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BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
of quinine wine, composed of orange wine and quinine, one grain to the ounce,— 
in fact, the very formula now given in the new edition of the Pharmacopoeia, 
I had not long commenced malting it when I received a visit from an excise 
officer, who told me he thought I had to pay a licence for selling quinine wine. 
I told him he must be wrong ; he alluded to the case of Waters, but I explained 
that there was no analogy in the two cases: I was a chemist and could make 
and sell quinine wine as well as any other medicated wine; I did not sell it as 
a beverage, but as a medicine, and it was labelled “ Tonic Medicine.” We bad 
a long talk on the matter, and to satisfy himself, the officer said he would report 
the ease, and purchase a bottle of my quinine wine and send it for examina¬ 
tion to the London Board, which he accordingly did; and I was somewhat 
startled, a short time afterwards, by receiving a summons to appear before a 
local justice of the peace to answer the charge of being a retailer of sweets with¬ 
out a licence. Penalty £50, and to appear in fourteen days. 
I was quite taken aback at receiving this; and not being desirous of seeing my 
name flourishing in the newspapers in a case before a justice of the peace for 
defrauding her Majesty’s revenue, the nature of which case the general public 
could not well understand, also knowing that excise laws were peculiar, and not 
to be fought against with impunity, I thought it best to lay the case before the 
London Board, which I did in the following letter, and which will explain the 
case more fully than anything I could say further on the matter:— 
“ The Hon. the Board of Inland Revenue. 
“ Honourable Sirs,—Much to my surprise I have been served with a summons to appear 
before a justice of the peace on the 14th of this month, to defend and answer to the 
charge of being a retailer of sweets without a licence, and I understand the charge is 
made because I prepare and sell quinine wine, an article which most chemists and 
druggists make and sell, as well as other medicated wines. Medicated wines in general 
are made from sherry, and chemists have never been required to take out a foreign wine 
licence for the making of such. Quinine wine is generally made from orange wine, and 
with this I partly make it, and I understand this is the reason I am served with the 
summons to answer the charge of being a retailer of sweets. My quinine wine is a 
bitter preparation, and sold only as medicine, being frequently prescribed by medical 
men of Dundee, and every bottle sold is labelled ‘medicine.’ I enclose one of the labels 
used. 
“ Some time ago the Supervisor of Excise of this district called my attention to a para¬ 
graph which appeared in the newspapers in regard to Waters’s quinine wine, an article 
which your Honourable Board had decided required a British-wine licence for its sale; 
but as it was an article sold by grocers, Italian warehousemen, and general shopkeepers, 
I expressed my opinion to the supervisor that your decision did in no way interfere with 
the sale of quinine wine as prepared and sold by chemists and druggists. I told him I 
had been seventeen years a chemist, and during all that time I never heard of a chemist 
paying a wine licence for making medicated wines, and in every establishment I was 
connected with, quinine wine as well as other wines were made. I denied my liability 
to a licence upon the plea that there was no precedent of a chemist paying such a licence, 
while hundreds of ch' mists who had been years in business for months I had been, 
regularly made the same article. The supervisor, however, thought that my quinine 
wine was subject to a licence, and to test the matter, he would purchase a bottle and 
send it to your Honourable Board for examination. Accordingly, a bottle of my quinine 
w r ine was got from my shop by an officer of excise, I was present during the purchase, 
and knew that it was bought for the purpose of being sent for examination. No further 
notice was given on the matter until the summons was handed in to me to appear before 
a justice of the peace for a breach of the excise law, with only fourteen days allowed 
me to defend and consider such a new and important point affecting the whole chemists 
of the country. I fully expected that I would have received notice after the examina¬ 
tion of my preparation, whether it was an excisable article or not; however no such 
notice was given me, but I am at once summoned to appear before a justice of the peace 
for breaking the law, which I truly confess I was ignorantly doing. I have been only 
