1. The correct reference was: Cade, J. F. J. (1949) ‘Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement’, Medical Journal of Australia, 36, 349–52.
2. Dr Young (note 2) added a footnote to his letter concerning this point: I have just discovered a reference in my father’s Hale White’s Materia Medica of 1899, recommending lithium, including effervescent citrate, for the treatment of gout because of the solubility in lithium urate but casting doubt on its effectiveness in vivo. No doubt my bottle of lithium citrate was a relic of that era.
3. Ashburner, J. V. (1950) ‘A case of chronic mania treated with lithium citrate and terminating fatally’, Medical Journal of Australia, 37, 386.
4. Cade, ‘Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement’ (note 3).
5. Wynn, V., Simon, S., Morris, R. J. H., McDonald, I. R. and Denton, D. A. (1950) ‘The clinical significance of sodium and potassium analyses of biological fluids: their estimation by flame spectrophotometry’, Medical Journal of Australia, 37, 821–36.