612 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Chubb’s Poison Orders, in compliance with Schedule A, Part I. of the “ Pharmacy 
Act.” 1868. 
This useful arrangement is not intended to supersede Poison Books, but to enable 
persons at a distance who are known to chemists, to obtain poisons by sending a mes¬ 
senger, instead of by personal application. 
Manual of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, embracing all the Medicines of 
the British Pharmacopceia, etc. etc. By Alexander Milne, M.D. Second Edi¬ 
tion. Edinburgh : E. and H. Livingstone. 
The Medical and Surgical Reporter. Edited by S. W. Butler, M.D., and D. G. 
Brinton, M.D. 
Philadelphia and New York. 7 Parts. January and February, 1869. 
Note on the so-called Carbolic Acid, or Coal-tar Creasote, and on Rhubarb. 
By Edward B. Squibb, M.D. Philadelphia, 1869. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Persons having seceded from the Society may be restored to their former 
status on payment of arrears of subscription and the registration fee of the 
current year. 
Those who were Associates before the 1st of July, 1842, are privileged (as 
Founders of the Society) to become Members, and by virtue of membership to 
be registered as Pharmaceutical Chemists. 
The Secretary and Registrar desires to intimate that no anonymous communications, 
or letters signed with initials only, will be answered. 
Pharmaceutical Ethics .—To the Editors of the Pharmaceutical Journal,—Gentlemen, 
.—The suggestive letter of your able correspondent, Mr. Giles, in last month’s Journal, 
induces me to offer my own brief contribution to a solution of the problems therein 
referred to. 1st. As regards the poison section of the new Pharmacy Act. Increased 
and lengthened inspection of its working proves that in many respects it is open to 
grave exception. The unwisdom of requiring an ounce of paregoric to be labelled 
“ Poison ” is too evident to require enforcement by argument ; but that opium and all 
its preparations should have been altogether omitted (except insisting a poison label to % 
be attached to the more potent), will probably be considered more debateable ground. 
Yet I take this to be another proof of the inconvenience, nay, positive harm done, when 
special legislation in technical matters is attempted by “ externs whilst at the same 
time it furnishes another proof of the advantage which would result from a special 
representation of classes in the House of Commons. A man well versed in the actual 
active working of our trade, would not only have challenged many assertions made in 
the course of the debate, but would have thrown the weight of his practical knowledge 
into the right scale. Laudanum, paregoric, syrup of poppies, and Godfrey’s cordial, have 
been sold in villages remote from towns by respectable men, who, with their ancestors, 
have conducted such businesses for very many years with safety and advantage to the 
public. It is absurd to ask or expect such men to register; in truth, the aim of recent 
legislation is that they should not; but then, how about the public advantage, the 
ground of appeal so much made of, in connection with this legislation ? There are 
villages in this district ten and twelve miles distant from a town in which dwells a 
registered man, communication with the said town and chemist existing once or twice a 
week by means of a carrier. Here is a case of undeniable inconvenience and hardship 
to the population of villages so situated. 2. The propriety of the admixture of miscel¬ 
laneous trade with pharmacy proper is a moot question. I agree with your correspond¬ 
ent, “ it must be determined by the good sense and good feeling of the individual 
pharmaceutist with reference to the specialities of his case.” In this lies the only true 
solution of the difficulty. The patrician order of our body has very often and very elo¬ 
quently stated its case in the pages of the Journal; some of us not so highly favoured, 
