Abstract
To the Editor:— I was intrigued by the Friendly Case of Poisoning: What Dunnit? ( JAMA 189: 849 [Sept 14] 1964). I wondered if I might be the only one of your readers to have read The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, first published in 1961, in which the poison used is exactly the same. As medical students in Edinburgh in the late thirties, we were well used to thallium, since it was greatly in vogue as an epilating agent in the treatment of ringworm in school children. At that time, thallium was thought to be a great advance on the tedious and not too satisfactory use of x-ray therapy to remove the scalp hair. Thank you again for this entertaining vignette.
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