# How does cyanide and other substances kill so quickly?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-cyanide-and-other-substances-kill-so-quickly/201772>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 15, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-cyanide-and-other-substances-kill-so-quickly/201772 "2003-09-15T18:26:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-cyanide-and-other-substances-kill-so-quickly/201772/22 "2003-09-18T11:17:31Z")

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Now that I think of it, the instantaneous death of spy movie fame isn’t really so dramatic as the Shakespearean poisons that permit characters to give a stirring final speech before their death, but are not so slow-acting as to make them suffer the indignity of dying off-stage. =)

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-cyanide-and-other-substances-kill-so-quickly/201772/23 "2003-09-18T12:31:14Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Roches \*  
> \*\*…but are not so slow-acting as to make them suffer the indignity of dying off-stage. =) \*\*

How about the indignity of puking their guts out?

Romeo: O true apothecary! (vomits on Juliet’s bodice) Thy drugs are (vomits some more) quick. Thus with a (vomits bile) kiss (dry heaves) I die. (lands face first in his puke)

Loses some of the romance, I suppose.

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