502 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
lating to “vermin-destroyers,” by which, 
they are placed in part 2 of the schedule, 
although the active ingredients are gene¬ 
rally either arsenic or strychnia, to be recon¬ 
ciled with the provisions of the Act, which 
require the sale of all “preparations” of these 
articles to be registered ? I suppose it -was 
intended that they should be sold without 
registration, but, if I interpret the Act cor¬ 
rectly, I do not see how registration is to be 
avoided. 
With regard to the proposed regulation 
for the keeping, etc., of poisons, we have 
been so much accustomed to the argument 
that an improved education would so in¬ 
crease the feeling of responsibility in the 
mind of the druggist, and his sense of the 
dangerous nature of the commodities he is 
dealing with, that he would rise superior to 
the necessity of attempting to substitute 
fingers for eyes, and mechanical contrivances 
for brains, that I could hardly have believed 
that our Council would originate such a 
proposition. 
As to regulation 1st, there is nothing to 
object to, provided it is kept within rea¬ 
sonable limits, and not made to apply to 
such articles as Dover’s Powder, Pulvis 
Cretae cum Opio, and others of the same 
class. 
As to the second regulation, part 1 is 
utterly impracticable and impossible. How 
could any man keep all the various articles 
included in the poison schedules apart from 
other packages, etc. ? And even if ho could, 
where is the use of it ? What need is there 
to keep opium, for instance, apart ? or why 
should aconite and belladonna leaves be se¬ 
parated from other drugs, and henbano, 
conium, and digitalis leaves mix freely with 
senna and chamomile flowers ? Moreover, 
very few have convenience, even if they had 
the will, to keep all these articles separate 
from the rest of the stock. 
It is all very well for people who perhaps 
buy them by the ounce or drachm, and pro¬ 
bably never see one-half of them at all, to 
keep all poisons in a separate closet, under 
lock and key; but I would like to know 
what kind of a closet it must be to contain 
a ton or so of arsenic, a chest of opium, ten 
or fifteen gallons of laudanum, and other 
things in a like proportion? It would ra¬ 
ther astonish some of our Ponclon friends 
were they to see the stock of some of these 
articles which their provincial brethren have 
on hand. If the Council had proposed to 
.apply the regulations to the keeping of the 
alkaloids and the more dangerous poisons, 
such as prussic acid and the cyanides, there 
might have been a prospect of their being 
adopted, and being of some service ; but to 
apply the same rule to all the articles in a 
schedule containing nearly one hundred dif¬ 
ferent substances, with strychnia and prussic 
acid at one end of the scale, and tinct. can- 
tharides at the other, is contrary to all com¬ 
mon sense, and would defeat its own object. 
Either the fingers would become so accustom¬ 
ed to feel the “ angular, fluted, corrugated, or 
sand-papered bottles,” that the effects of the 
intended caution would be entirely lost, or 
else the absence of those peculiarities in the 
handling of the bottles and pots would bo 
considered an indication of safety ; and thus 
mistakes would be far more likely to occur 
than if the special caution were restricted 
to a few' really dangerous articles not often 
used. 
With respect to the third regulation, it 
w T ould be an admirable one w T ere it only 
practicable; but no one at all conversant 
with the ordinary routine of chemists’ shops 
in country places, and poor neighbourhoods 
especially, could possibly imagine that such 
a regulation would be carried into effect. 
In many shops the “ dispensing and com¬ 
pounding ” consists chiefly in something of 
this sort: “penn’orth of hartshorn, penn’orth 
of turpentine, with the same of laudanum 
and opodeldocor perhaps it may be 
“ penn’orth of laudanum and opodeldoc 
mixed.” Does any one expect that a man 
with perhaps half-a-dozen other people 
-waiting to be served, could or would stay 
to sand-paper the bottle that is brought, or 
exchange it for a “distinctive” one, and 
put two or three labels on besides! And 
yet, if he omits to do all this, he cannot 
lawfully carry on his business, supposing 
these regulations to be made law. 
It is very easy, and quite right, for gen¬ 
tlemen who seldom do any “ dispensing or 
compounding” except from physicians’ pre¬ 
scriptions, and who never see anything so 
paltry as a penny customer, to comply with 
this regulation; but their less fortunate bre¬ 
thren cannot possibly do so with their pen¬ 
nyworths ; and it must be remembered that 
the regulation applies equally to both cases, 
for it is as much “ compounding and dispens¬ 
ing’’with the poor man’s penny as the rich 
man’s shilling. 
Let me not, however, be understood to say 
that I think no precautions necessary, and 
that no means should be adopted to guard 
against mistakes in dealing with dangerous 
substances ; on the contrary, I think all the 
proposed regulations good to a certain ex¬ 
tent, and put them all into practice more or 
less. But I most strongly protest against 
the authority of law being given to them, 
at any rate in their present shape. Had 
the Council recommended these regulations, 
without the proposal to enforce them by 
law, I should have been ready to approve ; 
or had they restricted their operation to a 
limited number of the more dangerous arti¬ 
cles, there would not have been so much ob¬ 
jection ; but a regulation "which shall com- 
