THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [January 25, 1873 
came law did not require to be registered, and be 
rounded on tbe 3rd Section of the Act as providing that 
such persons were chemists and druggists within the 
meaning of the Act; and (2) that Dr. Lawrie was the 
seller ol the . poisons, the respondent being only his 
partner or assistant in business. 
GUd read Sections 1, 5 and 15 of the Act to show 
that registration was necessary as a qualification to sell 
poisons. 
The Sheriff held that registration under the Act was 
a requisite even in the case of a person who had been in 
business as^ chemist and druggist before it came into 
operation, the only advantage which such a person had, 
being’ that he was entitled to have his name placed on 
the Register on application, as provided in the 5th section 
ot the Act. He found that the respondent had been 
proved to be the seller, and referred to his name appear¬ 
ing on the labels affixed to the articles sold as establish¬ 
ing tnat fact conclusively, and he accordingly convicted 
him of the contravention charged, and adjudged him to 
pay the penalty sued for, with expenses. 
A Wrong Medicine Supplied at a Dispensary. 
. G)n Thursday, Jan. 16, Mr. Coroner Browne held an 
inquest at Nottingham on the body of a child named 
Elizabeth Ann Brown, aged eight years. It appeared 
from the evidence that the child had been for some weeks 
attended as an out-door patient by Mr. Richard Johnston, 
one of the surgeons at the Dispensary. On Sunday, the 
22nd lilt., the father went to the Dispensary for some 
medicine, when he received by mistake some opium and 
bismuth from Mr. Johnston, who mistook the child’s 
fathei for another person, and gave him a liquid con¬ 
taining the above ingredients, which were intended for 
another patient. Mr. Johnston did not discover the 
mistake until after the medicine had been administered, 
when he at once sent on a request to have the medicine 
returned. I he child, which had by this time taken two 
tablespoonfuls of the medicine, according to the directions 
given on the bottle, was brought to the Dispensary the 
same night,, where an emetic was prescribed in addition 
to the application of the stomach pump. It had com¬ 
plained ot not being well in about three quarters of an 
hour after the medicine had been administered. On the 
following Monday the child was somewhat recovered, 
but it thereafter became gradually worse up till its death 
last Sunday morning. Mr. Johnston had continued his 
attendance for rather more than a week after the mistake, 
but ceased to visit it on learning that Mr. Thompson, 
another surgeon, had been called in. On Monday, Jan. 13, 
G ^ “ 0thci Ghe deceased had gone to the Dispensary, 
and theie charged Mr. Johnston with having murdered 
her child, and requested him to give her some pecuniary 
consideration. Mr. Johnston, however, declined to do 
jiag m the matter beyond providing medicine and 
attendance. Mrs. .Brown thereafter went before the 
committee of the Dispensary, and stated her case to them. 
T e committee gave her 10s., and asked her to come 
bac*. next Monday, accompanying the request with an 
expression of sorrow that the mistake should have oc- 
curred. They had also remarked that it was a matter 
which ought to be looked into. The bottle had con¬ 
tained two and a half drachms of a liquid preparation of 
opium, and the quantity partaken of by the child had 
contained from twenty-five to twenty-eight drops. 
In reply to a question it was stated that the names of 
patients were not put on the bottles issued from the Dis¬ 
pensary, but merely the directions. 
Mr. Thompson, surgeon, said he had made a post-mortem 
examination on the body of the deceased, and expressed 
himself of opinion that the mistaken application of the 
medicine had had nothing to do with the child’s death, 
lhere was nothing which he could at all connect with 
that beyond a slight inflammation of a part of the stomach 
In his opinion death had been caused by inflammation 
of the membranes of the brain. 
The Coroner in summing up said it was quite plain, 
that there had been a mistake on the part of Mr. John¬ 
ston, but they had heard Mr. Thompson’s evidence to 
the effect that death had resulted from the inflammation 
of the membranes covering the brain. They would have 
no difficulty, therefore, in arriving at a verdict. He 
could not let the case pass, however, without strongly 
expressing his opinions with regard to all the parties- 
concerned. The mother had charged Mr. Johnston with 
murdering her child, and yet she was willing to receive 
money to hush the matter up. Then the conduct of the 
gentlemen of the Dispensary committee in giving the 
woman 10s. and sending her away without instituting, 
further investigation at once, was disgraceful. For their 
own sakes, and for the sake of the institution, it was 
clearly their duty to have instituted a most rigid inquiry 
into the matter. Had it not been by a mere chance the 
child.would have been buried on the previous day with¬ 
out his (the Coroner’s) knowledge, and without the pre¬ 
sent inquiry, which he thought was a duty that plainly 
required to be done in the circumstances. A verdict of' 
“Death.from inflammation of the membranes covering 
the brain” was accordingly returned by the jury, and. 
both, the mother of the child and Mr. Johnston were- 
reprimanded for the part they had taken .—Nottingham 
Daily Journal. 
FRANCIS FLETCHER. 
It is with deep regret we note the death of Mr. Francis 
Fletcher, wd.o died at Cheltenham on the 6th of January, 
instant, in his sixty-first year. 
His name, is enrolled on the records of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society from the year 181-2 down to 1867, when, 
from continued pain and suffering, he relinquished busi¬ 
ness and. thus severed his connection with the Society ; 
but continued until his death a subscriber to the Bene¬ 
volent Fund. 
His career in Cheltenham dates from 1841, when he* 
succeeded to the business previously started by Messrs. 
Knight and Wakeman, and in conjunction with his sur¬ 
viving partner he successfully carried on this business 
for a period of twenty-six years, under the title of 
“ Fletcher and Palmer.” 
Francis Fletcher, though of a quiet and unobtrusive* 
manner, was in his day and generation superior to most, 
men of his class. With a cultivated mind, a genial 
manner, and an easy disposition, he has passed from this, 
world, leaving an unsullied reputation and a large circle- 
of loving and sorrowing friends. 
Notice has also been received of the death of the fol¬ 
lowing : — 
On the 31st December, 1872, Mr. Henry Wake Allen, 
Chemist and Druggist, of King’s Lynn, Norfolk. 
itlM). 
The Pharmacopoeia op the United States of Ame¬ 
rica.^ Fifth decennial revision. By the authority of 
the. National Convention for Revising the Pharmaco¬ 
poeia, held at Washington, a.d. 1870. Philadelphia: 
J. B. Lippincott and Co. 1873.* 
The fifth of the decennial editions of the United- 
States Pharmacopoeia is now being published in Phila¬ 
delphia. It is a handsome foolscap octavo of 383 pages,, 
beautifully printed in sharp clear type on faintly-toned 
paper. In general style it is superior to the British 
^ * The writer is indebted to the unexpected kindness of Dr~ 
Carson, President of the National Convention, for an early 
complimentary copy. 
