THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
April 1, ISSL 
98 ■ 
The expenditure during 1886 on medicines, sui;gical instru- 
ments, druggists’ sundries (including invoices from England, 
£743 *2s. 2d.,) £1,297 9s. Id., for medical comforts, exclusive of 
stimulants, £638 Os. 6d ; for alcoholic stimulants, £114 5s. 
The Hospital dispensed prescriptions for other departments to 
the following extent : — Destitute Asylum, 11,981 ; Lunatic 
Asylum, 2,464 ; Adelaide Gaol, 1,941. 
Professor of Agriculture. — Mr. Hewitson MacMinnies, 
a collegian of Cirencester Royal Agricultural College, England, 
has been selected to fill the position of Professor of Agricul- 
ture for the colony, in the place of Professor Custance who 
recently vacated this post. Pending the arrival of this gentle- 
man the classes at the College will be continued under the 
tuition of several gentlemen, who have been selected for the 
different subjects by the Government. Mr. J. E. Brown 
(Conservator of Forests,) taking Botany and Forestry, and Mr. 
G. Goyder, junr.. Chemistry and Mineralogy. 
Mr. H. Le Couteur, chemist of Hindmarsh, has during 
the present month, opened a branch shoj) at the rising town- 
ship of Kilkenny. 
Mr. Charles Downer, J.P., formerly in the trade at Port 
Adelaide, but now an aerated water manufacturer, recently 
put up as a candidate for legislative honors during the present 
election, for the Port Adelaide District. Mr. Downer however 
retired from the contest. It may interest your readers to 
know, that he is a brother of our present Premier, the Hon. J. 
W. Downer, Q.C., Ac. 
HosriTAL Notes. — The annual report of the Adelaide 
Hospital was presented to the Board on February 25, and 
from it I gather the following interesting facts : — During the 
year 1886 there were 1878 cases admitted ; in 1885, 2,024. 
The number of deaths of in-patients, 164 ; in 1885, 153. 
The annual cost of each in-patient, £51 14s. lOfd. ; 1885, 
£53 4s. 8d. The number of attendances of out-patients 
treated, 10,320 ; 1885, 7,445. The total annual expenditure, 
£9,679 8s. 6d. ; 1885, £9,755 11s. Contributions received, 
£1,410 8s. 5d. ; 1885, £1,722 7s. 3d. 
A Doctor Censured. — Dr. Barker, of Hergott Springs, was 
lately censured, at a coroner’s imiuest, for alleged “neglect 
and heartless conduct ” towards a railway employe, to whom 
he had refused admission into the hospital, at Coward 
Springs, and who a few days after died rather suddenly. A 
report on the case has been sent to the Government. 
We have had before us for some time an excellent little 
pamphlet entitled “ Mosses of Tasmania, as described in 
Hooker’s Flora of Tasmania, with the addition of forty-three 
new siiecies by various authors by Richard A. Bastow, F.L.S., 
Town Hall, Hobart, and also “ An Illustrated Key to Genera 
of Tasmanian Mosses,” by the same author. The latter is a 
large sheet giving a simple method of analysis by which the 
genus of a moss can be determined, each step in the analysis 
being made plain by a small characteristic sketch, and the 
final result certified by a sketch of the most characteristic 
species of the genus. If not altogether new, the idea thus 
embodied is admirable. The pamphlet contains a short in- 
troduction and about 62 pages of descriptions of all known 
Tasmanian mosses. The two publications form a wonderfully 
easy guide to the study of mosses, and are yet rather in the 
nature of sign-posts than crutches ; they encourage to action 
but do not enfeeble by unnecessary support. 
Mr. Arthur I. Joseph, Australian agent for William 
Toogood, of Mount-street, London, announces on another 
page that he is prepared to estimate for fitting pharmacies in 
modern style. He also imports all ordinary shop goods in 
gold-labelled or recessed-labelled shop rounds at London 
prices, at a great saving of expense, time and trouble. 
In a South Yarra train, coming into Melbourne one morning, 
a fair-haired youth of about seventeen summers and winters, 
was enjoying a cheroot, when an elderly gentleman, who was 
sitting opposite to him, made his hair stand on end by re- 
marking, “ My dear young friend — do you know, are you 
aware that the cigar which you have in your mouth contains 
acetic, carbolic, formic, butyric, valeric, prussic, and propionic 
acids? Are you acquainted with the fact that it contains 
also creasote, ammonia, sulplmretted hydrogen, pyridine, 
viridine, picoline, and subidine, to say nothing of the cab- 
bagine and burdockic acid ?” The fair-haired young man 
felt ill, and threw his cheroot away. 
COURT OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS OF TASMANIA. 
President— T. C. SMART, F.R.C.S., Ed. 
Members— Drs. E. L. CROWTHER, J. COVERDALE, P. W. 
AGNEW, R. S. BRIGHT, W. G. MADDOX, H. A. 
PERKINS. 
Secretary— J. LEVER, L.R.C.S., Ed. 
IV /TEETINGS are held at the General Hospital, Hobart, as occasion 
may require, there being no fixed dates. 
"V TAG ANGIES in the Court are filled by election by the remaining 
’ members, subject to the approval of the Governor-in-Couneil. 
MEETINGS three arc required to form a quorum. 
rriHE fee for Dispenser’s License by examination is £2 2s., and for 
Registration of Chemists qualified elsewhere, as also for Legally 
qualified Medical Practitioners is 5s. 
rp HE Court has also power under certain conditions to grant Letters 
Testimonial, qualifying to practice medicine. 
LAUNCESTON PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION, 
President— LANDON FAIRTHORNE, J.P. 
Hon. Secretary and Treasurer— J. D. JOHNSTON 
T 
HE ASSOCIATION is open to all registered Chemists of Tasmania . 
y^NNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, 10s. 6d. 
O BJECTS OF ASSOCIATION.— The purpose of protectin 
Trade, and furthering the interests of Chemists generally. 
P RIVILEGES.— Each member is supplied with : 
“ The Chemist and Druggist ” (London), weekly. 
“The Chemist and Druggist of Australasia,” monthly, 
“ The Chemists’ and Druggists’ Diary,” annually. 
the 
TASMANIA. 
(from our own correspondent.) 
Hobart, March 23, 1887. 
' Antidote Labels. — The Medical Board have replied to Mr. 
Ash’s application to the effect that they decline to supply 
antidote labels to chemists, but in the meantime a Sydney 
house has sent in specimens published by an American firm, 
which, with some modifications, might easily be adopted as a 
standard. Already one conviction has taken place under the 
Sales of Poisons Act. 
Prosecution Under the Sale of Poisons Act. — At the 
Latrobe Police Court yesterday, before Mr. G. A. Kemp, 
Police Magistrate, and Mr. Darley, J.P., John Steel Park was 
charged by Sub-Inspector Collett, with having, contrary to 
the provisions of 52 Vic. No. 13, sections 6 and 11, sold poison, 
namely, laudanum, in a bottle, the wrapper or label on which 
neither the name and address of the vendor, nor description of 
a simple antidote to the posion were set forth, thus rendering 
himself liable to a penalty of £20. The case arose out of a 
man named John Duncan having, in the night of Wednesday 
last swallowed, with the intention of committing suicide, an 
ounce of laudanum obtained at Dr. Park’s pharmacy. This is 
the first case in the colony under the above act. 1 have not 
the evidence before me, as this is a telegram published in this 
morning’s Mercimj, and the charge being fully proved, the 
Bench, not thinking it a case in which a heavy penalty was 
necessary, fined the defendant £1 and £1 12s. costs. 
John Duncan was also chargecT with misbehaviour in having 
attempted to destroy himself, and pleading guilty was bound 
^ovor to be of good behaviour for six months, himself in £20 
