MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL RESPONSIBILITY. 289 
charges ” arc “easily made and hard to be disproved” is unfortunately too 
true. .But surely the compounder of medicines may cite this on his side also. 
If he is to have the risk of imprisonment, and his employer (be he a general 
practitioner or be he a druggist) the chance of having to pay heavy damages, 
lie will probably be found to claim the right of other Englishmen and ask 
to be deemed innocent of offence until proved to be guilty, 
I am, Sir, yours obediently, 
30, BucJdersbury , October , 1864. B. B. Orridge. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—Amongst all the suggestions for the regulation of the sale of poisons, 
nothing is said about a registration fee to be charged by chemists who are at 
the trouble of entering in their poison-book all sales of arsenic, etc. The pro¬ 
cess involves both time and trouble, and the remuneration most frequently 
ranges from one penny to threepence. 
A legalized fee of one shilling would not be excessive, and would, I think, 
meet with little opposition from the followers of our craft. All registrars are 
rewarded either by salary or fee, and why should druggists be made an excep¬ 
tion to the rule ? 
Yours respectfully, 
Doncaster , October 30, 1864. E. H. W. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Gentlemen,—In your Leader on “ Pharmaceutical [Responsibility,” in the 
Pharmaceutical Journal for the present month, you say, “ There will still be 
the reflection that an accidental error may entail upon the most careful a 
ruinous penalty,” and ask, “Are there any means by which this painful re¬ 
flection may be dispelled or relieved? ” I do not know what plans may sug¬ 
gest themselves to others, but it has occurred to me that one of the simplest 
would be at once to form a Mutual Insurance Society, the object of which 
should be to provide a fund available for defraying the penalty incurred, 
should any of the insured be so unfortunate as to incur one through inad¬ 
vertently supplying a wrong medicine, as in the case of Messrs. Clay and 
Abraham. 
One of the first things a careful man will do after commencing business will 
be to insure his stock and furniture in a good fire-office; he then feels that 
though a fire would be a terrible calamity, causing a great interruption of 
business, still he would not be entirely ruined as he might have been had he 
not insured. 
As the law now stands, every druggist in the kingdom is exposed to a far 
greater danger than that of fire. No man is able to say he shall not make a 
mistake. I believe the fear of so doing is a constant source of the greatest 
anxiety to many men. A mistake may be fatal, the penalty may be great, 
and the druggist who after years of perseverance may have gained the confi¬ 
dence and respect of his neighbours, and who is occupying a respectable posi¬ 
tion, may in a few days be reduced to absolute beggary. Many a druggist 
would be utterly unable to pay damages of a thousand or fifteen hundred 
pounds if awarded, and would have to part with everything he possessed to 
make up the sum, and what then would be his position ? his name would have 
been published throughout the country, and few would be willing to trust 
him. He may have dispensed thousands of prescriptions correctly, given un- 
VOL. VI. Y 
