Pomona brought the still-smoking Amortentia to the Potions classroom.
Amortentia was not a prohibited substance. It had even appeared in Advanced Potion-Making, published in 1782, and that edition of the Potions textbook had not been revised in two hundred years.
When Pomona appeared at the classroom door, the old bat was quite surprised. Pomona saw that he was cleaning the potion equipment with detergent; the gargoyle basin was full of pink bubbles that smelled of mint.
"What is it?" he asked, one hand covered in bubbles.
"Look at this!" Pomona set the cauldron on the worktable.
He washed the bubbles from his hands, then lifted the cauldron lid.
"Is this stuff poisonous?" Pomona asked.
"Why not take a sip and find out?" he sneered.
In fact, this was indeed the most effective way to test whether a potion was poisonous. Although most students had never considered it—whether the potion they brewed worked or was toxic, they would know after taking a sip—most people were not that stupid.
"Leave it here. I'll give you an answer in a couple of days," said the old bat. He replaced the lid on the cauldron and went back to cleaning the equipment.
Once a potion was brewed, there was the issue of storage. Cleaning agents could not be kept for long, as they dried out on their own. Nor could they be stored in humid places; exposure to damp air would turn them into harmful gases.
On Poisons and Their Antidotes, written by the twelfth-century Spanish toxicologist Moses Maimonides, discussed bites from venomous snakes and other animals. First came the use of a tourniquet and sucking out the venom. Though he believed at the time that applying a tourniquet to a limb could ease pain, it also slowed the venom's entry into the body