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Two cases of death associated with amyl nitrite are discussed. An attempt is made to highlight its noxious properties and the difficulty in attributing death to it when inhaled.

Two inpatients of one hospital ward died. Pilocarpine poisoning was suspected and subsequently confirmed by analysis of urine. The circumstantial evidence strongly suggested that the food given to the patients in the ward had been adulterated. Police inquiries failed to elict any further information, and open verdicts were returned at the inquest. Precautions taken subsequently to prevent a similar event-sealing food containers and trolleysentailed a capital cost of £43 000. In addition, food stores were kept locked and tighter control kept on drugs stored in ward pharmacies.

Cocaine is one of the most rapidly growing drugs of abuse and with it comes an ever-increasing sophistication in concealment from Customs and Police, and may even result in clinicians failing to detect the concealment of packages within the intestinal tract or other body orifices. We present one such case where death arose from rupture of a package of cocaine within the rectum.