"There's death in the cup, so beware!"

The proper investigation of deaths due to poisoning and the determination of the manner of death often depend upon knowledge and investigative skills that may have been allowed to deteriorate with lack of use. These case reports illustrate a wide variety of substances that people can ingest. This collection of case reports includes the ingestion of two insecticides and three different organic chemicals. A concise review of literature is provided, along with symptoms exhibited by those who ingest these poisons, and methodologies recommended for their determination in this series of cases.