64 THE ANALYTICAL SANITARY COMMISSION.

secution of Members of the College of Surgeons who, practis-ing " generally," did not possess the certificate of the " Hall."One would think that in using the term qualified practi-tioners, our meaning was sufficiently clear. Some, how-ever, have conjectured that the remarks applied to personswho practised without any diploma or certificate whatever.Far from it. We perfectly agree with all who have addressedus on the necessity of prosecuting such persons; and we

invariably have recommended that evidence should be pro-cured against them, and the penalty sued for in the CountyCourt. So much, then, for that objection to our views. Nowfor the more important and more plausible one. The apothe-cary is the only legal general practitioner," and conse-quently only he should be allowed to practise "generally."Now we admit the fact-we admit the deduction. But

mark the result if this were to be the established practice.We open a crusade against a body of highly intelligent and

qualified men, who hold the certificates and diplomas of otherbodies, at least of equal standing with the Society of Apothe-caries ; and further, we acknowledge that a person possessingmerely the Hall certificate is competent to treat all cases,

though it is well known that a surgical question is never askedat the Hall. Admit that the examination of the Collegemerely tests the ability of the candidate as to his competencyto meet the common exigencies of surgery;" still, we contendthat the mere apothecary has no right to place himself on ahigher position as a practitioner, even in a legal sense, thanthe mere surgeon. What, then, do these anomalies in the

profession indicate? Do they not clearly show the necessityof some forbearance upon the part of qualified medical prac-titioners towards each other 1 Undoubtedly they do. Theyshow that there is an absolute and increasing necessity for acommon entrance into the profession-one that must be made

compulsory, that will embrace an examination in all branchesof medical and surgical knowledge; that shall not be confinedmerely to pharmacy, midwifery, and medicine; nor, on theother hand, to the mere alphabet of surgery;-but a test thatwill try the candidate in all branches, that will prove him tobe fit for all exigencies, and will entitle him by law to

practise in every or any department of his profession. Acandidate so qualified should be protected from the quackand impostor, and he should be entitled to reach the

highest position which it is possible for a medical practitionerto attain.

REPRESENTATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OFLONDON.

JAMES ALLEN,Secretary to the York School of

Medicine.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SiR,—At a meeting of the lecturers of the York Medical

School, the question of the representation of the University ofLondon in Parliament was discussed; and it was thought thatsuch representation was highly desirable, inasmuch as the medicalprofession might thereby obtain a more direct voice in publicaffairs. It was the unanimous opinion of the lecturers that

inquiry should be made as to whether the franchise would beconferred on the teachers in provincial schools, irrespectively oftheir being graduates of the university; and that it would bewell to communicate with the journals as to this point, with theview of ascertaining the opinions and intentions of parties in-terested.Would you, therefore, afford me the opportunity of calling the

attention of the teachers and professors in the provincial medicalschools, and of the committee of graduates, to this importantsubject? I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

JAMES ALLEN,Jan. 1853. Secretary to the York School of

Medicine.

THE

ANALYTICAL SANITARYCOMMISSION.

RECORDS OF THE RESULTS OF

MICROSCOPICAL AND CHEMICAL ANALYSESOF THE

SOLIDS AND FLUIDS

CONSUMED BY ALL CLASSES OF THE PUBLIC.

DRUGS AND PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS,

OPIUM.LAUDANUM—POISON.

WHILE entering upon another and a very important divisionof our labours, a few introductory remarks may not be inad.missible. The mission undertaken by this journal when pro.jected and first published, was the protection of the publichealth, by promoting, in every possible way, the successfulcultivation of the science and practice of Medicine. The

plan of the work proved to be attractive. The obedient slavesof long-hackneyed customs muttered their objections to ourviews in discordant and repulsive tones. They objected to thewhole scheme of this periodical, as interfering with vestedrights and time-worn privileges, and they contended that suchan interference could not be justified, even by any claimfounded on grounds of public utility.As we advanced, step by step, in prosecuting the great work

we had undertaken to accomplish, the murmurs of the mal-contents again and again arose, and the spirit of discontentwas only laid at last by the general shout of approval whichwas heard from an enlightened profession and a discerningpublic. The efforts of the journal were too beneficial to admitof any other termination of such an unequal conflict.In this instance, as in thousands of others, the petty inte-

rests of a few were not allowed to offer insurmountablebarriers to the acquisition of benefits by millions; neithercould threats, nor the terrors of the law, deter us from theprosecution of labours which were evidently calculated toconfer many social, scientific, and national advantages.Nearly twenty years have passed away since this department

of our journal was opened by a paper " On Poisoned Confec-tionary." Subsequently other similar investigations were insti-tuted, analyses made, and reports prepared, but not published,owing to the urgent professional claims upon our space,and the devotion of our time to many pressing duties, whichit would be useless to particularize. At length, in 1850, thecry of adulteration was so generally heard-the substitutionof chicory for coffee had become so universally proclaimed-the water companies had become so liberal in yielding to themetallic cisterns of every house a profuse supply of muddywater teeming with tiny monsters-and the Government ofthe day were standing by and witnessing all these abomina-tions, without devising any measure, or carrying into effect asingle law, for the protection of the public health,-then it wasthat the labours commenced in 1831 were resumed, under thetitle which appears at the head of this paper.The striking originality and unparalleled boldness of the

undertaking, elicited, as is usual at the commencement of suchenterprises, the objections that are commonly offered byweak-minded or sordidly-timid persons. Such individualsfirst display their hostility by abusing what they cannotunderstand; resist, because they fear that their own littleinterests may suffer by the proceeding; or they petulantlyignore a project which is likely to be received with public

65

favour, and be productive of much public utility, because they taining companion. We have now, however, to open thehappen not to be the recipients of any of the honours which whole battery of the laboratory, and direct all its forcesit is calculated to confer. The motives and feelings of such against the enemies of the profession, and a certain class ofpersons stand in exact relation to the obscurity of their offenders against the public health. That the microscope hasdiscernment. Candour is a term which, to the understandings been a faithful guide, the reports already published in thisof such opponents, has no appreciable meaning. A fair journal sufficiently vouch and testify.acknowledgment of the value of a work, projected by an But, as already remarked, the forces of the laboratory mustindividual to whom their selfishness is opposed, is to them an henceforth be brought into full play. There will now be

impossibility; but it is natural for them to be low, vulgar, and in constant requisition, furnaces, blow-pipes, crucibles, retorts,mean; consequently, after having abused and vilified in vain, test-tubes, a thousand re-agents, the balance, and also elec-their hostility takes on a new form, and displays itself in tricity, that mightiest of all the forces to which the chemist cana servile imitation. A labour that could not be checked by appeal, diffused as it is over the whole earth, and pervadinginvective, clamour, and misrepresentation, becomes imitated its minutest atoms. The arena of the scientific operations ofby its assailants. But it is unnecessary that the characters the chemist is co-existent with the limits of the globe and theof such antagonists, either morally or mentally, should re- atmosphere around it; and, wherever an atom exists, he findsceive any other illustration than is supplied by their own acts. a fulcrum on which his scientific lever can operate. But the

In a leading article published in THE LANOET of Jan. 3rd, difficulties which obstruct and surround his inquiries are not1852, page 17, we stated that amongst other efforts the Com- of human contrivance; they arise from causes beyond hismission would extend its investigations to medicines and control, and are essential to the combinations of organicdrugs of all descriptions." It was unnecessary, however, to matter, and the peculiarities of amorphous substances; but bymake any special announcement of the kind, as the general calling to his assistance all that has been discovered and re-title evidently included an examination of Drugs, Chemical corded by the distinguished men of past times, he is enabled-Preparations, and Medicinal Compounds, as certainly and vast as is the field in which his operations are carried on-toobviously as it referred to an examination of Bread and Beer, find that by his pursuits he can promote the public good, andor of Tobacco and Wine. Had reports of an investigation obtain for himself a not unendurable reputation.of Drugs and Medicinal Preparations been omitted from the Without invoking the aid of the laboratory on the most ex-recoAs of an Analytical Sanitary Commission, undertaken by tensive scale, the science of Medicine cannot acquire a cha-a medical journal, it would, indeed, have resembled the racter for such a degree of exactness as to obtain for it a highperformance of 11 Hamlet" with the omission of the principal celebrity amongst enlightened men. The obscurities which

character. still render unsatisfactory many points in physiology and

Throughout the whole body of the profession, it will be pathology, can only be dispelled by the light which the labours

broadly admitted that the purity of drugs, and the exactness of the chemist can evolve. Every new fact, therefore, is aof pharmaceutical preparations, touch closely the successful step to aid us in our onward progress; and should we in these

practice of the science of Medicine. If physicians and sur- reports be enabled to present medical practitioners with

geons are ignorant of the active qualities of the medicines that facile and inexpensive means of ascertaining the qualities ofare administered, what is the position of their patients? the remedial agents which they employ in the treatment ofThere ought to be an absolute certainty that the medicine disease, we shall not labour uselessly.prescribed should be the medicine actually prepared and When persons are engaged in works of art or manufacture,taken. Few circumstances, probably, would tend more to they exercise the most scrupulous care in the selection ofpromote the successful practice of medicine, than certainty as materials. Before using an article, they ascertain by judiciousto the quality of drugs and pharmaceutical preparations, in examination the qualities of the agents they are about torelation to the terms by which they are known and prescribed. employ. In this respect, neither negligence nor ignorance is

Constant purity and uniformity of strength under the proper manifested. Where could be found a manufacturer of the

titles of medicines, are really conditions of paramount ne- hyper-chlorides of lime and soda, or of chlorate of potass,cessity. In the absence of these conditions, physicians and who would purchase peroxide of manganese without first

surgeons prescribe in utter darkness, and the lives of their having a sample assayed to discover its exact quality ! What

patients are placed in positive jeopardy. Adulterations of gold-refiner would purchase a metal as gold, until by appro-food are so exceedingly objectionable, injurious, and bad, we priate means he had ascertained its value ? But in theare reluctant to declare that the sophistications of drugs and purchase of drugs and pharmaceutical preparations, which arepharmaceutical preparations are worse. Both are equally actually to be received into the human body, and act withrepugnant and offensive to the judgment of every man of in- more or less effect on the organization, is any similar cautiontegrity, be he physician or surgeon, manufacturer or trades- or forethought manifested by purchasers 1man. The difficulty of controlling disease is generally great Fully aware that this branch of investigation will requireenough, without being augmented by the fraudulent con- exertions which must be signalized by the most strict minute-trivances of sordid speculators. Nothing but exposure can ness and enduring patience, and also that it will demandcheck the selfishness, or control the hands, of forgers of this powers of analysis that have been disciplined and strength-description. They know that a variation in the quantities of ened by experience, we can only promise that all efforts atthe proximate principles of many active medicines, must our disposal shall be freely made, with a view to attain success.render them either powerless, useless, or dangerous, when Further, we would observe that the vendors whose produc-prescribed by the unsuspecting medical practitioner. Yet tions may be noticed, will be treated with perfect fairnessthe knaves persist in their vocation. Even carelessness in and impartiality.the preparation of medicines amounts to a disregard of If we mistake not, our researches, in conjunction with thehuman life, that is in the highest degree criminal. So investigations of other practical chemists, will prove, that notextremely minute are the active principles of some power- only many sophistications are practised with respect to theful medicines - so subtle and ingenious the method of manufacture and sale of drugs and pharmaceutical prepara-sophistication-that much laborious research is required in tions, but also that our existing pharmacopoeias are defacedorder to accomplish the task of detection. Had the discovery by so many imperfections, that they are inadequate guides toof these frauds been more easily accomplishable, the the profession, and do not afford sufficient security to thelabours in which we are now engaged need not have public.been undertaken by us. But it is no easy duty. Hitherto The details of the analyses will be published in THE LANCESthe microscope has been our constant instructive and enter- of next week.