•July G, 1872.J 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL Ajxd TRANSACTIONS 
17 
he thought could not have been misunderstood. The 
Pharmacopoeia said that the extent of a dose of morphia 
was from one-eighth to half a grain; hut when druggists 
received prescriptions from a doctor prescribing ingre¬ 
dients in excess of what their Pharmacopoeia stated,— 
recognizing the doctors as better qualified to judge than 
themselves, they did not hesitate to make them up. Ed¬ 
mondson had told them that he understood the pills 
were to contain one grain of morphia each, and they 
were bound to believe him; and if they did believe him, 
then they must acquit him of any offence against the 
law. The coroner then gave the legal definition of man¬ 
slaughter as it applied to the case, quoting Lord Lynd- j 
hurst, to the effect that if a party having a competent 
degree of skill and knowledge makes an accidental mis¬ 
take through which death ensues he is not thereby 
guilty of manslaughter. On the other hand, a man 
would be guilty of manslaughter if, notwithstanding he 
has a competent knowledge of medicine, he be guilty of 
gross rashness in the application of a remedy, or negli¬ 
gence in attending to the patient afterwards. If the 
jury believed in the intelligence and skill of Edmondson, 
that he had used due precautions, and that he read the 
prescription to mean that the pills were to contain one 
grain of morphia each, then they would say by their 
verdict that death was caused by misadventure; if, on 
the other hand, they thought he had been guilty of 
g-ross negligence, then they must find him guilty of. 
manslaughter; but he (the coroner) felt bound to tell 
them that he thought the evidence would hardly bear j 
out the latter verdict, and that the proper legal verdict 
would be to say that death was caused by misadven¬ 
ture. 
The jury retired, and in about half an hour brought 
in a verdict that death resulted from an overdose of mor¬ 
phia admininistered by misadventure.— Lancaster Obser¬ 
ver and Lancaster Guardian. 
Poisoning by Methylated Spirit. 
The Standard reports that on Wednesday night, a 
pointsman, named John Nutter, employed at tho Pres¬ 
ton Goods Station on the London and North-Western 
Railway, was found dead in a break van. Previous to J 
this a breaksman named Robert Fenton had left Preston 
with a goods train for the north, but was taken so se¬ 
riously ill at the Carnforth station, a few miles beyond 
Lancaster, that he was unable to attend to his duties, 
;and was sent back to Preston by the first return train. 
From him, however, it was elicited that he and Nutter, 
rseeing what they thought was spirit trickling through 
the bottom of a luggage van, caught a quantity of the 
liquor in their cans and drank it. The train to which 
this van was attached arrived at Preston about nine 
o’clock on Wednesday morning, and on examining it a 
•cask of methylated spirit was found to be leaking. It 
was this liquor that the unfortunate men had been 
•drinking. It was stated that Fenton was delirious and 
was not expected to recover. 
Excise Prosecution. 
At the Exeter Police Court George Pates, chemist j 
and druggist, was summoned by the Inland Revenue 
officers for keeping a male servant without a 
licence. Mr. Friend appeared for the defendant. 
John Satchell, Inland Revenue officer, stated that 
on Monday, 22nd April, he was passing the defen¬ 
dant’s house on Fore Street Hill, and in a room under 
the shop he saw a boy brushing a man’s shoe. On the 
following day he took Mr. Pates a declaration paper, 
telling defendant if he kept a male servant he must pay 
15s. per year, and told him to read the paper. On the 
next day defendant returned the paper with u Nothing 
liable ” written on it. Mr. Leckenby called John Salter, 
a little boy about ten years of age, in the employ of Mr. 
Pates, who stated that he frequently cleans his master’s 
boots. Mr. Friend called Ann Leach, servant at Mr. 
Pates’s, who stated that it was her place to do the work 
of the house, but not to clean the shop. Witness had 
asked the boy to come down and help her, and he had 
done so. The Bench fined the defendant £5, and recom¬ 
mended a further reduction.— Exeter Evening Express. 
gclriclu. 
The Pharmacopoeia of the Hospital for.Diseases of 
the Throat. Edited by Morell Mackenzie, M.D. 
Lond., Hon. Med. Superintendent. London: John 
Churchill and Sons, 1872. 
The pharmacopoeia of a hospital, like that of a nation, 
reflects the state of both therapeutics and pharmacy in 
the institution from which it emanates. The Paris 
Codex, it has been said, shows that French Pharmacy is 
founded on sugar. The American dispensatories vaunt 
the virtues of resinoid active principles and syrups of the 
phosphates, and the present British Pharmacopoeia ex¬ 
hibits our growing partiality for pure, definite chemicals 
for use as remedial agents. In the work before us 
are enumerated and described the medical preparations 
employed in the special treatment of throat diseases. 
Like the old London Pharmacopoeia, and still more re¬ 
sembling that of the London Hospital of 1858, from which 
several of the formula} have been abstracted—the editor 
being also one of the staff of that hospital,—this pharma¬ 
copoeia is divided into two parts, “ Materia Medica ” and 
“ Formulae.” Under the head of “ Materia Medica” about 
160 drugs and chemicals are mentioned, all of which are 
official in the British Pharmacopoeia except the follow¬ 
ing :— Acidum Lacticum—the specific gravity is not 
mentioned, or the strength or purity in any way in¬ 
dicated—the article of commerce varies very much in 
these respects,—Hither Accticus, Aluminii Chloridum, 
Oleum Abietes Pectinatae, Oleum Calami Aromatici, 
Oleum Folii Pini Sylvestris, Oleum Cassiai—from what 
source is not mentioned—we presume that distilled from 
the bark of Cinnamomi cassia is intended, — Oleum 
Lupuli, Oleum Myrti, Oleum Salvim, Oleum Santali— 
the botanical sources of these also are not stated,—Oleum 
Origani Pallidi,—we are not acquainted with the species 
0. pallidum , but suppose pale oil of marjoram ( Origanum 
vulgare) is meant, as distinguished from the commercial 
Oleum Origanum distilled from Thgmus vulgaris — Oleum 
Juniperi Anglict, B.P., is another similar misnomer. In 
addition to the above are Sodoe Hypophosphis, Pepsina 
Porci (Bullock’s), Thymolis Hydras (thymic acid) and 
Ferri Persulphas. The last preparation is a rather 
mythical one ; it is stated that it enters into the prepara¬ 
tion of Pilula Aloes et Ferri (Lond. Hosp. Pharrn.), in 
which dried ferrous sulphate is ordered,—into Collyrium 
Ferri Sulphatis, which contains only ferrous sulphate and 
water,—and into Aqua and Collyrium Ferri Aluminis, 
in which the only ingredients are iron alum and water. 
Calcis Carbonas Prmcipitata is official under its vulgar 
name Creta prsecipitata—it supplants Greta prieparata in 
Mistura Crotie. Of creasote, that prepared from beech- 
wood only is to be used. The oil of the mountain pine— 
Oleum Pumelii—is also mentioned in one of the formula}. 
With this preparation we are unacquainted, and its botani¬ 
cal source is to us very obscure. The utility of the first 
part of the work—the Materia Medica—is not very 
obvious, unless it be to define and describe accurately 
the special non-official medicaments used in the second 
part. In the first part the list of preparations into which 
drugs enter is very incomplete and. often erroneous. As an 
additional instance, under the head of Ipecacuanha, among 
the “preparations” are Pulvis Emeticus; referring^ the 
second part we find Pulvis Emeticus thus “ Take of 
Sulphate of Zinc 20 grams. D)se, 20 grains freely 
diluted with warm water.” 
