Poison Sign
The skull-and-crossbones symbol (☠), consisting of a human skull and two bones crossed together under the skull, is today generally used as a warning of danger, particularly in regard to poisonous substances.
The symbol, or some variation thereof, specifically with the bones (or swords) below the skull, was also featured on the Jolly Roger, the traditional flag of European and American pirates. It is also part of the WHMIS home symbols placed on containers to inform that the contents are poisonous.
In the United States, due to concerns that the skull and bones symbol's association with pirates encourages children to play with toxic materials, the Mr. Yuk symbol is also used to denote poison.
Read more about this topic: Hazard Symbol
Famous quotes containing the words poison and/or sign:
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air: the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1858–1924)
“For I choose that my remembrances of him should be pleasing, affecting, religious. I will love him as a glorified friend, after the free way of friendship, and not pay him a stiff sign of respect, as men do to those whom they fear. A passage read from his discourses, a moving provocation to works like his, any act or meeting which tends to awaken a pure thought, a flow of love, an original design of virtue, I call a worthy, a true commemoration.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)