February, 1882. 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
73 
TO LITERARY CONTENTS. 
INDEX 
PAGE 
Leading Article— Wiiat is Preparation? 73 
The Month 74 
Meetings— The Pharmacy Board op Vic- 
toria 74 
Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria .... 75 
Ballarat 75 
The Ballarat Chemists’ Association.... 75 
page 
Annual Report of the Ballarat District 
Chemists’ Association 76 
Sandhurst 76 
Sydney 76 
A New Palm from Queensland 77 
Legal and Magisterial — 
Breach of the Pharmacy Act 77 
PAGE 
A Homoeopathic Chemist Charged with 
Larceny 78 
Sales of Adulterated Spirits 79 
The Annual Cricket Match 79 
Permanganate of Potassa as an Antidote 
for Snake Poison 89 
Correspondence 89 
Cfje €f)emtst antr druggist. 
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DEATH 
Ogg. — O n the 4th February, at his residence, Walsh-street, South Yarra, 
Jane Adelaide, the beloved wife of Charles Ogg, of Collins-street East and 
South Yarra. 
WHAT IS A PREPARATION % 
In connection with the recent melancholy case of the 
suicide of the Rev. A. F. Harding the question 
arose as to what was a poison and a preparation of a 
poison. No doubt at a first glance the ingenious defini_ 
tion of the word preparation accepted by the justices to 
some appears conclusive, but we think that very little 
reflection is required to see that it is quite untenable. 
The solicitor for the defendant said that he did not intend 
to raise any unnecessary technical difficulties, but con- 
tended that the article sold — chloral and water — was a 
medical preparation, and not a poison within the meaning 
of the Act. The magistrates assented to a remand, but 
decided to hear the evidence available. Thereupon Mr. 
Gillott advised his client to plead guilty, and throw him- 
self upon the mercy of the court. This course was 
adopted, and after hearing the case the justices decided 
that there was no case against the defendant. Although 
he pleaded guilty, they said he was not. This certainly 
appears an extraordinary decision. As this case is an 
important one, as bearing upon the enforcement of an Act 
of Parliament passed in the interest of the public to pro- 
tect human life, we think that a few observations are 
called for. It is quite evident that the majority of the 
magistrates were in a confused state of mind on the ques- 
tion submitted to them, and their difficulty turned upon 
the meaning of the word “ preparation. ” This term has 
a common and a technical meaning. With the ordinary 
or dictionary signification we have nothing to do, but have 
to consider the pharmacopoeial use of the word. In the 
pharmacopoeia it will be remembered that under many of 
the drugs and chemicals a list is given of certain compounds 
or preparations. Ex gr., under perchloride of mercury, 
we find preparations, liquor hydrargyri perchloridi, 
lotio flava. On turning to the first schedule of the 
Poisons Act we find in part one corrosive sublimate, but 
no mention of preparations. How is it that there is no men- 
tion of a preparations” in this case 1 ? Because the so-called 
preparations are not dangerous, and not likely to be used 
for felonious purposes. In the same way cantharides 
and tartar emetic alone are given, and no mention of 
the preparations. At the time the Poisons Act was 
drafted there were no “ preparations” of chloral. The 
only preparation — official preparation — now recognised is 
the syrup which was ordered in the appendix, and was 
probably then unknown to the framers of the Act. The 
syrup contains so large a quantity — eighty grains to the 
ounce — that it is obvious it would not have been over- 
looked ; for it is most absurd to imagine that the 
framers of the Act intended that a lethal drug could 
be sold at will simply because it was dissolved in sugar and 
water ! If corrosive sublimate, dissolved in, say, spirit, 
could be sold because there is no such 4 £ preparation,” the 
primary intention of the Legislature would be defeated by 
any ingenious admixture not an official “preparation.” 
Once admit such a postulate as this, and we may as well 
consign the Poisons Act to the waste-paper basket ! 
According to the dictum of the St. Kilda magistrates, 
chloral plus water, in however small a quantity, is not a 
poison within the meaning of the Act. By the same 
reasoning a publican selling brandy mixed with water 
would not be infringing the Licensed Victuallers Act, if 
without a license. The sale of poisons by uneducated and 
irresponsible persons is very properly — or ought to be — 
restricted, and any failure of justice is to be regretted ; 
and we think that every effort should be made by pharma- 
ceutical chemists to fulfil the letter of the law. There is 
no doubt that the Act is very defective, and requires 
immediate amendment ; and we hope that as soon as 
possible the Government will take this matter into con- 
sideration. It is, perhaps, impossible by any, however 
stringent, law to prevent those poor, unhappy persons 
bent upon self-destruction from £ ‘ shuffling off this mortal 
coil” when once possessed with the intention ; but the 
primary object of the Legislature was to prevent the crime 
of murder, and to render its detection certain. 
