THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
MARCH,  1 8 go. 
BACTERIAL  POISONING  THROUGH  MEDICINES. 
By  H.  P.  Campbell,  Ph.  G. 
Many  cases  of  poisoning  have  been  traced  to  tainted  meat,  spoiled 
ice  cream,  and  various  other  articles  of  food  in  which  putrefactive 
decomposition  had  commenced,  but  there  appear  to  be  none  directly 
traced  to  medicines.  When  we  stop  to  think  of  the  universal 
distribution  of  micro-organisms,  and  of  the  many  drugs  and  solutions 
of  drugs  furnishing  them  with  favorable  conditions  for  growth,  we 
can  see  that  in  all  probability  many  such  cases  must  have  occurred. 
Bacteriology  is  such  a  comparatively  new  study  that  many  of  its 
details  have  not  as  yet  been  learned,  and  while  the  physician  might 
look  for  disease  germs  in  the  system  of  the  patient,  he  would  not  be 
apt  to  extend  that  care  to  the  medicine.  If  the  drug  did  not  produce 
the  usual  effect,  he  would  be  far  more  apt  to  attribute  it  to  an 
idiosyncracy  on  the  patient's  part,  or  to  the  disease  having  taken  an 
unusual  course,  rather  than  to  foreign  bodies  in  the  medicine.  It 
was  a  long  time  before  it  was  understood  how  commonly  contagious 
diseases  were  spread  by  the  bacteria  finding  their  way  into  the  water 
supply,  and  in  future,  doubtless,  many  things  will  be  found  danger- 
ous in  this  respect  which  now  pass  unsuspected.  That  these  organ- 
isms may  find  lodgments  even  in  mixtures  that  are  usually  con- 
sidered antiseptic  in  their  action  was.  very  forcibly  called  to  my 
attention  by  the  following  case,  which  caused  some  trouble  and 
anxiety  to  all  parties  concerned. 
The  mixture  ordered  was  quinine  and  whiskey,  and  was  kept  by 
the  purchaser  nearly  a  month  before  having  occasion  to  use  it. 
When  the  medicine  was  finally  taken  it  made  the  patient  very  sick, 
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