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sums of money in providing suitable places for that purpose. The action of the Board with regard to the proposed o

Paddington Park B 11 is also fully explained, but, as is well a

known, the scheme of the promoters met with an adversedecision from the Select Committee of the House of Com- c

mons before whom it came. We earnestly trust, however, tthat efforts will be renewed to secure for Paddington the 1additional open space which is still available, but which lcannot remain so for an indefinite period. Coming to the f

question of an improved water-supply for the metropolis, weare reminded that the intention to secure the appointment fof a separate water authority has apparently been abandoned i

by the Government in favour of leaving the duty to thenew municipal corporation which has yet to be created, and )a fear is naturally expressed that under these circumstances]some time must elapse before the representatives of thewater consumers are allowed to have any voice in thematter. As the result of the Order issued by theP,ivy Council under the Contagious Diseases (Animals)Act, 1878, the Board have done good work in connexionwith the dairies, cowsheds, and milk stores. Under thisOrder 14,201 persons have now been registered, 931being occupiers of licensed cowsheds, and the remainderbeing dairymen or milksellers only. Many of the worstmetropolitan cowsheds have been abolished through theopposition which the Board has raised to the renewal oflicences; the plans of all new sheds must be submitted tothe Board ; and even old ones which cannot be regarded assatisfactory have been materially improved as respectsdrainage, ventilation, lighting, cleaulii3es.-, &c. Seadily adiminution of private slaughterhouses is m progress underthe Board’s surveillance. At the date of the passing of theSlanghterhouses, &c. (Metropolis) Act. 1874, there were asiiiany as 1429 of these places, but by the elimination of theworst the number has been reduced to 853. The offen-dve trades are also subject to the Board’s supervision,and considerable progress is stated to have been madeat many of such establishments towards their being car-

ried on without causing nuisance. There has also been con-stant inspection of the houses registered under the InfantLife Protection Act. There are now thirty-three suchhouses in the metropolis, and every effort is made to detectand punish infringements of the Act. The amendment ofthis Act with a view to its being made more efficient is muchneeded, but no opportunity has as yet occurred for givingdfect to the Board’s wishes in this respect.

PROFESSOR ATTFIELD ON THE FUTURESUPPLY OF DRUGS TO THE PUBLIC.

AT the opening meeting, on Tuesday last, of the twentiethsession of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, held thisyear at Southport, Professor Attfield, who for the secondtime presided, delivered an address on the above subject.The Professor said that a year ago he had spoken of therelation of pharmacy to the State, and now he desired tosook at the relation of the State to pharmacy. He haddescribed what pharmacy was doing and could do for thetate; now he wished to consider what the State was doingand could do for pharmacy, in the interests of the public. Acrisis in pharmacy was fast approaching. The aim of theAct of 1868—the proper supply of trustworthy drugs-washeing seriously thwarted. The Act said that no personhould take the title of "chemist and druggist" and practiseunder it unless, after satisfying State examiners that he wasproperly qualified, his name was duly enrolled on a Stateregister. It was possible for an unregistered and evenerly unqualified person to act as a chemist and druggist.This was not then foreseen, but it was exactly what washappening. Shops indistinguishable in appearance fromthose of registered chemists and druggists were opened byunqualified and unregistered men who were retail distributors

drugs bought wholesale-men knowing nothing of thedanger of the articles they dealt in and having no sense ofresponsibility. These sham chemists and druggists, andmany of the general shopkeepers referred to, sold all thethings that were sold by the qualified druggist, except the fewmorevirulent poisons scheduled in the Pharmacy Act, the profitun which, to the authorised dealers in them, was very trifl;ng.

To supply the sham druggists wholesale houses had arisenof whose competence there was no guarantee. Theassumption of Parliament was that the public were to beprotected by the qualification of the retailer, and the natureof the business in a wholesale house rendered it impracticableto look to it for the security of the public. The law mustlook to the retailer; it contemplated the supply of drugs byproperly qualified persons only, and that intention was beingextensively frustrated. Drugs of nearly all kinds, simpleand compound, were being indiscriminately sold by unquali-fied persons. Many of theee sold the drugs at cost price orvery small protit as mere baits to catch customers. Th’swas very unjust to men who had qualified themselves for aresponsible calling in the manner prescribed by Act of Par ment, and who were gradually losing their means of liveli-hood ; but it was far more serious for the p’lhlic. Theycould more or less judge of the quality of food, but theycould not protect tl1emselves in the case of drugs. Theycould not, in this case, rely on the Acts against adultera-tion, because Nature yielded drugs which varied much inquality, and of that only an expert could judge. Analystsas such could not be familiar with the conditions of purity andstrength. The Pharmacy Act also was incomplete. Where thepublic could not protect themselves thelaw allowed exceptionsto the rule of free trade; it did not permit free trade in somepoisonous drugs. A line was drawn between some poisonsand uthers; that line ought to encircle all poisons ; nearlyall drugs were poisons more or less ; therefore nearly all

drugs should be excluded from the area of free trade. It3doctrines did not apply to pharmacy. There could not wellbe freedom where the power of judging was all on one side.Pharmacy was partly a trade, partly a profession. The saleof an ounce of rhubarb was a commercial transaction; adviceas to the dose or mode of administration introduced theprofessional element ; but the still more important questionwhether the article was good or worthless turned on thevendor’s knowledge, chemical, botanical, pharmaceutical.In those subjects he was educated and examined. Thepurchaser was not in a position of freedom ; he needed ex-ternal protection, and therefore the law had rendered illegalthe use of the title " chemist and druggist" by unexaminedor unregistered men. The failure of the Act had arisen fromadopting a wrong method of protecting the public ; it wasthat of raising a legal fence around the mere name. It wasnow seen that the method which ought to have been adoptedwas that of rendering illegal the retaid sale of the simple andcompound drugs of the "Pharmacopceia" (with certainexceptions) by any but registered chemists and druggists,with the saving of all rights to medical practitioners.Information had been obtained from about 200 fairly repre-sentative districts in England and Scotland, by specificanswers to questions which abundantly proved that potentdrugs were being largely sold by general shopkeepers. Theirprice lists named all drugs except virulent poisons, some cfwhich were concealed under other names. The price wouldallow of only the smallest trading profits. Unfortunately,the public did not realise the position in which they stoodto the real chemist and druggist; the trading side of h!swork obscured the professional side. The effects of the pre-sent condition of things were evident in the falling off ofthe business of real druggists, the discharge of as-istants,and the closing of shops. In ten years the population hadincreased by nearly 11 per cent., and registered chemists hadincreased by 2 per cent. ; that number had risen from13,216 to 13,447 ; and some whose names were on theRegister did not practise pharmacy. As to the kind andnumbers of unqualified persons dealing in drugs the evidencewas overwhelming, and 75 per cent. of his correspondentscomplained more or less bitterly of the depreciation inthe value of their business through this unqualified com.petition. In the case of one large store the manageradmitted that the drug counter did not pay except asan advertisement of the rest of the concern. The co-

operative stores differed from the sham druggists’ shopsin being carried on by seven owners or more insteadof one. A store company might even sell poisons ifa registered assistant was employed ; but an unregisteredshopkeeper must not sell poisons even though he employedregistered assistants. This was surely one law for the storeand another for the shop. Many of his correspondents gavefacts and figures showing the serious depreciation in thevalue of old-established businesses exposed to unqualifiedcompetition. Only in six cases had there been an increasein purely pharmaceutical business. Many druggists were

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gradually becoming general traders on account of the fallingoff in their pharmaceutical business. Their unqualifiedrivals often sold drugs of very inferior quality, and the Foodand Drugs Act would only reach cases in which medicineswere sold without their chief ingredients because theyhappened to be legal poisons. Public officials sometimesexpressed wonder as to the destination of all the worthlessor partially spoilt drugs exposed for sale in the wholesalemarkets ; but the information supplied by his correspondentswould satisfy that wonder. Only 19 per cent. of his corre-spondents thought that the question was affected byphysicians prescribing concentrated medicines-a practicewhich once threatened to diminish the druggist’s income,but which had gradually been relinquished ; still there werecases in which medicines were ordered to contain poison enoughto kill several persons. Pharmacy was, however, affectedby the fact that we took less physic than we did formerly.At St. George’s Hospital the cost of drugs per patient hadfallen from 16s. 5cl. in 1830 to 7s. lld. in 1880. Hospitalsand charitable institutions supplied advice and medicinesgratuitously to many persons who could well afford to payboth the doctor and the druggist. In the interest of phar-macist, physician, and patient, the patent medicine questionneeded consideration with a view to reform. Patent medi-cines contained poisons and useless substances. The well-trained druggist could prevent much mischief resulting from Ithe careless or ignorant use of a potent remedy or thought-’’1’’ 1"’1 "1 J.!"1 rT’11 "1 (’ ,_ , ’I"

less reliance on worthless materials. The sale of patent medi-cines should therefore be restricted to qualified and registeredchemists. The illusory guarantee of the Governmentstamp should be got rid of, and the revenue raised bya licence to sell patent medicines or all medicines. Aminor cause of depression in pharmacy was that manychemists had thoughtlessly encouraged the purchase whole.sale, and the retail distribution of packed or packetedgoods instead of themselves preparing such articles, andso transforming themselves into mere trade agents forgoods which could easily be dealt in by others when thetrade was established. Worse still had been the action ofchemists in not enforcing the law against the supply ofbad drugs. If forced by circumstances wholesale druggistswould do the retailer’s duty of packing goods in retailparcels and sell them to any distributors, and the mischiefwhich followed was that unqualified wholesale dealerswould start up, and that wholesale houses in other tradeswould begin to deal in drugs. Pharmacy had been affectedby the general depression, but his correspondents statedthat the depression in pharmacy was far greater than inother callings. The proportion of medical men who dis.pensed their own medicines had greatly increased. Oftenthe prescription of the physician was intercepted by anddispensed by the medical practitioner. It seemed as ifwe were returning to the days of the apothecary and thedrug grocer; but this would be retrogression and degrada-tion. But the condition of things, it might be hoped, wastemporary. The medical man knew more of medicine thanbefore and had many more subjects to study, and he there-fore could not have the old apothecary’s or the moderndruggist’s knowledge of pharmacy. A better knowledge ofthe laws of life and health rendered medical practitionersand drugs and druggists less necessary to the world thanthey were sixty or seventy years ago. These very men, bytheir researches and discoveries freely communicated, hadmost largely contributed to this advancement in thewisdom and welfare of mankind, and none gloried in itmore than they did. But the labourer for the good of allwas at least worthy of reasonable reward when employedin his calling. The State said that the pharmacist must beapprenticed, educated, examined, registered, and thenthe State permitted untrained, uneducated, unexamined,and unregistered men to deal in drugs. The requirementsof the State were devised in the interests of the public, andin their interests ought to be a reality. Did the purchaserof cheap physic reffect what would be the consequence ofignoring skill when trustworthy medicines were required incases of sudden and serious illness ? A mother purchasingparegoric free from that opium to which in proper proportionmuch of the efficacy of the medicine was due would getinto the habit of giving enlarged doses. Some day paregoricof proper strength was obtained, the usual large dose wasadministered, and then all efforts to rouse the child wereunavailing. The remedy for the present evils was merelyan extension of the principle and letter of the PharmacyAct. A score of medicinal substances were deemed poisons,

and were to be sold retail, as a rule, only by registeredchemists and druggists. Let that list be considerably ex.tended, saving all rightful interests. Let the retail sale inopen shop of most of the simple and compound medicinesof the British Pharmacopoeia be carried on only by qualifieddruggists. The machinery of the Pharmacy Act is ample ifinspectors be employed to see that unqualified traders do notinfringe it. In sparsely populated districts let drugs be soldby unregistered persons in secured packages, but only asagents for responsible and registered chemists. The informa.tion he had gathered should satisfy every Englishman thatthere was a serious breach in the relation of the State topharmacy; and he commended that information, with theaccompanying arguments, to Parliament, the press, and thepublic, having no doubt that one hour’s attention to thematter from every thinking man would gain his vote for areform of the law in the direction he had advocated.

Public Health and Poor Law.LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT,

REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.

Guildforcl Rural District.-This district had in 1882 abirth-rate of 32’0 per 1000, somewhat lower than that forEngland and Wales, and a death-rate of only 12 5, whereasthe death-rate for rural England amounted to 17’0 per1000. The zymotic death-rate is also less than half thatfor rural England. Several of the more important por.tions of the district have been supplied with a wholesomewater from the chalk range, and a constant high pressureservice is to be delivered. Measures are also in progress forthe establishment of a suitable hospital for infectious diseases.Mr. Joseph Smith deals in detail with the outbreak ofdiphtheria at Pirbright, in the investigation of which he wasassociated with Mr. W. H. Power, and as to which we recentlycommented at some length. The main interest of the out-break had reference to its connexion with school operations,the disease ceasing each time the schools were closed andreappearing when they reopened. Mr. Smith feels himselfunable to decide whether the recrudescence was due toretained infection, or to some unknown cause coming intooperation only when a number of children were broughttogether. Every precaution was taken to remove all sourcesof infection, but we have already expressed an opinion thatmild attacks which were not detected may on each re-assembling have been the principal cause in furthering thespread of infection. Since Mr. Smith wrote this report hehas resigned his appointment. The excellent work he hasdone in this district will, we trust, result in lasting good tothe health of the population. , , " , " ,

. (76M’M6.—The birth-rate and also the death-rate are

I both reported by Dr. Anningson to have steadily decreasedt since 1877, the latter amounting in 1882 to 16’2 perI 1000 living. Searle fever was somewhat prevalent in theI district ; but, fortunately, the provision of the means of

isolation needed for dealing with this disease appears to benow decided on. The state of Romsey Town remains verybad; it contains some two hundred dwellings with no bettermeans of excrement disposal than leaky or overflowing cess-pools and "guzzle-holes," the roads are often mere quagmires,and the district is evidently in urgent need of being providedwith the ordinary sanitary requirements of a populouslocality. Dr. Anningson also refers to the fact that thearrangements relating to internal drainage in Cambridge areof special importance, for the public sewers are not venti-lated, and by consequence the pressure of pent-up gases isat times very great.Dublin.-Dr. C. A. Cameron reports that for the year 1882

the death-rate for Dublin was 27’2 per 1000, and high as thisis, it is decidedly below the average rate during the period1872-81. The only disease that was epidemic was measles,which caused 275 deaths in January and February. Thedeaths from fever were 195 in the year, 74 of these beingregistered as due to typhus. Large improvements are

evidently needed in connexion with the state of house drains.The officers of the sanitary authority are constantly dealingwith complaints as to this. They make no charge for openingup the drains, but if a new house drain is required, the