ANTIDOTES AND TREATMENT IN CASES OF POISONING. 405 
Before pouring out, or otherwise preparing a dose of medicine, look care- 
fully at the label. 
No medicine should be kept in a bottle or other receptacle without a label. 
If a bottle which has contained one medicine is wanted for another kind, 
let it be thoroughly washed with hot water; and, on putting the new medicine 
into it, properly change the label at once. 
If there is any doubt about the medicine in a bottle, throw it all away. 
Use great care in dropping medicine. When uncertain as to the accuracy 
of a dose, throw it away and drop another. 
In dropping from a bottle, first moisten one edge of the top with the con- 
tents, and then, holding and tilting the bottle in the right hand, with the left 
very slowly and cautiously withdraw the cork or stopper, until a drop rolls 
out. After it does so, at once push the cork in, and repeat the process again 
and again, until the right number of drops has been obtained. 
A glass dropper can be bought for a trifle, and it is not only safe but 
saving of labor and time. 
All drugs require a certain period to act in, and must not be repeated until 
the proper interval has been allowed. This is rarely less than two or three 
hours where they are given by the mouth. 
Remember that a dose of medicine can be repeated if necessary, but cannot 
be recalled after having been once given. Therefore it is better to administer 
too small rather than too large doses. 
The following facts have a bearing on the subject of poisoning: 
Some poisons more rapidly enter circulation and manifest their character- 
istic symptoms than others. 
Poisons taken into the stomach when it is empty necessarily act much 
more speedily than when it is full. Thus, if that organ is loaded the appear- 
ance of poisonous symptoms may be delayed some hours. 
Liquid poisons as a rule act much quicker than those in solid or powdered 
form. 
Sleep may retard the action of some poisons. 
Since certain diseases set in suddenly and rapidly terminate fatally, there 
is a possibility of such being mistaken for cases of poisoning. 
Poisons may be divided into two classes. First, those which are of irri- 
tant or caustic action, and produce death directly and by causing, primarily, 
intense inflammation of the mouth, throat, passage downward and the 
stomach, or of the intestinal canal. Second, those which do not irritate the 
mucous membrane that they come in contact with, but on reaching the stomach 
are absorbed, and enter circulation and poison the blood, or excite fatal action 
in some of the vital organs to which they are conveyed. 
At least one poison, dropped on the tongue, in powdered form, generally 
produces almost instant death. As a rule, however, even when the poison is 
