PHARMACEUTICAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
95 
fiicted upon any individuals, for the penalties imposed upon the railway com¬ 
panies, being spread over large constituencies, are scarcely felt by the separate 
members of those corporate bodies. But it is far otherwise where individual 
tradesmen incur similar penalties for acts committed in the exercise of their 
legitimate occupations, and over which, possibly, they have no control. 
There is no business in which the risk of such penalties is so great as it is 
in that of the chemist and druggist. The pharmaceutical chemist has important 
and very responsible duties to perform in supplying the public with medicines, 
many of which, although valuable remedial agents when judiciously administered, 
are highly dangerous and destructive to life when given in excessive doses. His 
occupation, in dealing with these dangerous agents, is one in which there is a 
greater liability to accidents than occurs in any other business, and yet the re¬ 
muneration he obtains for the onerous duties performed in the service of the 
public is, in most instances, extremely small. For many years past, circum¬ 
stances have tended to reduce rather than augment the profits of a pharmaceu¬ 
tical establishment, and especially in the dispensing department. Frequent 
have been the complaints of want of adequate remuneration for the toilsome, 
responsible, and anxious duties of the pharmaceutist, caused partly by a change 
in the nature of medical practice, and partly by an unhealthy competition, and 
too great facility for men to enter the business at little cost and with limited 
qualifications. 
The introduction into medicine of the active principles of plants and the use 
of concentrated preparations, in place of the milder medicines formerly em¬ 
ployed, has rendered the risk of accident greater and the profits of dispensing 
less; while a change in the law, which has been made at the same time, has 
caused a new penalty to be imposed upon the ill-requited druggist for occur¬ 
rences which cannot be wholly obviated, and to which there must therefore be 
some liability. 
When it comes to be known—for we believe the fact has not until now been 
realized, and probably by many of our members has not even been suspected— 
that there is this new liability,—that in addition to all the other distracting cares 
of his business occupations, the druggist is always subject to the occurrence of 
an accident which may involve him in utter ruin,—an accident moreover which 
may be the result of listlessness, or even ill-will, on the part of a paid assistant, 
—great will be the depression produced in many anxious minds. 
That this liability does exist there can be no doubt, for in the Liverpool case 
the defendants consented to a settlement involving the payment of £1500 
damages, besides heavy law expenses, on the representation of their legal ad¬ 
visers that the only question to be decided was as to the amount of compensa¬ 
tion that might be considered by a jury equivalent to the loss sustained by the 
widow and children of the deceased. The Liverpool ‘ Daily Post,’ in comment¬ 
ing upon the case, says,—“ Counsel told them, and told them soundly, that 
however excellent the regulations of their shop, however competent their ser¬ 
vants, however uniformly faultless the operations of their trade, they must pay 
a penalty proportioned to the station and means of the victim of the accidental 
error which was committed.” In this instance, the deceased having been a 
plumber in a good business, the loss was estimated by mutual consent at £1500. 
What might it not have been if it had happened to a barrister or civil engineer 
in large practice, or to a bishop or judge ? 
Messrs. Clay and Abraham will be deeply sympathized with by all their 
brethren ; their case will be anxiously and painfully reflected upon by thousands 
who will feel that a similar if not a heavier infliction may be impending to any 
one of them. 
And now, does it not behove us to consider how we can best turn this occur¬ 
rence to account in providing for the future ? Can anything be done to lessen 
i 2 
