The General Apothecaries Company, (limited).
- General Apothecaries Company (London, England)
- Date:
- [1856]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The General Apothecaries Company, (limited). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![encounter no small amount of opposition; l»ut tliey deserve the support of all impartial persons—if there are any to he found wlio would not readily confess to a partiality for unadulterated drugs, administered by intelligent and well-qualified men. If we are to be ])oisoned by pbysic, at any rate, let it be scientifically and selnn les regies. When science fails, let ignorance as- sume the work; but imtil this is demonstrated we prefer the fitly-educated man. As matters are conducted at present, a man had need cany the counter poison of Mithridates in bis waistcoat pocket sorhere ante cicum, whenever he goes out to a dinner party, or into a doctor’s shop ! From the “ Illustrated London News,” Oetoher lB>th. The General Apothecaries’ Company.—A new Company has been re- cently started under the above designation, with the professed objects of pro- curing the purest dimgs and chemicals, as well as that amount of skill and carefulness in dispensing them, the want of wliich amongst general dealers has been of late a subject of much loud and just complaint. We recently inspected the works and laboratories of the Company in Berners stiuet, which were very comiDlete, and admh’ably arranged. The facihties the latter will afford to the public for the analysis of various articles of consumption will be of extreme value. When we visited the laboratory we had an opportunity of seeing an illustration of the colour test in the detection of strychnine ; and also learned a very curious fact which is of importance in the connection with the recent trial of Palmer. It will be recollected that the chemical an- alysis of Dr. Taylor failed to eheit evidence of the presence of stiyclmine, and by this failm’e the verdict was considerably impeiilled. The action of the tartarised antimony previously administered to the murdered man was supposed in some way or other to have affected the result; but the rationale of its operation was not attempted to be explained. It now appears that tlie presence of tartaric acid hi any fonn, prevents the action of stiychnine in the colour test; and this fact being estabhshed at once explains away all that before was a mystery in this notorious case. We are yet veiy far be- hind hand in chemical knowledge; and any institution which tends to pro- mote it is deserving of encom-agement. From the “ Court Circular,” November 1st Medical Adulteration and its Antidote.—If it be any satisfaction to the public to know that everytlung they consume is adidterated, sometimes to an extent that it reduces the nominal article to an infinitismal proportion, there is abundance of incontestible evidence of the fact. There is nothing that enters the mouth of man that is not now adulterated in some way. As to bread, “the staff of life,” the housekeeper is lucky who discovers the baker that gives him twenty per cent, of sound wheaten floiu- in the qum-tem loaf. So with tea, coffee, milk, spices, sugar, aiTOwroot, ivine, whiskey, gin, brandy, beer—the adxilterating ingredients constitute considerably tbe greater por- tion of the bulk of each article: and though the Government are fuUy aware of this, yet the iniquity is suffered to spread and cast deeper roots, without any attempt to check its progress, except where the interests of tlie revenue are affected by tbe fraudulent practices of tbe trading classes. A baker may rob and even gradually poison liis customers with impunity, but woe to the publican who puts a few grains of paradise into his beer—though it merely supplies the jdace of a few hops—or to the tobacco manufacturer who sub- stitutes a dock or rhubarb leaf for one of the grewth of Virginia, or to the grocer, wlio mixes a httle rice powder with his ground white pejiper, though there is nothing deleterious in tlie compound. Our paternal Goveimment in their zeal for free trade, cannot thmk of in- tciqiosing to save the pubhc from being poisoned, by the adulteiation of food, so long as the operation docs not nui counter to our precious fiscal laws; and the people ol this country arc such sticklers loi ' freedom, that the odds](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22435001_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
