66 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
December, 1882. 
vaseline, should yield to the ether an amount of unsaponifiable 
matter almost equal to the original weight of vaseline used for 
the experiment ; while on the other hand, the aqueous liquid 
separated from the ethereal layer should yield no notable pre- 
cipitate on being acidulated. 
PRESERVATION OF INDIA-RUBBER. 
A German scientist named Hempel has recently made a dis- 
covery which should be of great value to patentees of soda 
water stoppers and others whose inventions depend upon the 
use of India-rubber in any form. Every one who uses vul- 
canised rubber finds that .articles made of it get hard and 
brittle after a time, so as to be useless. M. Hempel, after 
making researches into the cause of this hardening, has come 
to the conclusion that it is due to the gradual evaporation of 
the solvents employed when it is being vulcanised. He has 
fortunately found a method, not only of preventing this 
evaporation, but of replacing the solvent by another less open 
to this objection. He found that if the India-rubber was put 
directly into the solvent it always absorbed too much of it, but 
the object was attained by putting the article in an atmosphere 
saturated with the vapour of the solvent. Rubber stoppers, 
etc., are protected and prevented from spoiling by being put 
in a desiccator, or large glass box, in which is an open vessel 
of ordinary kerosene. Hempel found that sealing India-rubber 
articles in a glass vessel would preserve them for a long time, 
but that it is useless to attempt to keep them in a wooden box. 
As far as practicable they should be kept in the dark. Old 
rubber that has become hard is softened in a very short time 
by putting it in a vessel with vapour of busulphide of carbon ; 
but owing to the intensely noxious smell of this chemical we 
would not recommend this process to the patentee of soda 
water stoppers. If, however, it is resorted to, the rubber 
articles should be immediately afterwards exposed to the 
vapour of kerosene. 
REMINISCENCES OF A PHARMACIST. 
( Continued .) 
By J. B. Mummery. 
It is now my intention to bring my reminiscences to a close 
by narrating a few cases of poisoning by design or misadven- 
ture, which caused a good deal of excitement at the time they 
occurred ; and should these lines meet the eyes of any who 
were sufferers by the lamentable mishaps recorded, I trust that 
they will believe that I have but one object in alluding to them 
— that is of showing to the younger members of our profession 
the great need there is for constant care and watchfulness on 
the part of those who have the handling of deadly drugs and 
chemicals, and the necessity of fitting themselves, by study 
and attention, for the right performance of the arduous but 
honourable duties of their calling. 
The cases to which I shall allude occurred many years ago, 
when a very slight amount of medical knowledge was con- 
sidered necessary to allow a person to assume the title of 
chemist and druggist, and no law then existed to prevent any 
one who was in possession of sufficient cash to purchase a show- 
bottle or two and a small quantity of drugs from opening a 
shop for their sale, or even dispensing prescriptions. 
Such times have, happily, passed away for ever, and anyone 
who now seeks the honour or the emolument of our business 
must be able to pass such an examination as will make fatali- 
ties from ignorance eventually an impossibility. If I had 
been writing these papers six months ago I should probably 
have said that such was an impossibility then ; but a 
recent case which occurred at Brisbane (the circumstances 
attending which have been made known to us through the 
medium of the public press) proves that the “ halcyon” days 
of pharmacy have not fully arrived, and indeed cannot be 
expected to do so until time has removed from the ranks of 
registered pharmacists all those who, through what may be 
reasonably called a defect in the law, have obtained their 
qualification more by good luck than by evidence of practical 
knowledge. 
A Colonial “ Palmer.” 
Many of my readers will no doubt recollect the case of the 
notorious Doctor Palmer, who was executed in England for 
murder of the most atrocious kind, no less than the killing by 
slow degrees his wife and one or more of his most intimate 
friends, for the purpose of gaining possession of sums for 
which he had induced them to insure their lives. His crimes 
were of such a kind that beside them the deeds of those who 
slay by knife or bullet are acts of humanity and mercy, for 
they in most cases bring about a speedy end ; but the wretch 
Palmer administered his poison in small and continuous doses 
to the wife of his bosom, as well as his intimate friends, wit- 
nessing their agony for weeks before death put an end to their 
sufferings. Well, just about the time that this fiend was executed, 
Sydney produced an imitator in the person of one Doctor Beer. 
The cases were not exactly parallel, for Beer did not kill his 
wife, but a female with whom he seems to have been on such 
intimate terms as to induce her to effect an insurance on her 
life in his favour. 
The poison chosen to end the poor creature’s existence was 
belladonna, and it was proved at the inquest that as much as 
ten grains of the extract had been given for a dose. Human 
nature could not stand this, and the poor woman succumbed, 
as a matter of course, to the anxiety of her medical attendant 
(in whom she seemed to have placed implicit confidence to 
the last), not for her life, but for her death. 
Certain suspicious circumstances which came to light soon 
after her decease led to investigation, and subsequently an 
inquest and trial, in which the doctor barely escaped hanging. 
He was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to ten years 5 
penal servitude, notwithstanding a professional brother or two 
swore to the fact of ten grains of the extract of belladonna 
being a reasonable dose. 
Dr. Beer didhis ten years (or as much of it as the law required), 
and came out of gaol a sadder and, it is to be hoped, a better 
man. I have heard that he published a pamphlet on his 
release to prove that he was an innocent and ill-used indi- 
vidual, and the very model of what a doctor should be, 
but whether he succeeded in creating this impression I am 
unable to say ; but as I believe that he practised again in 
Sydney after his release, it is probable that he did. 
Several cases of accidental poisoning by careless or incom- 
petent dispensers occurred in Sydney during a comparatively 
short period, and this was by no means to be wondered at 
considering the attainments of many of those who practised 
pharmacy in the olden days. Amongst such cases, a fatality 
to an infant under the care (if I recollect aright) of a Doctor 
Degner, was the means of bringing to light one of the grossest 
pieces of carelessness on the part of a dispenser that I think 
the world ever heard of. A 2-oz. mixture, with teaspoonful 
doses, was made up by the doctor himself, and handed to the 
messenger, and the first dose of this medicine caused the 
death of the child in great agony a few hours after it was 
administered. An investigation showed the fact that a per- 
fectly colourless mixture, which should have been but a 
simple saline, consisted of dilute sulphuric acid to the 
extent of 90 per cent., and the way in which the mistake 
occurred was this : — The doctor was in the habit of making 
up his own medicines, assisted by his groom, who dusted and 
arranged the dispensary, and filled up some of the bottles. 
On a low shelf stood three or four square quart gin bottles, 
one containing dilute sulphuric acid, the others being filled 
with plain and simple medicated waters, no labels oi^marks 
being placed upon them to indicate what their contents 
were, their position on the shelf being the only guide. 
The idea of having bottles containing liquids precisely alike 
in appearance, and one of these of deadly properties, in 
vessels without a label of any kind to indicate what was in 
them, was a piece of unpardonable neglect, which led, as 
might have been expected, to the fatal result above mentioned 
by the simple fact of the man having changed the position of 
the bottles, and placed the acid where the water should have 
been, and the dispenser hurriedly laid hold of what he thought 
was a harmless liquid, filled up the bottle, corked, sealed, and 
delivered it. 
No sort of punishment, I believe, was meted out to the 
doctor. I am under the impression that he was not even 
reprimanded. Probably the astute jurymen imagined that his 
diploma gave him a general license to kill or cure ; at all 
events he went on doing one or the other, although probably 
the mishap gave him an idea that it would pay to put labels on 
his bottles for the future. 
(To be continued.) 
An ANTI-NAUSEANT. — R. Creasote, 20 drops ; acet. acid, 40 
drops; morph, sulph., 2 grains; water, 2 ounces, M. Sig. 
Teaspoonful in a little water . — Ohio Med. Journal , April, 1882. 
Sticky Fly Paper. — Melt one part of castor oil with three 
parts of common resin, and spread on strong paper previously 
sized with a solution of glue. 
