I recently found out that my great-grandfather died of an overdose of cholera drops in 1909. It was considered an "accidental ingestion" of an "irritant poison" further identified as an overdose of cholera drops. I find this peculiar in that he was a pharmacist in Brooklyn, NY at the time. Like many other pharmaceutical formulations at the time, it appears (my information comes from an 1893 pharmacist's formulary) that opium and alcohol were key ingredients of some "cholera drops," leading me to wonder whether this was accidental or due to addiction to opium or alcohol.
Does anyone have any more information on the topic? Certainly cholera was still a danger at the time, and prevention was more advanced than was treatment in New York in those days, but I find it hard to believe that it was at all easy for a pharmacist to overdose on cholera drops.