180 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 2(5,1871. 
made next session; and also consider well wlio are to be 
returned to the next Council to represent their interests. 
If the Government are anxious to make an alteration in 
the law, the best alteration they could make would be to 
bring in an Act to separate entirely the practice of pharmacy 
from the practice of medicine,—that is, that all medicines 
shall be prepared and dispensed by educated chemists, and 
that the prescribing of remedies and the art of surgery shall 
be confined entirely to medical men. 
If the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society were to de¬ 
vote more of their time and of their funds to establish pro¬ 
vincial schools of pharmacy, to improve the education and 
status of the country members, their time and their means 
would be better employed than they hitherto have been. The 
country members contribute a very large proportion of the 
income of the Society, and a very small amount has been ex¬ 
pended for the benefit of Pharmacy in the provinces. Nei¬ 
ther have the country members been indifferent to the claims 
of the Benevolent Fund, if other towns have contributed in 
the same proportion as Hull has. I trust the Council, for the 
future, will endeavour to promote harmony between town and 
country, and that they will also have the pluck to refuse to 
be dictated to or led by the nose by any medical man. The 
education which the present generation of chemists must re¬ 
ceive, and the examinations which they must pass, ought to 
protect them from such interference, and fit them to make 
suitable rules for the management of their business. 
Atkinson Pickering. 
Hull, August 14 tJi, 1871. 
Sir,—I have but this day returned home, having spent the 
last fortnight in regions inaccessible even to the Phar¬ 
maceutical Journal. I have thus but just seen Mr. 
Sandford’s letter in the impression of the 5th inst., and I 
have thus also lost the proper moment for replying to an 
opponent’s letter. There are, however, two points in it to 
which I wish to refer, even though somewhat after date. 
Mr. Sandford asks the question, “Hoes not Mr. Schacht 
know that even in his own district a score of persons dealing 
in poisons may be found who take no precaution whatever ?” 
To this I wish to answer that I do not know it, and that I 
should like to be informed if Mr. Sandford knows it, or 
upon what authority he makes the insinuation. 
In another part of his letter Mr. Sandford refers to my 
charge of “treason” against certain “ good men and true,” 
who lie hopes “ will still command the confidence and good¬ 
will of their fellow-members.” To this I wish to say that as 
regards “ goodwill,” no one is more sincerely capable of en¬ 
dorsing Mr. Sandford’s hopes than myself. My charge is 
exclusively a political charge. I have no doubt many of 
those whose conduct in this matter appears to me to be 
“treasonable” believe themselves to be patriots, and all such 
men have my personal good-will, now as ever, though, for 
the time at least, they have utterly lost my political confi¬ 
dence. 
Only one word more. I regret this controversy as much 
as any one, but I refuse to accept the responsibility of the 
agitation. They are responsible who seek to impose a law 
upon the trade, five-sixths of which (as Mr. Betty shows) 
appear to be opposed to it. Under such circumstances agi¬ 
tation must follow, and, as it seems to me, must continue so 
long as the threat to persevere in the attempt is continued, 
and so long as it is human nature that five men should 
decline to lie down and allow one man to walk over their 
bodies. 
Cr T 1 SrTTArTTT 
Clifton, August 17th, 1871. 
Plans por the Prevention op Accidental 
Poisoning. 
Sir,—Week after week we are continually reading some 
new suggestion with regard to the above, until at last, from 
their multiplicity, they are becoming positively sickening; 
and more than this, they have a bad influence on the “ rising 
generation ” of pharmaceutists, because they tend to make 
us lose confidence in ourselves. What may be the use of the 
examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society if they are not 
to get a superior class of men into the trade, men who fully 
appreciate and feel the responsibility of their situation ? and 
what may be the use of mechanical aid to men of this class ?' 
I never see a suggestion for the prevention of accidental 
poisoning but that I feel thankful that the general public do- 
not get access to our trade journals and see all these “ bright 
ideas ” for the prevention of poisoning, for they would most 
certainly think we were all “ losing our heads.” 
Sometimes I almost fancy that your correspondents must 
be joking when they propose such things as bells or galvanic- 
apparatus to be attached to the bottles, for they could never- 
have thought on the practicability of the schemes they sug¬ 
gested, if they did I am pretty sure they would never have 
recommended them. 
I don’t believe that any mechanical arrangement that may 
be invented will be any sort of a safeguard after the novelty 
of the affair has worn away. For instance, supposing some¬ 
thing was adopted which was intended to attract your notice 
by sound ? What would be the result ? Why, simply the- 
same as taking up your abode near a railway station,—for 
the first few nights you cannot sleep with the noise, but soon 
you get used to it, until at length that very noise acts as a 
sort of lullaby, and you would find it hard to go to sleep- 
without it. And so it would be with anything in the way of' 
sound that could be adopted,—it would in time attract no 
notice whatever. And the same rule would apply if we 
trusted to the sense of touch, or any other sense, except the- 
eye and the brain. I am sure it is quite time to say “ good¬ 
bye” to all these absurd suggestions, or else we shall be 
running our heads against a post, if we have not done so- 
already. What a true fable is that of the frogs who cried 
out for a king! Every one knows the result of their plead¬ 
ings; and if our trade at present does not bear a close- 
resemblance to the frogs; nothing in this changeable world 
ever did. We cried out for government; we have obtained 
it in the Pharmaceutical Society. Yet still we are not happy.. 
We are grumbling again, and if we don’t mind we shall get 
fettered by a government of another sort; and who knows- 
what the result would then be? We have narrowly escaped 
this latter predicament, and, unless some agreement is made- 
between ourselves before next session commences, why then 
look out for storms, for we shall then surely find ourselves- 
“out of the frying-pan into the fire.” 
C. B. A. 
Penzance, August 22nd, 1871. 
Poison Bottles. 
Sir,—Your correspondent “Scotus,” in my opinion, just 
adds another difficulty in place of removing one, in regard to 
the keeping of poison bottles. The expense necessary to 
purchase several dozens of bayonet-catch stoppered bottles 
would prove an insuperable objection to many hundreds in 
the trade. 
In regard to the india-rubber capsules he is mistaken 
as to the necessity to use both hands. Although I deprecate 
the haste he alludes to in dispensing prescriptions, and would 
always prefer the dispensers in my pharmacy placing bottles- 
containing dangerous drugs fairly on the counter before them; 
yet if it is imperative to dispense against time, let the rubber- 
cap be fixed to the stopper, by wrapping a bit of coarse ad¬ 
hesive rubber tape round the stopper, and allow the lower* 
edge or ring of the cap to rest on the rim of the bottle, in 
place of over it, when the stopper can be as easily removed, 
and replaced with one hand as any stopper not so protected. 
M. P. S. 
X. Y. Z. is recommended to communicate with the Regis¬ 
trar. 
“ Theta ” writes to us, urging the Council to permit 
“Modified men,” on passing the local Preliminary examina¬ 
tion, the same privilege of presenting themselves for the 
Major examination as though they had passed the Minor. 
He had better make that application to the Council; we can¬ 
not see that we should aid his views by publishing his letter.. 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Mr. P. Miller, Mr. F. Pattison, Mr. R. Carter Moffat, Mr. S. 
H. H. Sheppard, Mr. Crafton, Mr. Bingley, Mr. J. Parrott,. 
W. D. S., C. B. A., A. A., “ Sulphur,” « Aquila.” 
