BETTs’s PATENT METALLIC CAPSULES, 
45 
bills were filed in the Court of Chancery, which were served on the next succeed¬ 
ing day, so that virtually no time was allowed for any explanation to be offered or 
for anything to be done to avert these proceedings. Defendants in these actions 
are mostly retail chemists and druggists, who do not use or deal in metallic cap¬ 
sules in any other way than by retailing certain articles, such as Price’s Glyce¬ 
rine, Burnett’s Disinfecting Fluid, Kimmel’s Toilet Vinegar, and a few other 
articles of that description. They were not aware that any of the capsules, at¬ 
tached to these articles, were made or sold illegally. They found, on making a 
close examination of such capsules, that some of them bore the name of Mr. 
Betts as patentee, while others did not, but the name, where present, was. so 
small and often so illegible, from its being nearly obliterated, that it was diffi¬ 
cult, and sometimes impossible to distinguish it, even with the use of a magni¬ 
fying glass. It was found that the capsules attached to Burnett s Fluid had no 
maker’s name on them ; yet it was asserted, by the agent supplying the fluid, 
that these were Betts’s capsules, a fact subsequently admitted by Mr. Betts 
himself. Some capsuled articles, such as Rimmel’sj Toilet Vinegar, Vichy 
Water, etc., were capped with foreign capsules ; and although these all bore a 
similar appearance, on submitting them to chemical examination it was found, 
that while some of them were composed of lead and tin, and were no doubt made 
by Mr. Betts’s process, others were composed of tin alone, and did not therefore 
in any way interfere with the patent. The letter sent by Mr. Betts s solicitor, 
and the Chancery process which immediately followed it, gave no information 
as to the exact nature of the offence alleged to have been committed. Each de¬ 
fendant was left to speculate on this point, but, in most cases, it was thought 
the proceedings had reference principally to the sale of Rimmel s Toilet Vinegar, 
for Mr. Rimmel himself was similarly proceeded against with reference to this 
article. Mr. Rimmel was using French capsules, and he states that these, when 
he first commenced the use of them, were made of pure tin, but that latterly, 
since Betts’s patent has expired in that country, they have been made of the 
mixed metal, and this change was made without his knowledge. 
When the defendants to these suits became acquainted with the fact of so 
many of their brethren being similarly assailed, mutual conferences took place, 
and as several of the parties implicated were members of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, the advice and assistance of the Council and officers of the Society were 
sought and promptly rendered. The President, Vice-President, and Secretary 
of the Society took immediate steps to ascertain, as far as possible, all the bear¬ 
ings of the case, and finding that the retail dealers, against whom proceedings 
had been taken, were entirely ignorant of the fact of any of the capsules attached 
to articles sold by them having been illegally used, or being an infringement of 
Mr. Betts’s patent,—while all the articles with capsules to them were plainly 
labelled with the names of the parties by whom the capsules had been applied, 
and who alone had the means of knowing whose capsules they were,—considered 
that these defendants were innocent of any intentional violation of the law, and 
that a simple explanation of these circumstances would satisfy Mr. Betts, to 
whom the means were in every case afforded to enable him to proceed against 
those who had knowingly infringed his patent. r Ihe case also appeared to be 
simplified by the announcement by Mr. Rimmel that he had offered to compro¬ 
mise with Mr. Betts by the payment of £1000 in lieu of all damages to which 
the plaintiff might be entitled, on account of the foreign capsules made ol Betts s 
metal, which he had used, and supplied on capsuled articles to his customers. 
Several meetings of defendants in these suits, and others who were interested 
in the facts and principles involved, took place at the house of the Society m 
Bloomsbury Square; the opinion and advice of the solicitors to the_Society 
were obtained ; and a deputation was appointed to confer with Mr. Betts on 
the subject. 
