May, 1880, 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
PILL COATING. 
To the Editor of The Australasian Supplement to the Chemist 
and Druggist. 
Dear Sir — I have to thank your correspondent for the infor- 
mation contained in last issue in reference to coating pills, 
and hope to at last succeed. — Yours, &c., Ambition. 
DRUGGISTS AND THEIR POISONS. 
The following letter appeared in the Ballarat Star : — 
“To the Editor of the Star. — Sir — On behalf of the Bal- 
larat District Chemists’ Association, I am directed respect- 
fully to request the insertion of this letter in your valuable 
columns on the above subject, for the information and security 
of the public — viz., that in all well-ordered chemists’ shops 
the bottles are classified upon the shelves, with regard to 
colour, contents, &c., and poisons of a virulent natute — such 
as strychnine, morphia, arsenic, prussic acid, &c. — are in- 
variably kept in a cupboard as far distant as possible from 
the dispensing department. These rules are observed in all 
the chemists’ shops in Ballarat. Moreover, the chemists here 
consider they have good cause for self-congratulation, seeing 
that the unfortunate case just concluded is the only one that 
has ever occurred in this district through carelessness or mis- 
take on the part of a druggist. — Yours, &c., 
“28th May. “ J. T. Macgowan, Hon. Sec. B.D.C.A.” 
STOREKEEPERS AND DRUGS. 
To the Editor of The Australasian Supplement to the Chemist 
and Druggist. 
Dear Sir — I think it is quite time some action was taken to 
protect chemists from intrusion on their business by store- 
keepers, &c. The Pharmacy Act has done a great deal of good 
for the trade, but it does not apply to storekeepers dealing in 
drugs, &c., unless they call themselves chemists and druggists. 
They have long dealt in patent medicines, and cut them as 
fine as it is possible to do, and now the evil of their selling 
drugs is growing greater every year. 
I will confine my remarks to the action of the storekeeper 
in my own township; and perhaps some of my country 
brethren will follow suit. 
Some have said that patent medicines are a curse to our 
business, and so they are ; but the public will have Holloway’s, 
Cockle’s, &c., and if the chemist persuades them to take his 
own article, they will at times be offended, and go for the 
future to the storekeeper, where sometimes they will get them 
cheaper and at longer credit. 
Leaving patents alone, I will direct the attention of my 
brethren to the fact that in this township the storekeeper 
retails liq. ammon. fort., ext. tarax. aaci., acs : sulph., nitric, and 
muriatic, ammon : mur : sodas, bibor., pot. bitart., and others too 
numerous to mention. Could not an Act be brought before 
Parliament to suppress this evil ? 
Coming to patents again, the storekeeper here is not satisfied 
with dealing merely in Holloway’s, Cockle’s, Steedman’s, 
salts and senna, & c., but goes in for Churchill’s syrup, Jayne’s 
preparation, Row’s embrocation, &c. — in fact, one corner of 
the shop is stocked larger than my own with such articles as 
I have mentioned. — I have the honour to be, yours, &c., 
Country Chemist. 
PRESERVATION OF MUCILAGE OF GUM ARABIC. 
To the Editor of The Australasian Supplement to the Chemist 
and Druggist. 
Sir— T here are few pharmacists, I think, who have not 
experienced considerable annoyance in consequence of the 
difficulty of keeping a supply of sweet mucilage of gum 
arabic, and various have been the methods proposed for attain- 
ing this end, most of them aiming at the complete exclusion 
of air from the vessels containing the mucilage. “ Squire” 
recommends filling six -ounce bottles with mucilage as soon as 
made, and corking them. My own experience has led me to 
an exactly opposite opinion. I have frequently noticed that 
mucilage \vhen kept in open-mouthed vessels has invariably 
kept longer than when closed up in bottles so as to partially 
or entirely exclude the air. Three weeks ago I made ten 
pints of mucilage. About three pints of this were unused, and of 
this about a pint was put into a bottle, and closely covered 
with paper ; the remainder was allowed to remain in the jar 
in which it was made (which, by the way, has a diameter 
internally of 8 J inches, with perfectly straight sides); it was 
loosely covered with a piece of paper, thrown over it to exclude 
dust, &c. That which had been kept in the bottle was quite 
sour, and effervesced briskly on the addition of some solution 
of bicarbonate of potash ; that which had remained in the jar 
smelt and tasted perfectly sweet, and, although litmus paper 
distinctly indicated acidity, still on the addition of some solu- 
tion of bicarbonate of potash not the slightest perceptible 
effervescence took place ; it was, in fact, practically unaltered. 
Thinking the acidity indicated in the sweet mucilage might be 
due to the presence of a small quantity of acetic acid, I 
applied the usual tests, but failed to find any. 
I then powdered some of the same sample of gum, and dis- 
solved it in distilled water, and again applied the litmus 
paper, and again obtained the indication of the presence of an 
acid, which confirmed an opinion I had already entertained, 
that the acid reaction might be due to the presence of some free 
gummic acid, or that gummate of calcium might be an acid- 
salt. 
I enclose for your inspection the respective pieces of test 
paper used, and although there is a decidedly more apparent 
indication in favour of the older mucilage, there is still 
undeniable evidence of the existence of an acid in the perfectly 
fresh. 
I then thought that probably the acid present might be 
sulphurous acid, thinking that some of the gum might have 
been bleached by this agent ; but upon applying the tests 
therefor I failed to find even a trace. 
I think that these facts are most decidedly in favour of keep- 
ing mucilage in open vessels, and, I think, proves, or tends to, 
that air is not the cause of mucilage becoming sour. As to what 
may be the reason of this singular phenomenon I will not 
even venture an opinion ; but these facts have led me to the 
belief that the best method of preserving mucilage of gum 
arabic is to keep it in vessels in which it is as much exposed 
to the air as is consistent with the exclusion of dust and other 
extraneous matter. 
I shall be glad to see this matter taken up by some one more 
capable of throwing some light upon this apparent anomaly. — 
Yours faithfully, S. M. Dalton. 
Sandhurst, 7th June, 1880. 
THE PHARMACY ACT IN NEW ZEALAND. 
To the Editor of The Australasian Supplement to the Chemist 
and Druggist. 
Sir — O ur New Zealand confreres deserve much commendation 
for their activity in attempting to assimilate the educational 
standard of the trade there to that legalised by the Government 
here ; and I am sure that we all heartily hope their endea- 
vours to get a bill passed through the Legislative Houses for 
this purpose may be crowned by the most complete and 
speedy success. If, as I see by editorial note in our Supple- 
ment (folio 88), and in the Chemist and Druggist Journal 
(folio 15), they have already drafted a bill on the model of 
our Victorian Act, I would like, through your journal, to offer 
a suggestion to the pharmacists of New Zealand, ere it be too 
late — that instead of accepting our Act in its entirety as a per- 
fect one, they should go further than ours, adding to it an 
additional grafting, that ours much requires, and one that I 
take to be a future necessity, and one which, ere many years 
have flown away, I trust may be carried out. Those gentle- 
men in New Zealand familiar with our Act will know that it 
is administered and carried out by a board of seven members ; 
that the Pharmaceutical Society is governed by another board 
or council of twelve members ; the one not necessarily con- 
nected with the other in any way, excepting in having the one 
qualification of being “ registered pharmacists.” Now, my 
impression is that there is in this mode of conducting our 
affairs a great deal of superfluous and supererogatory work, and 
the machinery, so to speak, unnecessarily large and unwieldly ; 
but considering the time, circumstances, and anxieties attend- 
ant on the introduction and consummation of passing the Act 
to the few zealous pharmacists on whose shoulders the whole 
responsibilities rested (many must have said, “ ’Tis greatly 
to their credit”), the Act has worked hitherto remarkably well ; 
I and, though in some points it is not auite as perfect as its 
