ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  PHARMACY. 
437 
public  are  left  entirely  free  to  purchase  genuine  medicines  at  a 
fair  remunerative  price,  or  to  have  them  cheap,  combined  with 
the  usual  adjective  of  nasty,  and  no  man  deludes  himself  as  to 
the  actual  value  of  the  article  he  buys,  whilst,  on  the  Chemist's 
part,  self-interest  proves  the  surest  antidote  to  fraud. 
When  a  man  deliberately  waters  his  tinctures,  falsifies  ex- 
tracts, adulterates  drugs,  and  is  content  generally  with  inferior 
quality,  the  public  is  equally  content  to  go  elsewhere,  and  refuses 
to  be  dragged  back  even  by  persuasive  circulars  or  flaming 
placards.  On  the  other  hand,  the  English  Chemist  never 
hesitates  to  adopt  those  methods  of  preparation  which  discovery, 
design,  or  accident  afford.  If  in  the  course  of  a  practical, 
laborious  life  any  improvement  in  manipulation  should  be  sug- 
gested to  his  mind,  he  lets  his  experience,  not  his  Pharmacopoeia, 
direct  him ;  and  it  is  the  pride  of  some  houses  (as  well  as  an 
undoubted  truth)  that  they  prepare  certain  remedies  much  better 
than  other  people.  No  one  is  injured,  for  intelligence  will,  sooner 
or  later,  win  the  day ;  put  a  fool  into  an  Irish  bog  and  he  will 
die  of  cholera — put  a  wise  man  there,  and  he  will  turn  it  into 
peat  charcoal  and  parrafine. 
Twelve  hours  and  thirty  shillings  will  conduct  the  adventurous 
Chemist  to  another  scene,  where  he  will  find  a  commission  of 
inquiry  in  full  and  active  operation  ;  not  a  decayed,  venerable 
institution,  but  a  living,  energetic  power.  The  twelve  hours' 
journey  is  by  no  means  necessary,  for  the  pages  of  the  Journal 
de  Chimie  Medicale  will  furnish  the  amplest  information  on  this 
point. 
Here  we  find,  for-  instance,  in  April,  1857,  that  "  Jean  Bap- 
tiste  Chevallier,  Chemist,  Professor  at  the  Head  School  of 
Pharmacy  in  Paris,  Member  of  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine and  of  the  Board  of  Health  (armed  to  the  teeth  with  legal 
points  and  technicalities),  comes  down  on  an  unfortunate  Phar- 
macien  in  the  section  Place  Maubert.  Of  five  of  the  bottles 
examined,  labelled  as  containing  various  distilled  waters,  four 
are  found  filled  with  Aqua  Destillata,  and  the  fifth  with  common 
water.  The  syrup  of  Quinine  is  mouldy,  and  has  not  been  pre- 
pared according  to  the  Codex — the  Epsom  salt  turns  out  to  be 
Sodse  Sulphas — and  two  keys  belonging  to  the  poison  cupboards 
are  left  unguarded,  contrary  to  police  regulations.    Verdict : 
