February 1 1373.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTION? 
617 
‘found that one of them contained tartar emetic ; hut he 
was of opinion that there was not a quarter of a grain in 
it. Supposing that three or four grains had been sold, 
there was still two grains and two-tenths left in the 
paper. 
Mr. Edmund Taylor, chemist, Eccleshill, said on the 
.28th of December the prisoner called at his shop and 
■asked to be supplied with six grains of tartar emetic for 
a vomit. Witness said ho should not like to sell six 
grains, and that from one to two grains was considered 
an ordinary dose. In some cases the doses taken were 
as much as four grains. Ultimately he agreed to sell the 
prisoner three grains, and told him that the Act of Par¬ 
liament required that he should sign for it. He got the 
prisoner’s signature. 
Alderman Law: We are very glad that you complied 
with the Act of Parliament. In addressing the prisoner, 
Alderman Law said he would be discharged, but the 
Dench never recollected such a shameful case coming 
before them in all their experience. He (the prisoner) 
ought to feel ashamed of himself, and he could not tell 
how he could manage to face anybody after doing such a 
dastardly act. The prisoner knew and intended that 
the emetic should make the girl painfully and distress¬ 
ingly ill. He had never known her before, and had had 
no provocation whatever. The prisoner ought to be 
heartily ashamed of himself, and he hoped that would be 
•a caution to him in the future. 
Mr. Derry said that was the feeing of the prisoner’s 
friends, who were exceedingly respectable people. 
Sir. Gurney said the magistrates thought that they 
would not have done their duty unless they had thoroughly- 
investigated the whole of the case, and he thought that 
.any one who read the evidence would agree with them. 
Although it might seem a long time for the prisoner to 
Lave been remanded, still under all circumstances it was 
necessary. If the emetic had been dangerous to life, it 
would have been the duty of the magistrates to commit 
the prisoner for trial, but as it was they 7 discharged him, 
believing that he had committed only 7 an idle disgusting- 
freak .—The Bradford Observer. 
Death while under the Ineluence oe Nitrous 
Oxide. 
An inquiry 7 has been held at Exeter touching the 
death of Miss Ida Windham. It appeared from the 
evidence that the deceased lady had attended at the resi¬ 
dence of Mr. Mason, dentist, for the purpose of having 
a tooth extracted. At her own request nitrous oxide 
was administered. The medical man who was present 
noticed the lowering of the pulse before the deceased was 
completely under the influence of the gas, and an unsuc¬ 
cessful attempt was made to extract the tooth. More 
gas was administered and the operation completed, when 
the patient’s face suddenly grew livid, respiration ceased, 
and she shortly afterwards expired. 
The jury-, alter a brief consultation, returned a verdict 
of “Homicide by 7 misadventure,” entirely exculpating 
the operators. 
(Dbitaarn. 
PROFESSOR SEDGWICK. 
On Monday last, the University of Cambridge lost its 
senior Fellow and oldest Professor. On that day the 
Rev. Adam Sedgwick, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor 
of Geology hi the university since the year 1818, died 
at his rooms in Trinity College. For some weeks pre¬ 
viously the Professor had been in a very 7 precarious state, 
and from his advanced age little hope was entertained of 
his recovery, bom at Dent, in Yorkshire, in 1794, he 
took his Bachelor’s degree at Cambridge in 1808, being 
fifth Wrangler of that year. In 1810 he obtained a Fel¬ 
lowship ; eight y r ears afterwards he succeeded Professor 
Hailstone in the chair of geology, and continued to lec¬ 
ture for more than fifty years, Professor John Morris 
being appointed to act as his deputy in 1871. He was 
elected F.R.S. in 1818, and was President of the Geo¬ 
logical Society in the years 1869-71. He was also one of 
the _ earliest Presidents of the British Association, he 
having been elected to the post forty years since, upon the 
occasion of the meeting of the Association"at Cambridge 
in 1833. He has also filled the office of Vice-President 
and President of the Geological section on several other 
occasions. 
Professor Sedgwick’s studies were chiefly confined to 
geology 7 , but in that field he was an acknowledged chief. 
Pie held a canonry of Norwich Cathedral, and also for 
many 7 y r ears acted as Secretary to the Prince Consort in 
his capacity as Chancellor of the University of Cam¬ 
bridge. 
Notice has been received of the death of the follow¬ 
ing :— 
On the 11th January, 1873, Mr. William Reynolds, 
Chemist and Druggist, of Hyson Green, Notts, aged 49. 
Aide-Memoire de Pharmacie: Vade-mecum du Phar- 
macien a l'Officine et au Laboratoire. Par Eusebe 
Ferraxd, Pharmacien, a Paris, etc. Paris: J. B. 
Bailliere et fils. 1873. 8vo, pp. 587. 
The object of the author in compiling this work has 
been to unite in a single compact volume the largest 
possible amount of information relating to Materia 
Medica, using the term in the widest sense. Each 
article furnishes the origin, composition, physiological 
action, and therapeutic applications of the substance to 
which it refers. With regard to the introduction of so 
much matter relating to the medicinal action of drugs, 
we quote the explanation given by the author himself in 
the preface:— 
“ L’action des medicaments sur l’economie devait tout 
particulierement fixer notre attention, et dans notre 
opinion exigeait quelques developpements ; e'est un des 
cotes les plus importants de leur histoire. Si nous nous 
etions renfernffis dans le cadre restreint de nos etudes 
legates, nous aurions pu limiter davantage cette partie 
de l’ouvrage; mais la pratique, qui est un guide sur 
quand on veut ecrire un livre pratique, nous poussait cn 
sens contraire. 
“Nous sommes responsables, sinon d’apres le texte de 
la loi, au moins d’apres les traditions de la jurispru¬ 
dence, de toutes les preparations que nous livrons au 
public. Lc medecin lui-meme, s’il vient a formuler une 
prescription dangereuse, peut abriter sa responsabilite 
derriere l’ignorance coupable du pharmacien qui n’a pas 
su reconnoitre les lapsus d’une plume distraite.” 
The chemical portion of each article is treated from a 
practical point of view, the object being to furnish di¬ 
rections for establishing the identity of the substance 
and its freedom from impurity or sophistication. 
Space is devoted to the analysis of many of the ordi¬ 
nary articles of commerce, with regard to which infor¬ 
mation is often required of the practical chemist. Anti¬ 
dotes to poisons and “incompatibles” are also noticed 
in their nroper places, and appended to each article are 
the formuke for most of the pharmaceutical preparations 
in use in French pharmacy, as well as, in a few cases, 
recipes from the British and other European pharma¬ 
copoeias. 
The chemical notation employed is exclusively that 
which is founded on the binary theory- of the constitu¬ 
tion of salts, and which we, in England, are in the habit 
of calling the “old notation,” though it has been by no 
means completely abandoned by French chemists. Sy¬ 
nonyms are supplied pretty freely 7 , and a style ot Latin 
nomenclature introduced which, if we mistake uot, has 
