May 27, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
957 
ever allow such l’csolutions as these to ho put forward 
for your acceptance if they did not think they were 
carrying out the honour and spirit of the Act ? Do you 
suppose they would allow their Solicitor to frame a 
resolution which would meet the wishes of the whole 
Society unless they felt they were carrying out honour¬ 
ably that which it was their duty to do ? Therefore, 
upon every principle of honour, I think we ought to 
accept that which our Council have put forward rather 
than that insidious amendment of Mr. Giles. So much 
with regard to Mr. Giles; hut with regard to the reso¬ 
lution of the Council, I must say I do not consider that 
these regulations have been sufficiently looked into since 
our last meeting. I consider they are almost equivalent 
to those which were then put forward. We then said 
we are prepared to accept certain recommendations, and 
if you will give us sucli recommendations not only which 
are beneficial to the public, but such as really can be 
carried out, that is what we want. We do not say we 
will not do it; w’e say, give us such regulations as we 
can practically and honourably carry out. Mr. Sand- 
ford has told us that in London every one adopts these 
resolutions. Of course they do, because there is no diffi¬ 
culty about it. But he says in the country you go into 
a shop, and find poisons of all kinds scattered about. 
Why is it ? Because the characters of the business arc 
so opposite, and what is easy in one place is difficult in 
another. Therefore we say that these resolutions are 
not practicable for the country. We say that in the 
great dispensing houses and others in cities, where you 
have nothing but small quantities to deal with, you may 
accept them, and think you are doing very right in 
carrying them out; but it is not so easy for our country 
friends; and therefore, unless you revise these resolu¬ 
tions,—and we asked you at the last meeting to take 
them back and revise them,—I do not think they are 
such as should meet with general acceptance. Let us 
have such a coje of rules as can bo carried out practi¬ 
cally, and then we shall bo ready to honourably fulfil 
our duties under the Act; we shall bring the whole 
trade into unity, and reflect credit on ourselves. 
Mr. Sandford explained that the note from Mr. 
Simon had not been published earlier because, when a 
former one was published immediately on its receipt 
by the Secretary, a complaint was made that it ought 
not to have been done before it was laid before the 
Council. 
Mr. Wade said he was glad to have that explanation, 
because the very fact of the former note having been 
published made him think it desirable that the one of 
May 4th should have made been known to the trade 
immediately. 
Mr. Watts : Last year, during the noisy discussion 
which took place with regard to the Poison Bill, I made 
a remark to this effect, that we must not lose sight of 
this great fact, that if we did not make regulations for 
ourselves the Privy Council would make them for us, 
and that anything done on the part of the Government 
would be hardly so acceptable to the body generally as 
if it were done by ourselves. I think that same remark 
will apply on the present occasion. A great deal has 
been said about country members and outsiders, but my 
own opinion is that country members and outsiders know 
very little about the matter. What I mean is this, 
that there are a great many members in the country 
who desire to be led; and the proof of that is shown 
in what our friend Mr. Yizer has done, and ho not only 
intends to lead the country members but the town mem¬ 
bers also, if possible. I must say I am rather surprised 
at the remark of Mr. Randall, that if these regulations 
were adopted the Privy Council would send them back 
and say they were irregular, or something to that effect. 
I conceive that Mr. Giles is in perfect order; and I am 
very much surprised that those who are in the habit of 
attending public meetings should express any opinion 
to the contrary. It is competent to any one to move an 
amendment, and I trust Mr. Giles will press his to a 
division. 
Mr. Bell (Hull): The gentleman who has just sat 
down stated that Mr. Yizer was trying to lead the coun¬ 
try members. This I consider a great slur upon those 
gentlemen, and I cannot submit to it. With regard to 
these regulations, we in Hull fully understood that they 
were withdrawn, and would come before us as recom¬ 
mendations only, otherwise I can assure you that two'- 
thirds of the members of the Society in Hull would have 
boon present hero to oppose them. 
Mr. Davison (Glasgow) : I came here to represent 
Glasgow, and the feeling there is that the regulations 
would be presented to the mooting as recommendations 
simply. Since I came here I have seen this note of 
Mr. Simon’s, but I am prepared to vote just the same. 
Mr. Simon speaks of the regulations being required for 
the safety of the public, but in Glasgow two-thirds of the 
dispensing is done by medical men who keep open shops. 
Some of them have three, and many have two; and I 
think if tiny Privy Council and Mr. Simon are going to 
legislate for the benefit of the public they ought to legis¬ 
late for these surgeons. Not many weeks ago a man 
came into my shop, and asked for an ounce of tincture 
of cantharides, which I refused to supply him with un¬ 
less he brought two witnesses with him, which he de¬ 
clined to do, but in the course of half an hour he came 
back again, and brought a bottle containing an ounce of 
tincture of cantharides without even a poison-label on it, 
which he had obtained at a surgeon’s; and in many of 
these doctors’ shops there is not a responsible person, 
but merely a girl or a boy sometimes to serve. I am 
quite prepared to attend before Mr. Simon any day to- 
explain the matter. 
Mr. R. 0. Pitch (Hackney) said he had not intended 
to be present, as he understood, the regulations had been 
withdrawn; but he had received a private intimation 
that it would bo requisite for him to come. With re¬ 
gard to the Poison Bill, he could supplement what was 
said by the last speaker by parallel cases in London. It 
looked very well on paper to talk about the protection 
of the public, but there was a good deal of nonsense 
about it. Not long ago a Greenwich pensioner came 
into his shop, and asked if he wanted to buy any savin, 
as he had a large shrub of it for sale. On the other 
hand, a gentleman’s coachman, wdio wanted some to give 
his horses at the spring of the year, came all the way 
from Acton to his shop at Hackney, where he had been 
accustomed to procure it, because the chemists at Acton 
would not supply him with it. If any regulations were 
required at all, he hoped they would include one that no 
person under sixteen should be served with any poison 
without written instructions, for mistakes were con¬ 
stantly happening with children. 
Mr. Long : I must agree with Mr. Giles and Mr. Sand- 
ford, and all those gentlemen who have spoken on that side 
of the question. I think the opposition that we have is 
like the opposition which wo get in every trade to every¬ 
thing in the nature of improvement. People talk about 
putting collars on their necks, and all that sort of thing ; 
but, if they were to adopt every enlightened method of 
principle which was proposed, it would be much better 
for them. I cannot imagine men who, in such a dan¬ 
gerous business as ours, could be content to have these 
poisons strewn broadcast over their premises, to be taken 
hold of by anybody haphazard. The regulations are 
very good in themselves, and can easily be followed. 
Either of three principles which are laid down may be 
adopted ; and the people in the country, of whom so 
much talk is made, if they have a cask of arsenic, can 
easily lock it up, and tie their other poison-bottles down 
with leather, or adopt some simple means ot calling 
attention to them. I think, therefore, it is very absurd, 
and unnecessary, to object so to it. We shall have to 
have it, and therefore we may as well do it in our own 
way, as otherwise we shall have to accept regulation g 
