Vol. X., No. 19 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
215 
cause for asking for a Government subsidy. When pound 
for pound was] asked seven or eight years back it was 
refused, as the Council had nothing to support their 
arguments in its favour, except the prosecution of 
unqualified men for selling poisons. Had a Pharma- 
ceutical College building been on the way the cause 
of education would have operated differently, and it 
happened just at that time, too, that Sir Henry Parkes 
was lending assistance in every shape to the advancement 
of educational objects In regard to the arrears, the Council 
adopted a step which has been taken on two or three pre- 
vious occasions, viz , wiping out all arrears and allowing 
members to make themselves financial by paying the cur- 
rent subscription and a fine of 10s. 6d. Clause 4 section 1 
of byelaws runs: — “All subscriptions for the current year 
shall become due upon election, and all annual subscriptions 
shall become due on the first day of January in every year, 
and if any member, associate, or registered apprentice shall 
not have paid his annual subscription before the first day of 
March in any year his name shall be omitted from the 
register of members, associates, and registered apprentices 
of the Society, certilied by the Council at the annual meet- 
ing. It shall be competent for the Council to restore any 
person whose name has been so removed to his former 
status in the Society on payment of his subscription for the 
then current year, and a sum not less than the amount of 
half of one year’s subscription, nor exceeding five guineas, 
as for and in commutation of his arrears of subscriptions.” 
The Sheridan-Nieholls Trag’edy.— The horror of the 
month has been the death, from an illegal operation, of 
Jessie Nicholls, of Windsor, and the subsequiofit finding of 
her body jammed into a goods case near the wharf at 
Woolloomooloo Bay. Soon after the finding of the body the 
arrests were made of “Dr.” Thomas Meredith Sheridan, 
Edward Thomas, Jack Sea well, and Sarah Chapman. 
Sheridan was charged with causing the death, Thomas 
with being concerned in it, and the other two with being ac- ' 
cessories after the fact. Sheridan and Thomas were run- 
ning a medical institute at 26 Elizabeth-street, close to 
Hunter-street, where the girl died, Sarah Chapman, the 
caretaker of the premises, having given Sheridan the use of 
a bedroom for her. Seawell was a lodger and friend of Mrs. 
Chapman. The girl left Windsor at the end of August un- 
known to her mother, and came to Sydney to have the 
operation performed. The evidence in the protracted 
Coroner’s inquiry has not disclosed who p^formed the 
operation, or where it was performed, but Chapman has 
confessed that Sheridan, on learning that the girl was dead, 
immediately cut open the abdomen “to ascertain the cause 
of death.” Seawell confessed to buying the box for Sheri- 
dan. Chapman also confessed to being present when the 
box containing the body was put into a buggy driven 
by Sheridan to Woolloomooloo Bay. She was frightened by 
the horse and got out before the box was deposited where it 
was found on the night of September 1. The police, acting 
on reliable information, quickly arrested the four persons, 
and while waiting for Sheridan to put in an appearance at 
his consulting rooms, one of them played the part of ‘ ‘Dr. ,” and 
heard from several females all about their troubles and the 
object of their visit. A number of letters bearing on illegal 
practices were seized, and, on the whole, the case has dis- 
closed a number of deplorable circumstances and given a 
shock to the community. The “ Medical Institute,” it 
seems, was bought by Thomas from a man named Lascelles 
for £75, and Sheridan’s knowledge of surgery and medicine 
was secured to make a success of it. The rooms could 
scarcely have been more central, and the occupiers felt no 
alarm at being close to the detective office, the yard of the 
latter running up to the Elizabeth-street premises. Phar- 
macists will be more interested in Sheridan than the other 
three, as he was struck off the Pharmaceutical Kegister in 
1885. In 1882 he wrote the following application to the Phar- 
maceutical Society : — “ Milparinka, N.S.W., February 1, 
1882. I beg to make application for membership of the 
Society, and herewith enclose documents in support of 
same. The ^certificate of the School of Medicine, 
Paris, would entitle me to dispense and sell drugs 
as a chemist and druggist in France. I was also dis- 
penser for Drs. Webbe and Browne, whose testimonials 
I enclose. At Dr. Webbe’s suggestion I was ap- 
pointed dispenser for the railway employees. I also beg to 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
apply fora certificate for the sale and use of poisons. — I am, 
tfec., Thos. M. Shehidan.” On the 14th of the same month 
his application for membership was granted, the members 
of the Council present being Messrs. F. Senior (President), 
Abrahams, Guise, Row, and Larmer. The diploma accom- 
panying his letter, and upon which membership and regis- 
tration were granted, was in the form of a communication 
from Alfred Denier (a Paris notary) to Thoa. Meredith 
Sheridan, and stated— “I have much pleasure in informing 
you that you have passed your examination in the following 
order: Medicine, 51.2; surgery, 27.5; surgery descriptive, 
11; anatomy descriptive, 7.3. Thus having passed your 
examination satisfactorily, as a premier licentiate you 
henceforth rank.” This was dated August 20, 1872, and 
followed the Franco-Prussian war, in which Sheridan was 
connected with the French field hospitals. Soon after his 
registration by the Pharmacy Board in 1882 he left 
Milparinka and came to Sydney, opening a pharmacy in 
Park-street, where a surgical instrument maker is now 
located. He carried on till 1885, when he was arrested and 
convicted on two charges of causing death by using an 
instrument for an unlawful purpose. In March of that year 
Sir James Martin. sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment 
— 10 years on each charge, and after serving seven years and 
seven months he was released on a petition from his wife on 
the ground of ill-health, together with the fact he had 
rendered valuable service as a warder in the gaol hospital 
and dispensary. A question was recently asked in Parlia- 
ment about his early release, and the Minister for Justice 
said that 20 years represented 15 years, but this, under 
ordinary remission regulations, would be shortened by 
good conduct to 10 years and 9 months. Soon after 
his release he was employed by an unqualified man 
to conduct a small drug store in Paddington. At the 
general elections eighteen months ago he contested the 
Paddington seat for Parliament, but scored so few votes 
that he became the laughing-stock of the electors. The 
fact of putting him forward was a huge joke on the part of 
the “ boys” with whom he was accustomed to associate and 
was known as the “ Dr.” Some instruments and drugs “ for 
a certain object” were found at the “Medical Institute” 
and taken possession of by the police. Mr. Hamlet, the 
Government Analyst, has given lengthy testimony concern- 
ing the blood-stained wall — near the death bed — and carpet. 
The medicines and drugs comprised ecbolics, emmenagogue, 
aphrodisiacs, hypnotics, tonics, anodynes, caustics, anass- 
thetics, antipyretics, and emollients. It is understood that 
Sheridan’s defence will be a denial of performing the opera- 
tion. He will fully explain his reasons for endeavouring 
to conceal the body after opening the abdomen, namely, 
that he had already been convicted of illegal operations, 
and, the girl having died under his care, suspicion would 
rest upon him for a certainty. Quite three-fourths of the 
evidence taken by the Coroner will be probably eliminated 
when the case is heard by a judge of the Supreme Court. 
WM. TOWNLEY PINHEY. 
By F. Coklette. 
In our last number we gave a brief sketch of the life of 
Mr. Pinhey, whose picture sets off this page. Much more 
might be added to that biography if Mr. Pinhey could only 
be induced to speak a little more freely of himself, but his 
modesty and unobtrusiveness stand in the way. There are 
some incidents in his career in New South Wales well worth 
mentioning. 
People can hardly credit that he has lived for 60 years in 
the colony, and only seen two places — Wollongong and 
Maitland, He was never ambitious to see the other colonies 
or visit any other part of the world, being content to live in 
the capital. Folks generally like to feel “well-travelled 
men,” and not to be thought as having lived “like a frog in 
a hole.” If they have not trotted over a good slice of the 
globe they make up deficiencies by digesting guides and 
globe-trotters’ books. In Mr. Pinhey we have a positive 
exception, and he laughs indifferently when disclosing the 
fact, while you express the profound surprise one feels in 
1 these days of swift and convenient locomotion. His trip to 
