ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
437 
feeling and seeing, either in the colour or shape of the bottle, a particular 
stopper or capsule, or arrangement of the label, many of which are very good,— 
and to such as are so, the simple suggestion I have to make, and which up to 
the present time appears to have been overlooked, may, I think, be added with 
advantage, viz. an appeal to the nasal organ. By smelling the contents of a 
bottle before pouring or taking from it, acts as a powerful check, and has this 
advantage over most of the suggestions that have been already made, viz. as 
most liquids have their own characteristic smell they are at once recognised, 
and if the bottle has been filled from a wrong stock-bottle the mistake is likely 
to arrest attention. I admit my suggestion is more applicable to liquids than 
to powders or crystals, but the negative or absence of smell in the generality of 
these would induce one to take another look at the label, and thus make a mis¬ 
take less likely. Any one induced to carry oufr the above suggestion will in a 
very short time find himself habituated to the use of it, and if it should in one 
instance be the means of preventing a minor mistake than the sending out 
Tr. Opii for Mist. Sennae Co., or Tr. Ithei Co., it will have amply repaid the 
trouble of the extra precaution adopted. 
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 
Henry Long. 
Croydon , January 13, 1865. 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—Will you kindly allow me to explain to Mr. Deane and others who have 
written on this subject, that the proposed Insurance Company which I am 
forming, and advertising in this Journal, is not open to the objection which he 
justly makes in regard to guaranteeing the amount of damages levied upon the 
chemist in cases of accidental poisoning. We propose to guarantee the costs of 
the defence only , which would, in cases of criminal prosecution, be the only ex¬ 
pense to which the chemist would be put. It is obvious that if the public were 
well acquainted with the fact, that a poor chemist would always be provided 
with good counsel, etc., it would be no inducement whatever to proceed against 
him, and it would be a great boon when they did do so. There have been in¬ 
stances where the chemist would have been acquitted had he been thus provided, 
whereas he was unjustly punished through his inability to obtain an efficient 
defence. 
I am, Sir, yours respectfully, 
Rochester, December 15^, 1864. Henry Barnaby. 
PROPOSED LEGISLATION AND THE BENEVOLENT EUND. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—Permit me to suggest, that as in the Pharmacy Act Amendment Bill 
it is proposed to admit chemists and druggists (non-members) to the benefits of 
the Benevolent Fund, a specially appropriate method of augmenting that fund 
is available (in the event of the Bill becoming law) by adding the fees received 
from registering these gentlemen to the amount already invested. 
It appears to me that this course would satisfy the persons so registered, and 
convince them that the Society has no selfish motive. Moreover, the members 
