Snowberry (Symphoricarpos) Poisoning in Children

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To the Editor.— Snowberry, or waxberry (Symphoricarpos albus, synonymS racemosus), is a low-growing deciduous shrub with white, waxy, berry-like fruit and is common in the northern United States and Canada in thickets, woodlands, and open, weedy areas. The species is widely naturalized in Europe, where it is cultivated for ornament and hedges. A 19th-century report of snowberry toxicity, from Norfolk, England, describes four children who experienced "vomiting, purging, and delirium, after which they became semi-comatose."1All recovered, but one narrowly escaped death. (This explicit case has been largely ignored, perhaps because a typographical error in the text created the confusing name "Lymphoricarpos" that failed to be identified with a known genus.) In recent years there have been reports from Poland of children being poisoned by eating the fruit; no fatality occurred, but hospitalization was essential.2Eight cases were reported during 1975 and 1976 in the United States,

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