Fatal outcome from administration of a salt emetic.

Introduction The first recorded case of death from salt poisoning was in the London Courier October 1 1828. 'A man proposed to some of his comrades to sup a pound of common salt in a pint of ale'. Soon after accomplishing his feat 'he was seized with all the symptoms of irritant poisoning and died within twenty-four hours'. Accidental poisoning with sodium chloride in infants and young children is a well known entity. Two disasters have been reported in which salt was used instead of sugar in preparing infant feeds. In these two disasters twelve children died (Elton, Elton and Nazareno, 1963; Finberg, Kiley and Luttrell, 1963). There have been several reports of death in infants due to the administration of saline emetics and in particular DeGenaro and Nyhan (1971) emphasized the danger of this form of emesis. A further warning was given by Robertson (1971). There have been relatively few reports concerning the dangers of salt emetics when administered to adults. The case described by Ward (1963) was of a 74-year-old man who died from pulmonary oedema as a result of administration of a saline emetic after an overdose of perphenazine and imipramine. Laurence and Hopkins (1969) described a patient in whom the mode of death had been similar to that in the present instance. Their patient was a 35-yearold woman who had taken an overdose of thiori-