120       ON  THE  ACT  REGULATING  THE  SALE  OF  POISONS. 
from  the  more  numerous  cases  of  poisoning  which  result  from 
accident  and  carelessness. 
A  law  on  the  subject  should  be  one  to  which  every  conscien- 
tious druggist  and  chemist  can  give  his  support,  without  finding 
it  necessary  to  infringe  either  its  spirit  or  letter. 
Can  he  do  so  with  the  present  law  ?  We  are  informed  that 
the  dispensing  druggist  must  know  that  a  prescription  calling 
for  Solution  of  Morphia,  Fowler's  Solution,  &c.,  is  written  by  a 
graduate  of  some  incorporated  medical  school ;  the  usual  form, 
carrying  with  it  all  the  usually  accepted  guarantee  of  a  phy- 
sician's prescription,  is,  we  are  told,  not  sufficient ;  the  dispenser 
must  be  able  to  identify  the  writing  of  the  prescriber  so  certainly 
as  to  be  willing  to  risk  the  consequences  of  a  misplaced  judg- 
ment. 
Again — what  constitutes  the  standard  of  respectihility  f  The 
law  does  not  require  the  applicant  to  hQ  personally  known,  only 
respectable,  of  full  age,  and  a  resident  of  the  place  where  the 
sale  is  made.  On  this  questionable  security  the  dispenser  is 
allowed  to  dispose  of  noxious  articles,  while  he  is  forbidden  to 
supply  the  same  to  the  chemical  department  of  a  school  or  col- 
lege on  the  written  order  of  a  well  known  and  responsible  teacher 
or  professor. 
As  the  law  does  not  define  the  meaning  of  retail,  to  which  de- 
partment it  limits  its  restrictions,  the  seller  must  use  his  judg- 
ment ;  if  he  wholesales  poisons  to  even  improper  persons,  he  is 
ojuiltless  of  violatinor  the  letter  of  the  law. 
The  requirements  regarding  labeling  and  registration  are 
salutary,  and  have  been  customary  in  well  regulated  stores. 
The  act  seems  directed  chiefly  to  the  sale  of  poisons  for  crimi- 
nal purposes,  and  we  wonder  why  many  potent  and  deleterious 
substances,  now  common,  should  have  escaped  notice. 
The  best  protection  to  the  community  against  the  indiscrimi- 
nate sale  of  poisons,  is  the  character  and  judgment  of  the  dis- 
penser. So  long  as  any  one  who  places  a  bottle  of  colored 
water  in  his  window,  and  a  sign  over  his  door,  is  considered  a 
responsible  judge  of  res'pect ability,  and  the  difierence  between 
retail  and  wholesale,  we  will  have  arsenic  and  corrosive  sublimate 
sold  to  any  one  who  has  money  to  pay  for  it. 
Philada.  Feb.  20,  1861.  Charles  Bullock. 
