THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. X.—No. YL—DECEMBER, 1868. 
THE DANGER OF PRESCRIBING CONCENTRATED 
MEDICINES. 
A few months ago we had occasion to record a case of poisoning with 
strychnia, in which a lady lost her life by inadvertently taking a strong solu¬ 
tion of strychnia which had been prescribed for her in mistake for the same me¬ 
dicine in a dilated state. The solution as prescribed consisted of four grains of 
strychnia dissolved in an ounce of water, and it was ordered to be taken at 
mealtimes in doses of five drops mixed with an ounce of water. The medicine 
was correctly dispensed and labelled ; it was a colourless liquid in an ounce 
vial. The lady, before going to dinner, prepared a dose, and put it into a vial 
similar to that containing the strong solution, intending to take it while at the 
dinner-table; but accidentally, on leaving her dressing-room, she put the wrong 
bottle into her pocket, and the contents of this, containing four grains of 
strychnia, she poured into a glass and swallowed. This case was commented 
upon at the time by one of the medical journals, with the view of showing the 
unnecessary danger caused by the too prevalent practice of prescribing medi¬ 
cines in a concentrated form. 
Another case, very similar to the foregoing, has just come under our notice, 
but happily in this instance it did not prove fatal. A gentleman who was in 
the habit of taking a teaspoonful, in water, of a mixture of sal-volatile and 
chloric ether, had also a prescription, in which a strong solution of strychnia, 
containing eight grains to the ounce, was ordered to be taken in doses of two 
drops. These medicines were made up in readiness for travelling, the bottles 
properly labelled, being enclosed in turned wooden cases. The gentleman, 
while staying at a London hotel, intending to take a dose of the chloric ether 
drops, by mistake took a teaspoonful of the strychnia solution, but immediately 
discovered what he had done by the bitter taste of the medicine, and, hastening 
to a neighbouring chemist, had the contents of his stomach ejected before 
serious mischief occurred. 
Cases such as these, when they happen, cannot be too prominently brought 
under the notice of the medical profession as well as pharmaceutists. They may 
serve to show the tendency of adopting certain methods of prescribing as weU 
as of dispensing medicines, and the knowledge thus acquired may enable us to 
guard against and prevent the occurrence of similar accidents in future. 
In another part of this Journal will be found a paper by Baron Liebig, ex¬ 
tracted from the ‘ Lancet,’ on the alleged poisonous quality of beef-tea and 
extract of meat; and, although the object of the great German chemist in this 
communication is to dispel some erroneous conclusions which had been drawn 
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