326  When  Is  Poison  Not  a  Poison?  {^"^- 
with  his  case,  was  then  at  fault.  The  virus  was  the  actual  disturber. 
Let  us  not  overlook  that  in  such  cases  as  these  local  conditions,  such 
as  the  syringe  needle  or  skin  uncleanliness,  may  be  at  fault,  not  the 
virus. 
Physicians  may  recall  the  use  of  a  hypodermic  syringe  from  season 
to  season,  with  no  complaint.  Then,  in  the  course  of  ordinary 
injections,  a  patient  is  ''poisoned"  by  the  same  dose  of  the  same 
medicine  previously  employed,  and  injected  with  the  same  syringe 
needle.  The  question  arises,  what  caused  this  exceptional  action? 
Blame  is  likely  to  be  attached  to  the  virus,  regardless  of  its  innocence. 
One  might  fairly  imply  that  either  in  this  one  case  the  syringe 
needle  was  infected,  or  that  a  shred  of  foreign  matter  was  injected, 
or  that  this  one  patient  was  exceptionally  sensitive  to  the  remedy 
employed.  Vaccines  are  not  in  our  sphere;  we  make  no  claim  to 
capacity  to  speak  as  an  expert  in  this  field.  But  yet  letters  from 
patrons  citing  exceptional  experiences  in  these  directions  lead  us  to 
accept  that  where  one  person,  and  only  one,  experiences  such  ex- 
ceptional results  with  a  preparation  where  hundreds  of  others  find 
no  untoward  effect,  the  cause  may  be  accepted  as  local  or  systemic, 
its  exceptional  action  lying  outside  the  preparation  used.  Such  as 
this  is  a  problem  for  serious  study. 
Full  well  is  it  known  that  tobacco  is  destructive  to  the  life  of 
most  insects,  and  yet  there  are  worms  that  thrive  on  the  green  leaf, 
as  well  as  insects  that  thread  the  dried  drug,  and  delight  in  the  choicest 
cigars.  To  the  one,  green  tobacco,  to  the  other,  dried  tobacco,  is  a 
food.  And  yet,  this  writer  was  made  "deathly  sick,"  as  frightened 
observers  can  testify,  when  a  film  of  collodion  containing  a  fraction 
of  a  drop  of  nicotine  was  painted  back  of  the  nail,  on  the  first  joint 
of  his  thumb.  Within  a  few  moments  alarming  results  followed, 
the  poisonous  film  was  at  once  washed  off  with  chloroform,  ammonia 
to  the  nostrils  and  stimulants  internally  being  promptly  administered. 
And  yet,  without  any  untoward  influence,  thousands  of  employees 
breathe  with  impunity  the  close  air  of  tobacco  warehouses,  cigar 
factories,  and  constantly  handle  strong  nicotine  tobacco  leaf. 
Capsicum,  in  substance,  is  heroic,  as  all  who  have  experienced  its 
direct  action  will  testify.  But  yet  a  beetle  (undetermined,  so  far  as 
we  know),  feeds  on  powdered  capsicum,  and  burrows  in  its  depths. 
To  that  insect  capsicum  is  a  choice  food,  and  to  the  Mexican,  in 
excessive  amounts,  it  is  but  a  pleasant  condiment. 
The  plant  known  as  sanguinaria  (blood  root)  contains  large 
