Amj«u°yri9i4arm'}       Bichloride  of  Mercury  Tablets.  319 
The  shape  to  be  adopted  for  the  official  bichloride  tablets  is  one 
of  the  questions  that  is  being  considered.  When  these  tablets  were 
introduced,  the  manufacturers  quite  naturally  used  the  moulds  that 
they  had  for  their  compressing  machines,  and  so  the  unfortunate 
mistake  was  made  of  manufacturing  these  of  the  round  or  disc 
shape ;  the  same  shape  and  sizes  as  were  used  for  innocuous  medi- 
cinal tablets  and  confections.  Fatal  accidents  have  demonstrated 
that  it  is  imperative  that  this  dangerous  practice  should  be  discon- 
tinued. Toxic  tablets  of  the  bichloride  of  mercury  antiseptic  type 
should  be  made  in  a  distinct  shape  that  has  not  been  used  for  any 
other  purpose,  and  the  use  of  such  a  shape  or  form  should  be  restricted 
by  legal  enactments*  to  such  toxic  tablets  intended  for  external  use. 
In  recent  years  the  ingenuity  of  the  American  manufacturer  has 
been  exercised  to  obtain  a  distinctive  shape  that  should  characterize 
and  distinguish  his  brand  of  "  antiseptic  tablets."  As  a  result,  we 
now  have  such  shapes  as  triangular,  diamond,  square,  cube,  key- 
stone, clover  leaf,  exploited  as  proprietary  forms  of  antiseptic 
tablets.  Every  one  of  these  shapes  has  been  commonly  used  in 
confections,  and  their  official  recognition  and  continuance  for 
bichloride  antiseptic  medication  would  be  a  repetition  of  the  original 
fatal  error  as  to  the  shape  of  such  tablets.  The  manufacturers  of 
these  shapes  are  each  clamoring  for  the  recognition  of  his  par- 
ticular shape. 
The  influence  of  these  commercial  interests  has  been  exerted  to 
prevent  legislative  action  that  would  designate  an  appropriate  shape 
or  judicial  consideration  that  would  permit  judgment  to  crystallize 
in  favor  of  an  official  shape  that  would  insure  the  greatest  amount 
of  protection  to  life.  After  all,  the  question  of  safety  first  is  the 
paramount  question. 
Of  all  the  proposals  for  a  shape  for  bichloride  of  mercury  tablets, 
the  coffin  shape  suggested  by  Mr.  F.  M.  Apple  in  his  paper  before 
the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  seems  to  be  best.  This 
has  already  been  adopted  by  at  least  four  manufacturers,  and  its 
general  adoption  has  only  been  prevented  by  the  commercial  in- 
terests back  of  other  designs.  Commercial  instincts  and  financial 
advantages,  and  not  the  broad  humanitarian  principle  of  what  is 
best  to  protect  life,  have  been  the  causes  actuating  the  opposition  to 
legislation  and  to  official  recognition  of  the  best  suggestion  yet 
offered. 
The  German  Pharmacopoeia  has  been  quoted  as  an  authority 
