QUACK QUACK

HOLLY: The Genus Ilex.
If my workplace colleagues had known what was coming they might have warned, "Don't get him started." I had been overheard telling people that Holly berries were not poisonous and was soon visited by someone saying, " I think you were a bit fast there Tom when you were asked about Holly berries; they are poisonous"... and presented me with the Sick Kids' Hospital slanderous list.
 I went ballistic, as my colleagues knew I would. "Holly berries are NOT poisonous" I sputtered. " The folks at Sick Kids' Hospital are wrong."
 "Oh sure, you're right and everyone else is wrong. Who are people going to believe ?" He was right about that of course; people would take the word of a world-famous hospital over that of a mere garden centre employee. I'm still furious.

The book in my own quite extensive library that I depended on was Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada (1964) by John M. Kingsbury professor of botany and lecturer in poisonous plants at Cornell University, N.Y. In this text written for students of medical and veterinary science, Holly is never mentioned or referred to: not once.

The American Medical Association Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants (1985) states that the fruit is poisonous and gives as a reference a paper by Rodrigues TD et al: Holly berry ingestion: Case report. Journal of Veterinary and Human Toxicology, 1984.

Poisonous Plants of Canada (1990) tells us that the only documented case of poisoning was a mild one that occured after two young children ate "a handful" of berries (Rodrigues et al.1984)

Subsequent texts that came my way all refer me to Rodrigues et al.

Identical twin two year old girls were found eating berries from American Holly, Ilex opaca. We are not told by whom but presumably their mother who, believing that the berries were poisonous gave both girls a teaspoon of Syrup of Ipecac and a drink of water. ( Rodrigues says 15 ml of Ipecac and 120 ml of water. That sounds more clinical and impressive in a scientific paper.)

It was much as I had previously imagined. This was not a case of holly berry poisoning at all, and the papers' title should have been Ipecac poisoning : Case report.

Both girls continued to vomit, voiding loose stools that progressed to watery diarrhea and one became drowsy. Of course they did, they had both been given Ipecac syrup. As this very paper clearly states, "Because drowsiness is so common following Ipecac-induced emesis, however, we cannot confirm a definite causal relationship to the holly ingestion". The girl who became drowsy was taken to her pediatrician who said she was fine and sent her back home.

A second edition of the A.M.A. Handbook was released in 2007 to replace the original version whose cover was no longer appropriate. The book's back cover carried a strong endorsement for Syrup of Ipecac with instructions for its' use. Now, in a complete reversal of policy the emetic is no longer recommended. Where mothers might once have been rebuked by their pediatrician if Ipecac was not in the family medicine chest, are now told that it should not be used and should not be kept at home.

(I don't think that you will be able to buy it at the pharmacy today.)

The new edition of the Handbook was a perfect opportunity for the A.M.A. to repudiate the Rodrigues paper as they repudiated Syrup of Ipecac but they still give it as a reference. However, to make matters worse Oregon Holly is now included under Ilex. Adding the N.Y. Botanical Garden to the publishing roster has not helped the fact checking. Oregon Holly or Oregon Grape Holly is not even in the same family. It is not poisonous either. The blue berries are eaten fresh or used in jellies.

The Rodrigues paper has all the hallmarks of a scientific paper.

It has two well-qualified co-authors. It was published in a prestigious and appropriate journal where it was available for peer review.

It talks like a scientific paper. It walks like a scientific paper : but it is a canard.

If the mother of the twins had not been taught that holly berries were poisonous then this unfortunate incident would never have happened.