THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
351 
silver cruet and a combination stand’, ' subscribed for by the employes and 
friends, was also presented to Mrs. Sellgren. Mr. Sellgren, who is a pharmaceutical 
chemist of Sweden, was for several years dispenser in the Melbourne Hospital. 
Mr. Jeffcoat, formerly a student at the Otago University, has passed 
his final medical professional examination with distinction at the Edinburgh 
University. 
At a meeting of the Auckland Institute on 23rd August, Mr. Baber read 
a paper on “ The Medicinal Plants of New Zealand.” The subjects treated were 
poisons, astringents, stimulants, and tonics, as follows: — Poisons: Tupakihi 
or tutu — Coriaia ruscifolia ; wharangi or pukapuka — Brachyglottis reparda ; 
karaka — Corynocarpus lavigata ; waoriki— a poisonous grass. Anodynes — none. 
Cathartic — Phormium tenax. Demulcent — Uariao or supplejack— Eipogonium 
secundus. Astringents : Eoromiko — Veronica salicifolia; rata — Metrosideros 
robustus ; pohutukawa— Metrosideros tomentosa ; rimu— Dacrydium cupressimum ; 
manuka and tree fern gum. Stimulants : Kawakawa — Piper excelsus. Tonic : 
Xohekohe (native cedar)- Dysoxylune spectabile. 
At Timaru on 16th August, Thomas Hall, a well-known commission agent, 
and nephew of Sir John Hall, and a young woman named Margaret Graham 
Houston were arrested on a charge of attempting to murder Hall’s wife (Catherine 
Hall) by the administration of antimony. The warrant for their arrest was 
issued on the information of Dr. MTntyre, who was attending Mrs. Hall profes- 
sionally, and who discovered traces of poison in her food and drink. On the 
police searching the house, several phials containing antimony were found, and 
the male prisoner had a phial in his possession with a few drops of poison in it. 
Great intimacy appears to have existed between the prisoners, and Mrs. Hall’s 
life was insured for £6000. Several charges of fraud and forgery have since 
been brought against Hall by his partner. 
At Invercargill recently, an old settler named Martin was committed for trial 
for giving phosphorised oats to his son-in-law’s horses, two of which were found 
dead. 
At Southbridge on 5th August a Chinaman named Ah Sow committed suicide 
by taking an overdose of opium. His fellow-countrymen, finding him dying, 
laid him outside in the cold, as “ they did not like dead people in the house.” 
A lady in Christchurch is reported to be in the habit of drinking, on an 
average, nine or ten fluid ounces of laudanum per week. She is said to have 
made many attempts to abandon the habit, but in vain. 
A committee meeting of the Chemists’ Association was held a . fortnight ago with the 
object of arranging a uniform price for retailing patent medicines, but, after a long 
discussion and several suggestions being made, it was adjourned without anything definite 
being settled. 
The Opium Bill, the principal object of which is to prohibit the sale of opium to 
the aboriginals, was read a second time in the Assembly on 10th August. . The general 
principles of the bill have met with general approval, but, during the discussion, one 
matter was commented on which will very likely receive further attention in committee. 
This is the fact that, under the interpretation clause, opium is defined as including 
opium, laudanum, or any preparation of either, and so, if the stringent provisions of the 
bill are carried out, persons in the country districts might be hampered in the use of 
laudanum, which is largely uesd as a medicine both for man and beast, or even in the 
use of patent medicines containing either. The section of most interest, to pharmacists 
reads as follows : — “ Every person who supplies, or permits to be supplied, any opium 
to any aboriginal native of Australia, or half-caste of that race, shall be liable, to a 
penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and not less than twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned 
with or without hard labour for any period not exceeding six months, and not less than 
one month; and if he is a pharmaceutical chemist, his name may be removed by the 
