CASE REPORTS 945 ACUTE FATAL POISONING FOLLOWING INGESTION OF

SOLUTIONS of DDT are now being widely used in the household as insecti-cides, and as such are definite hazards in accidental and suicidal poisoning. The amount of DDT in such solutions is of low concentration and toxicity; greater concern, however, should be given the solvents of the solutions. Neal and co-workers * »->3 of the National Institute of Health directed attention to the poten-tial dangers of the solvents used in the DDT mixtures. In their reports, they showed that the ill effects in humans from the use of DDT mixtures were due to agents other than DDT in the mixtures. Recently we performed an autopsy upon a patient who swallowed approximately 150 c.c. of a solution of DDT with suicidal intent. We regard this death as a fatal poisoning due to kerosene, the solvent used in the solution, and wish to emphasize the hazards in the use of these prepa-rations. CASE REPORT History: The patient, a 23 year old negress, apparently in good health, and with-out known reason, swallowed approximately 150 c.c. of a commercial preparation o