THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
129 
A SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST ENGLISH DISPENSERS. 
Some unknown friend has forwarded to the editor of this journal a copy of the 
London Morning Post of 25th February, drawing his attention to an article dealing 
with the results of a so-called “investigation” into the dispensing of medicines 
lately undertaken by Dr. Seaton, the medical officer of health and public analyst for 
the parish of Chelsea. Dr. Seaton, it appears, caused fifty prescriptions to be made 
up by chemists and druggists, and then tested their accuracy by analysing the 
medicines so compounded. According to the Morning Post more than one-third of 
the number showed an error of over 10 per cent, in the ingredients employed. In 
nine cases, or nearly one-fifth of the whole, the error exceeded 20 per cent. In one 
instance the medicine contained less than a quarter of the drug prescribed ; in 
another less than one-half; in others, 30, 4<J, and 50 per cent, too much. An 
alarming report of this nature afforded the daily Press too tempting an opportunity 
for “ strong writing ” to be lost, and the Morning Post , for one, makes it the text 
of a “thrilling” article, in which, instancing, among other examples, the “death of 
two dogs, to whom medicine bought as jalap had been administered, and an analysis 
showed that two-thirds of the so-called jalap consisted of strychnine,” it expatiates 
on the evils to which the public are liable, not only from the alleged carelessness of 
dispensers, but also from the unreliable quality of the drugs sold. That adulterated 
drugs do sometimes get upon the market cannot be denied, and that mistakes are 
sometimes committed by dispensers must also be admitted ; and the Australasian 
Journal of Pharmacy cannot too strongly impress upon Australian chemists the 
necessity, not only of extreme carefulness in compounding prescriptions, but also of 
qualifying themselves to test analytically the quality of their drugs. Whether our 
English confreres have given any just cause for the present attack upon them is quite 
another question. Without the necessary data at our command we do not feel 
justified in expressing a personal opinion ; and in this respect our English contem- 
poraries are also placed at a disadvantage. The Pharmaceutical Journal , for 
instance, writes : — “ To the report is appended an imposing-looking table of results, 
in which percentages of error ranging from 10 to 85 per cent, are indicated, but, 
as no account is given of the methods adopted for the analytical determination of the 
substances, it is impossible to criticise the chemistry of the report The daily Press 
seem to have accepted Dr. Seaton’s results with the most implicit confidence, but it 
would be interesting to dispensers to be informed, not only as to the methods 
employed by the self-constituted investigator, but also as to the precautions taken 
by him to preserve the medicines in the condition in which they were supplied by the 
dispensers. Possibly we may yet hear something more definite on these points, until 
which time we reserve further comment. In the meantime, it may not be without 
interest to note that, of the fifty prescriptions, thirty were dispensed at chemists ' 
shops, and among these there were only two cases of error that were considered 
serious, viz., pills, consisting of 12 grains hydrarg. c. cret. and 12 grains of ext. of 
hyoscyamus, which are represented as having had in one case £6 per cent, too much 
of the former and in the other 29 per cent, too little. Among fourteen made up at 
“Stores” there were three cases of serious error; in four made up by “drug 
companies” there were three cases of error ; while — a somewhat remarkable fact — out 
of two made up by “ doctors’ shops,” one showed a very gross error. However the 
case may stand with the chemists, it would appear from this, if any reliance is to be 
placed upon Dr. Seaton’s report, that the public are at least safer in their hands than 
they would be if the old system were revived under which the doctor made up his 
own prescriptions. 
The German Imperial Government has ordered the establishment of Chairs 
of Hygiene and Bacteriology at all universities of the empire. 
