Unravelling Frequencies

Left
Article by Dr. Schick describing his discovery of 'Menotoxin'.

Right
'Menotoxin' as subsequently discussed in scientific journals. Copyright restrictions prevent me from showing these in full.

Menotoxic Tulips

In the 1920s, four centuries after Paracelsus declared menstrual blood to be one of nature's most toxic substances, Dr. Béla Schick and his colleagues conducted experiments to demonstrate the presence of harmful toxins in the blood of menstruating women. Despite extensive research spanning until the late 1970s, medical professionals in the United States and Europe failed to conclusively prove this theory. Although menotoxins have been used to explain various women's health issues throughout the 20th century, most modern doctors no longer consider this theory valid, though it still persists in some alternative medicine circles. Today, menstrual blood is viewed as a valuable resource for stem cell research aimed at treating neurodegenerative disorders.
My recreation of this experiment, using blood drawn from my arm vein on the first day of menstruation, revealed that the tulips in vases containing my 'menotoxic' blood survived the longest. The slideshow contrasts the experiment's documentation with images of Chenopodium vulvaria, Mercurialis perennis, and Berberis. These plants are known to actually produce trimethylamine, the toxin allegedly emanating from menstruating women.
Further Reading

David I. Macht and Dorothy S. Lubin
A phyto-pharmacological study of menstrual toxin, 1923


F. E. Szontágh
Beiträge zur Frage des Menotoxins, 1930


D. I. Macht and M. E. Davis
Experimental studies, old and new, on menstrual toxin, 1934


Anna Lánczos
Zur Frage des Menotoxins, 1948


Virginia L. Ernster
Menstrual ToxinLetters to the Editor|The Lancet. Volume 303, ISSUE 7870, P1347, June 29, 1974


Philip Breedon
Menstrual blood collection and stem cell extraction, 2022
Images

David I. Macht, Dorothy Lubin
Figure 6. The marked effect of menotoxin on cinerea, from the study A phyto-pharmacological study of menstrual toxin, 1923. Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain

Béla SchickDas Menstruationsgift, 1920. Source: Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 6. Mai 1920, Nr. 19. Public Domain

David I. Macht and Dorothy S. LubinExtracts from the abstract of A phyto-pharmacological study of menstrual toxin, 1923. Source: Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Virginia L. ErnsterExtracts from the letter to the editor of The LancetMenstrual Toxin, 1974. Source: The Lancet

Slideshow: Menotoxin Experiment including white tulips at my home in Basel

Screenshot of the German Wikipedia entrance on trimethylamine

Images from the publication Giftpflanzen. Ein Handbuch für Apotheker, Ärzte, Toxikologen und Biologen by D. Frohne, H.J. Pfänder, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987
Credits

Many thanks to Alexandra Meyer

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