Am.  Jour.  Pharni.  ) 
Jan.,  1892.  J 
Conveniences  ui  the  Pharmacy. 
-  5 
ing  is  divided  into  sections,  like  that  of  most  other  stores.  On  the 
cornice  over  each  section  is  cemented  a  one-inch  porcelain  letter, 
which  is  large  enough  to  be  seen  distinctly,  and  yet  is  not 
unpleasantly  obtrusive.  The  first  section  is  called  A,  the  second 
B,  and  so  on,  the  shelves  being  numbered  from  above  downwards. 
Any  closet  in  a  section  is  designated  by  the  letter  C ;  if  there  is  a 
lower  one  by  the  letters  C  C.  For  cataloguing  I  use  Nelson's 
price-list,  although  any  full  one  would  do  as  well.  If  a  new  clerk 
(temporarily  in  charge)  should  wish  to  find  pomade  vaseline,  he 
turns  to  the  price-list,  finds  the  name,  and  following  it  sees  Sect. 
B,  C,  S.  2,  which  means  section  B,  closet,  shelf  2.  The  index  is 
■of  great  use  in  finding  articles  which  are  but  seldom  called  for, 
which  I  hardly  know  whether  in  stock  or  where  placed. 
A  convenient  arrangement  is  the  keeping  of  the  drugs  which 
are  to  be  sold  by  weight,  in  the  front  part  of  the  store,  handy  to 
the  scales,  and  the  liquids  in  the  rear  convenient  to  the  prescription 
counter;  also  to  have  duplicates  of  nearly  all  powdered  drugs  upon 
the  prescription  counter.  Upon  the  bottles  containing  those 
potassium  salts  most  frequently  dispensed,  I  have  large  capital 
letters  pasted,  which  catch  the  eye  at  once,  viz :  A  for  the  acetate, 
B  for  the  bromide,  C  for  the  chlorate,  I  for  the  iodide  and  N  for 
the  nitrate. 
By  the  pill  tile,  which  is  imbedded  in  a  slide  at  the  end  of  the 
prescription  counter,  I  have  a  row  of  small  bottles  with  sprinkler 
tops,  containing  powd.  licorice  root,  powd.  gum  arabic,  powd.  gum 
tragacanth,  lycopodium  and  rice  flour ;  also  small  jars  containing 
glycerite  of  starch  and  glycerite  of  tragacanth,  to  be  used  as 
excipients. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  I  keep  poisons  in  a  closet 
entirely  distinct  from  the  prescription  counter ;  but  I  do  not  have  a 
bell  upon  the  doors,  the  ringing  of  which  will  announce  to  some 
timid  customer  that  I  am  about  putting  a  poison  in  their  prescrip- 
tion. 
The  glass  labels  of  my  shelf-ware  that  contain  preparations 
poisonous  in  small  doses  have  a  black  background,  the  others  a 
white  one ;  the  black  label  catches  the  eye  at  once  and  puts  the 
dispenser  on  his  guard. 
Upon  the  inside  of  the  glass  doors  of  the  poison  closet,  I  have 
fastened  minimum  and  maximum  dose  tables  so  as  to  be  read  from 
