35G 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 29, 1870: 
earth with carbolic acid; the oiling, staining and harden¬ 
ing of floors, so that instead of being scrubbed, they 
might be cleaned with something of the turpentine kind; 
the abolition of fixed carpets in bed-rooms, and the burn¬ 
ing of the sweepings of sick-room floors. The other sub¬ 
jects discussed in the paper were, the Contagious Diseases 
Act,' baby farming, the principles of sanitary law, the 
necessity of Building Acts, the dwellings of the poor and 
local taxation. 
Dr. Rogers believed that scarlet fever arose from 
animal decomposition. In twelve years’ experience at 
the Strand Union he had never had a case of scarlet 
fever spread in the sick-wards, while eleven or twelve 
days after a woman entered the receiving ward with a 
child that had the measles, the disease ran through the 
whole of the nursery, which was fifty yards off. Scarlet 
fever was more under control, he thought, than any 
other of the preventiblc diseases. The reason of its 
spreading so rapidly in some districts was that the ex¬ 
creta were not properly got rid of. At the Strand Union 
the drains were of the best, and as soon as there were 
any smells in the wards he punished the nurses by stop¬ 
ping their beer and other extras. The result was, the 
smells soon vanished. 
Dr. Liddle thought inspectors should be appointed to 
decide whether houses were fit for habitation or not, and 
if not, Government should take stops to pull them down. 
Dr. Gibbon said the result of the last speaker’s action 
would be that the poor would have no houses at all, for 
he had made ample provision for pulling them down, but 
none for building them up again. 
Dr. Aldis said that at Eastbourne an outbreak of 
scarlet fever had originated in the old and badly-drained 
portion of the town. 
Dr. Tilly remarked that he had recently inspected 
forty or fifty houses, into which there was a constant 
admission of sew'er gases. 
Dr. Stevenson said he had found sulphurous fumiga¬ 
tion very effective, but there were considerable difficul¬ 
ties in the way of burning sulphur. The bisulphide of 
carbon was very volatile, and should be used carefully, 
but it was much more effective than solid sulphur. 
Dr. Ilife said scarlet fever in his parish had not ori¬ 
ginated from dirt, filth or bad drainage. 
MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 
Wednesday, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain .— 
“On Some of the Infusions of the Pharmacopoeia.” By 
Mr. J. B. Barnes. —“On the Purity of some of the Alka¬ 
loids of Commerce.” By W. L. Scott, F.C.S. 
Thursday, London Chemists’ Association.—■“ Belladonna 
and its Preparations.” By Mr. R. Pick. 
prliiravcutsiti anil fiito framiJinp. 
Thames Police Court. 
BEFORE MR. FAGET. 
The Shipment of Dangerous Articles. 
Messrs. James M‘Ewan and Co., merchants and ship- 
brokers, of Cannon Street, City, were summoned before 
Mr. Paget, at the instance of the East and West India 
Dock Company, for unlawfully causing to be sent to the 
East India Dock for shipment on board a vessel called 
the “ Coloena,” two packages of mineral extract, without 
distinctly stating the nature of such goods on the out¬ 
side of the packages containing the same, or otherwise 
giving due notice thereof to the superintendent of the 
dock, whereby the defendants had incurred a penalty 
not exceeding £20. It was proved that three packages 
of goods were shipped on board the “Coloena” for 
Wellington, New Zealand, as lamps. Two of the pack¬ 
ages contained a highly combustible and dangerous sub¬ 
stance, petroleum spirit, and the third only contained 
lamps. The dangerous nature of the petroleum spirit 
was proved by Mr. Ogston, analytical chemist, on be¬ 
half of the dock company, and it was stated by Mix 
Young that if an explosion had occurred on board the 
“ Coloena ” on the voyage nothing could have saved the 
ship, cargo, 110 passengers and crew from total destruc¬ 
tion. Mr. Paget said the liquid shipped on board ship 
was a most dangerous article. It was described as the 
most dangerous part of petroleum, and very inflam¬ 
mable. If the stuff had been shipped, qnd stowed away 
imder hatches, every living soul on board would have 
been on a volcano. This was a case of so much import¬ 
ance that he felt bound to inflict the full penalty of £20. 
and £3. os. costs.— Times. 
Worship Street Police Court. 
BEFORE MR. BUSHBY. 
Alice Maud Kemp was charged, on remand, with hav-- 
ing- attempted suicide by taking laudanum. The facts 
of this case were reported last week. The prisoner stated 
that she had purchased an ounce and a half of laudanum 
at Mr. Cooper’s, chemist, of Amherst Road, Hackney. 
The prisoner, in answer to the magistrate, said that 
wdien she purchased the poison at Mr. Cooper’s she 
stated that she wanted it for some silk. She could not 
say for what purpose laudanum might be used with re¬ 
gard to silk, but she said that as it was the first thing 
she thought of. She had only been there once before, 
but Mr. Cooper did not know her address or name until 
she told him at the time of purchasing the laudanum. 
She denied that she had stated she wanted the poison for 
a lotion for her leg. 
The mother of the prisoner having expressed her will¬ 
ingness to become surety for her daughter’s good be¬ 
haviour for one month, she was set at liberty. 
A solicitor wished to address the Court upon behalf of 
Mr. Cooper, but 
Mr. Bushby said that he could not hear him, as Mr. 
Cooper was not before the Court. Adverting to the sale 
of the poison by Mr. Cooper, Mr. Bushby said that from 
what the prisoner had stated, it appeared that the poison 
was sold by the chemist to her without any introduction 
given by a friend known to both, as required by the Act 
of Parliament, and without any previous knowledge of 
the party to whom he had sold the poison. In the interest 
of the public safety he, Mr. Bushby, thought that the 
police should make inquiries into the case, and see if the 
17th section of the Act (31 & 32 Yict.) had not been 
infringed, and he directed that to be done. 
The solicitor begged to be allowed to call attention to 
the Act. 
Mr. Bushby declined to allow anything so irregular. 
If the police found that the Act had been infringed, and 
Mr. Cooper was brought before the Court to answer for 
having incautiously sold the poison, there would be ample 
opportunity of arguing the question, 
At the Southwark Police Court, a young- woman 
charged with being destitute and creating a disturbance- 
in the public streets, said that she had been to a chemist 
the evening before, and had he supplied her with what 
she wanted she would have been dead by that time and 
all her sorrows forgotten. 
[*** This case serves to illustrate the truth of the 
opinion expressed last week, that druggists are careful to 
exercise discretion in the sale of poisons.'— Ed. I*h. J.] 
At the Manchester Police Court, on Tuesday, Octo¬ 
ber 8th, a lamp manufacturer was summoned for having 
thirty gallons of petroleum stored in a cellar -without a 
licence. The defendant, who had been refused a licence 
six months ago, because he had failed to comply wilu. 
the instructions of the watch committee, was fined £10, 
and the petroleum and vessels containing it were ordered 
to be forfeited. 
