Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
October,  1898.  J 
Editorial. 
527 
EDITORIAL. 
DEFINITION  OF  POISONS. 
It  is  more  and  more  evident  as  the  time  draws  near  for  the  publishing  of  the 
next  Pharmacopoeia,  that  the  Committee  on  Revision  has  to  consider  the 
introduction  of  new  features  which  may  or  may  not  be  desirable.  Some  say  : 
"  Incorporate  the  National  Formulary  with  the  Pharmacopoeia  !"  Others  say  : 
"Putin  maximum  and  minimum  doses!"  And  still  others  now  say  :  "The 
Pharmacopoeia  is  the  authority  to  define  what  shall  constitute  a  poison  !" 
Regarding  these  advocates  and  their  desires,  we  repeat  what  was  said  in  the  June 
number  of  this  Journal,  that  some  will  object  to  the  coming^Pharmacopceia, 
doubtless,  because  it  is  not  permeated  with  sufficient  material|that  is  required 
in  everyday  practice,  and  may  say  that  it  does  not  represent  the  professions  of 
to-day.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  research  and  practice  of  to-day  is 
always  a  step  in  advance  of  the  knowledge  that  is  accepted.  There  always 
must  be  the  experimental  or  "  scouting  "  party  in  search  for  new  truths,  and 
these  are  the  results  that  are  apt  to  be  upon  every  tongue,  and  in  every  office 
and  shop,  and  ofttimes  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  engaged  in 
daily  practice  of  the  professions.  But  these  things  with  their  reports  neither 
represent  truth  nor  definite  knowledge,  nor  anything  that  is  certain  and  ought 
to  be  made  pharmacopceial.  This  distinction  can  only  be  given  these  reports 
when  this  knowledge  has  been  shaped  into  something  definite  and  certain,  and 
has  been  repeatedly  confirmed  by  others. 
It  is  not  our  purpose  to  say  anything  with  regard  to  the  desirability  or  unde- 
sirability  of  introducing  the  National  Formulary  or  doses  into  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia, but  to  consider  some  of  the  difficulties  involved  in  a  definition  for  the 
word  "poison,"  and  ask,  "  Suppose  the  U.S. P.  did  give  us  a  perfect  definition,  of 
what  use  would  it  be?"  Unquestionably,  those  who  ought  to  be  consulted  in 
the  framing  of  a  definition  of  poisons  are  the  medical  writers  and  experts  on 
toxicology,  medical  jurisprudence,  and  the  makers  of  dictionaries.  If  we  con- 
sult these  we  find,  for  instance,  that : 
Beck  says:  "The  ancients  considered  everything  as  poisonous  that  produced  malignant 
symptoms  and  attacked  directly  what  we  style  the  vital  principle.  Dr.  Mead's  definition 
includes  every  substance  which  in  small  doses  can  produce  great  changes  in  the  living  body. 
Fodere  considers  poisons  to  be  those  substances  which  are  known  by  physicians  as  capable 
of  altering  or  destroying,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  some  or  all  of  the  functions  necessary  to 
life."  He,  however,  adopts  the  definition  given  by  Guy,  that  "a  poison  is  any  substance 
which,  when  applied  to  the  body  externally,  or  in  any  way  introduced  into  the  system  with- 
out acting  mechanically,  but  by  its  own  inherent  qualities  is  capable  of  destroying  life." 
Reese  defines  a  poison  as  "a  substance  which,  when  introduced  into  the  body  by  any 
method,  occasions  disease  or  death  ;  and  this  as  an  ordinary  result  in  a  state  of  health,  and 
not  by  a  mechanical  action." 
Wharton  and  Stille  say:  "  Physicians  generally  understand  by  the  word  poison  a  substance 
having  an  inherent  deleterious  property,  which  renders  it,  when  taken  into  the  system,  capa- 
ble of  destroying  life.  It  is  difficult,  however,  to  give  a  definition  to  the  term  which  will 
meet  the  significance  attached  to  it  by  different  classes  of  persons,  for  while  in  common  lan- 
guage, poisons  are  understood  to  be  those  articles  only  which  are  deadly— in  small  doses — as 
strj'chnine,  prussic  acid,  arsenic,  etc. — the  lawyer  and  the  physician  will  unite  in  affixing  to  it 
a  general  meaning,  similar  to  which  we  have  given  above." 
Taylor  defines  a  poison  to  be  (as  commonly  defined)  "a  substance  which,  when  adminis- 
tered or  taken  in  small  quantity,  is  capable  of  acting  deleteriously  on  the  body.  In  proper  lan- 
guage, this  term  is  applied  only  to  those  substances  which  destroy  life  in  small  doses.  This 
