MEDICAL OFFICER’S REPORT. 
185 
number of cases in which murder and suicide have been perpetrated or attempted, as a 
result of tbe dangerous facilities which exist for the purchase of poisons.” 
One particular poison has indeed been tbe subject of legislation. Under 14th and 
15th Viet. cap. 13, arsenic (in quantity under 10 lb.) ought not to be sold otherwise 
than coloured with soot or indigo,—nor except with full registration of tbe buyer’s 
name and residence, and of the time, quantity, and professed purpose of his buying,— 
nor even thus to any person unknown to the seller, unless it be in presence of a witness 
known to both buyer and seller. But, says Dr. Taylor, “ in several cases of criminal 
poisoning (two occurring in 18G3) which I have been required to iuvestigate, iuvolving 
charges of murder, uncoloured or white arsenic has been used as the instrument of death. 
Its great cheapness (one penny to twopence per ounce) places it within the reach of the 
poorest person. It is sold to any applicant on the most frivolous pretences; and even in 
the coloured state it affords but little protection, except when it is mixed with liquids. 
The better class of druggists do not sell arsenic by retail; the grocer, chandler, oilman, 
and village shopkeeper are the principal vendors of this poison; and it is clear from the 
numerous deaths which take place from white arsenic that they set the law at defiance, 
and sell the poison in an uncoloured state, in which case it may be readily administered 
iu any article of food, without exciting suspicion.” 
With the sale of other poisons there is not even nominal statutory interference. And 
whether they are wanted for murder, or for suicide, or for the procuring of abortion, the 
facilities are such as Dr. Taylor describes ;—for though doubtless druggists of the best 
class are extremely chary of selling poisons, yet, says Dr. Taylor, “ the lower class of 
drug-dealers, including grocers, oilmen, and the general shopkeepers of villages, have no 
such scruples ; and although, if we except strychnia, many of the more potent poisons 
are not found in their shops, they have still a sufficient number of noxious drugs to 
endanger health and life, by reason of the facility with which they dispose of them to 
the public.” 
Secondly, as regards the ordinary business of retail druggists in dispensing and vend¬ 
ing medicines, Dr. Taylor testifies to the frequent employment of entirely unskilled 
and heedless persons in this business, and to the mischief which results from the incompe¬ 
tence or slovenliness of such persons ;—how “ a large number of persons wholly unac¬ 
quainted with the properties of powerful drugs and medicines are allowed to retail them 
to the public, on demand, without any check or control;—how “ persons who have had 
no professional education as druggists, and acting as oilmen, grocers, or village shop¬ 
keepers, keep for sale laudanum, tincture of rhubarb, senna, black draughts, etc. and 
either from carelessness in placing the bottles containing these medicines near to each 
other, or from ignorance, supply laudanum for the tinctures above mentioned, and thus 
either injure health or destroy life —how, for instance, opium and its tincture have 
often been given in mistake for rhubarb and its tincture,—how oxalic acid and other 
poisons have again and again been given for Epsom salts,—how chloride of zinc has on 
several occasions been given for fluid magnesia,—how arsenic has been given instead of 
calomel and instead of magnesia,—and so forth. In part-explanation of these lament¬ 
able accidents, Dr. Taylor points out that the natural results of incompetence and gross 
ignorance on the part of those who are allowed to retail drugs to the public “ are 
increased a hundredfold by reason of the carelessness displayed in keeping innocent 
medicines and poisonous compounds resembling each other on shelves or drawers in 
close proximity.” Thus, in the shops of ordinary druggists, tincture of opium, and 
tincture of senna, and tincture of rhubarb, like one another in colour, may be standing 
side by side on a shelf, in bottles of like size and shape, and with labels which, if 
only half-read, seem identical. Or strychnine may be side by side with jalapine, 
morphia, salicine, quinine ;—and “ cases have come to my knowledge,” says Dr. Taylor, 
“ where strychnine has thus been dispensed by mistake, and has caused death.” But 
the greatest dimensions of this particular danger,—dimensions, in fact, which are almost 
incredible,—are reached in the general shops of country villages, where draperies, and 
groceries, and drugs, and poisons are all sold, and where perhaps even foods and poisons 
are not kept well asunder. From shops of this description (in cases which Dr. Taylor 
quotes from among various instances known to him) arrowroot, rice, oatmeal, or some¬ 
thing else in common demand, has reached its purchaser with a fatal admixture of 
arsenic. And in one such case (where arsenic had been given instead of arrowroot, and had, 
of course, killed the consumer) a witness who “ went to the shop after the accident to 
