ON THE RELATIONS OF PHARMACY TO THE REVENUE. 
213 
Mr. Baldock and Mr. Carteighb stated that they did not regard the preparation as 
one liable to become mouldy, even if kept for a year or two. The former gentleman 
advised that the heat should be raised fully as high as named by the author, as the best 
guarantee of stability in the preparation. 
ON THE RELATIONS OF PHARMACY TO THE REVENUE. 
BY ME. E. W . GILES. 
In this paper the author laid before the meeting a full account of the re¬ 
cent prosecution to which he had been subjected for the sale of methylated 
spirit. The particulars have already been published at p. 40 of the current 
volume of ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal.’ Mr. Giles’s appeal to the Recorder of 
Bristol was unsuccessful. He showed how the excise had set the trap for 
him, and had followed up their advantage relentlessly, pointing out the 
technical advantages resting with the prosecution in excise cases. 
A discussion followed this paper, in which many members took part, and much sym¬ 
pathy was expressed for Mr. Giles under the persecution to which he had been sub¬ 
jected. The operation of the new Act of Parliament, limiting the use of methylated 
spirit in medicine, was fully considered. The distinction between medicines for internal 
and external use was shown to be the foundation of the question at present; and the 
complications that might be anticipated from this very doubtful distinction were illus¬ 
trated by the cases of various methylated liniments, as lin. camph. co., and others which 
were intended for external use, but the sale or possession of which would be capable of 
construction into a breach of the law, since it could not be denied that they might be 
taken internally. It was evident that for the same reason a wide door would be opened 
for fraudulent practices. The unsatisfactory position of the drug trade in relation to 
methylated spirit, was asserted to be due to its chief corporate control being in the 
hands of persons more interested in the wholesale or manufacturing departments than in 
retail business. 
The following resolutions were adopted :— 
Moved by Mr. Reynolds, Leeds ; seconded by Mr. Jones, Leamington,— 
“ That this meeting has had under its consideration the subject of the use of methy¬ 
lated spirit in medicine, in connection with the recent changes of the law prohibiting 
the same for medicines intended for internal use. It records its conviction that great 
injury has happened to the best and permanent interests of the drug trade by the intro¬ 
duction of this compound, devised as it was for totally different purposes, and views with 
satisfaction the limitation of its use, now imposed by Parliament. With a knowledge 
of the many devices by which methylated spirit has been brought into unfair and 
underhand competition with pure and duty-paid spirit, this meeting regards with much 
apprehension the attempts which are likely to be made to evade the new law, and trusts 
that the Board of Inland Revenue will vigilantly guard against such evasion.” 
Moved by Mr. Reynolds ; seconded by Mr. Scbacht, Clifton,— 
“ That this meeting desires to lay before the Board of Inland Revenue its opinion 
that the virtual break-down of the system by which the use of methylated spirit has 
hitherto been regulated, urgently demands that some new plan should he devised for 
more securely preventing the conversion of a duty-free spirit into an imitation of pure 
spirit, on which duty has been paid.” 
A copy of the resolutions was ordered to be sent to the Board of Inland 
Revenue. 
Mr. Hallidat suggested that it would be desirable to make an effort for legalizing 
the sale of small quantities of pure spirit-of-wine by chemists, when it was required for 
legitimate purposes. 
