THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
FEBRUARY,  igoj. 
WHAT  DRUGGISTS  CAN  DO  TO  ASSIST  IN  DETECTING 
CASES  OF  POISONING. 
By  Henry  I/e^fmann,  A.M.,  M.D. 
Death  from  poisoning  is  much  more  common  than  the  mortality- 
statistics  indicate.  This  is  due  not  only  to  the  fact  that  many 
poisons  produce  symptoms  that  simulate  disease,  but  also  to  the 
haste  in  which  diagnosis  is  made  and  the  rare  opportunity  to  verify 
it  by  autopsy.  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  to-day 
impossible,  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge,  to  define  precisely 
the  boundary  between  poisoning  and  disease.  All  the  great  masters 
of  medical  jurisprudence  and  toxicology  have  labored  to  define  the 
word  poison,  but  none  of  the  definitions  will  stand  criticism,  and 
some  of  them,  like  the  Spencerian  definitions  of  "  life  "  and  "  evolu- 
tion," confuse  rather  than  enlighten  the  average  mind.  Of  late 
years,  the  activity  of  the  authorities  in  the  suppression  of  food- 
adulteration  has  developed  a  peculiar  and  unscientific  view,  and 
even  secured  judicial  recognition  of  it,  namely,  that  a  given  sub- 
stance is  either  a  poison  or  not  a  poison,  without  reference  to  the 
question  of  dose.  It  would  be  apparent  to  any  one  familiar  with  the 
principles  of  pharmacology  and  therapeutics,  that  dose  is  one  of  the 
most  important  factors  in  determining  the  physiologic  action  of  any 
substance.  To  pick  out,  arbitrarily,  such  materials  as  boric  acid  and 
sodium  benzoate  and  denounce  them  as  poisons  in  every  propor- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  declare  that  saltpeter,  acetic  acid  and 
vanillin  are  wholly  suitable  for  addition  to  food,  is  one  of  the  start- 
ling inconsistencies  of  certain  dairy  and  food  commissioners. 
It  is  not  my  intention  to  attempt  to  instruct  druggists  in  the  art 
of  diagnosis  or  elaborate  toxicologic  analysis.    Each  of  these  is  a 
(5i) 
