IMPORTANCE OF APPOINTMENT OF LOCAL SECRETARIES. 
531 
rous properties, the other innocent; thus Tr. Rhei follows Tr. Opii; Liq. Am. 
Acet.; Liq. Ammon.; Pulv. Antim. Co., Pulv. Antim. Tart.; Pnlv. Ipecac. Co., 
Pulv. Ipecac., and numerous other similar cases might be adduced; and in 
practice this is generally found to have been the arrangement of the bottles when 
any of these mistakes have occurred. The remedy for this is within reach 
of every one, for it is very easy so to arrange these different articles that the 
dangerous ones shall not occupy the same shelves as the harmless ones, but shall 
be placed amongst substances to which they have no resemblance. As to the 
laudanum itself, the safest plan is to put it at the end of a shelf away from the 
other tinctures, and where it can hardly be mistaken for anything else. 
The poison-closet scheme, where all dangerous substances are to be kept under 
lock and key, appears to be abandoned by all whose opinion on the subject is of 
any value ; and Dr. Taylor in his Report does not even mention it. This I 
am glad to see, for I believe that so far from being any safeguard, it would tend 
to increase the liability to error by bringing together substances which ought to 
be kept as far apart as possible, whilst use and habit would render people familiar 
with the poison closet and the arrangement of its contents, which would be 
handled just as mechanically as any innocent substance; besides, the state of 
mind in which mistakes are made would scarcely be affected by any such external 
influence. Moreover, in discussing the question of a poison closet, it ought to 
be remembered that it is as necessary to avoid mistaking strychnine for mor¬ 
phia, or arsenic for Antim. Tart., as it is to avoid taking any of these sub¬ 
stances for an innocent one. Therefore, instead of locking them all up 'close 
together on two or three shelves, I believe it is a far safer plau to put them in 
different parts of the shop amongst substances as unlike them as possible, and as 
far apart as may be convenient; but when all this is done, do not forget the 
most important part —to read the label. 
Yours truly, 
W. Wilkinson. 
Manchester , March 17. 
IMPORTANCE OF THE APPOINTMENT OF LOCAL 
SECRETARIES. 
TO THE EDITOR OP THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—As the time for electing the Local Secretaries is approaching, it may 
perhaps not be out of place to suggest to those on whom the election devolves, 
that the men chosen to fill an office of some importance in the Society should 
neither be its lukewarm supporters nor persons whose sympathies are all with 
its active opponents. I would by no means advocate the extreme measures 
adopted in the United Society, where it would seem that the secretaries must 
hold “ United ” opinions on pain of u summary dismissal,” but certainly at the 
present time, when the enemies of the Pharmaceutical Society are doing their 
utmost to destroy its influence in the trade and hinder its progress in every 
possible way, it behoves the members to select for its officers men who are 
devoted to its interests. 
No one who has read the leading articles and the correspondence in the 
c Chemist and Druggist,’ and especially the address to the trade published in 
that Journal on the 15th July, purporting to emanate from the Executive 
Committee of the United Society, can fail to estimate at its true value the 
desire professed for unity of action between the Pharmaceutical Society and 
themselves ; the language employed and the expressions made use of are quite 
sufficient evidence on that point. 
It is mere idle talk on the part of the United Society to say that the Council 
