DEBATES ON PHARMACY BILL. 
37 
that persons in the country will not know the meaning of the use of it; but my opinion 
is, that when once it is enacted that such a bottle is used in the sale of poisons, it will 
become very generally known as the poison-bottle, and as being a very dangerous bottle. 
There is not one of your lordships who has not lost a friend or heard of an accident 
through the very incautious use of poison. Sometimes it may be in the dark, and some¬ 
times through not knowing the contents of bottles in their possession ; and the only 
way to guard against the evils arising from such incautious conduct is to have a parti¬ 
cular form of bottle, which all persons will know when they lay hold of it as the poison- 
bottle. 
The Lord Chancellor : The proposal of my noble friend to extend this Bill to Ire¬ 
land is a most excellent one ; but I fear this Bill will require much more amending than 
that of simply inserting at the end of the last clause the words “ and Ireland.” 
The House then went into committee on the Bill. 
Earl Granville : I should like, before agreeing to extend this Bill to Ireland, to con¬ 
sider the matter more fully; and I must therefore ask my noble friend to postpone his 
amendment till the report. I believe there is some doubt whether the Privy Council of 
England can make Orders which shall apply to Ireland, and this Bill requires that cer¬ 
tain Orders shall be made by the Privy Council. I do not object to the amendments 
proposed by my noble friend the President of the Council. 
The Duke op Marlborough : The Bill reserves the rights of wholesale dealers in sup¬ 
plying persons in the ordinary course of business, and also the rights of persons retailing 
arsenic and other things for use in manufacturing and photography. Now I propose to 
leave out the words in clause 16, “ nor with the retailing of arsenic, oxalic acid, cyanide 
of potassium, or corrosive sublimate, for use in manufactures or photography.” It has 
been suggested that the word photography should be left out, on the ground that pho¬ 
tography is a manufacture, and will be included in that term. The object of this Bill 
is to exclude small traders and persons incompetent from selling poisons; and it will be 
one of the easiest things possible for persons to say they are keeping certain poisons for 
the use of photographers, if the word be retained in the Bill. 
Earl Granville : I will not press my objections, but will consent that the sale of these 
things be confined to wholesale dealers. It seems hard upon those of this generation 
that vendors of poisons now in business as chemists and druggists should not be exa¬ 
mined as to their competency, but I suppose that we must submit to that. 
The Marquis of Clanricarde : I beg to express my concurrence in what has fallen 
from the noble lord as to the desirability of extending the operation of this very useful 
measure to Ireland. 
The Duke of Marlborough: I must ask my noble friend who has charge of the Bill 
to consider the case of opium, which is not at present in the schedule, before the amend¬ 
ments are reported. I am informed by those who understand such matters, that there 
must be a separate Bill for Ireland. 
Tuesday, June 16th, 1868. 
On the bringing up of the Report, 
Lord Redesdale said, I have to propose a clause which refers to a particular bottle 
in regard to the sale of poisons. Your lordships must be aware that a number of lives 
have been lost through the taking of poison under the supposition that it was the 
draught ordered by the doctor. Now one of the best guards against these unfortunate 
accidents will be an enactment, that poison shall be sold in bottles so well known that 
if laid hold of in the dark by any persons the contents will be understood, and that con¬ 
sequently poison will not be administered carelessly. The Chairman or President of the 
Pharmaceutical Society has been with me to-day, and we have had some conversation 
upon the subject of the two bottles which my noble friend opposite brought with him 
last evening, and it has been suggested that the Pharmaceutical Society shall have a 
month’s time, after the passing of this Bill, to select a bottle of such a shape as may be 
thought most desirable, and which shall be described in the Bill. It has been pointed 
out, that a certain bottle which has been registered, which must lie down, and which 
will not stand upright, will be the sort of bottle that ought to be used. I think the 
bottle selected ought to be described in the Bill, and be called the poison-bottle. If it 
be described in the Act of Parliament it will soon become generally known as the phar¬ 
maceutical poison-bottle throughout the country. This will be a most desirable arrange- 
