The Tox

A parasitic worm (public domain image) used to represent The Tox

### Effects

Everyone infected with the Tox experiences different side effects, but all experience a flare-up wherein the effects worsen every season.

The Tox is a parasitic worm that resides inside animals and plants on Raxter Island. It has evolved to infect humans, although it began in plants and animals such as Raxter Blues and Irises.

It is assumed to thrive in the same way most parasites do - by absorbing some or most of the nutrients consumed by its host. Using these nutrients, it grows inside whatever it is invading. The Tox's grow is rapid and seemingly exponential. Its intention doesn't seem to just be the desire to reproduce and survive, rather, it seems to evolve its hosts at a inhumanly fast rate. This could be seen as an attempt to "improve" its hosts, to make them survive better so that it can survive itself. These attempts to improve the hosts may succeed in animals, but human hosts usually cannot withstand the effects of the Tox and die.

The Tox's effects are different depending on the host's species, age, and sex (or hormone levels, more specifically estrogen or testosterone), although they may also vary based on terms the book does not reveal as well. This fact is demonstrated by the disparities among those infected, despite these patients all being of the same sex, species, and age. Female post-pubescent teenagers (which make up eighty percent of the cast) respond in a large variety of ways - Hetty, the protagonist, possesses an eye sealed shut by the Tox, Byatt grows a second spine, Reese gains a hand gloved in scales, and Sarah receives a second heart. Some cast members develop gills. While these would be considered helpful adaptations, the fast rate of evolution is dangerous for humans.

Women past menopause respond differently to the Tox. Instead of growing new appendages or organs, their bodies respond with sores, pus, and bruises, all of which do not coincide with the violent and agonizing "flare-ups" those younger than them experience along with the rapid change in their morphology. Flare-ups come for the first time around a girl's first menstrual cycle (around puberty), granting the host a mutation like those listed above, and repeat themselves every season. Whether or not this grants other mutations or develops the already present one is unknown. Byatt reports that the girls had not had their periods since the Tox epidemic began, so it is possible that Tox flare-ups replace the menstrual cycle. This is supported by post-menopausal women and men not having flare-ups.

Tox-infected men seem to die very quickly, or if they don't, their effects are much more drastic. The exact truth of this is unknown, but most evidence suggests that their bodies do not behave the same way a woman's does upon infection. This could be due to the lack of estrogen in their body, a possibility that is found in Audrey Parreta's files toward the conclusion of the story.

Animals and plants are both shown to grow faster and more prominently when infected with the parasite. Deer are shown to have sharper incisors, and change their diets to either carnivorous or omnivorous when taken over by the Tox, but other information about infected animals apart from an increase in size is not known.

*"It's like that, with all of us here. Sick, strange, and we don't know why. Things bursting out of us, bits missing and piece sloughing off and then we harden and smooth over."* - Hetty, pages 3 and 4

## Tox Index

**For a comprehensive list of Tox infected characters, see The Tox Index**