72 
SHOP ARRANGEMENTS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS. 
spirits. Such bottles as liq. plumb, fort., liq. ammon. fort., antim. tart, might 
have advantageously a red label “ Caution ” affixed to them ; and all bottles, 
whether in shop or warehouse or dispensary, containing such preparations as 
morphia ; tinct. opii; pot. cyanid.; ol. amygd. ess. (specially to distinguish it 
from the essence) ; hyd. perchlorid., etc. etc., should have a red label “ Poison,” 
with the emblems of mortality—the death’s head and cross bones—fixed to the 
front of them. Strychnia should always be kept in a locked cupboard, the key 
of which should be held only by the principal himself or the head assistant, 
and, of course, labelled as the other “poisons.” 
It is an excellent plan to have all the bottles, etc., on the shelves numbered, 
so that their displacement may be ensured against. This is still more desirable 
with small bottles kept in cupboards, and the proper position of every bottle, 
pot, etc., should be recorded in a book kept for the purpose. 
Doubtless many other safeguards may be employed, such as having bottles of 
peculiar shape or colour, or with peculiar fastenings, in which to keep 
“poisons but if the simple rules I have ventured to recommend had been in 
force in Dublin and Gravesend, the fatal cases of poisoning by cyanide of potas¬ 
sium at the one place, and strychnia at the other, could scarcely by possibility 
have occurred; and such rules could readily be adopted in any establishment 
with the ordinary bottles in use in it. 
One word respecting the poisoning by strychnia at St. David’s. Mrs. Hicks 
made two astounding statements,—first, that the strychnia had been supplied to 
her three years since by a Bristol.house as morphia; secondly, that on one 
occasion her son had used two grains without ill effect. Was this absence of ill 
effects attributable to its comparative insolubility in water, or to the patient 
having dispensed with taking the doctor’s physic (content to endure his visits 
only), which patients sometimes will do? The report, abounding with asto¬ 
nishing intelligence, further informs us that the traveller of the Bristol house 
tacitly admitted the soft impeachment of selling the strychnia for morphia! 
Did he recollect that about three years since they were sending out the former 
for the latter? And if Mrs. Hicks’s name is made public, why should that of 
the Bristol house be suppressed, who certainly, if Mrs. Hicks’s evidence is cor¬ 
rect, were more responsible for the death of poor Mr. Williams than is she? 
It is to be deplored that different juries take such widely different views of 
these fatal cases of poisoning. One individual having caused death by substi¬ 
tuting strychnia for sugar, the jury simply record a verdict of “ death by mis¬ 
adventure,” appending thereto a censure upon the manner in which the 
poisonous medicines were kept (which was no censure at all upon him who com¬ 
mitted the fatal error, but only on his predecessor in the business); while an¬ 
other, for substituting strychnia for James’s Powder, is found guilty of man¬ 
slaughter, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Surely both of these 
were cases of manslaughter or neither was; and the individual last alluded to 
was either disproportionately punished, or the former was treated with ridicu¬ 
lous leniency. 
I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 
Robt. Chipperfield. 
Southampton , 19 th July, 1869. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—Two cases of poisoning by strychnia are recorded in the Journal of 
July. The question I would ask is, “Why is strychnia, for dispensing pur¬ 
poses, kept in any other than a crystalline form ?” Had those bottles contained 
