732 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[Marcli 15, 1873, 
existence a thousand years, and where intellect is a 
thousand years behind the times. Something better 
than the mere testing of, it may be, a too rapidly 
charged memory, or, rather, something in addition 
thereto, such as is found in the conducting of actual 
experiments in the pharmaceutical examinations 
and in the proposed preliminary qualifications for 
examination, is now generally recognized as 
necessary before titles of any value can be worthily 
conferred. 
REGISTRATION OR FIRMS BILL. 
In legislation as well as in all other things there 
is a juste milieu , to attain which, without passing 
beyond into mischievous meddling or improper in¬ 
quisitiveness, is a fair test of true statesmanship. 
As an illustration of tliis view we may refer to a Bill 
lately introduced into the House of Commons, and of 
which an abstract is given at p. 735. The object 
of this Bill is to provide for the discovery and re¬ 
gistration of the names of partners in firms trading 
under a designation that does not disclose them. 
This may appear to some to trench upon dangerous 
ground, and to have an offensively inquisitorial 
character. Doubtless, on the other hand, in these 
days when “ and Co.” and other sounding titles are 
so freely used, the Bill will find admirers among 
those who have suffered from not knowing exactly 
with whom they were doing business. Putting 
aside, however, these pro and con. opinions, there is 
one respect in which the Bill is specially interesting 
to registered chemists and druggists. A recent pro¬ 
secution in the north illustrated how the name of a 
medical man may be used as a cloak for illegally 
carrying on the business of a chemist and druggist; 
and it is not improbable that the name of a registered 
chemist and druggist is frequently used in a similar 
way. Such a law as that now proposed, if efficiently 
earned out, would at least put within the reach 
of the Registrar the means of ascertaining whether 
such alleged partnerships were fictions, and thus 
greatly assist him in carrying out the provisions of 
the Pharmacy Act. 
ADULTERATION OF DRUGS IN THE FOURTEENTH 
CENTURY. 
England in the “ good old times ” appears to have 
suffered from evils very similar in their nature to 
some that at present exist, although the measures 
by which our ancestors tried to remedy them 
evinced a spice of originality altogether want¬ 
ing in the uniformity of the fines and imprisonments 
of the present day. In the ‘ Memorials of London 
and London Life in the 13tli, 14th and 15th Cen¬ 
turies,’ compiled by Mr. Riley, and published by 
order of the Corporation, we read that in 1394 an 
Inquisition was taken before the Mayor and Aider- 
men, at the Guildhall, to inquire whether or not 
William Whitman, “ citizen and felmongere,” did on 
a certain day “ falsely and deceitfully deliver to one 
“ Thomas Keys, merchant, of Stowe St. Edward, in the 
“ county of Gloucester, divers small bags filled with 
“ various powders, made of rape, roots of radiche, 
“ and old setuwale [ zedoary], rotten, and unwliole- 
“ some for mankind, as being good powdered ginger ; 
“ and other like bags filled with tansy seed, of no 
“ value whatever, for genuine seed called ‘ worm 
“ seed ’; and also divers barrels of rosyn for frank 
“ ensense.” The jury declared upon their oath 
the said William Whitman to be “ guilty of the 
deceit and falsehood aforesaid,” and it w r as adjudged, 
“in order that others might in future beware of 
“ doing the like,” he should “ on the same day, be- 
“ tween the hours of 10 and 11 of the clock 
“ before noon, be put upon the pillory, there to remain 
“ for one hour of the day, the said false powders 
“ being then burnt beneath the same.” On the 
Saturday and Monday after he was again to be put 
upon the pillory for one hour each day, and on each 
occasion the reason for such punishment was to be 
proclaimed. 
"W e have much gratification in being able to state 
that Dr. Redwood, the Professor of Chemistry in 
the Society’s School of Pharmacy, has .been ap¬ 
pointed to the office of Analyst to discharge the 
duties required by the Adulteration of Food Act, 
1872, for the Parish of Clerkenwell and the Dis¬ 
tricts of St. Giles’s and Holborn. We understand 
that there was a brisk competition for the appoint¬ 
ment, and that especial care was taken by the 
electing bodies to ascertain the extent to which the 
several candidates possessed the various forms of 
qualification required by the Act. We heartily con¬ 
gratulate the inhabitants of the important districts 
to which this appointment applies upon the result 
of the election, and on their having secured the 
services of a gentleman who possesses so extended 
an experience of the kind of questions that are likely 
to be raised in the working of the Adulteration Act. 
In a letter just received from Dr. F. A. Fluckiger, 
he informs us that he has relinquished his appoint¬ 
ments in Switzerland in favour of the post of Professor 
Ordinarius of Pharmacy in the new University of 
Strassburg. Dr. Fluckiger was until now Professor 
Extraordinarius of Pharmacy and Pharmacognosy in 
.the University of Bern and Director of the Staats- 
apotlieke of that town ; he is also an Honorary and 
Corresponding Member of the Pharmaceutical Society 
of Great Britain, and has published several valuable 
papers in our pages. His familiarity with the 
German and French languages, no less than his 
distinguished scientific acquirements, render him 
eminently qualified to fill with advantage his new 
position, which we are glad to learn will probably 
also enable him to become a more frequent contribu¬ 
tor to this Journal than hitherto. 
Dr. Hooker, of Kew Gardens, is to be proposed 
by the Council of the Royal Society to succeed Sir 
George Airey as President. 
