Abstract
Sir.—Recently we submitted a report of a case of widespread scabies in an infant to theJournal. A comment by one of the reviewers was disturbing in that he seemed overly concerned about the toxicity of gamma-benzene hexachloride (Kwell). We assumed that he had reference to a previous article that appeared in the July 1973 issue of theJournal(126:226, 1973) by Sidney Hurwitz, MD, who said that topical application of gamma-benzene hexachloride held significant risk of toxicity to the liver and possible induction of porphyria. We would like to correct this misconception of gamma-benzene hexachloride toxicity. Dr. Hurwitz reminded his readers of the Turkish episode in 1963 when many persons developed porphyria following the accidental ingestion of hexachlorobenzene, a fungicide contaminating wheat not intended for human consumption.1We should like to point out that hexachlorobenzene is an entirely different molecule from gamma-benzene hexachloride. Hexachlorobenzene has a molecular
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