Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1918 — Dangerous Drugs [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Dangerous Drugs

By Dr. Samuel G. Dixon

ComnuMiooer ol Health cl Pens»ylvaaia

The modern method of preparing drugs for family use has its attrac-

tions, yet it has been the cause of many deaths, often from the fact that so many drugs are put up in form add color to resemble each other. One may be innocent and the other deadly poison, as for instance, calomel, an' innocent form of mercury and bichloride of mer-

cury, one of the mo’st deadly of poisons. One of these drugs might be picked up for the other in the dark or even in the daytime, if the label was not carefully read by the one seeking to take the medicine. This has resulted in an Innocent father killing his child, or perhaps his wife, or in some cases himself.

Another great mistake is to change a drug from one bottle to another without altering the label. It is often done in dividing up the contents of a rare drug with a neighbor. The one receiving the unlabeled bottle depends upon his memory, which often fails him, and a fatal mistake results. A very short time ago I knew of a generous doctor dividing up a rare drug with one of his colleagues, intending to label the bottle he kept tot himself. He neglected to do so, and not long after he wanted to use the drug and picked up what he believed to be the proper bottle, but which proved to contain an agent active in its power to destroy tissue. This he dropped into his eye and only escaped Having his eye destroyed by a narrow margin. Now this is quite a common mistake, and people have been made blind by this carelessness. Drugs that are most useful are, as a rule, most dangerous, and should always be kept under lock and key and plainly labeled. At present we-are being robbed enough of the members of our families during the war, so that we should have no patience with the killing of the innocent at home by simple carelessness, and it is this common, everyday practice of confusing drug bottles that I warn you against. It can all be done away with if you will only give it reasonable attention. . .