Kerosene poisoning is a rare condition in children, or at least it is a condition that is rarely reported in the literature. This is rather surprising since kerosene is still used in a great many households, especially in rural communities, and careful precautions are not always taken to keep it out of reach of small children.
During the past two years I have seen four cases of children who drank kerosene. One experienced no untoward effects, one went into an immediate collapse from which there was rapid recovery, one had considerable respiratory difficulty for eighteen hours with subsequent recovery, and one died.
REPORT OF CASES
Case 1.
—B. J., a colored girl, aged 1 year, while playing around the house found a tin can containing kerosene, from which she drank. Crying and a slight coughing attracted the mother's attention, and the child was brought to the hospital. On admission, an