MEANS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
51 
ties on foolscap, and keep them in perfect order by a band of red tape, loth 
even to adopt the more convenient india-rubber strap, which would to a certain 
extent adapt itself to circumstances. The attempt to apply the restrictions of 
the Arsenic Act to the sale of all poisons, more especially when such popular 
medicines as “opium and its preparations” are included, will appear at 
once to practical men as absurd. The registration of the sales of laudanum 
in the Fen districts would be almost impossible. That opium is a dangerous 
poison none can deny ; and, in erasing it from the schedule of the draft 
Bill before going to Parliament, the Society only yielded to what appeared 
to be an absolute necessity. It has been replaced by the House of Commons in 
Part II., which will simply confine its sale to qualified persons, and render 
proper labelling compulsory. Another proposition of Mr. Lowe, that poisonous 
preparations which are in the Pharmacopoeia might be sold in quantities not 
exceeding “ one medicinal dose v only, without the order of a medical practi¬ 
tioner, or under the provisions of the Arsenic Act, seemed equally impractic¬ 
able. Medicines compounded by apothecaries, and by chemists registered 
under the new Act, are to be exempted from the formalities of the 17th clause, 
and to this exemption Mr. Lowe endeavoured to add the qualification, that the 
medicines made % chemists should be those only ordered in the prescriptions of 
legally qualified medical practitioners. But the House of Commons would 
have none of this; and on one of these propositions, as will be seen by the 
report of the debate, the right honourable gentleman found only two members 
on his side in the division. Words were added, compelling dispensers to copy 
into their books all compounds containing poisons, which we think can be no 
real inconvenience, as most chemists already make entry of prescriptions. We 
mention these matters to show the difficulties which have had to be surmounted. 
Want of space prevents our describing more fully the provisions of the Bill. 
All men should study it for themselves; and we believe few, having mastered 
its details, will fail to find in it much that will be of service to the public by 
securing the proper education of all future chemists and druggists, and prevent¬ 
ing the indiscriminate traffic in articles which have heretofore been too often 
employed for improper purposes. On the advantages gained by chemists them¬ 
selves, it is needless to enlarge. The Pharmaceutical Society has ever en¬ 
deavoured to raise their status by enforcing a better qualification to maintain it, 
and by promoting that union among them which has now been accomplished, 
after many years of anxious exertion. 
MEANS FOB PBEVENTING ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
The provisions for preventing the improper use of poisonous substances will 
not be complete, notwithstanding the labours which the Legislature has devoted 
to the subject during this and previous sessions of Parliament, until some fur¬ 
ther arrangements and regulations have been made regarding dangerous me¬ 
dicines. Such regulations are contemplated in the Act which has just been 
passed, and they may be made from time to time by the Pharmaceutical Society 
with the concurrence of the Privy Council. The subject is one of considerable 
importance, involving several points of detail, and it merits the serious atten¬ 
tion, not only of pharmaceutists but of members of every branch of the medical 
profession. Questions will naturally arise as to the best methods of arranging 
and labelling the bottles in which dangerous and other drugs are kept for use 
in dispensing, of distinguishing, when dispensed, such medicines as may be 
safely administered internally from those which are intended for external use, 
and of drawing attention to those medicines intended for internal administra¬ 
tion which require great care or special precautions to be observed in using 
