ADDRESS.  199 
Fortunately  the  need  of  this  interposition  is  rarely  required, 
and  would  be  yet  more  infrequent,  but  for  the  thoughtlessness 
of  those  who  are  near  the  physician  when  engaged  in  writing 
his  prescription.  During  this  important  act,  when  his  faculties 
require  to  be  concentrated  on  the  requirements  of  the  case, 
when  a  long  list  of  medicines  have  to  be  selected  from  and  asso- 
ciated, when  the  numerical  proportions  of  these  have  to  be  cal- 
culated and  symbolized,  and  the  dose  duly  ascertained  and 
indicated,  he  is  frequently  interrupted  by  the  attendants  with 
ill-timed  and  irrelevant  questions,  or  by  relatives  with  expres- 
sions of  excited  feeling,  tending  to  distract  his  attention. 
The  subject  of  the  custody  and  sale  of  poisons  is  of  serious 
interest  to  the  pharmaceutist.  By  the  fiat  of  the  Creator  a 
large  number  of  plants  and  minerals  are  noxious  to  animal  life. 
Of  these,  many  rank  as  eminently  valuable  medicines  ;  others 
are  used  chiefly  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  are  kept  by  the 
apothecary  and  druggist.  Not  only  has  he  to  dispense  these 
poisons  by  prescription,  but  many  are  habitually  sold  by  the 
druggist,  and  bought  by  the  people,  without  other  license  than 
that  which  creates  the  demand  with  the  consumer,  or  which  a 
sense  of  moral  responsibility  calls  forth  in  the  dispenser.  Except 
in  a  few  isolated  localities,  no  legal  regulations  exist  to  restrain 
this  traffic,  and  each  dealer,  be  he  druggist  or  apothecary,  grocer 
or  storekeeper,  is  left  to  pursue  such  policy  in  regard  to  it  as  he 
may  deem  expedient. 
Until  quite  recently  the  same  unrestrained  trade  existed  in 
England,  but  Parliament,  aroused  by  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
accidental  and  murder  poisoning,  appointed  a  committee  to  frame 
a  bill  for  the  regulation  of  the  sale  of  all  poisonous  agents.  This 
committee  has  been  in  session  for  many  months  past,  and  have 
not  yet  perfected  the  draught  of  a  law,  owing  to  the  numerous 
difficulties  that  arise  when  the  attempt  is  made  to  render  the  law 
practically  efficient,  and  at  the  same  time  not  burdensome  to  the 
legitimate  dispensing  of  medicines  by  pharmaceutical  chemists. 
So  impressed  was  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
at  its  late  meeting  in  this  city,  with  the  practical  difficulties  that 
present  in  framing  a  statute  to  meet  the  evils  of  poisoning,  that 
they  preferred  to  confine  their  action  to  a  circular  of  advice  to 
apothecaries  and  druggists,  rather  than  recommend  legislative 
