THE SALE OF POISONS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2118, 7 December 1880, Page 2

THE SALE OF POISONS.

Dr, Coward, at the inquest yesterday, called the attention of chemists to a fact which seems to have escaped their notice, and which, in its way, is important. It appears from the evidence of two gentlemen carrying on business in the city as chemists that they did not consider it incumbent on them to register the sale of laudanum in the manner prescribed by the Sale of Poisons Act, 1871. How such an idea arose it is difficult to say, because the Act referred to is exceedingly explicit, and laudanum is included in tho schedule of poisons, of the sale of which it is necessary to keep a record, signed by tho purchaser and a witness. The practice hitherto, as we gather from the witnesses spoken of, has been to ignore this clause of tho Act, and sell laudanum in the ordinary way, similar to medicine, &c., only, wo presume, affixing tho usual label bearing the word “ Poison.” Tho danger of such a course it is hardly necessary to point out. By it the very salutary restrictions with which the Legislature has surrounded tho purchase of poison are broken through. There aro occasions on which poisons are required for legitimate purposes, and it may ho that these restrictions are considered a nuisance. But if they prove the means of saving one life, they will not have been enacted in vain, and the public generally need not grumble at having to go through certain forms. Therefore, it is a good thing that the coroner took occasion to call the attention of chemists to tho law as it exists. In order to give publicity to the matter wo quote the clause of tho Act referred to by him, Clause 12 of the

Sale of Poisons Act is as follows “ It shall be unlawful to sell any poison unless the box, bottle, vessel, wrapper or cover in which such poison is contained be distinctly labelled with the name of the article and the word • ‘ poison,’ and with the name and address of the seller of the poison. And It shall be unlawful to sell any poison of those which are specified in the first part of the First Schedule to this Act, or may hereafter be declared to be poisons within the meaning of this Act by Order in Council under the third section of this Act to any person unknown to the seller, unless introduced by some person known to the seller; and on every sale of any such article the seller shall, before delivery, make or cause to be made an entry in a book to be kept for that purpose, stating in the form set forth in the Third Schedule to this Act the date of the sale, the name and address of the purchaser, the name and quantity of the article sold, and the purpose for which it is stated by the purchaser to bo required, to which entry the signature of the purchaser and of the person, if any, who introduced him shall be affixed. And any person selling poison otherwise than is herein provided shall, upon a summary conviction before two Justices of the Peace, bo liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for the first offence, and to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds for the second or any subsequent offence.”