492 
CONVICTION UNDER THE PHARMACY ACT, 18G8. 
affect the whole kingdom, that it should at all events be brought under the notice of 
the higher Courts ; and I don’t choose to take any proceedings in the matter until I have 
the authority or sanction of the Attorney-General. 
Mr. Flux .—Your Honour, then, adjourns the case to the next court? 
His Honour .—I shall adjourn it to the next Court for the purpose of the plaintiff 
showing proper authority, legal authority, for me to proceed. My opinion is that you 
require the sanction of the Attorney-General to bring this action. 
Mr. BlacJcburne. —Ought not the plaintiff on this occasion to be nonsuited ? 
His Honour .—No ; I will not do that; because I admit there may be great doubt in 
it, and I do not want to throw the least obstruction in the way of what may be a general 
benefit; but I do not w r ant to take a leap in the dark. 
Mr. Flux .—Possibly I shall best serve the interests cf justice, if I lay a case before 
her Majesty’s Attorney-General. 
His Honour .—All I wish you to do out of consideration for me is to say that, in my 
opinion, I cannot go on without the authority of somebody on the part of the Crown 
sanctioning this action. I do not know in what way that can be done, but I am per¬ 
fectly willing to obey what I consider a legal direction. If the Attorney-General says 
an action in your name is in his opinion proper, as a law officer of the Crown he may 
order me to hear the case. I do not know what particular course you must adopt for 
this purpose, but there is one. I will not throw any obstacle in your way, but I do not. 
want to be drawn into a discussion, as I do not know what might be the consequences. 
I take it to be general law that where a penalty is imposed for doing a particular act, 
and no informer has power given him by Act of Parliament to recover such penalty, it 
is only recoverable by the Crown. 
The case was then adjourned, in order that the plaintiff might obtain the sanction of 
the Attorney-General .—Laiv Times , Jan. 1, 1870. 
CONVICTION UNDER THE PHARMACY ACT, 1868. 
Mr. Edwai’d M‘Call, of No. 1, Little St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, vras sum¬ 
moned before Mr. Knox, at tlie Marlborough Street Police Court, for two offences 
under the 17th section of the “ Pharmacy Act1st, for having dispensed a medicine 
containing poison without complying with the provisions of the Act; and, 2nd, 
for having sold oxalic acid without affixing the name of the article, and the name 
and address of the seller to it. 
The case was first brought before the magistrate on the 31st of December last, but 
as the defendant was then unable to attend, it was not gone into further than to 
give some formal evidence to prove that the articles sold contained poison. This 
evidence was given by Professor Attfield, who stated that on the 20th of December 
he was asked by Mr. Bremridge, the Secretary and Registrar of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, to examine the contents of a bottle, and by Inspector Brennan, of the Metro¬ 
politan police, to examine a small packet of crystals, marked “poison,” which he now 
produced. He did so, and found it to consist of “ oxalic acid.” 
Mr. Knox marked the packet with the letter A. 
Professor Attfield continued, that on the 24th of December he examined the liquid 
supplied to him in a bottle by Mr. Bremridge, and he found that it contained the 
poison strychnine. 
The bottle was put in, and Mr. Knox marked it B. 
The case was then adjourned to January 7th, 1870. 
Mr. Flux said he had been instructed by the Pharmaceutical Society to conduct 
these cases, because, they being the first under the recent statute, it was considered 
desirable that they should be laid properly before his Worship. Both cases were 
under the 17th section of the statute, which was probably familiar to his Worship, 
but if not he would read it. 
Mr. Knox said that, when the applications were made for the summonses, as it 
was a special matter, he went into it with considerable attention, and therefore Mr. 
Fluxheed not trouble himself with reading the Section. 
