a powerful organization, and do not now possess one representative at the London Board.

It is with the intention of remedying this state of things that the Council of the Midland Counties Chemists' Association now makes an appeal to all chemists residing within the vast district of which Birmingham is the centre, to unite together in the formation of a vigorous Association. The passing of the Pharmacy Act of 1868 has imposed upon chemists the necessity of a higher education, which will in due course of time elevate the general character of the trade, and invest it with greater responsibilities. The provision of facilities for the education of young men in pharmacy, chemistry, etc. etc., is rendered easy in Birmingham, where appliances for this purpose exist in abundance. The Council of the Association invite young men, desirous of availing themselves of courses of lectures in aid of their studies, to communicate early with the honorary sccretaries, who will give them information of the terms on which classes in connection with the Queen's College may be formed.

"Besides these just claims upon the services of such an Association as this, there are others affecting the privileges of chemists and druggists under the Pharmacy Act of which the Association will take cognizance. It is well known that there are persons who continue with impunity to sell poisons who are not registered under the Act, and who thus render themselves obnoxious to the law, but who, in the absence of any prosecutor, escape its penalties. All members of the Association are invited to report to the Council any cases of the evasion of the Pharmacy Act which they are able to substantiate,

MIDLAND COUNTIES CHEMISTS' ASSOCIA- and measures will thereupon be taken to protect the

TION.

At a Council Meeting held in the library of the above Association on Friday, July 7, the following circular was ordered to be printed and circulated amongst the chemists of the Midland Counties:

"Dear Sir,-At the last meeting of the Council of this Association it was resolved to endeavour to extend its operations and the sphere of its usefulness by taking more active cognizance of the various questions relating to trade and education which have especially arisen cut of the Pharmacy Act of 1868, and by providing rooms in Birmingham for the transaction of the business of the Association, for the general purposes of a trade office, reading and club rooms, and for any other objects connected with the interests of chemists and druggists.

privileges of its members in this respect.

"The Council will also make it their business to watch the various questions on which (like the present Amended Pharmacy Act,' now before the House of Commons) the expression of opinion throughout the country is so important. It may be here mentioned that the Council have sent one petition to Parliament on this question, and have set on foot another to be signed by individual chemists, praying Parliament to suspend the present Act until the recent recommendations' of the Pharmaceutical Council have been tried, or until all other dispensers of medicine in Great Britain are included in one measure of regulation.

"It will also be the duty of the Council of the Association at the next election of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society, to insist upon the claims of Birmingham and the Midland Counties to one seat (at least) on the Board in London, of which this district has been deprived by the action of other Associations.

"The Midland Counties Chemists' Association is not without its records of useful services. Amongst these may be mentioned the successful influence (as the Council believe) which it has brought to bear upon the "The offices of the Association, which are now open Government in the framing of the Petroleum Act, in a at the Quadrant Chambers, Birmingham, are furnished form which it is expected will be acceptable to chemists; with the nucleus of what it is hoped will become a useful -in the providing of excellent courses of lectures for library of reference and research for chemists in all students in chemistry and pharmacy, in the winter of questions affecting their trade occupation, and for assist1869-70, and in the compilation of the Midland Counties ants desirous of qualifying themselves for the examinaChemists' Price Book, which has had so much demand tions. Periodicals are laid upon the table, and there is that a second edition is already issued. And yet, having accommodation in the rooms for the reception and display regard to the important interests of the great midland of any trade novelties which manufacturers or firms in district, the Council are conscious that the Association has not yet risen to the full position which it ought to occupy. Twenty years ago the Birmingham Pharmaceutical Institution' was second to none in the provinces, but since its decadence, associations of chemists in other "Meetings of the Association will be held in these great centres, such as Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, rooms on the first Friday in each month, at three o'clock Nottingham, Bristol, have conspicuously come to the P.M., for the transaction of business. All members. front, and now maintain, with unabated ardour, their throughout the Midland Counties are carnestly invited to vigilant supervision of whatever relates to the interests attend these meetings, and to support them by their inand welfare of pharmacy. They have each their repre- fluence. The rooms will be freely at the service of all sentatives in the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society assistants and apprentices (members of the Association), in London, whilst the chemists of the Midland Counties where they may hold meetings, read original papers, of England and Wales, covering an area of more than and use them for the purposes of a club. The rooms. 100 miles from cast to west, or from north to south, with will be open from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. All chemists (memBirmingham for their commercial centre, do not possess bers of the Association) and their friends are invited

business may desire to bring under the notice of druggists; the only condition required in sending such articles being that they shall become the property of the Association, and be sent carriage paid.

freely to make use of the accommodation they afford by making it a general rendezvous, chemists' exchange, club room, reading room, writing room, house of call, etc. etc., and a place of neutral ground for meeting trade travellers, for whose samples, if desired, one of the rooms may be occasionally engaged.

"It remains only to add, that to promote these varied objects, an increase of the income of the Association is necessary. At present 102 gentlemen are members of it. It will need an increased number of members and of subscriptions to maintain the objects in view efficiently. The minimum subscription is 58. per annum for principals and 2s. 6d. per annum for assistants and apprenties of chemists. Many voluntary subscriptions, however, on a more liberal scale, are already offered and made, as well as liberal donations towards the preliminary expenses of the offices."

A vote of thanks was passed to the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society for a grant of £10 in aid of the library fund.

Proceedings of Scientific Societies.

THE GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL ON
PHARMACY AND THERAPEUTICS.

dietetics as a remedy. For a long time materia medica continued to be so understood in Scotland, whose seats of learning borrowed the system very largely from the Dutch school. Materia medica, however, was not now regarded in the same way; and he was much surprised, on engaging in his present professorship, to find that the London Apothecaries' Society gave it a totally different meaning. The students were required to attend a course on this subject the first year. Now, materia medica, properly understood, could not possibly be studied in the first year. The more important parts of it could be taken up only at an advanced period. On making inquiry he found, what the shortness of the London course had led him to suspect, that it was almost always only a course of pharmacy. It was sometimes argued that the branch of pharmacy having attained such perfection in the hands of pharmaceutical chemists, practitioners might leave the subject unstudied. It appeared to be forgotten, that in many parts of the country, medicines were not to be obtained from a chemist but only from the practitioner, who ought, therefore, to know their distinctive characteristics. The subject should be studied practically as well as by lectures. This, however, was not always possible. Edinburgh University lacked (in the mean time, at least) the requisite accommodation. In a good practical dispensary the students could be well taught in a body, if there was adequate accommodation. It was not necessary that the patients should The subject might be taught in a short time, so as to swallow all the prescriptions made up by the students. obviate the necessity of the student obtaining instruction

required when an apprenticeship had not been served. Thus the student's work would be really lessened. Of course the period of study should be carly, after chemistry and botany. With regard to therapeutics, some persons thought it beneath consideration. This was partly due to the way in which it had been taught. He declined to say anything specific on that subject; but he knew that in many schools therapeutics had been greatly neglected. The subject might be made highly attrac the lecturer on the practice of medicine, unless he went far tive; and it included many points beyond the sphere of out of his way. Therapeutics, as a course, should come the other branches. Without it the most accurate dianear the end. It was most important in giving effect to gnosis would be incomplete.

Dr. MACROBIN supported the motion.

On Thursday, the 6th inst., this body met under the presidency of Dr. PAGET. The subject before it was the recommendations of the Committee on Education. Dr. PARKES, in bringing these forward, proposed, first: “That it is desirable that instruction in pharmacy should at a chemist and druggist's, which was now generally be separated from that in therapeutics, and that the former should be attended at an early, and the latter at a later, period of the medical curriculum." The Council, he remarked, had much reason to be satisfied with the influence produced by the reports of the visitors of examinations and the report of the Committee on Professional Education in 1869. The licensing bodies had adopted all the more important of the suggestions made to them. This was but natural, as the suggestions had been well conceived, and had been met by the licensing bodies in a proper spirit. As to the proposal now before the Council, he said that it was obvious that instruction as to the drugs used in medicine, and the means of compounding them, should be separated from instruction as to their use, which could be adequately understood only when the student had attended courses on physiology, Dr. HUMPHRY moved, and Dr. APJOHN seconded, as medicine and surgery. The majority of the more experienced teachers of these subjects had, in the Committee's an amendment, "That practical instruction in pharmacy Report of 1869, strongly recommended the teaching of pharmacy at a different stage of the medical curriculum from the teaching of therapeutics. Dr. Christison, whom the Council should respect as much as any English or European authority, had expressed himself strongly in favour of the proposed separation. Dr. Aquilla Smith had given the same opinion. The educational report had recommended that the teaching of pharmacy should be made more practical and tutorial than hitherto; but this was a point for the licensing bodies to deal with. That such a plan, however, was desirable was proved by the manner in which the course was carried on in the University of Aberdeen. Dr. Harvey, the professor there, might publish his account of the course with advantage; while Dr. Macrobin, the member of Council for that University, would corroborate his opinion as to the satisfactory working of the plan.

Dr. CHRISTISON Seconded the motion. The defects of the present system he had been the first to see, and the first to suggest its improvement. Materia medica had formerly a very comprehensive signification, including the natural history and character of medicines, and the mode of preparing them for use; their action, so far as it was known, and the diseases to which they were applied, to which was afterwards added the subject of

may, with advantage, be substituted for formal lectures on the subject, and should be attended at an carly period therapeutics should be conducted at a later period of the of the professional curriculum; and that instruction in professional curriculum, either by a special course of lectures, or as an essential part of the course of lectures on medicine and surgery.'

Dr. ANDREW Wood and Dr. AQUILLA SMITII supported the original proposal and criticized the amendment. Ultimately, after a desultory and slightly acrimonious discussion, Drs. Parkes and Christison carried their point by a decisive majority.

Parliamentary and Law Proceedings.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

PETROLEUM BILL.-July 7.-The report of amendments in the Petroleum Bill was brought up and agreed to.

NITRO-GLYCERINE ACT (1869).-July 10.-The Earl of Shaftesbury presented a petition from proprietors, managers, miners and others interested and employed in ironstone mines at Whitehaven, praying that so much of the Nitro-Glycerine Act of 1869 as extends its provisions to dynamite may be repeled, or that an Act

may be passed declaring that dynamite shall be excluded from the operation of the said Act, and that dynamite and all other explosives used in mines and quarries may be placed on the same footing and subject to the same restrictions as gunpowder is now by law subject to.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

PHARMACY ACT (1868) AMENDMENT BILL.-July 10.-
Petitions against this Bill were presented from-
Chichester, by Lord H. Lennox.
Congleton, by Mr. W. Egerton.
Harwich, by Colonel Jervis.
Launceston, by Mr. Lopes.

Lewes, by Lord Pelham.

July 11.-Petitions against the Bill were presented from

Biggleswade, by Mr. A. Russell.
Caistor, by Mr. R. Winn.

Gloucester, by Mr. Price.

Great Yarmouth, by Sir E. Lacon.

ALLEGED POISONING BY ARSENIC. Much excitement prevailed at Cambridge on Monday last, owing to the exhumation of a man named Day, and the further examination of the widow of the deceased, who was reapprehended on Saturday in consequence of the detection of poison in a pudding on a second analysis made by Professor Liveing. The body was exhumed Dr. Letheby were sent to London in charge of an officer. early in the morning, and the portions of it required by At the police-court the town-clerk stated that since the last occasion of the woman appearing in court, Professor Humphry, Dr. Pagett and Professor Liveing had been consulted, and they were now awaiting the report of Dr. Letheby, but sufficient additional evidence would be given for a remand.

Professor Liveing, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge, said that he made an analysis of the pudding before the day of the adjourned inquest, but detected no poison. On Saturday last he made a further analysis of another part, and found some arsenic. The prisoner, who said that she was innocent and did

July 12.-A petition against the Bill was presented not put anything into the pudding, was remanded. from Peterborough, by Mr. Whalley.

NITRO-GLYCERINE ACT (1869).-July 7.-A petition from Whitehaven was presented by Mr. C. Bentinck to the same effect as that mentioned above (House of Lords).

POISONING OF SEVENTEEN CHILDREN BY CALABAR

BEANS.

An incident is reported from Liverpool, which, apart from the large number of children injured, is remarkably similar to one that occurred in the same town seven years since, and reported in this Journal.*

Obituary.

THOMAS HAWKES TANNER, M.D. Medicine has lost an able and zealous practitioner in Dr. T. H. Tanner, who died at Brighton on the 7th inst.,. at the early age of forty-six. Dr. Tanner was educated, we believe, at the Charterhouse and King's College, London; becoming a member of the Royal College of of Medicine at St. Andrew's in the same year. His career Surgeons of England in 1847, and graduating as Doctor On Monday last seventeen children, who with others will hereafter be cited as one of the first in which success had been playing on some waste ground in Boundary was attained not by reputation won at hospitals or Street, where a quantity of rubbish-probably the sweep-societies so much as in the pages of medical journals and ings of a ship or warehouse-had been deposited, were of publications addressed to the student and the general found to be suffering from the effects of poison. Amongst practitioner. His works, most of which were enlarged. the rubbish the children had found a quantity of Calabar beans, some of which they had eaten. Eleven of the children were taken to the shop of Mr. Smith, druggist, in Athol Street, who immediately administered emetics and rubbed their chests with spirits of turpentine. Medical assistance was obtained, and these and the other children were pronounced to be out of danger the same evening. The police have not yet discovered whence the rubbish came, or who were the persons culpable in depositing it in a public place. Three loads of the rubbish were at once removed, and buried in a pit covered with clay.

POISONING BY PRUSSIC ACID.

An inquest has been held in Liverpool on the body of Samuel Hudson, aged 40. It appeared from the evidence that the deceased was eccentric, nervous and irritable in manner, and in the habit of drinking. Latterly he seems to have been in money difficulties and depressed in his mind. On Saturday morning he went to Messrs. J. H. and S. Johnson's, druggists, Church Street, and asked for an ounce bottle of prussic acid. He said that he wanted it for photographic purposes, and requested that it might be put into a peculiar-shaped bottle. Being a customer to the firm, and not appearing otherwise than usual, he was served with the prussic acid. The same afternoon a workman employed by him found him lying dead in his workshop.

Dr. W. J. Morris, from the Southern Dispensary, made a post-mortem examination of the body, and found that death had resulted from prussic acid, there having been more taken than would be certain to destroy life. Verdict-"Died from swallowing prussic acid, but how administered there was not sufficient evidence to show."

* 2nd Ser., Vol. VI., p. 134.

from their original tiny dimensions to stout octavos, enjoyed immense popularity with the candidate for exami-nation and the "run-and-read" physician. They were remarkable for the skill with which their author worked down the latest results of science to undergraduate apprehension or to general practice, and were the means of winning him a professional name, which he was rapidly raising in the esteem of his brethren when death removed him from his wide circle of patients and friends.

DR. A. KEITH JOHNSTON.

The author of the 'National Atlas,' and still more of the Physical Atlas,' deserves a passing notice at our hands. Dr. A. Keith Johnston died on Sunday at BenRhydding, in his sixty-seventh year. He was trained. for the medical calling in Edinburgh, the city of his birth. Wisely, however, he devoted himself to the science of geography, in its largest sense; and in 1843 gained the applause of the learned at home and abroad by his 'National Atlas,' a work which cost him fifteen. years' research in the geographical literature of nearly every European tongue. This was succeeded by his 'Physical Atlas,' which, suggested by Berghaus, superseded that geographer's work by its fulness and accuracy of information on the geology, meteorology, climatology, hydrography, magnetism, etc., of the globe, with the vegetable and animal kingdoms which inhabit it. A member of every geographical society of note throughout the world, he took an active interest in the meteorological and epidemiological societies. He did much for medical geography; and only a few weeks before his. death he received the Royal Geographical Society's medal in token of that body's appreciation of his services. Greatly esteemed in private and public, he goes down to the grave with the honour of having done more for geography, from its humblest educational up to its highest scientific aspects, than any man of his time.

tions.

Correspondence.

No notice can be taken of anonymous communicaWhatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

THE AMENDED PHARMACY BILL.

Sir,—Mr. Forster will ask the House of Commons on Monday next to vote the principle of the Bill for the amendment of the Pharmacy Act. There is time to say a word on this principle and the form of procedure adopted by the Government on this occasion.

The intention of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, we may all agree at the outset, was to ensure the public safety. On its spirit, or mode of fulfilling that intention, the Privy Council and our body are of opposite opinions; the former stating that it should be carried out by mechanical arrangements, whilst we insist that the spirit of the Act is educational, and attains its result by educating chemists for their business. On this point Mr. Forster agrees with us; having stated to the first and second deputations of the Council that if all chemists possessed the same educational qualifications as the gentlemen present, no regulations would be necessary. He also stated at the last interview that he had answered a letter received from Mr. Schacht to the same effect.

On these repeated assertions we found the justice of our claim for non-intervention. It is a narrow issue, and we raise it on the question. We are daily adding to our ranks those only who give proof to our examiners and to the Government assessor of their fitness for their calling, and will not this legislation permanently affect them? The Bill, as first drawn by the Privy Council, was pressed forward in the House of Lords with all the momentum of a Government measure. The first intimation the Council received of such a Bill existing was a summons to attend a special meeting for the purpose of considering a Bill which had been read a second time in the House of Lords the previous evening.

This was an act of injustice to the Pharmaceutical Council, and one of discourtesy to the Peers, inasmuch as discussion on the second reading was balked. Inter alia, the Lords were not permitted to be informed of the attempted design by the Privy Council to impose upon the trade, by a side-wind, that peculiar bottle which in 1868 they had formally condemned, and which Lord Salisbury had freely attacked as involving a principle of legislation alien to the spirit of laws which should prevail in this country.

A Bill started so unfairly could not escape rude checks in its course. It was found to be merely a Bill of pains and penalties, so unable to endure the touch of criticism, that when brought face to face with public opinion the Privy Council was fain so far to alter its provisions as to virtually constitute it a new Bill. Thus the House of Commons judged when it met the motion for the second reading by cries of "withdraw" too general to be disobeyed by the Minister.

The House of Lords had thus, by listening to the representations of Government, sanctioned by their vote a Bill which its authors were compelled within a month materially to change. Not a considerate or respectful manner of treating that assembly! Mr. Forster says such a course is not unusual; and we say perhaps the great suspicion and the hostile votes that assembly has so repeatedly of late bestowed on Government measures may be read by the light of this

transaction.

into committee, come out in a form scarcely recognizable to any of us. Perhaps some logical mind in committee will urge that a medical man is the best judge how he shall conduct his business, another that if any are to be under this Act, why not all,-hospitals, dispensaries, private surgeries? We as a body declare that regulations which we objected to for ourselves are not more acceptable because imposed upon others. We have not yielded to the tempter, who says in effect, You think my proposals evil, but now you can more gracefully yield to my solicitations, for I have the same intentions towards your sister. We reply, that acquiescence in such a proposal, and for such a reason, would only add to the family disgrace.

The Government, catering for support to its Bill, has sought by such a proposition to disarm the opposition of chemists; and a letter recently sent to members of the trade shows that these means have not proved wholly unsuccessful. The poison bottle is cast overboard,-what policy can guide the Privy Council? A short time since it was insisting that the public safety demanded the adoption of such a bottle; now it leaves the public safety to shift for itself without it. Did it find that, like its proposal to regulate the dispensing of poisons in single doses, it would not quite do? or is it that, failing to secure that amount of support it calculated upon in the House of Commons, it now comes forward, having readjusted its Bill, dropping the bottle on one side and picking up the surgeons on the other? We are told these concessions are proposed by the Government as a compromise to answer our objections to some details of the Bill. The time for compromise would have been more gracefully chosen before the threatened defeat of the whole measure; and if compromise be the right principle upon which to act, until how recently has the Privy Council been wanting in it? The fact is, our great strength in this conflict has been the disapprobation of such attempted over-legislation by a Government department entertained generally by the members of the House of Commons. We watch very jealously in this country any attempt at bureaucratic government. The powers of the Privy Council are great, and for that reason are the more jealously watched; otherwise, following the natural tendencies of unelected bodies, its irresponsibility would lead it into abuses not inconsistent with its name, which would cause it to become in time the Star Chamber of the nineteenth century. It is only an inexpressible awe for any communication from the Privy Council that can explain the attitude taken by preceding Councils. They have proved to be made of very squeezable materials-swayed now by those letters from the Privy Council Office, now by the opposition of their constituents, now proposing to the Privy Council regulations for storing poisons, now at the bidding of that body adding the poison bottle; then proposing these regulations to the trade, then voting them as recommendations; and, lastly, at the annual meeting not concealing their desire, if they did not vote, for giving these regulations the force of law. They have been actuated by the policy of making things pleasant all round; but, like the old man and his ass, they have "tried to please everybody and pleased nobody."

Strengthened by the confidence and support of the great body of our trade, the present Council has dropped this india-rubber policy. The only pressure they should answer to is that of public opinion; and so long as that speaks in favour of an opposition to the principle of this Bill, so long ought they to endeavour to destroy it, by every means their office affords S. C. BETTY.

THE REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE. Sir,-In the Journal of July 8th you publish the returns forwarded by local secretaries as to petitions against the Pharmacy Bill. Under Brighton I find it stated, number of chemists and druggists in town 52, and number of signatures obtained 52.

The Government having thus, in the face of Mr. Forster's expressed opinion, disregarded the spirit of the Act, 1868, viz. that the calling of a chemist and druggist is a responsible one, and those following it should be educated to fulfil its duties, has floundered in a sea of difficulties. In attempting to remove anomalies which were inherent to their Bill, their amendments, or, more properly, their new Bill, violates the spirit of the Act which they allege it supplements. Of what offence has the medical profession been guilty that both the Act of 1868 and Dr. Brewer's Amended Act should be violated? In these Acts clauses specially exempt medical men from interference; the present Bill seeks to impose upon them the present and all future regulations which the Pharmaceutical Council and the Privy Council may deem proper to impose; and, although the present Bill restricts its operaThese returns were furnished by the Committee.tion to those keeping open shops, it may, if allowed to go ED. PHARM. JOURN.]

If this is intended to convey the impression that all the Brighton chemists signed this petition it is, as far as I am concerned, incorrect. I am a Brighton chemist, and neither have I, nor do I intend, to append my signature to such a document.

In inserting these lines in your next number, you will greatly oblige J. SCHWEITZER.