It seemed to make sense. If someone swallowed poison and then threw up, they shouldn’t get sick. This treatment approach was used for decades.

At first, people who swallowed poison were given many ineffective remedies:

* raw egg white;
* mustard;
* the "universal antidote" of burnt toast, tannic acid and milk of magnesia;
* salt water;
* tickling the back of the throat.

Sometimes, these remedies did cause vomiting. But they often caused problems of their own. For example, too much salt caused sodium poisoning, seizures and even death. Gagging someone often caused throat bleeding and swelling. Also, these home remedies were never reliable enough to be used to treat poisoning.