THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. VII.—No. VII.—JANUARY 1st, I860. 
MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS AFFECTING THE SALE OF 
POISONS. 
In another part of this Journal will be found an account of the conviction 
of a druggist, and the infliction of a mitigated fine, for selling essence of 
bitter almonds without requiring the presence of a witness and entering the 
sale in a book. The subject has already attracted some attention and excited 
some surprise. When a notice of the occurrence first appeared in the news¬ 
papers, qt was thought by many persons that the magistrates before whom the 
conviction took place had mistaken what was proposed, some years ago, to be 
enacted, for a law at present in operation. It was not generally credited that, 
according to any existing law in this country, a druggist was subject to a fine 
of five pounds for selling any virulent poison to any person except in the pre¬ 
sence of a witness, and except entry be made in a book of the names and 
addresses of the purchaser and witness, together with the nature and quantity 
of the poison and the purpose for which it was intended. This certainly is 
not a law affecting the country generally, but it appears to be part of a local 
Act, called the Bolton Improvement Act of 1854. There are other places 
besides Bolton where similar clauses have been introduced into local Acts 
forming part of the municipal regulations of towns. The policy of legislating 
in this way with reference to the sale of poisons, was discussed some years 
ago in this Journal. In 1846 (Ph. Journ. vol. v. p. 535) reference was made 
to a proposed clause in the Stockport Improvement Act then before Parlia¬ 
ment, to the effect “ that every person who shall sell arsenic or prussic acid, 
or any other well-known deadly poison, to any person apparently under the 
age of twenty-one years, or to any person whatever, except in the presence of 
two witnesses, and without correctly entering in a book the name and address 
of such witnesses and person purchasing, as well as the quantity purchased, 
and the purpose for which it is intended, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding- 
five pounds, to be recoverable as any penalty imposed by this Act.” It was 
considered by the chemists of Stockport, and the Council of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society fully coincided in this opinion, that the words in the above 
clause, printed in italics, could not be allowed to stand part of the Act without 
exposing the dealers in and dispensers of medicine to much annoyance and 
inconvenience ; and on this ground the retention of those words was success¬ 
fully opposed. In other respects the clause corresponds with one which 
exists in the Manchester Local Act, and we believe in other similar Acts. In 
VOL. VII. 2 A 
