THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. VII.—No. III.—SEPTEMBER 1st, 1865. 
PROCEEDINGS RELATING TO ALLEGED INFRINGEMENTS OF 
BETTS’S PATENT FOR METALLIC CAPSULES. 
The Chancery suits commenced by Mr. Betts, against vendors of articles 
to which metallic capsules were attached, which he alleges to be an infringe¬ 
ment of his patent, remain in statu quo; and although some communications 
have passed between the plaintiff and defendants and their solicitors, we cannot 
say that there is any prospect at present of such an arrangement being made 
as would exempt dealers in. capsuled articles from liability to proceedings 
similar to those recently instituted and now pending. The committee of per¬ 
sons interested in this subject, to which we alluded in our last publication, 
ha\e had several meetings, and the communications that have been read at these 
meetings show that the interest felt among retailers of capsuled articles is both 
deep and widely diffused. The committee have very judiciously abstained from 
adopting or recommending any proceedings of a hostile character, believing that 
Air. Betts must see the folly of persisting in the persecution of innocent deal¬ 
ers, and that some satisfactory arrangement might be made to secure them¬ 
selves and their brethren from such annoyance for the future. The proceedings 
of the committee, however, passive as they have hitherto been, and the stand 
made by the defendants who have put their cases into the hands of Messrs. Flux 
and Argles, have no doubt proved highly beneficial in preventing a more general 
and continued attack upon retail dealers. AVe have not heard of any fresh cases 
in which proceedings have been instituted, although it would appear from in¬ 
formation we have obtained that a system was commenced and in progress 
which, if it had not met with a firm resistance and unqualified condemnation, 
would have involved hundreds of innocent tradesmen in ruinous law proceed¬ 
ings. It would be small consolation to these men to tell them that they _ have a 
remedy against those who supplied them with the goods. We have heard this 
remark made by those who ought to know that such a remedy would, at best, 
be something like the ten shillings damages given to a plaintiff to carry the costs 
YOL. VII. 
H 
