40 
DEBATES ON PHARMACY BILL. 
in constant use, such as arsenic, prussic acid, strychnine, all poisonous vegetable alkaloids 
and their salts, aconite, corrosive sublimate, belladonna, and cantharides; every one of 
these drugs enter into the prescriptions of physicians, and are used sometimes in cases 
of great emergency. A physician in some urgent case may send to a chemist, in whose 
possession he knows the particular drug to be, and yet that chemist, merely from the 
fact that his stock of this particular poison-bottle happens to be exhausted, will be ab¬ 
solutely prevented from supplying the medicine. The bottle also may be patented as 
being the invention of some particular person. 
Lord Redesdale : It is not a patent. 
The Marquis of Salisbury : Well, then, it may be registered. 
Lord Redesdale : I have expresssed my willingness already to leave the shape of 
the bottle to be settled by the Privy Council and the Pharmaceutical Society. 
The Marquis of Salisbury : But there is great inconvenience in introducing ex¬ 
tensive additions of this kind upon the mere discussion of some particular clause of a 
Bill, and that too without notice. Apart from the practical objection that a particular 
medicine sent for in great haste in the middle of the night may fail to be procured in 
the absence of the poison-bottle, I object to the whole principle of the proposed legis¬ 
lation on this point. Hitherto we have proceeded upon the principle of protecting 
persons from wrongs or injuries wilfully wrought by others, but we have never acted 
upon the principle of protecting sensible people from possible dangers merely because 
foolish people may have it in their power to injure themselves. Because somebody may 
be foolish enough to get up in the middle of the night, and, -without taking the trouble 
to strike a light, may drink off the contents of a bottle, therefore the noble lord pro¬ 
poses to introduce entirely new restraints affecting a whole profession. This is a prin¬ 
ciple of legislature not unknown to foreign countries, where governments are very fond 
of protecting people against the consequences of their own acts, but it is totally opposed 
to the habits of this country, its direct tendency being to hinder the general business 
of mankind. The principle is one that if adopted in this country will tend, I feel sure, 
to greater evils than those which it seeks to prevent. 
Earl Granville : I think that the clause framed by the noble lord may be modified 
with advantage before it is submitted to the House. On this subject I have received a 
letter from a gentleman of much practical experience, and I will read it to the House. 
He says, “I find that Lord Redesdale retains his faith in the poison-bottle, and 
intends to propose it again on the third reading of the ‘ Pharmacy Bill,’ adopting that 
which I certainly believe to be by far the most distinctive bottle ever used. But the 
more I consider his lordship’s proposition and the more I think of the value pertaining 
to special bottles of any shape when used according to the discretion of dispensers who 
understand their business, the more impressed I become with the impolicy of specific 
enactments concerning them. I have already told your lordship that most chemists in 
London use distinctive bottles for dangerous articles and external applications; they 
have done so for the last six or seven years, the practice gradually increasing. I have 
also said that the use of these bottles should be restricted to such articles. Now, I pre¬ 
sume the words ‘poison’ and ‘poisonous’ in the proposed clause must be construed ac¬ 
cording to clause 2. If so, we should be prohibited from using such bottles for every 
medicine not in the schedule, and I need scarcely say the schedule does not contain a 
sixth part of the dangerous preparations daily passing through our hands. I should 
not think now of selling laudanum in any other than a poison-bottle; laudanum is not 
in the schedule, consequently I must, if the amendment pass, discontinue that precau¬ 
tion. I know Lord Redesdale thinks it is the inconvenience of the compulsory enact¬ 
ment which actuates the Pharmaceutical Society in resisting his proposal, but I can 
assure you most honestly that they are anxious, both by example and recommendation, 
to promote his views, and really apprehensive that his amendment would prevent their 
doing so.” The noble lord was understood to say in conclusion, that if the clause was 
not complete it would be worse than no provision at all, and that it would resemble that 
very dangerous gun invented some years ago, which was provided with a complicated 
contrivance to prevent its going off. 
The Duke of Marlborough : Although the clause has been greatly improved sincelast 
it was offered to your lordships, I think the disadvantages connected with the proposal 
outbalance the advantages. Provisions by which the Pharmaceutical Society has power, 
subject to approval by the Privy Council, to require dispensers to use poison-bottles will, 
