffeepot.

A little creature’s lifeless body lay inside. Looking more closely, he saw it was a rough-skinned newt, a resident of the numerous streams cascading through the Pacific Northwest where the camper had met his end.

And there lay the answer: The newt, the ranger surmised, got swept into the pot when the camper caught some water from the nearby creek. The camper put the pot on the fire to make coffee. The heated water agitated the newt. It released toxins from its skin into the water. The camper never had a chance.

The luckless camper is just one of the victims in “The Power of Poison,” debuting Saturday at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The exhibit, running through May 3, takes a look at poison in medicine and myth, in fact and fiction.

Medicine: Scientists are looking at spider venom as an antidote to pain and heart disease.

Myth: Stung by Jason’s betrayal, Medea turned mean. She dispatched her youngsters with a poisoned crown and gown for her husband’s new sweetie, Glauce. Things didn’t go well for the Corinthian princess — or the children, for that matter.

Fact: Cyanide, lethal as a crocodile’s kiss, is found in sugar cane, barley, maize, wheat and other edibles. Really.

Fiction: Agatha Christie, the grande dame of murder, turned to poison in no less than 28 novels. Arsenic, cyanide, strychnine, nicotine, thallium, snake venom, hemlock — the novelist offed guys good and bad with silent, deadly efficiency.

There’s something about poison that just won’t let go of us, said Bobbi Hohmann, a Fernbank anthropologist. For the past week, she and others assembled the exhibit, which originated at the American Museum of Natural History and is making a national tour. Fernbank is its first stop.

“Poison,” she said, “is all around us.”

The exhibit showcases poison in history and the present, with a focus on how it’s been used for results lethal and legal.

The exhibit is divided into segments. The first, “Poison in Nature,” re-creates a small part of a Colombian rain forest. It is a stage for insects and animals to show how they use toxins to survive. The stars of the show: six frogs, each no larger than a golf ball. Several are the color of school buses, others a creamy green. Each is so deadly that natives use secretions from their skin to make weapons — hence their name, poison dart frogs.

The next stop, “Poison in Myth and Legend,” reminds us that poisons have shaped our stories — and, therefore, our cultures. Remember the three witches in “Macbeth”? The ugly trio, who never went anywhere without belladonna and nightshade, are depicted in the exhibit. Three mannequins stand around a cauldron, mixing a potion. You can almost hear it bubble.

Nearby, a sleeping Snow White, encased in a see-through box, illustrates how poisons can be applied in food. Recall the poisoned apple?

The exhibit also answers that question: How did the saying “mad as a hatter” originate? “Myth and Legend” also features an “enchanted” book that details the use of poison over the years. Just touch an image with your finger and words will appear.

“Villains and Victims” features some notorious poisoners and victims. Remember, it was an asp, a venomous snake, that bit Cleopatra. A poisoned arrow claimed Juan Ponce de Leon. And consider: Did Napoleon really die of cancer? Or was it something perfidious — a poison, released by humid air — in his wallpaper?

A live show, “Detecting Poisons,” explores the ways poisons affect the body. Visitors also can use iPads to get to the bottom of what made Skippy the dog so ill. Was it the toad in the yard? The scum in the pond?

Finally, “Poison for Good” shows folks that toxins don’t have to be bad. Gila monster venom lowers blood-sugar levels. Botulinum, from which botulism derives, relaxes muscle spasms. And bat saliva —

Well, they’re still working on that.