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The Lessons of the Lamson Case . 
[April, 
restriction imposed on such sale will be felt as a serious 
hindrance to chemical research, and will become an annoy- 
ance in a number of arts and manufactures. The public 
does not know that hundreds of substances absolutely indis- 
pensable for many legitimate purposes will prove poisonous 
if anyone is foolish enough to swallow them. But are we on 
this account practically to prohibit their sale ? Are the im- 
portant uses of “ poisons ” to be checked because in some 
infinitesimal number of cases they maybe applied to criminal 
purposes ? Let us in the first place remember that by all 
our grandmotherly legislation we cannot prevent a deter- 
mined criminal from getting possession of such bodies. The 
utmost we can effect is to make it hard or impossible to prove 
such possession. In this case Lamson obtained the deadly 
drug at a chemist’s shop, and this faCt, brought out in evi- 
dence, was a link in the chain of proof against him. Suppose 
that he had not been able to purchase it — at least without 
formalities which might not suit his purpose — what is he to 
do ? Monkshood, the source of aconitine, is a common 
garden flower. What could hinder him from obtaining a 
root ? The extraction of the poisonous principle in a pure 
form would not be beyond the skill of a man who has 
received a medical education. If he had been seen experi- 
menting with herbs the circumstance would have excited no 
suspicion, and it might have been very hard to prove that he 
had had any aconitine in his possession. Quite the same 
with other poisons of the same group : nux vomica, deadly 
nightshade, the young shoots or eyes of the potato, tobacco, 
certain fungi, which for the present it might be indiscreet to 
name, the seeds of the laburnum, and many other vegetable 
products which may be acquired without suspicion and with- 
out anyone recording the faCt, are the raw materials for 
these agents. The preparation is far from difficult. If, then, 
we really wish to render poisons inaccessible we must send 
out a Royal Commission to go through the realm digging up 
and destroying every plant, wild or cultivated, which may 
possibly contain poison. Our imports must be put under 
severe restrictions. Every bag of myrobalans — a nut used 
in tons by the dyers and tanners — must be carefully searched 
through lest, as is sometimes the case, the nuts of the 
strychnine plant (Nux vomica) may have got mixed among 
them. 
We must also ask why should poisons be watched over 
and restricted more than other deadly agencies ? Their 
possession constitutes a far smaller public danger than, e.g., 
explosives. The number of people who have fallen victims 
