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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [October 29, 1870. 
Public Dispensaries. 
Sir,-—That a stricter surveillance is necessary in the ma¬ 
nagement of our public dispensaries will, I think, be granted 
by every one at all conversant with the subject. I am con¬ 
vinced there are few chemists in our larger towns but could 
narrate instances, if not of the blundering, most certainly of 
the slipshod manner in which the dispensing is conducted in 
these dispensaries. The following instance of the latter may 
be given, not as one of the grossest, but as one of the most 
recent that has come under my own observation, having oc¬ 
curred no later than Saturday last. 
A poor but respectable woman received a prescription, which 
she was instructed to present at one of our public dispensaries. 
The prescription was for drops (liquor of arsenic) and an oint¬ 
ment (nitrate of mercury). She had no phial for the drops, 
but one was supplied her, charged for, and then handed to her 
ivitliout a cork. Part of the contents in consequence were 
spilt in the basket in which she carried it, and more than pro¬ 
bably amongst the small purchases she had been making when 
out, and was then carrying home. On the phial was the sim¬ 
ple word “ Poison.” No label to state whether for external 
or internal administration. No name to indicate where it 
had been got. No number, as indeed there could not be, 
seeing the prescription was not copied. She was asked for a 
box, into which to put the ointment, and as she had none, a 
two-ounce willow box was given her, and into it was placed 
the two drams of ointment ordered. (The ointment, I may 
state, was quite black.) This box was an old one which had 
previously contained pills, and the pill-label was neither re¬ 
moved from the lid nor a new one pasted over, so that the oint¬ 
ment was actually sent out labelled as pills. For this box 
the charge of one penny was made, but whether this penny 
was a perquisite to the dispenser, or was one of the sources of 
income of this most excellent charity, I could not discover. 
I neither expect nor advocate for our public charities all the 
comforts or niceties of independent means, but I do expect, 
and would insist that the ease or comfort or indifference of 
our public dispensers should not interfere with the proper 
discharge of their duty, or neutralize in any way the good of 
these useful and worthy institutions. A. 
Pharmacy and Medical Practitioners. 
Sir,—As a proof of the “monstrously excessive charges ” 
which we shall be enabled to make if “this spirit of bickering” 
be further indulged in, the following prescription was handed 
to me this week,—“Tincture of Actcea racemosa, % ounce;” 
and as the patient supplied his own bottle, you can imagine 
the amount of profit made by the transaction. I have re¬ 
ceived several similar prescriptions written in Latin, with 
either verbal directions or “To be used as directed,” and on 
being repeated, the article has been asked for in English. 
In all cases the parties have been in by no means “ humble 
circumstances.” In one case the patient was told to ask for 
“ 1 drachm of pill mass, for which the charge would be 3 d ” 
I cannot agree with your correspondent that “ it is a most 
extraordinary fact that chemists in one part of town should 
charge as much for preparing a prescription as medical men 
should charge for both visit and medicine in another,” as he 
must be well aware that “locality regulates prices” to a 
great extent. I certainly should be surprised if I paid 
the same for having a mixture dispensed in Bond Street and 
Ratcliff Highway. 
We should all be extremely obliged to “Reformer” if he 
would kindly inform us where retailing ceases and counter 
practice begins, as I was informed by a medical gentleman 
the other day that digestive pills, hair washes and cough 
linctuses were decidedly “ contraband of war,” and I fear until 
I see the “breadth of the line” more clearly, I must remain, 
“A Pharmaceutical Sinner.” 
fen’,-—hen I read the letter of Mr. Mee, upon the extract 
from the Lancet, I was astounded at the one-sidedness of it. If 
chemists were in the same odour with the public as the sur¬ 
geons, at least 50 per cent, of the former would “ cave in ” in¬ 
stantly, and the remainder within a short period. A head of 
a family has just informed me that those [doctors’ bills are 
the black spots flickering about his memory day and night. 
I tiy to relieve him for 6 cl. or Is., whilst he has to pay three 
times as much for the « nobbut water and salts ” of the doctor. 
The haphazard messes that leave dingy surgeries are not to 
be classed at all with the correctly-dosed and neatly-wrapped 
bottles of the chemist; the patient, sick and weary, will not 
swallow aq. menth., made by adding ess. menth. to aq., with 
the oil floating in greasy abundance round the bottle. I 
have dispensed for surgeons and supplied them with the 
whole of their drugs; I find per cent, an average outlav, 
or £25 per £1000 practice,—this does not include bottles,— 
the bottle is frequently the most expensive part of the parcel 
of medicine. Mr. Wade’s letter is to the point; the day will 
be when the inert mixture and cheap pill must give way to 
the well-studied prescription; the cost being a secondary 
matter wdiere human life is at stake. J. Houlton. 
F. R. (Camberwell).—The object of washing ether is to 
separate alcohol. The use of ether in this preparation has 
been condemned by good authorities. It will probably be 
omitted from the form in the next edition of the B. P. 
J. W. (Attercliffe).—(1.) The formula in the B. P. is correct 
for the definite salt. Attfield, in his Chemistry, p. 180, states 
that the process does not yield this salt, but a mixture of two 
subacetates having the formula written by our correspondent. 
The process can only be symbolized in the modern notation 
satisfactorily upon the latter supposition. (2.) First person 
singular, indicative mood, perfect tense, of the Greek heu~ 
rislco, to find out or discover. 
T. Grainger (Birmingham).—The labels sent would be 
liable to stamp duty. As explained in the Appendix to the 
Calendar of the Pharmaceutical Society, the Medicine Stamp 
and Licence Acts require that if the medicine be a secret pre¬ 
paration, or if it has been recommended on the label, or on a 
handbill, or by any public advertisement, for the cure or relief 
of any disorder, it shall then be stamped and the vendor must 
take out a licence for its sale. 
Advertising by Postal Cards .—The manager of the Flori- 
line Company writes, in reply to a letter from a “ Country Che¬ 
mist,” in which he supposes the Company to be alluded to, 
that (1) the price cards were only sent to the trade, so that 
with the exception of the letter-carrier they would not be 
likely to be seen by the general public; (2) that the article 
advertised would not be supplied to any but the trade, except 
at the retail price, no matter in what quantity ordered. 
G-. M. —(1.) Yes. (2.) Melt equal parts of zinc and tin 
together, and combine these with three parts of mercury: 
the mass must be shaken until it is cold; the whole is then 
rubbed down with lard to the proper consistence. 
“ A Country Apprentice .”—The Latin Grammar. 
“Registered Student ” (Alnwick).—(1.) Yes. (2.) Yes* 
Apply to the Registrar. 
W. A. C. (Lynn).—The numbers of the specimens this 
year were—Mr. Webb’s, 460 and duplicates? Mr. Rammell’s, 
542; Mr. Wood’s, 330. 
A. H. J .—The questions were published at p. 288-9. 
“ Ignorans .”—The chemists and druggists eligible to be 
elected members of the Pharmaceutical Society are those who 
were in business before the 1st of August, 1868, and the As¬ 
sociates those who were admitted before the 1st July, 1842. 
“Inquirer .”—We should think a perfectly saturated solu¬ 
tion of chloride of iron is meant, or such a preparation as the 
ferri perchloridi fortior liquor of the B. P. 
“ Botanist ” (Southport).—Professor Oliver’s ‘ Elementary 
Lessons in Botany ’ is published by Messrs. Macmillan and 
Co., price 4s. 6d. 
“ Santonica” (London).—(1.) Make the citrine ointment 
twice over. (2.) We have not observed this action, and do 
not see why it should occur. Your description indicates the 
reduction of a portion of the oxide to the metallic state; 
J. Botham (Manchester).—Dr. Rubini’s camphor is a pro¬ 
prietary article. We do not know of a formula for its pre¬ 
paration. 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Mr. J. F. Brown (Dover), Mr. A. P. Towle (Manchester), 
Mr. J. H. Gortling (Halesworth), Mr. T. B. Allkins (Tam- 
worth), Mr. J. Houlton (Wetherby), Dr. Divers (London), 
Mr. Reynolds (Leeds), Mr. H. W. Maleham (Sheffield), 
Mr. A. H. Mason (Liverpool), Mr. W. Shaw (Hull), Mr. C. 
Tucker (Bridport), Mr. W. D. Williams (Salisbury), Mr. T. 
Perkins (Norwich), Mr. Davies (Liverpool), Mr. F. H. Cumine 
(Southport), Mr. Hornsby (Brighton), “Assistant,” “A Phar¬ 
maceutical Sinner,” D.C.L., M.P.S. 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘British 
Medical Journal,’ Oct. 22; the ‘ Medical Times and Gazette,’ 
Oct. 22; the ‘Lancet,’ Oct. 22; ‘Nature,’ Oct. 20; the ‘Che¬ 
mical News,’ Oct. 21; ‘Journal of the Society of Arts,’ Oct. 
20; ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ Oct. 22; the ‘ Grocer,’ Oct. 22; 
the ‘English Mechanic,’ Oct. 21; the ‘Journal of Materia 
Medica ’ for October. 
