314 ALLEGED INSUFFICIENCY OF THE PHARMACY ACT. 
spect for “ free trade ” which had grown up in England, and therefore, while 
urgent in denouncing the danger of the old unrestricted sale of poisons, had to 
appear in the anomalous position of checks to the “ hard and fast’ legislation 
which some men high in authority advocated. 
But these five years have made a marvellous difference in feeling on the 
poison question, and a cry for restriction is heard on all sides. It is not, we 
believe, that the love of u free trade 11 is less, but it is that the value set on 
human life is greater; and when we read in those statistical reports which 
appear from time to time that so many preventable deaths have occurred, so 
many persons have died from intentional, and so many from accidental poison¬ 
ing, we cannot wonder at the desire to lessen those numbers ; and on approaching 
the end of the first year’s experience of the working of an Act passed to pro¬ 
mote that object, it is well to review the criticisms thereon which have from 
time to time been published ; but, in doing so, the very fact that it is but the 
end of the first year must have its full weight in our consideration. In no 
point, perhaps, is this more necessary than in regarding the urgent representa¬ 
tions made, not only by druggists, but also by the public press, that now, as 
heretofore, poison sufficient to kill a whole family may be bought without let or 
hindrance of unregistered persons. If we had in England a public prosecutor, 
for the establishment of which so great a cry is heard, this evil might be 
sooner abated ; but as it rests mainly with the Pharmaceutical Society to en¬ 
force the provisions of Section 1, a reasonable time must be allowed to elapse 
before the end is attained. The fact should not be overlooked that motives of 
self-interest might be imputed to the Society in the too hasty prosecution of 
offenders. Nor can we disregard the further fact that buyers, as well as sellers, 
have to be taken into account, and both must, in a certain sense, be educated as 
to the new condition of things. We heard the other day, from one of the most 
active supporters of the Bill on its way through the House of Commons, that he 
had made it his business to look into the working of the Act; and, although there 
might be cases of evasion, he was satisfied much good had resulted. From per¬ 
sonal inquiry he was convinced that in his district the sale of laudanum and 
other poisons had been discontinued by the hucksters; that in one of the 
largest chemist’s establishments in the kingdom, the feeling of apprehension 
which had arisen among both principals and assistants at its passing, had given 
way to an entire approval. We pass over the absurd complaint that ordinary 
drugs can still be purchased of the village grocer, not because we wish to per¬ 
petuate such trading, but simply because the Act does not contemplate, and its 
promoters never contemplated directly, interference therewith. Another coin¬ 
plaint, however, deserves more consideration, and this comes from the public 
rather than from our own body. We mean the sale of vermin-killers contain¬ 
ing strychnine. Nobody who has watched the reports of criminal poisonings 
in the last few months by these compounds, can doubt that it is the duty of the 
Council of the Pharmaceutical Society to declare, and to obtain the approval 
of the Privy Council to their declaration, that preparations of certain poisons 
which are now sold indiscriminately to man, woman, or child, should be placed 
under restriction. This is an evil which can be remedied, and we trust the 
Council will not shrink from so obvious a duty. 
Touching “ vermin-killers,” there comes, from one of the best of our weekly 
papers, a charge of insufficiency in the provisions of section 17, from which we 
entirely dissent, valuable as we deem the general opinion of so able a journal. 
A. B,, in order to obtain strychnine, must apply to a chemist to whom he is 
known, or, failing his ability to do that, must take to the chemist a third person 
mutually known to both of them. In other words, the chemist can only sell on 
satisfactory evidence of the credibility of the purchaser. Signatures must be 
made, leaving positive evidence of the transaction, and should crime be com- 
