470 
GOVERNMENT PHARMACY IN INDIA. 
Not one contains a forceps for either lower molars or bicuspids. The key is a barbarous 
instrument, for before one can use it with anything like safety, a dozen teeth or jaws 
must be broken in experiments. A complete set of tooth forceps can be purchased in 
London for about thirty shillings, yet I will warrant that not one of the infamous cases 
supplied to the Indian Government cost less than double that sum. 
Where are these drugs and instruments generally kept ? In some small room, fitted 
with one cupboard and a few shelves, for the delectation of the rats. The tinctuies are 
in clumsy wine bottles, mostly minus their labels, extracts in gallipots with a piece of 
rotten leather faintly covering the mildewed mass within, powders in what are termed 
mustard and caper bottles. The shelves are loaded with brown-paper parcels of long- 
ago rotten drugs, and anything like order seems unknown. Some dismay is at first 
created by the alarming labels of “ Poison,” written in all the languages of Southern 
India, but the effect intended is completely marred, when it is found that liq. arsenicalis 
and carbonate of ammonia both bear the same placard. With these flaring yellow 
« Poison ” labels, the “ Surgery ” looks somewhat like Morrison the hygeist’s represen¬ 
tations of an allopathist druggist’s shop, and the patients must be very much edified by 
the way in which they are served out “Poison ” all round. I say « served out ” inten¬ 
tionally, for each patient does not usually get his medicine given him out of his own 
bottle. The more common practice, where there few patients in hospital, is to make up 
each dose as required. It seems to be one of the comical Indian ways of saving trouble. 
In this description I have merely stated what I have seen, and it falls very far short of 
the reality. Lavish expense on articles of questionable utility, expensive instruments 
of the worst possible quality, lamentable deficiency of the ordinary and cheap medicines, 
waste of stores through want of proper dry places to keep them in, disorder, and dirt, 
such are my impressions of a Government “ Surgery ’ in this Presidency. 
I propose a reform of this system. 
1. I know not how the stores are procured from England, or what measures are taken 
to get good articles at a reasonable price. I can only take cognizance of the stores on 
their arrival in this country. 
They should, on receipt, be rigidly examined. It would be well worth while for 
Government to entertain a medical officer competent in chemistry and pharmacy, for the 
sole purpose of examining the stores, and suggesting such measures of economy as the 
resources of this country permit of introducing. Many important medicines might be 
made in this country at one quarter of the price they cost Government at present, 
2. A proper list of drugs and stores should be made out, modified from time to time 
as necessary. Quack medicines should be rigidly excluded, but every medical officer 
has most certainly a right to employ any drug authorized by the British I haimacopoeia. 
This should be recognized as a principle. 
3 . A fair scale of medical stores should be drawn np, adapted to corps, etc., of dif¬ 
ferent strengths. Besides a margin for unusual expenditures of medicines, of six months’ 
extra supply, a certain amount of raw drugs might be added to meet contingencies. 
Thus, if towards the end of the year a medical officer’s stock of tr. opii for eighteen 
months were all exhausted, he might fairly be expected to make a tincture with his 
reserve stock of opium and country spirit. Catechu, cinnamon, and other articles of the 
materia medica, might similarly be provided for the purpose oi making preparations, if 
necessary. 
4. All drugs should be contained in proper vessels. Consideration should be had for 
the climate. 0 For instance, nothing ought to be kept in paper parcels on the western 
coast. I have known a 2 lb. parcel of pulv. zingiberis become completely tasteless in 
less than a month after its receipt. The practice of sending jalap, rhubarb, ipeca¬ 
cuanha, etc., in paper parcels, is simply throwing away valuable drugs. Every driig 
sent from the stores should be, whenever possible, packed in a vessel which will contain 
it conveniently on the dispensary shelves. Gallipots w r ith leather covers are quite inad¬ 
missible. Proper extract-pots, with well-fitting lids, should be provided. Bottles for 
fluid drugs should be provided in every dispensary, properly labelled, as they "would be 
in any practitioner’s dispensary at home. 
5. The Dispensary should be properly fitted up. A cupboard for instruments and 
miscellaneous stores, a cupboard for poisons, and a proper set of shelves, in a good light, 
should everywhere be provided. Bottles for the wards should be provided in fair pro¬ 
portion ; not the ordinary sort, requiring the detestable label, “Two tablespoonfuls,” etc., 
