The Sun. — 1859-02-09 (London, England)

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' business, 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 restrictions 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 resulted 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 together, 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 committee 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 eighttenths 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 difficulty wore laudanum and opium, because they wore continually asked for by the poorer classes in small quantities and by placing difficultieSui the way of obtaining such quantitities, trade might be unduly interfered with. Ho hoped he had overcome the difficulty by including the poisons of