The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-08 00:00:00

DRUGGISTS NO POISONERS.

This week three instances of accidental poisoning
are recorded, all of which were within an ace of
producing death, and all of which might have been
prevented by the adoption by the respective dis-
pensing druggists of a very simple precaution, to
which we have already more than once directed
attention. "An Hospital Surgeon" writes that
his patient receiving two bottles of medicine from a
first-rate dispensing establishment, one containing
solution of iodide of potassium, and the other a
solution of atropine, duly labelled " poison," and
"for external use," swallowed hurriedly and by
mistake, a dose of the poisonous solution of atro-
pine, and narrowly escaped death. No doubt
this was very careless. on the part of
the patient ; but it is a species of care-
lessness which is not very uncommon, and for
which death or painful illness is a very severe
penalty. It is the same kind of error by which the
Hon. Mrs. Anson lost her life, and by which we
lately recorded that M. Danergwald, Minister of
State, Berlin, nearly perished. It might be easily
remedied, and the danger averted, by the use of the
narrow-necked bottles which we lately described.
Had this gentleman, in pouring out his medicine,
found that it would not flow freely, but fell drop
by drop, he would have been instalTtly aware that
it was a potent solution which he was handling.
Had he, in grasping the bottle, felt that he was seiz-
ing a deeply-fluted, angular phial, he would have
been aware that he was pouring out a lotion for ex-
ternal use, and not a mixture to be swallowed.
Again, the Vicar of Clare, asking in a Welsh town for
a rhubard draught, was served in error with tinc-
ture of opium, and only discovered the mistake
after swallowing the poisonous draught, and just in
time for the successful application of antidotes.
Here again the medicine was duly labelled.
It is impossible, we think, to exaggerate the ad-
vantage of the contracted neck as a protection
from poisoning by mistake on the part of the pa-
tient or attendant, and these three recent cases
only afford a new illustration of a proposition which
might be considered self-evident, and sure to carry
conviction to the minds of all who preside over
dispensing establishments; but the force of habit
and the reluctance to change have hitherto over-
powered the strong arguments by which this inno-
vation is recommended ; and as yet we are not
aware that any other dispensing chemists have
adopted the new bottles besides Messrs. Savory
and Moore, by whom they were introduced.
The third case of accidental poisoning indicates
the necessity of using the same kind of bottles for
storing medicine. A gentleman, seeking an ap-
petising draught before dining at the Star and
Garter, enters a chemist's shop at Richmond, and
is there supplied with a mixture which speedily
renders him senseless, and from the effects of which
active medical assistance is able only tardily to re-
store him. This accident belongs to the same
class of errors as that which caused the self-in-
flicted death of Mr. Dawson, who drank tincture
of aconite for tincture of orange-peel, in a draught
which he prep'ired for himself when suffering from
a slight headache. The same error was the cause of
the fatal substitution of a narcotic draught for an ape-
rient at the shop of Mr. Reeve, at Canterbury. It
caused lately a death at Brompton ; it permitted the
substitution of " pulv. opii Turc.,'' for " pulv. rhei
Turc.," in a fatal case which was recorded in our

columns last year ; and it has been the cause of
deaths and accidents out of number, many of which
have not been recorded, or are forgotten.
By the adoption of these bottles, which dis-
charge their contents only gradually,—guttatim et
gradatim,—one great source of accidental poison-
ing will be cut off. Purists may urge that pre-
cautions intended to supersede the necessity for in-
telligent care and conscientious observation of the
labels on the part of patient and dispenser, are
themselves a source of danger. It may be an-
swered that this necessity can never be superseded.
But the advantage of adding the unmistakeable
indicia afforded by peculiarity of shape and mode
of pouring in all bottles containing potent powders
and fluids to the existing safeguard of a properly-
devised label, can hardly be said to admit of discus-
sion. This is a precaution which all dispensing
druggists owe it to their character and their con-
science forthwith to adopt; it is one of which
medical practitioners and the public are in-
terested in enforcing the observance. It helps
no physician's reputation that a patient should be
poisoned by his prescription, even though it be in
error. It concerns him greatly that the health
of his patient shall be in no avoidable way
injured. The public have a yet more direct in-
terest in requiring all possible guarantees that they
shall be saved from being accidentally poisoned by
their own inadvertencies, or, yet worse, by the
carelessness of a chemist's assistant, and the neglect
of his master to provide the best kind of bottles for
storing and issuing his medicines. It remains only
to add, that these bottles are stated to be in no de-
gree more costly or difficult to procure than those
in ordinary use, and thus to furnish that which may
certainly be the lowest argument in favour of this
means of security, but which may, perhaps, never-
theless be considered the necessary basis of all ad-
vocacy of its adoption.—Lancet.

The following communication has been addressed
to the Bank of England, ordering the deduction of Indian
income-tax from the native securities held on this side. It
created some surprise, although the evasive answers given
to every recent inquiry in Parliament on the subject had
left the public in some uncertainty on the point. Indian
and English income-tax will now be charged on the same
stock, that is to say, from the dividends henceforth to
.be
paid the Bank will deduct 8 per cent. It seems impossible,
however, that this practice can be maintained, and an im-
pression, moreover, prevails that if it is brought before the
law courts it will be pronounced illegal :—" Gentlemen,—
I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council
to acquaint you that information has Leen received from
India that the Income-tax Act has been passed by the
Legislature there, and, in accordance with the provisions of
the said act, I am to request that you Nci I give directions
for-the deduction of 4 per cent. income-tax on all interest
due on and after the 31st of August last, in respect of pro-
missory-notes endorsed Interest subject to the deduction
of income-tax ; and also in respect of stock created by the
registration of promissory-notes which have been so endorsed.
I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
J. C. MELyILL. India-office, Sept. 6."