THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
149 
“ Your valuable paper would confer a great boon upon those dwelling in 
neighbourhoods infested with poisonous reptiles by disseminating the knowledge 
of an infallible antidote against snakebite. A German M.D., over twenty years 
resident in Brazil, writes about it to the Heimath : — 4 Since Dr. Lazerda 
discovered permanganate of potash to be an infallible antidote every farmer 
keeps some of it in his dwelling. The people now being fully convinced that 
its curative effects may be relied upon with absolute certainty, have come 
to regard snakebites as something perfectly harmless. Eight times I had the 
opportunity to test the efficacy of this invaluable antidote, and in the first 
instance in a most desperate case. A young nigger woman, while cutting sugar- 
cane, was stung by a Jararaca pregosa , which clung so tenaciously to the 
finger that it had to be killed still adhering to it. 
“ ‘ Unfortunately two hours had elapsed already before the woman was 
brought to me in a most deplorable state. Blood was oozing already out of her 
eyes and mouth, the arm was swollen to an enormous size, and high grade 
fever had set in. 
“ ‘ I immediately injected 0*02 grammes of permanganate of potash under 
the skin of the lower arm, which treatment I repeated half-an-hour later on 
the upper arm. After two days the woman was at her work again. In the 
other cases, where I was unable to apply injections during the first hour, the 
work did actually suffer no interruption by the person bitten. 
“‘The crystals of the permanganate of potash ought to be dissolved in 
water immediately before use. It lies within the province of the authorities 
that people ought to be made acquainted with the use of the moyshium 
injector for the purpose of being able to apply permanganate of potash in case 
of need. The knowledge of this infallible antidote ought to be spread far 
and near.’ ” 
WEST AUSTRALIAN PHARMACY LAWS. 
In reply to numerous inquiries as to the laws affecting pharmacists at present 
in force in West Australia, we learn that legislation in the colony named has not 
extended beyond the passing of “ The Poison Sale Act 1879.” 
Clause I. provides that “ It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, or keep 
open shop for retailing, dispensing, or compounding poisons in any part of West 
Australia, unless such person shall be licensed thereto by the Resident Magistrate or 
Police Magistrate of his town or district, and shall conform to such regulations as to 
the keeping:, dispensing, and selling of such poisons as may from time to time be 
prescribed by such Resident Magistrate or Police Magistrate.” 
Clause II. limits the articles which shall be deemed poisons to those enumerated 
in an accompanying schedule. They are : — (A) Arsenic and its preparations, 
prussic acid, cyanides of potassium and all metallic cyanides, strychnine and all 
poisonous vegetable alkaloids and their salts, aconite and its preparations, emetic 
tartar, corrosive sublimate, cantharides, savin and its oil. ergot of rye and its 
preparations ; (B) Oxalic acid, chloroform, belladonna and its preparations, essential 
oil of almonds (unless deprived of its prussic acid), opium and all preparations of 
opium or of poppies. 
Clause III. makes it “unlawful to sell any poison, either by wholesale or 
retail, unless the box, bottle, vessel, wrapper, or cover in which such poison is 
contained be distinctly labelled with the name of the article and with the word 
* Poison/ and with the name and address of the seller.” The poisons (A) must 
