September 14 , 1872 .] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
219 
would be rather a serious tax upon the time of druggists 
when there was a pressure of business, to have to leave 
off three or four times, perhaps, on a busy morning or 
evening, to register the sale of a 2 d. or 3 d. packet, each 
registration, with inquiries, explanations,. and . entry, 
taking up some ten to fifteen minutes. Still, if it were 
thought wise and prudent to add these articles to part 1 
of schedule A., the trade, he thought, would not object; 
but it appeared to him reasonable and just that a small 
registration fee should be paid for every entry, as a com¬ 
pensation for the trouble. 
The Coroner said no amount of trouble should be al¬ 
lowed to stand in the way when a human life was at stake. 
Mr. Spurr further said that it was not Battle s Ver¬ 
min Killer with which deceased had been poisoned, but 
a preparation by another firm. 
The Coroner was sorry to hear that any one else was 
in the business, as he was firmly of opinion that Battle s 
preparation had been the means of causing the death of 
more persons than any other poison. He thought that 
if greater precautions were used in the sale of the 
article, the deaths from poisoning would be less frequent. 
After some further conversation the jury returned a 
verdict that deceased had committed suicide whilst 
labouring under a fit of temporary insanity. 
JOHN CARGILL BROUGH. 
At Esher, on Sept. 7, 1872, this man of the large heart 
and intense human sympathy passed away, aged 38. 
If it be true that 
“ He prayeth well that loveth well ” 
John Cargill fulfilled to the letter the divine command, 
“ pray without ceasing.” 
The end was not unexpected : for years he was a reed 
shaken by the wind, a lamp flickering in its socket- 
one Saturday morning at the break of day, the reed 
was broken, and the light expired. Then he entered 
into—life. 
It is very difficult to say anything about him or about 
any brave and gentle spirit whenhe is gone —Good things 
appear so meagre in cold print; whimsical fancies ; the 
infinite pleasantry of a passing hour, alike with the 
unstudied pathos of the moment, bear no repeating. 
Mr. Brough, (if his friends will pardon the use of any 
term but Jack) was not known as a writer to the readers 
of this Journal; before his strength began to fail he was 
the Editor of the Chemist and Druggist—He was 
essentially a London literary man—circumstances led 
him into the domain of Pharmacy—but from his boyhood 
his fingers were smeared with printer’s ink and the press 
claimed him for its servant. Why he was not legally 
qualified as a Pharmacist is explained in one of his most 
mournful and most exquisite notes. His was a hand to 
hand fight with Time the result of constant physical 
weakness—the res angustae domi pressed heavily upon 
him and we are acting on the dearest wish of his heart in 
quoting “ There are two friends, whom to know, is. in 
itself an honour, who have spent themselves in turning 
my sick couch into a bed of roses.” 
Mr, Brough was born at Pontypool in Monmouth¬ 
shire ; his father was a brewer and suffered severely in 
the chartist riots the events of which will be found nar¬ 
rated in a work called “ Hidden Eire.” We need hardly 
state that he was a younger brother of the Brothers 
Brough, well known to literature and to the stage. He 
was first we believe employed on the Illustrated London 
News, and subsequently was connected with the Morning 
Star. He passed through strange apprenticeship, Type 
being usually the master, and thus he was thrown in 
•contact with all sorts of people and intimately knew, so 
many who have made their mark and become distin¬ 
guished. This period must be passed over though it 
supplied him with an inexhaustible fund of anecdote— 
he never lost his interest in the geography of Fleet 
Street and the Strand or as he himself expressed it “I 
hope I may never be so respectable as not to be able to 
show a fellow creature the way to Covent Garden.” 
The first undertaking that brought him into notice was 
the Editorship of the Journal already mentioned, the pro¬ 
sperity of which he strove his utmost to secure. He was 
also the Editor of the Ironmon ger writing the technical 
details of machinery; Sub-editor of Nature which he 
soon had to relinquish—Editor of a scientific periodical 
called the Laboratory one of the ablest that has ever 
been issued and patronized by our most celebrated con¬ 
tributors, English and Foreign—yet commercially it was 
a failure and lasted only six months. He was elected 
as the first Editor of the Year Book of Pharmacy- 
great hopes were entertained that his remarkable know¬ 
ledge of his subject and skill in abstract and arrange¬ 
ment "would have produced an authoritative compendium 
—these hopes were never destined to be realized—as 
always sickness gave its inexorable veto and forbade the 
attempt. 
There is a little book of his which may. strongly be 
recommended to the young—it is called Fairy Tales of 
Science—the style is throughout delightful, while the 
chapter devoted to an Atom is particularly good—he 
prepared for the press the last edition but one t>f Cooley s 
Encyclopaedia of Practical Receipts: he undertook various 
literary work, reported lectures, wrote articles and 
spoke the truth when he signed himself a Journalist. 
There had been a long and bad quarrel in Pharmacy 
some time since, the particulars of which need not be 
recalled. The Society, supposed to favour science and 
education—on the one hand, and outsiders supposed to 
exalt trade interests on the other—there were two Jour¬ 
nals—the official and the opposition. One thing is cer¬ 
tain that both parties knew very little of each other. 
Mr. Brough with a tact beyond praise endeavoured to 
effect a reconciliation or rather a mutual understanding, 
which amounted to the same thing—“ I am convinced ” 
(he writes) “ that the proposed extension of the Phar¬ 
macy Act meets all the requirements ot the trade and I 
have been working day and night to bring about a 
settlement of the question.” [Feb. 16, 1867]. Again—- 
“ You may be quite sure that I shall not sneer at the 
Pharmaceutical Society for I am convinced that the re¬ 
form of British Pharmacy can only be worked out by 
that body.” Never surely was there a better peace¬ 
maker—his amiability assumed the shape of genius, 
and he is fairly entitled to be chronicled amongst us if 
only for his devoted and successful endeavours when his 
aid was most urgently required. 
Let him not pass however without a word respecting 
his marvellous social influence. No other adjective will 
do. It was a gain for one’s entire after-life to have 
enjoyed his companionship—he was so utterly unselfish 
—“ so purposeless in his friendships” he loved his neigh¬ 
bour better than himself—How many of us.can. recollect 
the broader atmosphere we breathed when in his society 
—how we learnt with him to make large allowance; 
how instinctively we began to covet the excellent gift ot 
charity—nor is it too much to say that his childlike and 
guileless character, bright with habitual cheerfulness, 
rippling over with quaint humour, softened and spiritua¬ 
lized by the peace of God, has left behind it an effect for 
which hundreds of us rejoice. 
Less we cannot, more we dare not say. We may turn 
for an instant to the lighter shades of character- 
hoping that some who may read this, need not be told 
that Mr. Brough not only was wonderfully well versed 
in the lore of books but that he had . a special gift, in 
letter writing—his pen talked—that is the explanation 
of the secret: there was simply a mechanical difference 
between his notes and his conversation. Both were the 
revival of Charles Lamb, with too often a pathetic tinge 
of Hood. He was best in amusement wffien he had no 
definite subject, and positively nothing to say. The 
