26 
POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF HEMLOCK. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—I shall be glad to be allowed, through the medium of the Pharmaceuti¬ 
cal Journal, to call the attention of country members to clause 20, which 
seriously restricts the number of country members of the Council. I think the 
present Council, in sanctioning this clause, cannot have seriously intended to 
commit so great an injustice. The country members are u eighty per cent.” of 
the whole body, and it is proposed to give them u thirty-three per cent, of 
voting power.” Surely this cannot have been observed, and only wants calling 
attention to, to secure its alteration in the House of Commons. 
In the' poison schedule are included aconite and belladonna and their prepa¬ 
rations. I strongly urge that they be omitted, as in some cases I know if they 
be retained, the action of the law will be very injurious. These drugs and their 
preparations are seldom sold except to homoeopaths, and there is a growing 
tendency on the part of these practitioners to adopt, what are termed, the 
“ mother tinctures,” which may be considered about equal in strength to the 
ordinary pharmacopoeia preparations. Now in most country towns, the homoeo¬ 
pathic trade is being carried on by the regular chemists ; and, I presume, if 
the Bill passes in its present form, not only the strong tinctures but every one 
of their dilutions, even down to the sixty-fourth, will be prohibited. How is 
this difficulty to be met,—particularly as, no doubt, under this Bill all of those 
now called homoeopathic chemists will be admitted to the Society ? 
I strongly object, too, to the confusion of titles that must arise if this Bill be 
carried. The present pharmaceutical chemists have fairly earned their positions, 
and it is an injustice to give the title of Members of the Pharmaceutical 
Society to others as now proposed. The public will never distinguish between 
the two. 
Trusting the “ guardians ” of the Bill will see fit to alter these objectionable 
points, 
I am, yours faithfully, 
T. W. Gissing. 
Wcdefield, June 17, 1808. 
POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF HEMLOCK. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—In my observations on the properties of the plants of the Umbdliferai, 
in the Pharmaceutical Journal for June, I stated that the plants of this Order 
contained, as an essential principle, a narcotico-acrid juice, often present,—often, 
however, by external influences, undeveloped and non-existent. That this non¬ 
development may occur,even in those plants considered as always possessing 
poisonous qualities, I brought forward, as a proof, the fact that some of the 
hemlocks grown near Edinburgh were found to be comparatively harmless. 
But the example I gave, Conium maculatum , was not, I believe, one of those 
umbellifers experimented upon. The plants of this Order, usually poisonous 
and here found to be innocuous, were Cicuta virosa (water hemlock) and 
(Enanthe crocata (hemlock water dropwort). 
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 
Frank II. Lesciiek. 
London , June 24 th, 1868. 
