330 
DEATH BY POISONING. 
this is no trifling advantage, obviating as it does the possibility of an upset 
and damage resulting from corrosive solutions, as iodine, etc. 
The latest suggestion I have noticed is that made by a representative of 
the York Glass Company, namely, the “ direct square.” The discoverer of 
this idea cannot be aware that several leading houses have for some time 
adopted this form for dispensing, its introduction would therefore only lead 
to “ confusion worse confounded.” It is to be feared that if the trade arc 
induced to order these “ direct square poison bottles,” they will find a place 
on the same shelf with certain feeding bottles brought out by the same firm. 
The more practical part of this subject is that which affects the arrange¬ 
ments of a dispensing establishment, in order to guard against fatal occur¬ 
rences which we too often have to deplore. 
The unfortunate young man who was the unwitting agent in sending a 
fellow-creature, without a moment’s warning, into the world of spirits, has 
enough to bear in the recollection of the sad catastrophe. The sensation 
produced throughout the country has directed attention of thoughtful men 
to the preventibility of the recurrence of so grievous a calamity. 
It must be candidly acknowledged that nothing can replace that caution 
and intelligence, the result of scrupulous conscientiousness. The examina¬ 
tions of the Pharmaceutical Society will, it is hoped, tend to weed out the 
careless and flighty young men who have too often assumed positions for 
which they are totally unfitted, either by talent or by acquirements, as well 
as those self-sufficient ignoramuses who, having tried many trades and failed 
in each, at length settled down and have been admitted (by the great mistake) 
to the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist. 
PoisOn closets and poison shelves are mere futile expedients which have 
oftener been proposed than carried into practice. I have not much faith in 
any plan that has been discussed, but have adopted a very simple and costless 
method in my own business, it is simply to place the label longitudinally in¬ 
stead of across the bottle; this difference is so apparent that casual observers 
frequently notice it. No person, however careless, but must have his atten¬ 
tion arrested by this distinction; nor could he, without intention, fill a 
draught Anal with laudanum instead of black draught. 
I cannot conclude this notice without alluding to a very common error in 
speaking of accidents which are not really such. An accident may be de¬ 
fined as an event occurring without any previous warning, or which could 
not be expected to happen in the ordinary course of things, or the result of 
principles over which we have no control, as wind, electricity, or fire. 
The proper term to use in most cases set down as accidents is inadvertency 
-—in and advertens —not turning the mind to—negligence—the root and 
