984 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[Jane 3,1871, 
by the bye-laws I am debarred this opportunity, I, with many 
others, shall remain a Modified man, unless the Council shall 
alter the bye-laws, and allow the man who has passed the 
Modified to present himself for the Minor Examination. 
Should they do so, it would not only greatly increase the 
number of Pharmaceutical Chemists and interests of the 
Society, but meet the requirements of the many and not the 
few of the Modified men. 
Forward. 
and then we shall be able to find time for two hours’ study, 
night and morning. No one, of course, will ever grumble to 
dispense a prescription for any emergency or accident after 
the prescribed hours. When the public know the time for 
closing, they will purchase their ounce of salts or pennyworth 
of hair-oil before eight, as they now do before ten o’clock. 
A. II. A., Jun. 
Cliftonville, Brighton, May 1 6th, 1871. 
The Directs supplied by Surgeons. 
Druggists’ Prices. 
Sir,—In reading the account of the inquest on the body of 
the child Bruce Logan, at Steeple Claydon, Bucks, I was 
surprised at the following part of the evidence:— 
It was stated that a day or two before the murder the 
accused woman Muir obtained some “ laudanum ” at a sur¬ 
geon’s, which was served in his absence by his “wife,” and 
was not labelled “poison.” Afterwards, however, that lady 
called and stated that as the laudanum was stronger than 
was usually sold by druggists her husband wished to have it 
labelled. 
Now, although surgeons are not subject to the same pains 
and penalties that we druggists are for selling poisons with- I 
out a label, I think it hardly fair for them to cover their as¬ 
sistants’ carelessness by a reflection upon the strength of our 
drugs. That this statement was, on the part of the surgeon, 
a palpable misrepresentation seems evident; and I certainly 
do not think that the experience of druggists will tend to 
establish the fact that the drugs used by surgeons ai*e of su¬ 
perior quality to our own. For my own part, I have seen 
too frequently to the contrary. In bringing this matter be¬ 
fore the notice of your correspondents, I am anxious to know 
their views upon the subject. 
May 20th, 1871. A Lover op Trutii. 
Tiie Early Closing Question. 
Sir,—You were kind enough to find space in your valuable 
Journal for a letter written by me some months ago proposing 
the establishment in Brighton of a school of pharmacy. I 
am sorry to say that out of the many chemists we have here, 
not one would second my proposal. So much for their public i 
spirit. My present purpose, however, is to request you to 
be kind enough to grant me space for a few remarks on 
4 early closing.’ I quite sympathize with my brother assist¬ 
ants as to the long hours we day by day endure. Why can¬ 
not the servants who receive their orders from their mistresses 
early in the morning deliver them to the chemist within ' 
reasonable hours ? Instead of this they lay prescription and 
bottle on the dresser-shelf, and there they let them remain 
until they go out dressed, at seven or eight o’clock (and even 
later) in the evening. Thus their pleasure becomes our pain. 
They leave their orders at this late hour and coolly request j 
that they may be made up and sent home immediately. It 
may be that it is Missis’ night draught and she can’t go to 
bed without it, and so on; such messages are'quite an every¬ 
day affair here. Sometimes I employ a little gentle remon¬ 
strance, but am frequently told (in anything but polite terms), 
“ Do you think I was going to come up with it on purpose, 
when Missis doesn’t want it till she goes to bed?” 
Some evenings I have counted from fifteen to twenty pre¬ 
scriptions delivered by servants after eight o’clock to be dis¬ 
pensed that same night, nearly all of which might have 
been brought in earlier in the day. During my experience 
in Brighton I cannot remember one instance where a lady 
has brought a prescription after dusk, unless it be a newly- 
written one. But as long as servants know our shops are 
kept open till ten or eleven o’clock at night for general retail, 
we shall be martyrs to long hours. The proprietors do not 
suffer, only the assistants. The proprietors have no more 
examinations to pass, nor do they wish to. They are already 
registered and in business. The assistant, on the other hand, 
before he can call himself a chemist and druggist and go into 
business, must pass an examination. How can he study? 
What time has he? He is mixing up scammony and jalap 
from 7.30 a.m. till 10.30 p.m. Can he be expected to study 
Attfield’s ‘Chemistry,’ Bentley’s ‘Botany’ and his Latin 
‘ Delectus ’ after these late hours ? 
After all, Sir, I think you will agree with me that there is 
a great deal of human nature in the chemist’s assistant, and 
that he ought not to be expected to do so very much above and 
beyond other men. Let our hours be from eight to eight, 
Sir,—The “prices” question is ever again and again crop¬ 
ping up in the Journal; but agitate as we will, the end! 
at which we aim will be delayed indefinitely so long as we- 
have members of the trade meeting in committee and draw¬ 
ing up “ pi’ice lists,” in which the prices of 3i, 5 iss and ^i jj 
mixtures are appraised at 4d. Gd. and 8 d. respectively. These 
prices actually appear in a list drawn up by our friends north, 
of the Tweed, in which, by the way, though there is some 
flourish about “your committee,” etc., everything that might 
indicate its origin is suppressed,—printer’s name and address 
included. 
Fourpence for eight doses of medicine! How much is- 
left for the “skilled labour,” after deducting 2 \d. for bottle, 
cork, labels, paper, etc. On whatever sum can one “ live and 
keep up appearances ” in the “ land of cakes ” ? 
Bradford, May 20th, 1871. R. Gr. H. 
Sir,—There has been a great deal said lately in the Phar¬ 
maceutical Journal about various prices in different 
towns. A week or two since, when visiting Bristol, I found 
there was a chemist in that town advertising articles at such 
very low prices, that I should have almost thought incredible- 
hacl I not read it myself; for instance, carbonate of soda 4sd. 
per lb., citrate of magnesia Is. 6d. per lb., seidlitz powders- 
9 d. per doz.,and boasts in his advertisement of selling articles- 
in the trade cheaper than any other man. I hear, too, that 
he dispenses prescriptions and charges only as much as the- 
articles come to, and sells 13^-d. patent medicines at lOJcA 
each. I think, with the difficult examinations that have to- 
be passed, there might be more uniformity in prices, without 
such foolhardy competition. T. H. 
J. N. M .—The examination is a written one, and may be- 
eonducted by a local secretary, if notice be given to the Re¬ 
gistrar. 
A. Z .—The method proposed by Dr. Attfield in the article- 
referred to, for obtaining a solution of quinine in cod-liver oil, 
was to produce an oleate of quinine by digesting the alkaloid, 
well dried, with twice its weight of oleic acid at the tempera¬ 
ture of boiling water for an hour or two. Oleate of quinine- 
has the consistence of a soft resin, is perfectly stable, and 
may be regarded as a concentrated solution of quinine, to be- 
diluted whenever necessary, and to any required extent. 
The paper is too long to be extracted entire, but copies of the- 
number containing it may be had on application to the pub¬ 
lishers. 
C. G. Bunn. —(1.) Yes. (2.) The Latin examination in¬ 
cludes the translation into English of a paragraph from the- 
first book of Caesar, or a passage from each of the following 
works :—Pereira, ‘ Selecta e Proescriptis,’ and the last edition 
(Latin) of the London Pharmacopoeia. 
Arum .— (1.) The different directions as to the pronuncia¬ 
tion of the words mentioned result from the different rules of' 
orthoepy followed by the lexicographers. We cannot under¬ 
take to decide which is right. (2.) We should recommend 
you to follow Professor Bentley’s arrangement. 
Guaco .—We do not know the substance inquired about, 
but believe the name to be that given to one of the alleged 
remedies which are supplied by benevolent advertisers in 
return for a certain number of stamps. 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Mr. F. Liley, Mr. M. C. Cooke, Mr. J. R. Jackson, Mr. D. 
Hanbury, X. Y. Z., J. A. M., F. P. C., A. P. S., « Cyathus” 
“Unguentum,” “ Bo-Peep.” 
“ Chemicus” has not complied with the rule respecting 
anonymous communications. 
