424 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[November 30, 1872* 
and, as a matter of fact, the wives of many country medical 
men do almost regularly compound for their husbands’ 
patients. To commence business in the higher branch 
of the drug trade may require from £200 to £400 in the 
provinces, rather more in London; hut the stock of a 
druggist has this advantage over many others, it does not 
eat, it is not perishable, and, if stored in proper vessels, 
and carefully looked after, it loses none of its qualities 
by keeping. We have said that it is a lucrative trade. 
Take, for instance, a prescription containing six doses to 
be made up in a six-ounce phial; for this the druggist 
charges Is. §d. or 2s., according to the style and stand¬ 
ing of the shop. Now in all mixtures of this land the 
proportion of actual physic used is one fourth or one- 
sixth, but generally much less, the rest being made up of 
distilled w r ater, of which the cost is almost nominal; and 
the profit on the drugs generally ranges from 400 to 600 
per cent. Again, pills are charged 6^., 9 d. or Is. per 
dozen, but there never yet was made a pill of a size to 
be swallowed by mortal man which could possibly con¬ 
tain one halfpennyworth of drugs. Soda, in nearly all 
its forms, is bought by the gross, and retailed by the 
ounce or by the pennyworth, and the same with other 
substances. There is still another road open to the 
really intelligent and industrious chemist, by which he 
may reduce his expenses with the wholesale dealers to a 
minimum, i.e., by the skilful use of instruments, such as 
the hydrometer, microscope, etc., by which to test the 
strength and purity of drugs, and by himself preparing 
his own infusions and decoctions. If he chooses to ad¬ 
vance further, and becomes a proficient in practical ana¬ 
lytical chemistry, his assistance will almost certainly be 
sought in questions of professional research affecting the 
public health, sanitary reform, river pollution, and so 
on. All this may now be obtained by any pharmaceutical 
chemist, whether male or female. Such being the facts 
of the case, we do not wish to charge the sex with a 
general perversity and a deficiency of good sense ; but 
if, while women continue to knock at the closed doors of 
the hospital lecture-room, they decline to avail themselves 
of the open portal of the Pharmaceutical Society, we 
shall think it looks very like both one and the other. 
THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD ACT. 
At a recent meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers 
for the City of London, Dr. Letheby, the Medical Officer 
of Health for the City of London, was requested to draw 
up a report upon the provisions of the Adulteration of 
Food, Drugs, etc., Act, and the method of enforcing 
them, lie has, therefore, in conjunction with Mr. Baylis, 
the solicitor to the Commissioners, prepared the foliow- 
ing Report, which will be taken into consideration at 
the next meeting of the Commissioners :— 
Gentlemen, — In accordance with your request, we 
have the honour to report to you on the subject of the 
Adulteration of Food Act, 1872. The Act was passed on 
the 10th of August last, and it is entitled ‘An Act to 
Amend the Law for the Prevention of Adulteration of 
Food and Drink and of Drugs.’ The Act differs in 
several important particulars from the Adulteration of 
Food Act of 1860, of which it is an amendment, and with 
which it is incorporated. The chief points of difference 
in the two Acts are the following :— 
First.—In addition to articles of food or drink, as 
mentioned in the old Act, the adulteration of drugs is 
strictly prohibited, and the sale thereof is the subject of 
severe penalties. Besides which, the Pharmacy Act, 
1868, is incorporated in the new Act, and with it all the 
provisions relating to the sale of poisons and the adul¬ 
teration of drugs. 
Second—In the old Act of 1860 the question of 
adulteration is confined to the sale of adulterated articles 
in fraud of Her Majesty’s subjects, and to the great hurt 
of their health ; but in the new Act the person who ad¬ 
mixes, or causes others to admix, the adulterating in¬ 
gredient with any article of food or drink or drug is 
subject to penalty; and a clause is introduced which 
gives a very precise meaning to the kind of adulteration 
—namely, the fraudulent admixture of any substance 
with any article of food or drink or drug for the purpose 
of increasing its weight or bulk. 
Third.—The penalties for adulteration are very ’dif¬ 
ferent in the two Acts, for in the old Act of 1860 the 
penalty—for selling any article of food or drink with 
which, to the knowledge of the dealer, any ingredient 
or material injurious to health has been mixed, or for 
selling as pure or unadulterated any article of food or 
drink which is adulterated or not pure—was for the 
first offence a sum of money not exceeding £5, together 
with the costs of the conviction, and for the second 
offence the publication of the offender’s name, place of 
abode, and offence, in any manner that the justice might 
deem desirable, and at the expense of the offender, while 
in the new Act of 1872 the penalty for this offence is in¬ 
creased to £20, and it likewise applies to those who are 
convicted of selling adulterated drugs. Again, in the 
old Act, there is no penalty for mixing, or causing others 
to admix the adulterated article, but merely for selling 
it; whereas, in the new Act, the persons actually engaged 
in the process of adulteration are subject to a higher 
penalty than those who sell the adulterated article; for 
the penalty for the first offence is a sum of money not 
exceeding £50, together with the costs of conviction, 
and for the second offence he shall be guilty of a misde¬ 
meanour, and be imprisoned for a period not exceeding 
six calendar months. 
Fourth.—The execution of the Act by local sanitary 
authorities is no longer permissive, but is compulsory 
whenever the authorities named in the 5th section of the 
Act are required to put it in force within their respective 
districts by the Local Government Board in England; 
and thereupon the local authorities shall appoint and 
remove in their respective districts one or more persons 
possessing competent medical, chemical, and microscopi¬ 
cal knowledge as analysts of all articles of food, drink, 
and drugs purchased within the said districts, and shall 
pay to such analyst such salary or allowances as they 
may think fit, but such appointments and removals shall 
at all times be subject, in England, to the approval of the 
Local Government Bo^rd. For the City of London and 
the liberties thereof the authorities are the Commissioners 
of Sewers. 
Fifth.—The method of procedure in the new Act is 
greatly enlarged from what it was under the provisions 
of the old Act of 1860, for in the latter case the power of 
prosecuting rested entirely with the purchasers of articles 
of food or drink, who were entitled, on payment to the 
analyst of a sum not less than 2s. 6d., nor more than 
10 s. 6 d., to have any such article analysed by the 
analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the 
result of his analysis, specifying whether in his opinion 
such article was adulterated, and also whether it was so 
adulterated as to be injurious to the health of persons 
eating or drinking the same, and such certificate, duly 
signed by such analyst, was, in the absence of any evi¬ 
dence to the contrary, sufficient evidence in any court of 
justice of the matter therein certified, and the sum paid 
for such analysis and certificate was to be deemed part of 
the costs of the proceedings. But in the new Act of 1872, 
in addition to this method of procedure, wffiich is still re¬ 
tained and even extended to drugs, the local authorities 
must institute proceedings. This is to be done through 
the inspector of nuisances, or the inspector of weights 
and measures, or the inspector of markets, one or all of 
them, as the local authorities appointing them shall 
think fit to determine ; and such inspectors shall procure 
within their districts, by purchase or otherwise, samples 
of articles of food or drink and drugs suspected to be 
adulterated, and shall submit them for analysis to the 
analyst appointed for the district, and shall, on receiving 
