250 EXCISE INTERFERENCE WITH THE SALE OF QUININE WINE. 
administering quinine that Mr. Waters thought he would give the public the 
benefit of it, and he accordingly added quinine wine to his list, comprising gin¬ 
ger wine, orange wine, etc. Mr. Waters says he never contemplated in the first 
instance that this quinine wine would be viewed or treated by the Excise differ¬ 
ently from his other British wines, and as he supplied it almost entirely to dealers 
who held the wine license, no question at that time arose respecting its sale. It 
was sold to the public under a name that fairly represented what it was, and 
Mr. Waters is'justly entitled to the credit of having made no secret of its com¬ 
position. It contains one grain of sulphate of quinine dissolved in a wineglass¬ 
ful of orange wine. 
A good form for the preparation of orange quinine wine was many years 
ago given by Dr. Collier in his ‘ Translation of the London Pharmacopoeia,’ 
and was published in this Journal (November, 1846, page 226 of vol. vi.), in 
which one grain of sulphate of quinine was directed to be dissolved in one ounce 
of good Orange wine, with the aid of about half a grain of citric acid. 
It was naturally to be expected that the advertising of Waters’s quinine 
wine should attract the attention of chemists and druggists, and that the public, 
after being referred to a wine merchant for medicine, should make some inquiry 
about it of those from whom they were accustomed to purchase their medicines. 
Chemists, therefore, taking advantage of the publicity given to the preparation 
by the advertisements, made their own quinine wine, by Dr. Collier’s process 
or some other, and thus became competitors with Mr. Waters. But if the sale 
of Waters’s quinine wine required a license, that of a similar preparation made 
by a chemist should do so also. The Excise officers had been accustomed to 
see quinine wine classed with ginger wine and orange wine, and sold by those 
who had a wine license, and they naturally concluded that it ought not to be 
sold by a chemist without a similar license. About two years ago proceedings 
were instituted against some chemists for selling quinine wine without a wine 
license, and the President of the Pharmaceutical Society memorialized the Board 
of Inland Revenue on the subject, pointing out the fact that quinine wine was 
as much a medicine as other medicated wines, and that it ought not to be 
classed with British wines, the sale of which required a wine license. The an¬ 
swer of the Board to this communication was explicit and perfectly satisfactory. 
Both communications were published in this Journal (January, 1864), but as 
the letter from the Board exactly meets the question that has more recently 
arisen, as it has been acted upon by chemists since that date, and, as we believe, 
correctly represents the law of the case, we reproduce it here. 
Inland Revenue Office , 3rd December , 1863. 
Sir,—I am desired, by the Commissioners, to inform you, in reply to your letter of 
the 10th ultimo, respecting the sale of “ Medicated Wines,” that they are advised that 
whenever the articles are held out by label or advertisement as beneficial to persons 
suffering from any ailment affecting the human body, they can only legally be sold 
under a patent medicine license, and with a stamped label on each packet, and also, in 
strictness, under an Excise foreign or British wine license, according to the character of 
the wine. 
The Board, however, have instructed me to add, that, except in cases where there may 
be reason to belieye that a beverage is being sold under colour of a medicine, they will 
not interfere with the sale, without an excise licence, of medicated wdnes of the descrip¬ 
tion adverted to, provided that such medicines do not fall under the category of Patent 
Medicines. 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
G. W. Sandford , Esq. William Corbett, Secretary. 
This letter appeared to set the question at rest, not only as regards the lia¬ 
bility of chemists, but with reference to the sale of quinine and other medicated 
