The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-09 00:00:00

SALE OF POISONS.

Mr. WALPOLE moved for leave to bring in a bill to re
gulate the sale of poisons. At the end of last session a bill
on this subject came down from the House of Lords, founded
on the report of the late commission ; but objections were
taken to certain clauses interfering with the druggists' busi-
ness, and at that late period of the session it was thought
better to let it stand over for further consideration. All the
reasons, however, which were then urged in favour of such
a measure had since been increased by the fearful accident
which occurred last autumn at Bradford, where a whole
population were put in danger by the inadvertent sale of
poison. The present bill was founded partly on the Arsenic
Act, passed 15 years ago, in which there were certain re-
strictions on the sale of arsenic, the fact of the sale, the
name of the buyer, the quantity sold, and the purpose for
which it was required, having to be registered. It was the
opinion of Mr. Jacob Bell, Dr. Hornaman, and Dr. Taylor,
the eminent chemists, that the Arsenic Act had to a great
extent answered its purpose, in diminishing the number of
poisonings by arsenic, and Mr. Taylor said that, during the
last year only two cases were brought to Guy's Hospital.
The Registrar-General's report showed that the number of
cases of arsenic poisoning during the year 1857 was reduced
to 27, whereas in the two years 1837 and 1838 there
were 185 cases of poisoning by arsenic, or 94 in a year,
If the law regulating the sale of arsenic had so far succeeded.
it was desirable to extend similar provisions to the sale of
other poisons. But the late sad occurrence at Bradford re-
sulted from a mistake ; instead of selling the article which
the purchaser demanded, and which was one supposed to
be innocent, the dealer sold another article, which in fact
was arsenic. The existing provisions merely as to the sale
of the poisonous article were not sufficient to prevent such
a mistake, and it was necessary there should be some legal
regulations as to the keeping of poisons, as well as the sale
of them. The bill of last year, in order to supply this
defect, provided that in the dealer's premises there should
be a poison closet, where all his poisons should be kept to-
gether, separate from other medicines or drugs ; but it was
objected that the business of a chemist and druggist could
hardly be carried on under such a condition. There was
another method suggested by the committee of the House
of -Lords which, he thought, might very reasonably be
adopted. It was that the person who sold certain poisons
should be required to keep each article in a box or vessel
labelled in a conspicuous manner with the word " Poison,"
and that the article should be sold in a wrapper, or cover,
also labelled " Poison." All the evidence showed that
this would tend to prevent mistakes, and the bill which ho
now asked leave to introduce, therefore, 'contained such a
provision. Certain penalties were imposed for breaking this
law, and power was given to the justices in session to order
any constable to go into shops where such articles were sold,
and to see that the law was duly observed. He believed this
would have a good effect, though, no doubt, the com-
mittee were right in saying that the best security would
be to raise the standard of education among chemists
and druggists, and to take care that they were well
qualified to compond and dispense the medicines in which
they dealt It appeared from the Registrar-General's report
for 1857, that 401 persons died by poison in the course of a
year ; in 113 cases the poison was not specified , 34 persons
died by opium, besides 89 by laudanum, and two by mor;
phia ; 34 by prussic acid, including 15 by essential. o f
almonds i 27 only by arsenic ; 23 by sugar of lead , 13 by
oxalic acid • and 15 by sulphuric acid. The deaths by poison
might be divided into murders or manslaughters, suicides,
and accidental deaths. Of deaths from the use of qnack or
improper medicines, the number was stated at 183 in four
years. It was not to be expected that any legislation could
materially diminish the number of suicides or of deaths
caused by poison deliberate 4
given for the purpose of
taking away human life ; though inn cases of murder,
such regulations as he proposed ould, no doubt,
give a clue to the detection of the guilty persons.
As he had before said it was a mistake to suppose that any
regulation with respect to the sale of poisons would stop
self-destruction. The registrar's report showed that eight-
tenths of those cases arose from the halter, drowning, or the
razor, and only two-tenths were ascribed to poison or other
causes. The object of the bill was chiefly to rezdat the
keeping and sale of poisons, so as to prevent the fearful
number of accidents which had arisen from the sale of these
articles. The other point which he had to brillk before the
house was the articles which should be included in the
schedule as poisonous articles. The committee of the House
of Lords had placed 23 articles in one schedule, and he did
not know how many on the other. Now, it was impossible
to expect that the business of chemists and druggists could
be carried on with such regulations, and he had cut down
the number of articles from 23 to 13, and should be glad to
find that the number could be still further diminished. The
only artiolvi with respect to which he felt any great diffi-
culty wore laudanum and opium, because they wore con-
tinually asked for by the poorer classes in small quantities
and by placing difficultieSui the way of obtaining such quanti-
tities, trade might be unduly interfered with. Ho hoped he
had overcome the difficulty by including the poisons of