THE  DRUG  BUSINESS  IN  SWEDEN. 
27 
list  issued  by  the  Board  allowed,  and  the  poisons  were  particu- 
larly taken  notice  of. 
In  Sweden  all  poisons  are  kept  in  one  closet,  separated  from 
all  other  medicines,  and  they  are  locked  up.  No  one  except  the 
graduated  pharmaceutist  has  access  to  the  poison  closet.* 
The  poisons  are  divided  into  six  classes  : 
1st.  Preparations  of  opium  and  lactucarium. 
2d.  "  "  antimony  and  emetia. 
3d.  "  mercury  and  lead. 
4th.  "  nux  vomica,  elaterium,  veratria,  euphor- 
bium  and  croton  oil. 
5th.  "  "  arsenic  and  phosphorus. 
6th.  "  "  prussic    acid,    chloroform,  belladonna, 
hyoscyamus,  digitalis,  stramonium,  co- 
nium,  aconite  and  ergot,  etc. 
The  closet  was  divided  off  into  six  compartments,  each  one 
painted  with  its  own  distinct  color.    In  these  compartments  the 
different  classes  of  poisons  were  put. 
1st.  Class,  .  .  blue. 
2d.      "...  red. 
3d.      "  .  .  yellow. 
4th.    "        .  .  .  green. 
5th.    "  .  .  black. 
6th.    "...  white. 
The  labels  on  the  poison  phials  had  the  same  color  as  the 
shelf  to  which  they  belonged,  and  the  bottles  of  all  classes 
had  a  characteristic  mark  (^)  common  to  all.    The  labels  on 
arsenic  and  phosphorus  being  black,  they  had  white  lettering. 
This  arrangement  prevented  every  possibility  of  mistake,  for 
if  one  of  these  bottles,  with  a  colored  label  and  the  poison  mark 
on  it,  should  stand  among  a  hundred  others,  it  would  still  be 
immediately  recognized  and  never  touched.  And  the  classifi- 
cation effectually  guards  against  mistakes  between  the  different 
poisons  themselves. 
No  poison  was  ever  sold  except  on  prescription  from  a  regular 
physician,  and  arsenic  only  when  the  buyer  signed  an  acknowl- 
edgement of  the  receipt  of  it  on  the  back  of  that  prescription. 
The  entire  stock  of  arsenic  on  hand  at  the  annual  visitation  by 
