ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 295 
renewed; but this renewal is not perceptibly more rapid during great muscular 
activity than during comparative quiescence. 
“ 5. After the supply of sufficient albuminized matters in the food of man 
to provide for tlie necessary renewal of the tissues, the best materials for the 
production, both of internal and external work, are non-nitrogenous matters, 
such as oil, fat, sugar, starch, gum, etc. . 
“ 6. The non-nitrogenous matters of food, which find their way into the 
blood, yield up all their potential energy as actual energy; the nitroge¬ 
nous matters, on the other hand, leave the body with a portion (one-seventh) 
of their potential energy unexpended. 
“ 7. The transformation of potential energy into muscular power is neces¬ 
sarily accompanied by the production of heat within the body, even when the 
muscular power is exerted externally. This is, doubtless, the chief and pro¬ 
bably the only source of animal heat.” 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
TO THE EDITOE OE THE PHAEMACEUTICAL JOUENAL. 
Sir,—Once more are we thrown into a state of alarm by one of those acci¬ 
dents which a little judicious arrangement of bottles would have prevented. 
After the accident at Liverpool, the feeling of the trade was that some ar¬ 
rangement ought to be universally adopted, and many suggestions were 
made to accomplish the desired obj ect, out of the abundance of which it was 
thought that the Committee appointed by the Pharmaceutical Society to con¬ 
sider the matter would mature some plan which they would recommend to 
be adopted. However, those who hoped that this would be the case were 
doomed to disappointment, for, after great consideration, the Committee gave 
up the subject in despair, and left each chemist to do the best he could for 
himself. 
The majority of chemists do adopt some method for the keeping of ac¬ 
tive from inactive medicines, and, no doubt, some of their arrangements are 
very good, but there are some whose arrangement is solely to please the eye. 
In one shop that I noticed, some time ago, the articles of the same colour 
were grouped together, regardless of their relative strengths. This kind of 
arrangement has a very pleasing appearance, but it is attended by very great 
danger; with it accidents are very likely to occur in the hurry and flurry of 
business. 
It is very desu’able that some mode of arrangement, bearing the authority 
of the Pharmaceutical Society, should be given to the trade, so that it might 
be generally followed. There are a few who would not adopt it at once, but 
if an accident were to happen, which would have been prevented by its 
adoption, the censure following would be so great that it would lead to its 
universal adoption, not only by chemists but by surgeons also. The subject 
of arrangement is one of great difficulty, and no perfect plan can be worked 
out, but surely a committee of men of experience could mature a plan as good 
as, if not better than, the plan used in any single shop. 
A well-arranged poison cupboard would be better than no separation of 
potent from harmless medicines ; but if all the articles in the shop could be 
grouped according to their doses, it would be the best. Some will say that 
such an arrangement is impossible, on account of the doses of medicines ana¬ 
stomosing into each other, but I think that lines of division could be made so 
as to ensure great safety. If a wrong bottle were taken where such an*ar¬ 
rangement was adopted, the dose of the article contained in it would be about 
