Am  j.u°yri9i4.ann" }       Bichloride  of  Mercury  Tablets.  321 
A  number  of  State  legislatures  in  session  during  the  past  year 
have  had  under  consideration  acts  that  would  restrict  the  handling 
of  such  poison  tablets  and  define  their  shape,  color,  and  label,  and 
further  prohibit  the  use  of  the  prescribed  shape  for  any  other 
purpose.  There  are  at  least  three  bills  on  the  same  subject  now 
pending  in  Congress.  It  is  certain  that  we  may  expect  legislation 
before  long  on  this  entire  matter,  and  it  is  eminently  proper  that 
the  drug  trade  should  take  an  active  interest  in  solving  a  question 
of  public  safety  that  is  so  closely  associated  with  our  business.  Un- 
fortunately, the  attitude  assumed  by  some  of  the  druggists  is  that 
of  thoughtless  indifference.  The  argument  advanced  by  others  is 
that  such  legislation  is  only  a  passing  sentimental  fad  and  that  it  can 
have  no  influence  on  the  protection  of  life.  This  is  so  fallacious  that 
it  can  not  long  continue  to  prevent  legislation. 
It  was  never  expected  that  any  legislation  would  prevent  a  person 
of  morbid  mind  from  committing  suicide.  This  is  not  the  purpose 
of  the  proposed  legislative  enactments,  but  it  is  contended  that  in 
prescribing  a  distinctive  shape  for  these  poison  tablets  they  could 
under  no  circumstances  be  mistaken,  either  in  the  day  or  night,  for 
harmless  medications.  If  a  distinctive  shape  had  been  supplied  the 
Macon,  Ga.,  banker  and  the  Brooklyn  business  man,  whose  deaths 
beyond  question  were  accidental  poisonings,  at  least  these  lives  could 
have  been  spared. 
The  necessity  for  a  distinctive  shape  for  bichloride  of  mercury 
tablets  is  well  shown  by  the  compilation  appearing  in  Public  Health 
Report  No.  46,  by  Martin  I.  Wilbert,  of  the  United  States  Public 
Health  Service.  In  this  compilation  Mr.  Wilbert  shows  that  at 
that  time,  in  the  current  price-lists  of  five  leading  pharmaceutical 
manufacturers,  there  were  sixteen  different  formulas  and  varying 
sizes  of  poison  bichloride  tablets,  five  different  shapes,  five  different 
colors,  and  only  three  out  of  the  sixteen  were  then  made  of  any 
other  shape  than  the  ordinary  round  tablets  used  for  medicine,  such 
as  headache  and  cold  tablets.  Could  any  stronger  evidence  of  the 
necessity  for  restrictive  legislation  and  a  distinctive  shape  for  these 
poison  tablets  be  presented  than  this  compilation  in  a  Government 
bulletin,  which  shows  the  present  dangerous  and  unsatisfactory 
method  of  marketing  these  tablets  ? 
The  influence  of  certain  manufacturers  on  proposed  legislation  is 
shown  in  the  act  passed  by  the  last  session  of  the  Maryland  legis- 
lature.   Instead  of  specifying  in  the  act  a  distinctive  shape  or  color, 
