940 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May 20, 1871. 
which must somehow be got over, under or round, the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society will be looked on as a guardian spirit, 
striving by its examinations and by other means to raise the 
trade in public estimation and to increase its esprit de corps. 
Cathay, Hay 12th. Philip H. Mason. 
P.S.—Will some correspondent kindly point out what ad¬ 
vantage beyond the honour of the thing is, at present, gained 
by passing the Major ? 
Uniformity of Charges. 
Sir,—Allow me to express my opinion that pharmaceutists, 
as a body, could not more effectually conduce to the future 
aggrandizement of their profession—for such it now strictly is 
or should be—than by manifesting their determination to 
suppress petty and unseemly jealousies, and to arrive at an 
amicable understanding with each other regarding uniformity 
of charges. 
One naturally jumps to the conclusion that adulteration 
must be extensively in vogue when prescriptions such as the 
following are brought to be dispensed for sixpence, as hap¬ 
pened to me:— 
R. Sp. Am. Co. 
Tr. Opii, 
Sp. Cainpb. 
Tr. Rlici Co. 
Ess. Menth. Pip. 
Tr. Capsici, ana 5ij. 
M. Cap. guttm xx per dosis. 
When I expostulated and urged that it was at the rate of cost 
pi’ice, I was informed that it had frequently been obtained 
at Mr.-’s for that price; consequently, having dispensed 
it I had no alternative but to let the customer have it. Had 
I known this before preparing it, I should certainly have re¬ 
fused to stain my conscience and measure-glass with such a 
disgusting and glaring specimen of the worse than grocer-like 
system of cutting one another’s throats. 
The following, though somewhat notorious, is not one of 
Stratford’s proteges, but was dispensed at Milo End for six¬ 
pence :— 
R. Lin. Saponis Co. 3j 
Tinct. Cantharidis, 
Sp. Ammon. 
01. Succinis Rect., ana ^iij. M. 
Unless Dame Fortune intervenes, we must evidently suffer 
the same fate as the proverbial Kilkenny cats of old. 
Stratford, JE. Robert H. Keeley. 
Unqualified Assistants. 
Sir,—Among the various matters touched upon by your 
Correspondents I am surprised that of allowing errand boys 
to serve behind druggists’ counters has not been referred to. 
We hear much of professional qualifications, conscientious dis¬ 
charge of duties towards customers and the high position phar¬ 
macy should aim at, but not a word is said against these quali¬ 
fications being diluted by an errand boy behind the counter. 
In old times, errand boys were brought forward and many 
eventually became masters, then there was silence concerning 
qualification and position. 
Things have changed. The Pharmacy Act prevents any 
person carrying on retail except under restriction, but it 
allows any compliant person’s wife or errand boy to retail 
medicines during the absence of the principal. This seems 
anomalous, and affords little security to many of those for 
whose welfare the Pharmacy Act was passed. 
_ It may be said that in a neighbourhood where the drug¬ 
gist’s wife dispenses her smiles and medicines, and the boy 
mixes up the “ antibilious,” a poor population preponderates, 
but have not the poor quite as much claim as the rich to 
legal protection ? M.P.S. by Election. 
Not ting Hill, TV. 
Who Discovered Ether Anaesthesia? 
Sir,—As the public generally are always in an unhappy 
fog of innocent doubt as to the name of the first discoverer of 
Amesthetics, and not five people in a thousand could tell the 
name of the man who made the first application of ether 
vapour to take away pain in surgical operations, perhaps 
you would find a corner for the interesting fact that a monu¬ 
ment has been set up this year in America to commemorate 
the discovery. It may appear to some a little in the spread- 
eagle style; but all wiio have studied the history of anaesthe¬ 
tics will agree with the truth of the inscription. 
A committee of American citizens at Boston have erected: 
at Mount Auburn an appropriate monument to the memory 
of Morton. The inscription tells its own tale:— 
“ W. T. Morton, inventor and revealer of Amesthetic inha¬ 
lation.—Before whom in all time Surgery was Agony.—By 
whom Pain in Surgery was averted and annulled.—Since' 
whom Science has controlled Pain.” 
The inscription is in four parts on the four faces of the 
monument. Next to his name stands, perhaps, that of 
Waldie, the chemist, who taught Sir James Simpson the use 
of chloi'oform, and first directed his attention to it, as set 
forth in this pamphlet of Waldie’s brother, so disingenuously 
ignored, as well as this monument to Morton, by our medi¬ 
cal journals; but the next generation will do honour or credit 
to Morton’s memory. There are two monuments in the 
Hotel Dieu in Paris, put up by the French people, one to 
Bichat, the other to Magendie. When shall we have one to. 
Dalton or Davy, Wells or Morton ? 
Charles Kidd, M.D. 
Sackville Street, TV., April 25th, 1871. 
Borax and Blackbeetles. 
Sir,—I don’t know how it is that paragraphs are concocted 
and go the round of the papers, and then disappear; when, if 
the information conveyed in them were only true, they would 
be immortal. 
If, for example, it were only true that that domestic pest, 
the blackbeetle, can be got rid of by means of a little borax, 
as you state on the authority of the Neio York Druggists T 
Circular (p. 7G2, ante), there is not, I imagine, a druggist’s- 
shop in the kingdom that would not be besieged for supplies 
of borax. But, alas ! English cockroaches, unlike their Ame¬ 
rican congeners, have a profound contempt for pounded 
borax; they crowd over it and trample it underfoot, and,, 
instead of “ fleeing in terror from it, and never appearing 
again where it has once been placed,” they seem rather to 
rejoice over it, and to haunt my kitchen in greater force than 
ever. And yet I have applied it three times ! 
If the other part of the paragraph is equally reliable, I 
shall not be disposed to tempt my laundress to “ save nearly 
one-half her soap ” by the use of borax. 
I cannot, however, couclude without congratulating all' 
pharmaceutical chemists on the excellent journal that reaches 
us weekly. T. 
London, Hay 11th, 1871. 
[V There seems to be a considerable diversity of expe¬ 
rience on this subject. Only a fortnight since we printed 
(p. 897) a communication from a respected correspondent, in 
which he said that powdered borax, sprinkled in the haunts 
of blackbeetles, was certain destruction to them, and that he- 
could vouch for its efficacy.—E d. Pharm. Journ.] 
Qualifications for Success in Business. 
Sir,—“Another Associate” says, “ with the qualifications- 
necessary to pass the Modified, £1000 and a good opening 
for business, any one may leave all doubts about getting on. 
to ‘aspiring’ members of the profession.” 
£1000 and a good opening for business are, I grant, at all 
times desirable aids, but not necessary qualifications, as I can 
testify from personal experience, for I had neither; and yet 
I have succeeded admirably, thanks to the professors in town.. 
My opinion is, that gentlemen holding the Major qualifi¬ 
cation, and possessing besides ordinary business capacities, 
are almost certain of success and that “Another Associate” 
will find their success greater than those who simply have- 
£1000. F.C.S., Pharmacist with Honours, etc. 
Hay 6th, 1871. 
F. B. Big gall. —Blaine’s ‘Outlines of the Veterinary Art,’ 
published by Messrs. Longman. 
J. S. D .—The preparation inquired about is advertised as- 
being prepared by Mr. Chapman, of 10, Duke Street, Portland 
Place, London. 
A correspondent, signing himself “Inquirer,” has not com¬ 
plied with the rule as to anonymous communications. 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Mr. C. A. Thredgale, Mr. C. Gr. Bunn, Mr. P. Howman, Mr. 
T. Collier, Mr. A. Barron, Mr. John Ingham, N. Y. W.,. 
Gr. W., T. C. L., F. H. W., A. P. S., C. S., A. S., “ Persevero,’" 
“Arum,” “Botanist,” “Ferment,” “Inquirer” (Brighton). 
