672 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [February 17 ,1872. 
victims of quantity, but quality. Added to this, it is 
now too generally believed that adulteration is going on 
to a fearful extent. The first step towards the eradica¬ 
tion of this evil and disgrace is, as I think, to render 
adulteration penal, and many of the other branches of 
the one main scheme will be found to be self-adjusting. 
Within the boundary of your worships’ jurisdiction are 
to he found retail houses, from which a customer, having 
partaken of one pint of malt (P) liquor, or four penny¬ 
worth of spirits, may be sent home utterly incapable of 
taking care of himself.” 
The Chief Constable of the same borough has in 
previous } r ears given expression to similar opinions, 
that much crime could be traced to the noxious qua¬ 
lities of liquors vended as distinguished from their 
alcoholic strength, and one or two convictions of 
publicans for the use of grains of paradise have 
been recorded at Leeds. 
As the town of Leeds is not specially notorious 
either for its amount of drunkenness or crime, it is 
probable that the same state of things would be 
found elsewhere. In the Excise Report it is stated 
that nine out of fourteen samples of beer, and ma¬ 
terials used in the brewing of beer, were found adul¬ 
terated ; but we presume those fourteen samples 
were all suspected ones. 
The series of articles we are now commencing 
to publish from the pen of Mr. Pocklington will 
serve to direct the attention of pharmacists not only 
to this point, but also more especially to the means 
of detecting adulterations. 
I 11 1869, Lord E. Cecil called the attention of 
the House of Commons to the greatly-increased im¬ 
portation of Gocculus indicus into this country, the 
quantity having risen from 08 cwt. in 1857 to 
1064 cwt. in 1868, an increase not accounted for by 
known legitimate demands. We have reason to be¬ 
lieve that this drug is actually used by some brewers 
in this country, and for that reason we recently 
adverted to the heavy penalties that attach to the 
supply of it to brewers.* 
HOURS OF CLOSING. 
As will be seen by reference to page 673, at a 
Special General Meeting of the Bristol Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Association, the Report of the Council on 
hours of closing was discussed and adopted. The 
advisability of having regular and limited hours was 
recognized by the meeting; it now remains for in¬ 
dividual members of the Association to give effect 
to the resolution, and thus to obviate such a failure 
to effect practical reform as was recently instanced 
by a correspondent, in a case where the same point 
of agreement in opinion had been reached, though 
in the majority of cases the resolutions passed were 
broken. 
COUNTER PRESCRIBING. 
The recent case of Andrews v. Davies,\ in which 
the judge of the County Court decided a point of 
some interest to the medical and pharmaceutical 
bodies, forms the subject of some editorial comments 
in the Medical Times and Gazette. It is pointed out 
* See ante, p. 531. f See ante , pp. 515, 617. 
that as no “ case” was asked for by the plaintiff’s 
attorney, that interpretation of the provisions of the 
Medical Act in reference to “ prescribing over the 
counter” must—for the time, at least—be regarded 
as law. This result is looked upon by our contem¬ 
porary as due consistent with common sense and 
common justice. But a doubt is expressed whether 
the judges of the higher courts would not regard the 
decision as too comprehensive and too favourable to 
the medical profession. 
CRYSTALLIZED DIGITALINE. 
The French correspondent of the Medical Times 
and Gazette states that the successful candidate for 
the Orfila Prize at the Academie de Medecine has 
made a discovery likely to be of great importance in 
therapeutics. It is a method for the production of 
crystallized digitaline in a state of absolute purity. 
Splendid crystals resembling those of sulphate of 
quinine, yielding a bright emerald green when treated 
with hydrochloric acid, were exhibited at the last 
meeting of the Academy and greatly admired. This 
product is stated to be much more intense in its ac¬ 
tion than the ordinary preparation—half a milli¬ 
gram daily being as much as could ordinarily be ad¬ 
ministered—and will evidently prove to be an agent 
requiring extreme care in its use. 
JUSTICES’ SCIENCE. 
The elementaiy instruction which it was suggested 
by a correspondent last week might be provided for 
coroners and country magistrates seems to be re¬ 
quired sometimes by the latter body in subjects of 
even more general interest than the provisions of the 
poison clauses of the Pharmacy Act. According to 
Nature, the county magistrates at Chelmsford have 
declined to grant the use of the Shire Hall for a lec¬ 
ture on the Sun, illustrated by experiments in spec¬ 
trum analysis, on the ground that the electric light 
might endanger the safety of the building. 
We have more than once had occasion to allude 
to the introduction of the ipecacuanha into India, 
and the promise of its successful cultivation. It is 
well known that the Indian Government has made 
vigorous efforts to introduce these plants into such 
districts in India as are suitable for its culture; and 
these exertions, with the co-operation of the Royal 
Gardens of Kew, seem likety to be crowned with suc¬ 
cess. Dr. Hooker, in his Report to the First Com¬ 
missioner of Works, says the merit of proposing the 
introduction of the ipecacuanha plant into India is 
due to Dr. Murray, Director of the Medical Staff of 
the Indian Army, and the operation was being ener¬ 
getically conducted by Dr. Anderson, late Superin¬ 
tendent of the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, who, at 
the period of his untimely death, had procured a 
large quantity of plants for transport to India. From 
Darjeeling we now learn that the few plants which 
were introduced then have been increased tliis sea¬ 
son to over two hundred, all of which are doing well, 
and give fair promise of a continued rapid increase. 
