THE MEDICINE STAMP AND LICENCE. 
315 
mitted, connecting the persons concerned by a most important link to that 
crime. Our contemporary says this is not sufficient, and should be amended by 
requiring the authority of a medical practitioner for the sale. If A. B. asked 
for strychnine to take or administer as a medicine in the ordinary domestic 
fashion, we think there are few chemists who would supply him wi thout medical 
authority ; but the case is altogether different, and resolves itself iuto one of 
character, on which point we submit a chemist may be quite as good a judge as 
a physician. Beyond all that, we question whether the doctor will deem°it a 
fitting occupation to write a certificate that A. B. may kill his rats, or whether 
A. B. will approve of giving a guinea for such permission. Our contemporary 
suiely cannot contemplate that the authorized—privileged, we might say—• 
vendors of poison will deem their moral responsibility lessened by a mere com¬ 
pliance with the legal requirements ! Out on a supposition, we say, so deroga¬ 
tory to our body ! 
Some critics have chosen to call it absurd to select just thirteen poisons for 
legislation, and leave a vastly larger number unfettered. We would remind 
them that the object was to restrict those articles most commonly used for 
criminal purposes, and to impose as little inconvenience as might be on the 
trade. 
After regarding objections which have been raised on points which are seen 
by all, we may perhaps be allowed to say a word or two on certain evidence of 
success at present seen only by a few. Need we add, that we allude to the re¬ 
sult of the enactments enforcing education? What stronger proof of their 
value can be given than the bare facts, that since the passing of the Pharmacy 
Act of 1868, nearly two thousand persons have submitted themselves success¬ 
fully to the various examinations, and that in the present session about one 
hundred students are receiving practical instruction in the Laboratory, or 
attending the lectures of the Professors at Bloomsbury Square. This is evi¬ 
dence which will become patent to the world in due time; this is a result of 
the Pharmacy Act which will ultimately make it, in truth , “ an Act to regulate 
the Sale of Poisons !'' 
THE MEDICINE STAMP AND LICENCE. 
At the last anniversary meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society an attempt 
was made to bring the subject of the medicine licence under consideration, with 
the view of obtaining some alteration in the law, whereby the requirement for 
this licence should be abolished, or the annual charge for it equalized ; but the 
subject was not then entertained, on account of the informal manner in which 
it was introduced. It is not improbable that the more comprehensive subject 
of the laws relating to the medicine stamps and licence may come before the 
notice of Parliament during the ensuing session, and it is therefore important 
that those most deeply interested and best informed with reference to the 
operation of these laws should be prepared to express their opinions, and to 
promote such a change, if any, as may appear to be most desirable. 
The laws relating to medicine stamps and licences are involved in consider¬ 
able obscurity; and even those who, from their official positions, may be sup¬ 
posed to understand them, have not always agreed in the constructions they 
have put upon the Acts that are in force. The questions that are constantly 
submitted to us by correspondents clearly show also how imperfectly the 
requirements of the law are comprehended by those who are daily liable to 
incur penalties for their infringement in the sale of medicines. 
For the purpose of facilitating the discussion of this subject, and of prepar¬ 
ing for such an expression of opinion on questions that may arise as will con- 
Y 2 
