^February 1, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
010 
P.S.—Provisionally that this bye-law does come into opera¬ 
tion I have sent in my resignation, and I do not doubt that 
the example will be followed by many others. 
Lancet Amenities. 
Sir,—That the writer in the Globe should, through ignorance 
of the questions he was attempting to solve, have fallen into 
grievous error and committed himself to absurd “non se- 
quiturs ” is not surprising. Still less need one be astonished 
• that the body of pharmaceutists having been attacked, the 
Lancet should have joined in the fray, and with its usual 
disregard of fairness and gentlemanly feeling done its little 
utmost to aggravate and exasperate the misunderstanding. 
But the fact of the Medical Times and Gazettehsivmg also 
-entered the lists, and, wonderful to observe, shown no greater 
degree of fairness or of good will than its contemporary, seems 
to point to a state of feeling in the medical mind that pharma¬ 
ceutists are bound to take cognizance of. Do doctors, as a 
rule, regard the educated pharmacist as differing from an or¬ 
dinary retailer only by his greater unscrupulousness and ra¬ 
pacity ? Is that the sole result of the sustained efforts for 
thirty years of a host of men whom the public have regarded 
as at least respectable? What are we to think of the posi¬ 
tion w r e hold in the 'public estimation when a leader of 
medical opinion ridicules “ the great skill required to dis¬ 
pense drugs ” and propounds the question, “ surely there is 
not such extraordinary skill required in obeying definite 
directions put down on a piece of paper ?” 
It is difficult to suppose that the writer could really have 
-any other motives in inditing such remarks than to preju¬ 
dice the pharmacist in the eyes of the public and injure his 
pecuniary position. He must be indeed ignorant of the 
kind and degree of knowledge required for the intelligent 
exercise of pharmacy to suppose that it is all summed up 
in the ability to mix certain substances “ according to defi¬ 
nite directions put down upon a piece of paper.” 
The less said about the “ definiteness ” of the directions, 
and the manner of “ putting them down on paper,” the 
better, I should have thought. Nor does it seem wise to dis¬ 
parage those who, being fairly behind the scences, and 
specially qualified to “reckon up” the pretensions of medi¬ 
cal men, could so readily return a Rowland for their Oliver. 
But it is not worth while “ to render railing for railing,” for 
after all there is some look of hopefulness about the matter. 
Does not the crusade spring from an impression on the part 
of certain envious and probably impecunious individuals, 
that the status of the pharmaceutist is improving, and that 
he actually dares to approach the sacred dignity of a profes¬ 
sion ? And why should he not ? Where is the great difference 
in the personnel of the trade and profession? Excluding 
from comparison the few doctors who have passed through a 
University course, the difference is very slight. Of course 
one ignores quacks on one side, and hucksters on the other. 
Yet, however true this may be, the public will not acknow¬ 
ledge it until the chemist makes up his mind to assert his 
position, and decline to be otherwise regarded than as equal 
to his medical brother. The relative position of the militia 
officer to the linesman is, I believe, defined as “ with but 
after,” and that, in his intercourse with the medical profes¬ 
sion, every pharmacist should insist on. It is perfectly ab¬ 
surd to suppose that when a father having two sons, makes 
one a doctor and the other a pharmacist—the one should be 
treated as a gentleman, the other regarded as a social 
pariah. Such a state of things has existed and does exist. 
It depends on the rising generation of pharmacists to say 
how long it shall continue. 
Rusty Cuss. 
Sir,—The Lancet seems to be down on the trade and wishes to 
put the quietus on the seal-skin jackets of the chemists’ better 
halves in this town. I do not know any chemist’s wife who 
is the happy possessor of one, but I do know several wives 
of medical men who rejoice in them. If the editor of the 
Lancet will look down the list of businesses for disposal, 
.returns in many cases from £250 to £400 a year, I think he 
will not be jealous of seal-skin jackets proceeding from the 
profits of such trading. The unlucky proprietors do not 
require putting down—down they are with their nose to the 
.grindstone; and if they escape the list of bankrupts, eke out 
their wretched living either with Gilbey’s wines, bottled ale, 
petroleum oil, mineral naphtha, Thorley’s food, or a little 
h.t of quacking. Therefore 1 hope more leniency will be shown 
to the poor chemist, who in small manufacturing and agri¬ 
cultural districts manages to keep the wolf from the door by 
little extras which may be infra dig., but which very seldom 
produce that rara avis, a rich chemist and druggist. 
Warrington , Jan. 27th, 1873. Pie Gaelic. 
Veemin Killees. 
Sir,—I have read with a considerable amount of interest, 
and have derived a large amount of information from, the very 
able and comprehensive letter of Mr. Longley, of Leeds, on 
the subject of the Sale of Vermin Killers. I venture to assert 
that the majority of the trade (I ask the pardon of those 
members who take their stand on the lofty pinnacle and fondly 
imagine it ought to be designated a profession) have inter¬ 
preted the meaning of the Act as he did, viz., that vermin 
killers were included in the second part of the Sale of Poisons 
Act. On reference to a card or paper issued to chemists and 
druggists by the local pharmaceutical secretaries, I find, in 
part two, the last article named is “Vermin Killers: every 
compound containing a poison and sold for the destruction of 
vermin.” Now as far as my memor}' serves me, I think that 
paper was distributed since December, 1869; in that I may be 
right or wrong; but be that as it may, I think the Society, 
having the interest of the trade confided to their care, might 
have sent some time at all events during this last three year’s, 
a notification that vermin killers were classed in the first part 
of the list. Might I suggest to the proprietors of Battle’s 
Vermin Killer—I merely take that preparation as I think it is 
the one most generally sold, and the one that after what it 
has done may with certainty be recommended as poison war¬ 
ranted to kill—that they should when sending it out mark 
the quantity of the potent poison on the wrapper, or say with 
each dozen, then the chemist may enter the quantity in his 
book, before serving his customer. Again, the question may 
be asked, Have these persons who put up the vermin killers 
any right to send it out without its being labelled with the 
name of the poison, the word poison, and their name and 
address? I fancy legally they have no right. I find it is the 
custom of the wholesale people to label all their poison with 
name and address—how then is vermin killer passed over ? If 
chemists would agree to sell nothing less than say sixpenny 
packets, the profit on which would repay them for the time 
and trouble of registering the sale, I think it would be well. 
A beneficent legislature ci’ies aloud, “ Salus populi suprema 
est lex,” but all the care of our paternal Government will 
not stop poisoning ; but for the life of me I cannot sec why 
the would-be-suicide should take so affectionately to vermin 
killers—how much pleasanter of the two would it not be to 
glide imperceptibly from the world under the influence of 
opium ! the obtaining of which presents no difficulty, no sign¬ 
ing in a book, no introduction required; sixpence and the 
excuse that the person suffer from neuralgic pains, or has been 
ordered to put laudanum in a poultice, is sufficient in pretty 
nearly every case. 
Warrington , Jan. 27th, 1873. Bil Gaelic. 
Sir,—I must confess that I think the Council have arrived 
at a wise decision in adding “Vermin Killers” to Part 1 of 
the List of Poisons when they contain any such ingredients 
as strychnia or arsenic, and a chemist who sells them cannot 
plead ignorance as his reason for not entering the sale. There 
is no parallel case, as some have attempted to argue, between 
patent medicines that contain prussic acid, morphia, or tartar 
emetic, and the “ Vermin Killers.” The former are medicines 
prepared from private formulae, and sent forth as remedies 
for certain complaints and diseases to which “ mortal flesh is 
heir to,” with full directions as to the dose, and generally 
accompanied wfith a promise to cure, but the latter are put 
forth as “ Killers,” not “ Curers,” and not to be taken at any 
time by our mutual friends the public. While on this sub¬ 
ject I am obliged to acknowledge that entering poisons in a 
book is nothing like so troublesome a job as I expected it 
would be. Of course, on supplying a customer the first time 
there is rather more trouble than occurs afterwards, but any 
purchaser, having once been initiated into the course required, 
signs his name while I am getting his parcel ready, and very 
little time is wasted. On looking over about 200 entries 
during the three last months of 1872, I find not more than 
twelve are made for sales to fresh customers, so that more 
than ninety per cent, can be entered as “Known; ” this, of 
course, very much diminishes both trouble and risk. It is 
quite evident that coroners are very desirous of keeping us 
