AmMayr^srm'  }  Br'icf  °f  Philadelphia  Drug  Exchange. 
329 
BRIEF  SUBMITTED  BY  PHILADELPHIA  DRUG 
EXCHANGE. 1 
Committee  on  Military  Affairs, 
House  of  Representatives, 
Hon.  S.  Hubert  Dent,  Chairman, 
Washington,  D.  C. 
Gentlemen:  In  re  subject  of  legislation  to  establish  a  commis- 
sioned pharmaceutical  corps  in  the  U.  S.  Army : 
The  text  of  this  sermon — and  'it  is  a  brief  one — is  "  Safety 
First." 
I  hold  in  my  hand  the  official  "  drug  table  "  or  "  list  of  staple 
medical  and  surgical  supplies"  authorized  by  the  Secretary  of  War 
for  use  in  the  Army  hospitals.  It  gives  the  "minimum  number  of 
articles  essential  to  the  conduct  of  the  nation's  medical  activities" 
and  specifies  the  various  quantities  and  kinds  of  containers  that  may 
be  ordered  by  the  Army  drug  stores  from  the  general  supplies.  It 
embraces  406  drugs  and  drug  products,  26  pills,  53  tablets  and  tablet 
tributes,  31  unofficial  tablets,  27  hypodermic  tablets,  10  ampoules 
10  miscellaneous  items  and  14  biological  products,  or  a  total  of  577 
items.  Of  these  200,  or  over  one  third,  are  the  most  deadly  poisons 
known  to  man. 
For  example,  the  Army  drug  stores  contain  diluted  hydrocyanic 
acid.  This  deadly  poison  is  exceedingly  rapid  in  action.  One  and 
a  half  grains  of  the  anhydrous  acid  is  capable  of  producing  death 
in  the  human  subject  (Christison) .  One  or  two  drops  of  the  acid 
will  kill  a  vigorous  dog  in  a  few  seconds  (Wood).  The  famous 
chemist,  Scheele,  who  discovered  hydrocyanic  acid,  was  killed  by 
the  vapors  set  free  in  the  breaking  of  a  flask  of  the  liquid  (Soll- 
mann).  The  fatal  dose  of  the  official  acid  (2  per  cent.)  is  45 
minims  (Taylor).  Each  Army  drug  store  may  contain  enough  of 
the  official  acid  (8  fluid  ounces)  to  kill  80  soldiers. 
Arsenic  is  in  the  Army  drug  stores,  also.  In  overdoses  it  acts 
with  very  great  energy  and  destroys  life  in  a  short  time.  It  was  at 
one  time  used  very  extensively  for  criminal  poisoning,  especially  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  An  Italian  woman,  Toffania,  carried  this 
science  to  its  greatest  refinement.  She  killed  dogs  with  arsenic  and 
then  used  the  saliva  of  such  dogs  (which  contained  arsenic)  as  a 
1  Presented  at  hearing  on  the  Edmund's  Bill  held  March  19,  1918. 
