June 15, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
1015 
Cjje JJwmactntital journal. 
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SATURDAY, JURE 15, 1872. 
Communications for this Journal , and boohs for review, etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square . JF.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street , London, W. Envelopes indorsed u Fharm. Journ.” 
THE LAWS RELATING TO CHEMISTS AND 
DRUGGISTS. 
That coroners and magistrates should prove igno¬ 
rant of the details of the Pharmacy Act; that ver¬ 
dicts should he returned and censures passed upon 
persons who had strictly performed their duty; and 
that there should even he, through such ignorance, 
a possibility of the imposition of penalties having 
no justification in any Act of Parliament, was perhaps 
enough to raise the fears of the pharmaceutical body. 
But it is a matter for regret that great ignorance 
upon the same subject is to be found much nearer 
home; and it is most probable that amongst many 
members of the trade who have indignantly de¬ 
nounced the shortcomings of the authorities outside, 
there have been men who themselves, day after day, 
live on, lacking definite ideas on points of law of the 
greatest importance to all chemists and druggists. 
Mr. Greenish, in the paper on “ Pharmacy in 
Austria ” which he read at the May Evening Meeting 
of the Pharmaceutical Society, called attention to the 
fact that, in North Germany and Austria, a knowledge 
of the political laws which govern the practice of phar¬ 
macy is required of the student. He also remarked 
that, in this country, when questions arise affecting 
the interests of pharmacy, it is not until danger is 
at the door that pharmacists can be made to under¬ 
stand them. This is no less true of them in their 
individual than in their corporate capacity. 
We are induced to call attention to this subject 
by the frequent occurrence of cases where chemists 
and druggists, either in themselves or their families, 
have suffered from the too late discovery of the real 
state of the law. There is no need to go far for 
illustrations. In this week’s journal there is a 
letter from Mr. Smith referring to the case men¬ 
tioned by him at the Annual Meeting. We do not 
understand that he charges any harshness in the 
carrying out of the law, but that the law as it stands 
is harsh. If, however, the section providing cer¬ 
tain exceptions had expressly included widows, 
there would still have been an appearance of harsh¬ 
ness in debarring mothers and sisters. The hard¬ 
ship in the case in question undoubtedly arose from 
the deceased gentleman’s want of acquaintance with 
the provisions of the Pharmacy Act. 
But it is evident that there is no necessity for such 
cases in the future; and the requisite steps to avoid 
them appear to be much easier than an agitation for 
any alteration of the section. The question at issue 
is not affected by the fact that men do not like to 
arrange their affairs; though in this respect the ex¬ 
perience imparted to David Copperfield after Mr. 
Spenlow’s death is scarcely an exaggerated picture. 
But, there is another phase of the subject. Every 
now and then, men who would not wilfully do anything 
against the law, are surprised to find that they have 
acted illegally, and the information is sometimes 
made more impresive by the imposition of a penalty. 
Thus, only recently in a well-known town in the East 
of England, no less than eight or nine chemists and 
druggists, including the local secretary of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, were fined for selling methylated 
spirit without a licence. Moreover, the numerous 
questions that are continually addressed to us re¬ 
specting licences, stamps, etc., show that there are 
many who have not yet made themselves acquainted 
with the contents of the Society’s Calendar. 
Amongst the Communists recently executed at 
Satory was a man who had been convicted of par¬ 
ticipation in the murder of a pliarmacien. The cor¬ 
respondent of the Medical Times and Gazette gives 
the following particulars concerning the crime:— 
“ The anniversary of the entry of the Versailles troops 
into Paris painfully reminded me of the dreadful scenes 
I had witnessed, and the unheard-of atrocities committed 
during the furious struggle between the insurgents and 
the regular army. Among the melancholy events that 
then took place I may mention that related of a phar- 
macien in the Rue de Richelieu, by the name of Koch, 
who was brutally murdered by the Communist soldiers 
simply because he refused to help them in raising a barri¬ 
cade in his neighbourhood. Not only did he refuse his 
aid, but he attempted to lecture them on their conduct, 
whereupon two of the men attacked him in his own 
shop. The pharmacien, however, true to his drugs, kept 
them at bay with a bottle of sulphuric acid in his hand, 
which he threatened to bespatter them with if they dared 
to touch him. The men, finding a dangerous weapon 
before them, beat their retreat, but soon returned with a 
reinforcement. The poor pharmacien, considering it 
would be useless to resist, was carried out of his shop, 
and, after a sham ‘ drumhead ’ court-martial, was ruth¬ 
lessly shot in the presence of his wife and children, who 
implored the ruffians for mercy.” 
In announcing the occurrence of a fire by which re¬ 
cently the shop of Mr. Charles Young, chemist and 
druggist, Dundee, was partially destroyed, the local 
newspaper, following .in the wake of its London 
contemporary, the Times , has sought to disseminate 
information concerning the origin of fires. In this 
case we are told that the fire is supposed to have 
been caused by the bursting and igniting of a bottle 
containing vitriol or some other inflammatory sub¬ 
stance. _ 
St. John’s Wood and its neighbourhood is now 
added to the districts in which the pharmacists have 
decided to tiy the effect of shortening the hours of 
business, the public having been apprised that after 
July 1st, 1872, it is their intention to close their 
establishments at eight o’clock every evening (except¬ 
ing Saturday), and entirely on Sunday and all Bank 
holidays. 
