The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-21 00:00:00

PRELIMINARY ADVERTISEMENT FOR
LIVERPOOL.

THE GENERAL APOTHECARIES' COM-
PANY (LIMITED).

CAPITAL, £lO,OOO, with power to increase to £lOO,OOO, in
Shares of 10 each.

DIRECTORS,

JOHN CHARLES ATKINSON, Fsq., M.D., Kew Green Surrey.
JOHN GARDNER, EQ.q., M.D., 51, Mortimer•etreet, and

Harrow on the Riff
HENRY HARDINGE, Esq., M.D., Sackville-street.
EDWARD JOHNSON, Esq., M.D., Regent-street.
JOHN JAMES RIDGE, Esq., M.D., J.P., Gravesend, Chairman
GEORGE HENRY SMITE, Esq., 51, Cleveland-square.

(With power to add to their number.)
BANKRRS.
UNION BANK OF LONDON, 4, Pall Mall East.
SOLICITOR.
E. Mcss, Esq., 23, Moorgate-street.
AUDITORS.
GRIFFITH TAYLOR, Esq., Gravesend;
SAMUEL HARRIS, Esq., Mansell-street, Whitechapel,

Orriut, LAtiOnATDRIES, AND CENTRAL WHOLESALE AND
RETAIL DEPOT, 49, Berners-street, Oxford-street, London.

September, 1856,

This Company has been established to meet the urgent public
demand for pure Drugs and Chemicals, and for Medicines prepared
by the aid of the present advanced state of science.
It was Incorporated in January last, under the provisions of the
Limited Liability Act.
Spacious Premises have been taken—Warehouses, Dreg Mills,
Laboratories, and Machinery erected ; and the Company is now
prepared for business, wholesale one! re'ail.
An inspection of the Establishment in Berners-street will abun-
dantly prove that this Company possesses power and facilities to
perform all that it promises, namely—to prepare and stipply the
Medical Profession and the P bile with Medicines of every kind,
of known strength, and perfect purity. Invalids' Foods, and Domes
tic Chemicals. It is confi ient y believed that, ay observing good
faith with the public in its operations, such a Company cannot fail
to inspire confidence, and accompl',s'•i far more than any corps of
Government Inspectors.
Among its arrangements may be mentioned :-Ist. That no
foreign or indigenous Drugs are purchased, except such as are
sound and genuine. 2nd. That they are crushed or ground upon
the premises. 3rd. That all commercial Chemicals are tested or
analyzed before they are sold for medicinal purposes. 4th. That the
Pharmaceutical and Chemical Laboratories are under the constant
superintendence of a resident eminent scientific Chemist, recom-
mended by Baron Liebig and Dr. Fresenius, as eminently qualified
for those duties. sth. That the preparations ordered by the Colleges
in their Pharmacopceias, are made strictly in accordance with their
directions.

The Directors have taken measures to ascertain the views of the
Profession ; and they are gratified to find that this enterprise has
elicited the cordial approbation of a very large number of Practioners
of Great Britain; they receive daily assurances of support, and the
Company is already doing a very satisfactory amount of business.
The first issue of the Capital of the Company was readily sub-
scribed, although very little publicity was given to the deign ; and
a considerable stock, together with Buildings, Plant, Machinery.
Utensils, and the Fittings of a spacious Shop for dispensing and
retail, with all preliminary expenses, and advertisements, have been
paid for, leaving a portion of the Capital in hand sufficient for the
business on a certain scale

It was always, however, contemplated by the Directors to make
the premises in Berners-street the Manufacturing, and Central
Wholesale Depot ; and to open Branches to suit the convenience of
the public in various parts of the Metropolis, and In the principal
Provincial Cities and Towns of Great Britain, for the sale of their
drugs, and preparation,, and fir dispensing prescriptions. This
Intention is strengthened, since many profitable businesses, already
established, have been offered to the Company, tinder the impres-
sion that It must command a very large trade founded on public
confidence.

By the establishment of such branches, the company will not
only secure till profits of a wholesale and manufacturing business,
but will add thereto the larger proportionate profits of the retail—
and, moreover, it will be able to conduct its branch Establishments
at far less expense than individuals, since all preparations and com-
pounds will be prepared at the central laboratories, in Berners-
street.

The public Press has added another to the many important ser-
vices it has rendered to Society by exposing the evils arising from
the prevalence of adulteration of Drugs and Chemicals employed in
Medicine, and, demanding a remedy for this abuse, The Times, of
August 25, observes
It requires but a slight portion:of common sense to understand
how important an ingredient of medical success the purity of drugs
must be. Drugs are the executive of the medical man, and, therefore,
with bad or inefficient drugs he acts like a paralysed man, wi ose
limbs refuse o obey him. The physician may have the most exact
idea in his bead of the amount of drug power which he wants to
apply to the patient's disease; but if his drug deceives him, and con-
tains less of this virtue than it professes to do, an perhaps even
that injured by some foreign aomixture, his whol- estimate is
affected, and the process becomes a piece of guesswork. As one
witness says befo-e the Committee on Adulteration, `The mischief
of defective medicines is not always immediate. It frequently hap.
pens that a person, from taking a defective drug, increases the dose
in order to produce the desired effect. Then, upon taking the same
prescription to be made up, when the genuine drug is used the per-
son is almost poisoned.' It is therefore with much concern we learn
from the evidence given before the Committee on Adul eratlon that
the adulteration of drugs, though considerably reduced of late years,
goel on to a large amount. Nor is this concerts lessened when
we bear that the commonest and the most powerful drugs are both
subject to this adulteration. There must be numberless critical
eases of di • ease in which the correctness of the strength of an
opiate must make all the difference of life and death; )et we are
told that 19 out of every 24 samples of opium are adulterated."
The Directors of the GENERAL APOTHECARIES' COMPANY
(limited) consider that the reme y for the evil thus exposed wdl be
found in their plan, and that public confidence must be obtained by
a large and respectable Company. able by its constitution and
arrangements, to meet the demand for pu ity in medicines, and
staking its existence upon maintaining good faith With the pro-
fession and the ;mike. . _

Upon these considerations it was resolved, at a General Extra-
ordinary Meeting of the Sh,reholders, held at 49, Berners-street,
August 28, /856, that the Cakital of the Company should be at
once increased by the issue of further Shares, at the discretion of
the Directors, for the pu pose of extending the business of the
Compsny ; such Shares to b . issued at par, namely, £lO each.
The Directors therefore anpounce, that they are prepa,ed to
receive applications for such Shares.
* The Premises and Laboratories are open to the inspection of
Visitors, on forwarding their cards to the Manager ; and persons
desirous of subscribing for Shares are invited to visit the
Establishment.
September, 185 G, •