Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-18
Absent-Minded Poisoning
literary Digest.

rrOW SHALL we keep the absent-mlnded from In
/ advertently swallowing poison7 That precau-
lions against such accidents this should be
necessary would seem incredible did we not daily
read about people eating and drinking pretty nearly oil
the fatal substances In the Pharmacopoea, under the
impression that they are consuming something else
Laudanum used TO be the favore with these casual
self-poisoners; now Il be bichlord Of mer-
curry. otherwise called corrosive sublimate lately
much used externally In tablet form an antisept!c
Plans for stopping this sort Of thing usually involve
some scheme for reminding persons whose wits have
gone wool-gathering that they handling poison
peculiar label odd-shapcd bottle. The
writer of an article in Popular Science Monthly and
The Worlds Advance CNew York. November), tells Of
these and other devices that are at once more in
genious and more startling. We read:
How to prevent people from taking the deadly
bichlorid mercury tablets by mistake is problem
which has confronted the authorities OF every big
city In the country.
80 many cases Of accidental poisoning by these
tablets have to light since the unfortunate death
Of banker in Georgia by this that tor while
1t seemed almost like epidemic To prevent the
taking of these deadly little pellets by those who do
With suicidal intent is scarcely possible since Where
there's will there's way, but II is to protect the
innocent-thoss who take them believing them to be
for stomach disorders headaches-that so much ell
fort has been made.
mot long ago. Health Commissioner Ernest j.
Lederle Of New York City asked the cooperation Of
chemists. doctors and interested aymen in offering
suggestions for the best OF putting up these
tablets in a form that will insure against accident;
in other words in some form whereby they can not
well be taken through mistake for other medicine
in tablet form
1.-THE responses TO this request were encouraging.
numerically but many OF the ideas offered amuI
Ing few of them practical, and some wee
actually ludcrous Probably two-thirds OF these
gestions had to do with the form OF the bottle in
which the tablets put up.
Several simply suggested 'oddshaped bot
ties and some OF these shapes were odd indeed One
Of tbaoa for hoftI o.
sharp edge at each side, the claim being that
unusual form would person that the
tents dangerous. Another advised using sort OF
overgrown VIAL bottle slightly tapering from base
neck. about foot long and not much larger in cir
conference than the tablets Put the tablets up in
such a bottle. each wrapped in paper and ono
would make mistake was the advice with this sug-
| gestion Something of this nature tried in Ger
many last year. but did not work very we'll three
children being fatally poisoned thinking the
candy Besides, IL is too long and clumsy
bottle for physicians to carry in medicine cases"
Another genius has suggested making these tab
let's with holes through them and then stringing them
like beads. The writer thinks 1t doubtful II any
would mistake them in this form. yet child,
thinking them beads. might get hold OF string and
put them in his her mouth. One OF the queerest
nongraspable bottle much like netle. II Is covered
with sharp spikes fits entire surface excepting
the bottom-even the cork being a horned affair
Then too
''one inventor devised plan whereby he was able
to demonstrate the safety OF his device by taking
some Of the tablets without the least harm This was
doie by covering them with thin rubber jacket
In the Illustration the ordinary tablet is shown the
left The rubber covering is in two parts as shown
The tablet Is inserted in one-haf Of the rubber jacket
as indicated. the other half stretched over IT,
" II any one should take of these rubber
covered tablets by mistake. thinking It headache
| tablet. the inventor urged. It would not harm him
The rubber Jacket would keep the juices ston.
ach away from II, and II would be thrown off with
he and he
calmly swallowed couple of them When Il was
learned the tablets inside the deadly bichloriJ
Of mercury he was carefully watched there was
much CONSERVATION. But he right; no harm came
of H. The idea is that one wants tablet of this
poison for legitimate use all he need do il TO peel
off the rubber Jacket whereas II he takes II by mis-
take II will not harm him.
zone OF the simplest suggestions vet NOT SO very
bad after ALL consisted OF simply making each tablet
with sharp pin through the center. No one would
swallow that tablet by accident declared man
who suggested II. and he doubtless right.
An ingenious but somewhat costly scheme con-
sidering the present market price OF radium was to
blow in the bottle the word Poison and make this
word OF hollow letters In which placed solution
or composition containing radium.
" 1t would always glow and the word would
stand out in the dark warning. like a ligh.-
house.. declared the inventor When the bottle gets
empty take It back ana exchange IL for a full bottle
paying only for the tablets this time. The glow win
last foreverr
"other suggestions included sort OF slot-machne
where speciality prepared disks OF metal were pro-
Vided and no one could remove a tablet without in.
sorting Of these disks was designed 70 be put
| up beside the medicine chest.
Senator Ashurst introduced a bill In congress ~.
curing that hchiorid-of-mercury and other deadly
tablets be put up in standard color a bright
green for instance. But even this would not mr. =.
| vent person from mistaking them In the dark
Scores OF people have lost their by going 10 the
medicine closet at night without a light and swallow
| id-of fine nv mia