540 
EDITORIAL. 
10  doses,  or  150,000  doses  annually !  He  goes  on  thus  for  many  years, 
and  never  has  the  faintest  trace  of  an  accident  arising  from  any  fault  or 
oversight  of  his  own,  and  for  which  he  rarely  gets  a  fair  share  of  credit. 
But  during  those  years  he  has  probably  corrected  numberless  errors  of 
prescribers,  many  of  them  of  no  trivial  nature ;  but  for  this  he  has  no 
credit,  professional  etiquette  requires  he  should  be  silent.  If  the  skill 
and  foresight  of  the  dispenser  were  not  habitually  turned  to  such  con- 
tingencies, serious  accidents  would  frequently  be  recorded.  Hence,  the 
educated  and  careful  dispenser,  in  the  exercise  of  his  skill,  tact,  and  judg- 
ment, in  avoiding  the  dangers  incidental  to  his  grave  and  responsible  du- 
ties, is  a  benefactor  to  the  community,  and  deserves  better  pay  and  high- 
er consideration  than  the  world  is  disposed  to  give.  Yet  a  man,  though 
gifted  with  clear  intellect  and  sound  discretion,  and  possessing  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  his  business  or  profession,  cannot  after  all  claim  exemption 
from  that  common  imperfection  of  humanity — fallibility,  and  is  not  a  bit 
less  liable  to  error  than  the  professedly  more  highly  educated  man  who 
writes  prescriptions,  or  the  patient  who  carelessly  takes  up  an  opium  lini- 
ment, and  swallows  it  for  a  black  draught,  without  exercising  that  com- 
mon sense  which  we  may  safely  state  is  the  only  true  preventive  of  such 
accidents. 
"No  regulations  could  be  devised  nor  act  of  Parliament  enforced  to 
prevent  a  physician  from  making  a  wrong  mark,  which  might  lead  to 
fatal  results,  nor  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  facts  as  the  following  : 
u  A  lady  of  our  acquaintance  lately  took  into  her  hand  au  oval,  fluted, 
half-pint  bottle  of  chloride  of  zinc,  having  thereon  a  large  red  label,  and 
1  Poison,'  in  large  red  letters,  on  the  top  of  the  bottle,  and  took  a  dose 
therefrom,  instead  of  from  a  round  pint  bottle,  having  a  small  plain  label, 
which  she  had  used  for  two  years  for  a  soothing  i  yrup  in  daily  and  fre- 
quent use. 
"  Another  lady  of  our  acquaintance  went  to  a  cupboard  where  medi- 
cines are  kept  on  a  middle  sheTf  to  procure  a  dose  of  fluid  magnesia,  but 
instead  of  taking  the  proper  bottle  standing  before  her  face,  got  a  chair 
and  took  a  bottle  of  chloride  of  zinc  from  a  distant  corner  of  a  top  shelf, 
and,  in  spite  of  the  red  label  and  the  word  '  Poison,'  took  a  dose,  which 
killed  her  in  a  week. 
"  Such  cases  can  be  quoted  by  the  dozen,  together  with  numberless 
little  inexplicable  instances  in  daily  life,  of  temporary  absence  of  common 
sense,  which  serve  to  prove  the  frailty  of  human  nature,  and  how  power- 
less all  rules  and  regulations  must  be  to  prevent  their  recurrence  entirely. 
°  The  case  at  Liverpool  brings  all  these  considerations  before  us  in  the 
most  vivid  manner.  ...  Is  a  man  to  suffer  destructive  and  ruinous 
spoilation  because  his  assistant  is  not  more  than  human?  It  is  monstrous 
injustice.  Who  is  safe  amongst  us  if  a  ruinous  prosecution  is  to  follow 
an  accident,  however  sad  and  fatal  it  may  be,  which  may  any  day  occur 
to  any  one  of  us — a  class  of  men  proverbially  and  necessarily  careful  for 
their  own  existence'  sake  ?  And  who  will  enter  a  profession  liable  to 
such  fatal  responsibility  ? 
"  A  general  practitioner  may,  and  does  make  numberless  mistakes  with 
impunity,  because  the  facts  are  confined  to  himself  and  his  own  surgery. 
The  eyes  of  the  physician  and  the  public  are  not  on  him  or  his  dispenser, 
to  stimulate  to  vigilance  and  care  ;  thus  few  accidents  under  such  circum- 
stances ever  see  the  light,  and  perhaps  it  is  well  it  should  be  so.  But 
cases  do  occasionally  come  before  the  public  which  contrast  most  favor- 
ably for  the  order  and  care  exercised  in  every  well  regulated  pharmacy." 
The  Editor  of  the  Chemical  News,  in  speaking  of  the  meeting,  says : — 
