370 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
when a bill was before the House of Keys, under pressure from the medical 
faculty, which provided for their protection, and made it an offence (liable to 
punishment) if druggists prescribed. The bill was to be read the third time that 
day, and the member for the town was on his way to the House (where he had 
previously strongly supported the second reading), when he came into the shop, 
complained of headache, and asked for a draught to relieve it. The chemist ven- 
tured to express surprise that he had supported the bill, when the member was 
astonished and asked for some explanation. ‘Well/ says the chemist, ‘if that 
bill passes it is the last draught for headache you will get in my shop.’ With this 
the true state of matters came home to the member; he went to the House, 
vigorously opposed the third reading, and it was ‘ thrown out.’ ” 
Leicestee, in England, appears to be a most pronounced anti-vaccination 
town. The British and Colonial Druggist states that the official returns for 
the 12 months ending June last show that the number of defaulters has 
increased by 3800, only 1041 children being vaccinated out of 4760 births. It 
is now estimated that there are about 10,000 defaulters in the town, and in 
order to enforce the law each defaulter would have to be served with two 
separate notices of his default, or a total of 20,000 notices. In addition to 
this each defaulter would have to be summoned under one section of the Act 
of Parliament to show cause why an order should not be made to obey the 
law, and then summoned under another section for disobedience to the order, 
making altogether 20,000 summonses. The summonses and notices together 
which would thus have to be served before the law could be enforced number 
40,000. The law has completely broken down. The guardians meanwhile have 
stopped the vaccination officer from issuing a single summons, and have openly 
challenged the interference of the Local G-overnment Board. 
The lines of demarcation betwixt “animal” and “vegetable” principles— 
so-called — always difficult to define, are (writes “ Paracelsus ” in the British 
and Colonial Druggist) getting practically obliterated. Heckel and Schlagden- 
hauffen have now detected cholesterine in chaulmugra oil, in the fatty matters 
of j Erythroxylon hypericifoliwm, the seeds of the Ahrus precatorius (Jequirity), 
and Ccesalpinia bonducella (Bonduc.) Cholesterine has also (Arnaud) been 
found in the common carrot. Something very similar has been extracted from 
the oil of sunflower. 
In London, recently, a teetotaler, who had heard it stated that ammonia 
was the best substitute for alcohol, took a tablespoonful to relieve a pain in his 
chest. He died in great agony. 
The Advance in Qtticksilvee. — Such an every-day domestic event as a 
wedding would not be expected to affect the market, yet one of the causes of 
the recent advance in quicksilver is said to be a marriage. When such an 
important affair as the wedding of a ruler of the Celestial Empire is announced the 
etiquette of the country demands that the innumerable temples throughout the 
land shall receive a fresh dress, and as this dress consists principally of the 
sulphuret of mercury, it can well be imagined that the consumption of this 
brilliant pigment for the purpose would be enormous. From this it will be 
understood that the approaching nuptials of the Emperor of China has necessi- 
tated a tremendous outlay in vermilion, and a consequent demand for its chief 
ingredient. At any rate the recent demand from China, which included orders 
for four thousand bottles of the metal, whatever it was needed for, is reported 
to have been at the bottom of the rise in the price of quicksilver, though there 
were other potent causes at work which might have eventually accomplished this 
end without the timely assistance of the ante-nuptial preparation. — Oil, Paint* 
and Drug Reporter. 
