THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. X.—No. X.—APRIL, 1869. 
REGULATIONS FOR THE SALE OF POISONS. 
The difficulties that have been experienced in construing the provisions of 
the Act for regulating the sale of poisons are, to a great extent, removed by 
the opinion obtained from the Privy Council, which will be found elsewhere in 
the present number of this Journal. The “Case” prepared by the solicitors 
comprehends the most important points requiring elucidation, and respecting 
which a liberal interpretation of the Act seemed to be that most likely to con¬ 
duce to the safety of the public. The reply, we think, is all that could be 
expected, and as far as it goes, is quite satisfactory. It assumes that the Legis¬ 
lature, in passing “ An Act to Regulate the Sale of Poisons,” contemplated the 
application of the regulations imposed by the Act to poisonous substances , and 
that it was not intended that the same regulations should be applied to non- 
poisonous substances. This is the common-sense view of the subject, and the 
explicit manner in which it is expressed by Mr. Simon, on behalf of the Privy 
Council, will tend to clear away the only serious difficulty that has been appre¬ 
hended with reference to this part of the operation of the law. 
It must not be supposed, however, that the satisfactory settlement of the 
principal question on which the opinion of the Privy Council was asked, will 
relieve Chemists and Druggists from much responsibility and the exercise of 
judgment in determining which among the substances referred to are to be 
dealt with as scheduled poisons. It appears the Privy Council “ are advised 
that it is not feasible to define the precise proportion of poison in any prepara¬ 
tion which may bring it within the Act;” it is therefore left to the seller to 
determine this point on his own responsibility. “ My Lords,” Mr. Simon says, 
“ apprehend that questions of fact must be dealt with as they arise; for it is 
possible to take so much of a compound, perfectly harmless if taken in reason¬ 
able quantities (e. g. carbonate of soda), as to destroy life, and it is possible 
that a particular paregoric lozenge might contain a deadly amount of poison ; 
but it seems to their Lordships that, for general purposes, and as matter of 
legal interpretation, these extreme and barely supposable cases may be disre¬ 
garded, and that the Pharmaceutical Society may safely act upon the test given 
above.” 
It is a great relief to find that an arbitrary rule that, strictly interpreted, would 
have included many innocuous substances in the category of poisons, is not to 
be applied in that sense; but it still remains to be determined whether any, and 
if any, then what rule should be adopted for indicating which of the prepara¬ 
tions included in the schedule are to be considered poisons and dealt with as 
such. It is very desirable that as much uniformity as possible should be 
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