306 
THE AUSTEAL ASIAN JOUENAL OF PHARMACY. 
meeting of the committee the wardsman was censured, and a motion was adopted 
to the effect that it he an instruction to the contracting chemist — Mr. E. B. 
Cardell — that all liniments, poisons, and lotions of a poisonous nature be supplied 
in future in specially made bottles of a different nature to those used for 
ordinary medicines. 
Referring to this case the Brisbane Daily Observer makes some suggestions >■ 
which, although you may not agree with them editorially, may prove of some 
interest to your readers. After some preliminary remarks, the article proceeds as 
follows : — 
“ In the Roma case it would seem that even the powerful and well-known 
odour of carbolic acid did not prevent the patient from swallowing it. Similar 
cases have occurred here several times owing to a mistake arising from the 
similarity of the bottles used to contain poisons and other drugs. Such 
mistakes should not occur, and, what is more, they should be rendered impos- 
sible. Three rules might be enforced which would, we think, render it well- 
nigh impossible for such a blunder to occur. Firstly, all poisons, or prescrip- 
tions containing poison of any kind, should be made up in bottles of a particular 
form, which could be discerned even in the dark by the sense of touch, and 
the usual label might be affixed as well. Secondly, in a chemist’s shop all 
poisons should be kept quite apart from other drugs, so that there should be 
no risk of a careless assistant making any fatal mistake in the selling or dis- 
pensing of them to the public. Thirdly, chemists or their assistants should 
not make up several prescriptions at a time, and label the bottles afterwards. 
Each one, as completed, should be bottled and labelled before the next one is 
commenced. So long as bottles similar in shape and size are employed indis- 
criminately for both purposes, just so long will fatal accidents occur. Amongst 
the ignorant or the uneducated a label may not be read, or observed : through 
haste or agitation the wrong bottle may be seized, and the mistake only dis- 
covered when too late ; but were poisons invariably sold in bottles of, say, 
a triangular form, a poison could scarcely be administered unintentionally.” 
Messrs. Thomason Bros., of South Brisbane, write in reference to these 
suggestions that they “always have used for poisonous preparations a blue bottle 
having six sides, three of which are fluted. The middle panel of these has the 
words raised on the glass, ‘Not to be taken;’ the other three sides are smooth for 
labelling purposes and they add the opinion that if such a bottle as this were 
always used the chance of an accident would be very much minimised. 
At Blackall, recently, Edward Tarrant, a drover, poisoned himself by strychnine 
in a very determined manner, taking the poison, which he had carried about with 
him for some years, whilst surrounded by several acquaintances in the Royal 
Hotel, and afterwards refusing to take an emetic prepared by the doctor, who 
had been sent for. 
I am informed by Mr. X. T. Staiger that he has recently received a good 
many inquiries from druggists and scientists in Europe relative to the various 
Australian botanical products that have been proved of medicinal value. By the 
last mail he was asked if he could supply 2001b. of dried Duboisia leaves, and 
smaller quantities of bitter-bark (Alstonia), “ Sassafras,” and also a quantity of dried 
Euphorbia pilulifera , or asthma herb. All these plants are to be found in plenty 
within ten miles of Brisbane, and yet they are not to be obtained commercially. 
Here is a field which some of your Queensland readers may find it to their 
advantage to cultivate. 
The following facts relative to the recovery of a lad from the bite of a 
death adder are communicated to the Queenslander by Mr. P. M. Corbett, of 
Emerald Hills : — “ Having seen reports re my son being bitten by a death 
