1000 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 10,1871. 
Court of Queen’s Bench, Westminster, 5th June. 
Ex parte Whisken. 
This was an application on the part of a clicmist and 
druggist, at Welshpool, for a mandamus to compel the 
Pharmaceutical Society to restore his name to the Regis¬ 
ter. It was alleged that he had a right to be registered, 
and the applicant made affidavit that previous to, and at 
the time of the passing of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, ho 
kept an open shop for the making up of medicines. 
The Court granted a rule nisi. 
The applicant in this case had been sued for penalties, 
and the case was to come on for trial in the Welshpool 
County Court on Thursday, June 8. 
In due course the whole case will he submitted to the 
Court. 
Central Criminal Court, 6th June. 
Jobbery of Saffron. 
William Hall, warehouseman; John Adams, labourer; 
and George Robinson, chemist, were charged with felo¬ 
niously breaking and entering the warehouse of Charles 
Brumleu, and stealing 200 lb. weight of saffron, value 
£2-50, his property. 
The prosecutor is a drug merchant. On the night of 
the 17th April, a warehouse in Biiliter Street, belonging 
to him, was broken into, and a large quantity of saffron 
stolen. When the prisoners were taken into custody, it 
was found that they had been dealing with the stolen 
property immediately after the robbery, and offering it 
for sale at prices far below its real value. 
The jury returned a verdict of feloniously receiving 
against Hale, and acquitted the other two prisoners, be¬ 
lieving that they had acted innocently under the direc¬ 
tion of Hale. The Recorder sentenced Hale to eighteen 
months’ imprisonment with hard labour. 
Alfred Hughes, who carried on the business of a che¬ 
mist in the Hackney Road, was also charged with being 
implicated in the transaction, but while in custody at 
the police station he attempted to commit suicide by 
cutting his throat, and has since died. 
Attempted Suicide by Vermin Killer. 
On Wednesday, May 17, the wife of a pensioner living 
at Freston, in Suffolk, made a determined attempt to com¬ 
mit suicide, having, while taking her tea, swallowed a 
large quantity of Battle’s Vermin Killer. The woman 
became very ill, and symptoms of poison being very 
evident, medical assistance was obtained. She is likely 
to recover. 
Suicide ey Arsenic. 
An inquest was held at Bethnal Green on Tuesday, 
June 6, on the body of William Perry, who had died 
from the effects of arsenical poisoning. Deceased was a 
carman out of work, and had lately been in a very 
desponding state. He had been selling arsenic to chance 
customers recently, and his wife believed he had stolen 
it. He told her that he was afraid the police would 
take him up, and the same night he poisoned himself with 
some of it. A card, with an address in the City Road, 
was found, and on inquiries being instituted, the deceased 
was stated to be an agent to a shop engaged to sell arse¬ 
nic and other drugs. Mrs. Jackson, the owner of the 
shop, said that she had in her possession 28 lb. of arsenic 
from the time of the death of her husband seventeen 
years ago. _ She expressed great surprise when told that 
she was liable to pay a line. The jury returned a 
verdict of “Suicide while of unsound mind,” and the 
coroner ordered the police to take the case in hand.— 
Standard. 
HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
Adulteration of Food, Drugs, etc., Bill.— Thurs ¬ 
day, June 1st .—The order for committing the Adultera¬ 
tion of Food, Drugs, etc., Bill was read and discharged,, 
and the Bill withdrawn. 
In answer to a question concerning the adulteration 
of tea, put by Lord E. Cecil on Friday, the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer said no regulations could be made to 
require custom-house officers to detain tea suspected of 
adulteration under the present law, neither would he 
take upon himself to recommend the enactment of a law 
to provide for making such regulations, because such a 
course would render the customs more unpopular than 
they were, and would not prevent adulteration by the- 
retailer. 
Weights and Measures. — Friday, 2nd June. —In 
answer to Mr. Read, Mr. Chichester Fortescue said he 
had hoped to bring in a Bill dealing with the whole 
subject of weights and measures this session, but hr 
the present state of public business he did not see a 
prospect of securing the attention of the House to so- 
complicated a subject. He added, that neither the Select 
Committee of 1862, nor the Royal Standards Commis¬ 
sion, recommended the compulsory introduction of the- 
metric system; the Royal Commission, however, recom¬ 
mended its permissive introduction. 
DR. JAMES WATSON. 
Medicine has lost an able practitioner, and Glasgow 
a valuable citizen, in Dr. James Watson, who died on 
the 30tli nit. The deceased gentleman, after an un¬ 
usually thorough curriculum of study, was admitted a 
Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in 
1810. In 1842, he was appointed one of the physicians- 
to the Royal Infirmary and to the Fever Hospital in 
Clyde Street. He was three times elected President of 
the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, by whom he- 
was fondly termed the “Father of the Faculty,” on the- 
ground, not only of his seniority, but of the paternal 
interest he took in the welfare of the Corporation. The 
Faculty, as a further mark of the esteem in which thew 
held him, hung his portrait in their Hall, and founded, 
the prize which bears his name. No department of me¬ 
dicine, whether in its diagnostic or in its pharmaceutical 
aspect, escaped his intelligent recognition; and in his 
capacity as member of the General Medical Council of 
the United Kingdom ho did valuable service in elevat¬ 
ing the standard of preliminary education for all aspi¬ 
rants to professional practice. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Companion to the Last Edition of the British 
Pharmacopeia, comparing the Strength of its various 
Preparations with those of the London, Edinburgh, Dublin, 
United States and other Foreign Pharmacopoeias, with 
Practical Hints on Prescribing. By Peter Squire, F.L.S- 
Eighth Edition. London : J. and A. Churchill. 1871. 
Contributions towards the Materia Medica and 
Natural History of CniNA, for the Use of Medical 
Missionaries and Native Medical Students. By Frede¬ 
rick Porter Smith, M.B. London, Medical Missionary in 
Central China. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mis¬ 
sion Press. London: Triibner Jmd Co., 60, Paternoster 
Row. 1871. 
On the Curability of Cancer and its Medical 
Treatment without Surgical Operation. By Dr- 
G. von Schmitt. London: Wyman and Sons. 1871. 
