118       ON  THE  ACT  REGULATING  THE  SALE  OF  POISONS. 
following  the  analogy  of  judicial  interpretation,  would  include  under  those 
generic  terms  all  the  compounds  into  which  those  substances  enter  impart- 
ing their  poisonous  properties,  limiting  it  to  those  only  which  could  be 
used  for  the  destruction  of  human  life,  which  is  the  sole  object  the  legisla- 
ture proposes  to  prevent.  To  be  within  the  Act,  the  sale  of  the  forbidden 
poison  must  be  by  retail,  that  is,  in  small  quantities,  to  a  party  standing 
in  the  position  of  a  consumer  and  not  a  seller  or  manufacturer,  and  it  mat- 
ters not  whether  they  be  given  or  sold  to  improper  parties,  for  both  acts 
seem  to  be  within  the  statute ;  the  object  of  the  Legislature  is  to  prevent 
the  poison  from  passing  into  the  hands  of  improper  parties,  and  not  mere- 
ly to  prohibit  a  sale. 
The  sale  or  disposal  by  retail  (small  quantities  to  consumers)  of  the 
poisons  named  in  the  Act  is  ahsolutelj  T^rohih'ited,  ^'except  upon  the  pre- 
scription of  a  physician,  or  on  the  personal  appUcaiion  of  some  respectable 
inhahitani  of  full  age,  of  the  town  or  place  m  which  such  sale  shall  take 
place."  To  avoid  the  penality  of  the  statute,  the  sale  must  be  bona  fide 
upon  the  prescription  of  a  physician,  and  I  apprehend  the  dispenser  of 
the  poison  is  bound  to  know  that  it  is  a  prescription  of  a  physician,  as  it 
purports  on  its  face  to  be,  and  that  a  mere  order  in  the  technical  form  of 
a  prescription  would  not  shield  him  from  the  penalty.  In  the  latter  part 
of  the  proviso,  the  sale  may  be  "-upon  personal  application  of  some  respecta- 
ble inhabitant  of  full  age,  &c.  But  the  application  must  be  personal 
and  not  by  order  or  agent,  and  the  seller  must  know  that  the  purchaser 
is  such  an  '<  inhahitani."  and  of  the  town  or  place  in  which  such  sale  shall 
be  made,"  for  a  sale  to  a  stranger  is  not  contemplated  by  the  statute,  nor  is 
any  provision  made  for  it,  and  such  sale  would  incur  a  penalty.  The  Act 
contemplates  that  the  purchaser  shall  be  known  to  the  seller,  that  he  shall 
be  of  full  age,  of  the  tow7i  or  place  where  the  selling  takes  place,  and  that 
his  position  and  character  shall  be  a  sufiScient  guaranty  to  the  seller  that 
no  improper  or  criminal  use  shall  be  made  with  the  poison. 
The  second  provision  of  the  Act  directs  that  '<  in  all  cases  of  such  sale  the 
word  poison  shall  be  carefully  and  legibly  marked  or  placed  upon  the  label,, 
package,  bottle  or  other  vessel  or  thing  in  which  such  poiso7i  is  contained." 
The  third  provision  of  the  Act  directs,  that  where  the  poison  is  "sold  or 
disposed  of  otherwise  than  under  the  prescription  of  a  physician,"  the 
dispenser  "  shall  note  in  a  register  kept  for  thai  purpose  the  name  and  resi- 
dence of  the  person  to  whom  such  sale  was  made,  the  quantity  sold  and  the 
date  of  such  sale"  Singularly  enough  he  is  not  directly  required  to  enter 
the  name  of  the  kind  of  poison,  only  the  name  and  residence  of  the  pur- 
chaser and  the  quantity  and  date,  but  the  name  of  the  kind  of  poison  is 
implied  from  the  very  object  for  which  such  entry  is  directed  to  be  made, 
to  wit,  to  facilitate  the  detection  of  those  persons  who  have  used  the  poi- 
son for  murderous  purposes,  and  the  entry  in  the  register  would  not  com- 
ply with  the  spirit  of  the  law  if  the  name  of  the  poison  should  be  left  out. 
To  comply  with  this  portion  of  the  Act,  the  dispenser  must  obtain  and  keep 
