666 
THE PROPOSED REGULATIONS FOR STORING POISONS. 
Bill after Bill brought into Parliament by successive Governments was op¬ 
posed by the Society on the one plain ground that education was ignored m 
it; that any ignorant person might, under them, have sold poisons ot the 
power of which he knew nothing, provided only he observed certain regula¬ 
tions in their sale and keeping. It was not that these regulations were in 
themselves bad, but that by themselves they gave a false security. An angu¬ 
lar bottle might draw attention to the presence of poison, even in the bauds 
of an unqualified man, but still might not lead him to discriminate between 
strychnia and morphia. Not so with a dispenser alive to his business : the 
very touch of a strange bottle, the fact of having to unfasten the leather 
covering of a stopper would suggest danger. Therefore when education was 
made the groundwork of the Act to regulate the sale of poisons the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society cheerfully accepted it, bound itself to co-operate with the 
Government in promoting the safety ot the public, and, as it seems to us, has 
proposed these alternative modes of keeping as alarums to arouse possible 
S106D6rS • 
It does not appear either from the Leeds statement or from the many letters 
addressed to us, that these regulations are deemed useless ; but simply that 
they are insufficient. It seems even that in almost every important house in 
the trade some such precautions are already adopted. _ 
The objections urged are rather that the proposed regulations would be 
found inapplicable in many cases, inasmuch as chemists are, according to the 
requirements of their various localities, or the character of then business, 
compelled to store poisons in large quantities in warehouses as well as in 
small quantities in shops; that some poisons require to be kept under 
special conditions as to dryness, etc.,—conditions unsuitable for others ; that 
the option of distinctive bottles, or bottles tied over “ in a peculiar way, 
"would be inapplicable to many solid poisons, and would consequently leave, 
no choice of storage ; that in the case of such liquid poisons as syrup ot 
poppies and paregoric no bottles answering the requirements could be ob¬ 
tained which would hold a few gallons ; that wholesale dealeis cannot be 
■exempted from observance of the regulations. Doubtless all these different 
points will be discussed, but it seems to us that the objectors entnely ovei- 
fook the fact that the various modes prescribed are optional. A chemist may 
adopt one for his strychnia, another for his morphia, and a third foi his arse¬ 
nic. There is but one rule declared to be universal, namely, that each poison 
shall be labelled with its proper name and the word “poison.” If it be 
deemed convenient to keep strychnia, or any other poison, in a compartment 
specially devoted to dangerous articles, it may be kept in one of the ordinary 
bottles of the shop, if on the other hand, it is necessary to leave it on the 
open shelves of the store, it must be either in a bottle, differing in shape 
or character from its neighbours, or in a bottle of which the stopper is 
guarded by being tied over. The proposed code seems to us to admit of all 
this liberty of action, or, if not, it could be easily made to do so. As to the 
size of the bottle needed for paregoric (which, by the way, we should never 
think of storing as a dangerous article), there can be no more difficulty m 
capping a two -gallon than a two -ounce bottle. Then, as to some poisonous 
leaves or roots which require certain conditions of storage, it is not said that 
all shall be kept in bottles, but the word “package ” is expressly used to 
meet such cases. . • i c 
Even for wholesale dealers we see no insuperable difficulty ; a couple ot 
paint brushes, one red, the other blue, would, in a few minutes, stripe the 
arsenic cask into a very distinctive harlequin. We know of no special reason 
why large packages should not be as carefully guarded as. small ones ; and, 
indeed, when we remember that arsenic has been supplied instead of plaster 
