500 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 
and  mark  the  word  "  poison  "  in  a  distinct  and  unmistakeable  manner  upon 
the  label  or  package. 
That  you  consider  the  poisonous  alkaloids  and  the  like  powerful  sub- 
stances deadly  poisonous,  and  so  mark  each  package  or  label. 
That  you  make  it  an  invariable  rule,  to  have  every  package  of  medicine 
dispensed  at  your  counter  plainly  marked,  whether  it  be  an  innocent  or 
poisonous  one. 
That  you,  for  the  purpose  of  distinguishing  by  the  aid  of  color  as  well 
as  words,  have  the  labels  of  the  furniture  of  your  establishment  which  con- 
tains poisonous  substances,  (as  designated  in  this  paper,)  of  a  peculiar 
color,  one  distinct  from  that  of  the  rest  of  your  labels.  That  you  keep 
such  furniture  by  itself,  in  order  that  it  may  not  cause  remark  by  cus- 
tomers ;  or,  that  in  place  of  this  suggestion,  you  adopt  the  practice  of 
placing  upon  each  bottle,  or  drawer,  or  package,  of  such  poisonous  sub- 
stances, some  symbol,  such  as  a  bright  red  piece  of  paper,  a  triangle,  or 
Greek  cross,  or  of  other  suitable  form,  thus  giving  the  eye  an  additional 
means  of  cautioning  you  when  handling  such  substances. 
That  you  print  your  dispensing  labels  for  poisons  upon  a  paper  of  an 
entirely  distinct  color  from  that  upon  which  your  ordinary  ones  are  printed. 
That  in  dispensing  prescriptions  containing  poisonous  substances,  while 
you  cannot  mark  such  "  poisonous"  unless  so  directed  to  do  by  the  writer 
of  the  recipe,  yet  by  marking  a  symbol  in  red  ink  upon  the  label  of  the 
medicine,  you  may  avoid  any  mistake  in  its  repreparation,  in  putting  up  a 
poisonous  for  an  innocent  one. 
That,  as  an  additional  precaution,  you  adopt  the  practice  of  placing 
bands  of  rubber  around  the  necks  and  over  the  stoppers  of  bottles  con-* 
taming  poisonous  medicines  in  frequent  use,  or  in  some  other  manner  delay 
slightly  the  opening  of  the  bottle,  so  as  to  form  an  additional  security 
and  caution  against  mistake. 
That  in  preparing  prescriptions  you  adopt  this  course  :  first,  carefully 
and  understandingly  read  the  recipe  ;  then  prepare  it ;  then  copy  the  recipe 
into  a  book  provided  for  the  purpose,  with  its  date  ;  name  of  prescriber 
and  name  of  patient  and  directions  ;  finally,  place  the  number  correspond- 
ing to  the  one  on  record  upon  the  original  recipe  and  the  label,  before  de- 
livering the  medicine.  In  this  way  any  possible  error  in  first  reading  the 
recipe  may  be  discovered  in  recording  it ;  and  secondly,  you  have  a  guide 
in  the  patient's  name,  by  which  you  may  avert  evil  consequences,  should 
an  error  be  discovered  after  the  medicine  has  left  the  store. 
That  you  provide  yourself  with  a  book,  in  which  to  record  every  sale  of 
poison,  stating  in  each  entry  the  date  of  sale ;  to  whom  sold ;  for  what  pur- 
pose desired ;  the  quantity  sold,  and  price  received.  This  can  be  used  as 
evidence  in  case  of  any  blame  being  attached  to  you  in  case  of  accident 
resulting  from  articles  purchased  of  you. 
That  you  consider  yourself  morally  responsible  to  the  community  in 
which  you  live,  when  there  may  be  no  legislative  control  to  the  sale  of 
