THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
May, 1882. 
[102] - L 
which he almost immediately became unconscious. He was 
removed to the Melbourne Hospital, where he was successfully 
treated . 
An attempt was made to commit suicide by a woman named 
Bridget Heffernan, aged twenty-one years, living at Little 
Lonsdale- street, on the 10th April, by taking a quantity of 
rat poison. She had been drinking heavily for some time, and 
while under the influence of liquor she purchased a quantity of 
rat poison and drank it in some beer. She was immediately 
removed to the Melbourne Hospital and successfully treated 
by the medical staff. 
A case of supposed suicide was reported to the police on the 
24th April, at Ballarat. A man whose name is supposed to be 
Joseph Preston, but whose identity is not established, who said 
he had come from the neighbourhood of Horsham, where he 
had been at work, went into M. Thetaz’s wine shop, and com- 
plained of being unwell. After he bad been there some time, 
he was seen to swallow something from a phial, and then throw 
the latter into the fireplace. The bottle had contained chloro- 
dyne, which he had obtained during the day from a chemist in 
the Main-road. Pie was then removed to the hospital, where 
he died. 
FIRES. 
About half-past two o’clock on the 22nd April, the watch- 
man on duty at the establishment of Messrs. James M'Ewan 
and Co., ironmongers, observed smoke issuing from the 
premises of Messrs. Evans and Wormall, surgical instrument 
and cutlery dealers, and at once gave the alarm at the 
Insurance Brigade station. On arrival it was found that a 
quantity of benzine was on fire, and it was with the greatest 
difficulty that it was extinguished. One of the men, named 
Langridge, was burned about the legs by the bursting of one 
of the bottles containing the fluid . The stock in the shop was 
damaged, but it was covered by insurance in the Victoria 
Company to the extent of £400. The stock of Mr. Leighton, 
portmanteau maker, in a lower portion of the premises, was 
slightly damaged by water. 
A fire broke out on the premises of Messrs. E. Rowe and 
Co., wholesale druggists, George-street, on the 22nd April, and 
damage was done to the amount of £1000. Through the 
exertions of the firemen, the fire was confined to one story. 
The stock was insured for £1450 in the New Zealand Insurance 
Company, and £500 in the Mercantile Mutual. 
A fire occurred at the premises of Messrs. Marshall Brothers, 
chemists, Market-street, Sydney, on the 25th April, in conse- 
quence of some spirits of wine used in the manufacture of 
syrups catching fire. The damage amounts to £60. A youth 
named Oswald Dawson was seriously injured, but it is thought 
he will recover. 
A rather alarming discovery was made about half-past two 
o’clock on the 17th April, by Mr. Thomas Webb, stationer, of 
Hare-street, Echuca. He was lying down reading and found 
that the room was filled with smoke. A thorough search of 
his own premises failed to reveal the source of the smoke, but 
it was eventually found to be issuing from Mr. Warrington’s 
premises (the Millewa dispensary) which is situated next door. 
Mr. Webb at once communicated with Constable Harris, who 
rang the firebell. The firemen turned out with praiseworthy 
promptitude and soon had two lengths of hose playing into the 
shop. It was impossible to discover the seat of the flames for 
some time, owing to the dense smoke which filled the compart- 
ment; so the whole place was deluged with water. Mr. 
Warrington had a very large stock of chemists’ and druggists’ 
goods, fancy ware, &c., and a great proportion of this was ruined 
by the flooding the house was subjected to. It is possible that 
fire was caused by spontaneous combustion through the 
agency of acids. The Millewa dispensary is situated in the 
centre of the best block of buildings in Hare-street, and had 
the fire once firmly established itself a dreadful conflagration 
would have followed. When the fire was discovered, Mr. 
Warrington was out driving and the house was empty. We 
understand that the house and stock was insured. 
REMINISCENCES OF A PHARMACIST ( Continued ). 
(By J. B. Mummery.) 
It was not my good fortune to be blessed with wealthy re- 
lations, nor had I (to use an old saw) been born with a silver 
spoon in my mouth ; but I managed, nevertheless, to scrape 
a sufficient sum together with which to pay my passage to 
Sydney in a very humble way. 
The vessel in which I sailed was, although A1 at Lloyd’s, 
far from being a clipper ; for these fast-sailing crafts 
were then unknown. Ships were built with sea-going quali- 
ties, and carrying capacity was then considered of more 
account than speed, and four months from England to Aus- 
tralia was considered a quick passage. 
I am not going to bore my readers with an account of the 
voyage, which presented no features of unusual interest, but 
content myself with saying that after a run of 117 days from 
port to port (112 of which were passed out of sight of land), 
the good ship by which I was a passenger entered Sydney 
Heads on the 1st day of February, 1849 ; and never to my 
dying day shall I forget the magnificent prospect which 
regaled the sight of myself and fellow-passengers as we sailed 
up the magnificent harbour of “ Port Jackson.” 
Four months at sea, with no change in the prospect of sky 
and water, gives every one a longing to tread the solid earth 
again ; and had it been but a bleak and barren land we were 
approaching, we should have felt our hearts yearn towards 
it ; but being one of earth’s fairest paradises— as the approach 
to Sydney really is — I cannot find words to express the delight 
which we all felt at the magnificent prospect which met our 
gaze, as promontory after promontory was passed, and the city 
at last burst upon our view, with the early morning mist 
drawing up from it like a vast curtain. 
It will readily be believed that we passengers lost no time in 
decking ourselves in our best attire, and making for the shore ; 
and here I found myself in a little difficulty as regards the state 
of my exchequer, which was certainly at low- water mark, for all 
my worldly resources in the shape of money were represented 
by nearly the smallest silver coin extant — namely, a fourpenny 
piece; for just before leaving England I had the misfortune 
to fall in with a couple of sharpers, who, in the most in- 
sinuating mauner possible, had eased me of the few shillings 
I had remaining after procuring the necessary outfit for 
the voyage. However, I was by no means disheartened, for 
I had unlimited faith in the resources of the land I had come 
to, and confidence in my ability to avail myself of them. So, 
borrowing a sovereign from one of my fellow-passengers, 
I laid a few shillings out in a good square meal, and then 
proceeded to write an advertisement, which I took to the 
office for insertion in the next day’s Herald , with, however, 
but very slender expectation of an immediate answer, for 
chemists’ shops in the colony in those days were certainly few 
and far between. I was more fortunate, however, than I ex- 
pected, for the evening’s post the next day brought me two 
letters from gentlemen who were anxious to accept my prof- 
fered services, one in the city, the other in Maitland, a town 
on the Hunter River, about 150 miles from Sydney. I ac- 
cepted the former, and the next day saw me installed as 
assistant to a medical mau in tolerable practice, who, residing 
in the outskirts, had a retail shop in the city ; and it was to 
reside at and manage the latter that I was engaged. The 
salary was not large ; but as it was more liberal than what 
I had been accustomed to in England, I was satisfied on that 
score ; but there was another on which I certainly was not — 
that was, regarding the duties required of me. I found the 
daily routine of business too much like that at home, and the 
hours of relaxation very little, if any, better than they were 
in the land- 1 had just left, and I came to the determination to 
stay just long enough to get a few pounds together, and then 
follow the bent of my inclination by making a start for the 
interior. 
I stayed with the doctor about three months, when I bade 
him adieu rather unceremoniously, and turned my back on 
civilised life for a spell. It was on a Saturday, I remember 
well, when my week’s notice expired, and the same evening 
I hired a barrowman* to carry my worldly effects (which were 
all then packed in a moderate-sized trunk), to the Hunter 
River steamers’ wharf, where I booked myself as a passenger 
for Newcastle. These steamers left at the unseemly hour 
of eleven p.m., and usually arrived at Newcastle by daybreak 
the following morning. 
It is not my intention to give a narrative of personal adven- 
ture, apart from such as may have a bearing on the interests 
of our profession, for two reasons ; first, because such has 
already been published, and may be read in the Australian 
Journal , of the years 1872-3. {Secondly, because I apprehend 
*Barrowmen, in the days of which I am writing, had their regular 
stands in the streets, as cabs have here, and where they waited withlheir 
one-wheeled vehicles for any odd job which might turn up. This was 
before the days of parcels-delivery carts. There was such a stand in 
King-street, nearly opposite our door. 
