500 
SALE OF POISONS. 
the inflammability of its vapour, the petroleum having been sold and used as a 
substitute for non-volatile lamp oils, and no other precautions having been 
adopted with reference to it than such as experience had shown to be sufficient 
in the case of ordinary fixed oils. 
“ That in the alterations made in the Bill as it passed through Parliament, the 
words limiting the provisions of the Act in the 5th section to the sale of petro¬ 
leum for burning in lamps , were omitted, so that the whole of the provisions of 
the Act now apply to all substances, and they are numerous, that come within 
the meaning of the term petroleum as defined in the Act. 
“ That this alteration, it is believed, was made without due consideration of 
some of its practical bearings. 
u That the term petroleum, within the meaning of the Act, applies to the liquid 
called benzol or benzine, which is extensively used for removing grease spots, 
cleaning gloves, and other similar purposes, and that other products which are 
used in medicine and the arts, also come within the meaning of the term. 
“That these products are sold by chemists throughout the country, and that 
their storage, sale, and use are attended with no more danger than is common 
to many other equally volatile liquids, which the public have long been accus¬ 
tomed to use without accident, although no regulations have been made for 
their sale. 
“ That the provisions of the Petroleum Act, as now applied to the storage and 
sale of lamp-oil petroleum, are unsuited and inapplicable to the conditions un¬ 
der which the other liquids referred to are frequently required to be sold. 
“That it would be considered a great hardship for every chemist who sells a 
bottle of scouring drops, or other similar and equally harmless preparation, to be 
obliged to obtain a licence for doing so, and to comply with regulations which 
in such cases are quite unnecessary, and would entail great inconvenience.” 
Although nothing positive was elicited at this interview, the impression pro¬ 
duced on those present was that Mr. Liddell entirely agreed with the deputa¬ 
tion in the opinions expressed in the memorial. He promised to lay the sub¬ 
ject before Mr. Bruce, the Home Secretary, and said he thought it very unlikely 
that retail chemists w r ould be interfered with for selling or using benzol in small 
quantities, either as scouring drops or for medicinal purposes. 
SALE OP POISONS. 
In an interesting paper read at a meeting of the “ London and Middlesex 
Archseological Society ” lately, on the “ City Friends of Shakespeare,” Mr. 
Orridge, always zealous for the honour of his order, tries to establish a connec¬ 
tion by marriage between the great poet and a firm of “grocers and druggists” 
(John Sadler and Richard Quiney), carrying on business at the Red Lion, 
Bucklersbury. We thank Mr. Orridge for giving us this connecting link, but 
we are more concerned perhaps with what follows. In those days, he says, the 
“ grocers seem to have been the druggists of the period ; they probably merely 
provided drugs for the manipulation of the apothecary, or, in other words , 
there were no professional pharmaceutists, pharmacy as a science being com¬ 
paratively unknown .” Of this we believe there is pretty good proof in the old 
charter of the “ Grocers” or “ Pepperers,” through whose hands imported drugs 
passed to the public in England. 
Things are much changed now, and as a rule grocers no longer dabble in 
drugs. Increase of population necessarily leads to subdivision of labour and 
trade ; men who are to exercise one calling naturally concentrate their attention 
on the subjects specially connected therewith, and the public soon learn to ap- 
