Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] Being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, with which it is identical. MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4068, 21 March 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] Being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, with which it is identical. MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1892.

A paragraph was going the rounds of the English papers in January to the effect that the British Medical Asfaociation contemplated a "crusade" against the unrestricted sale of " Patent" medioines containing poison, There can be little doubt that the Association does not so much object to these remedies containing poison, as to their being " quack" nostrums, Yec, as they know the State could no more suppress medical remedies not licensed by the faculty, than they can persecute religious denominations outside the pale of tlio Church of England, they denounce! these medicines as poisonous; just as some people iry to puuisli the Salvas tion Army iV being noisy, while what they really object to is that the Amy is unorthodox. We are inclined to think that it is desirable that every article no'd in a shop should be sold under a name that truly desoribes it, This would not only obviate risk of poisoning, explosions, and so on, but also save people's purses, But it is very difficult to decide what amount of information the name ought to give, and in what cases the rule should apply, Surely, if, for example, in the instance of buttons a change was at all requisite, they could be sold as "fancy" without hurting anyone, If the purchaser wanted to know if they were wood, horn, bone, or " composition /'thai he could easily ascertain for himsalf. But whether " Rubber Cement" ought to be sold as such, if largely jomposed of 13i-sulphide of Carbon, is another question. The bisulphide is dangerously inflammable, as the vapour tafres lire not merely when set light to, but when ap» proached by an ember, or a wire that is barely red-bot, Then again, while Syrup of Bed Gum may be safely rebed on not to contain any poison, although probably it dqes not contain any Bed Gum, there is a syrup sold to soothe babies which notoriously contains morphia, and has caused many deaths. Probably the case would be met if an Act were passed prohibiting the sale of anything not so described as to make its nature apparent . so far as the avoidance of acoidents is concerned, The difficulty lies in the fact that while everyone would like to see the mo3t dangerous poisons and explosives labelled with their true names]'it is very hard to draw the line, and say what comes under this head. The first poison that occurs to one is Stryohnine. Yet this is notoriously an lngrbdientofarauoh-soldpatentSyrup, but in so small a quantity that it bus never, we beliove, done any harm. Gunpowder is dangerous; yet who would restrict the sale of Chinese Craokers? Probably if tI)Q Medical Association was to speaji-thoplajn truth, and say they objected to " quack " medicines, it would be aiore satisfactory to all parties. We should then learn that the great majority of pafept medioineß" are not patent, for one thing, are" secret" remedies, and the re'asoij tjipy a;e secret is that in many cases no one would buy them if the ingredients were truly disclosed The German practise is to analyse any new intrc. duotiopsapfl publish tk result, TLis might perhaps answer the required end, but before adopting such a plan one would like to know what sale such articles have in Germany. It is also air. open question whether the State 1 should interfere in such malters. Prudent people already avoid quack remedies and let the orthodox practitioners pilot them to their coffins in the old-fashioned stylo,

l As to the question of caving one's Purse,; much might be said. In this Colony a host of nostrums for otiring blighj, ki'ling weeds, and dipping eheep are sold. Many of tliem p. o efficacious, and the only objection that they tee sold at from ton to fif » times their real value, Probably no one who has experimented on sheep dips lias ever even' snggesied any improvement on a simple solution of arsenic in oaustl3 noiash; wbioli cun be made by anyone with the merest smattering of cnetrical knowledge, and costs about sixpeuce pet hundred sheep, Yet wa know that the. so-

called "patent" dips have a !rrj sale, and are as well supported' by testimonials as any medical oure alls' We are inclined lo think that while England is. absolutely helpless • S solve the rea'ly burning questio

that of widespread poverty in tofti and • country, she ought rather to conoenlrme her powers on this, than attempt fresli legislation of a very difficult and imrioate kind on a subject tba<, is by no means pressing.