BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18676, 4 October 1922, Page 5

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

PERILS OF ARSENIC. FANTASIES AND NEUROTICS. CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY. (From Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON, August 4. Oiie of tho most interesting papers road at the British Medical Association Congress at Glasgow was by Sir William H. Willcox, medical adviser to the Homo Office. lie said the Poisons and Pharmacy Act of 1908 removed manv of the restrictions with regard to sale of arsenical preparation!?, and there could be no doubt that as a result of the increased facilities afforded by that. Act for the' sale of industrial preparations should bo carefully rceonsidecrd, exposed (o increased dangers from nrsencinl poisoning. It appeared that the. time had come when the mode of sale of these preparations should be carefully reconsidered, with a view to the .safeguarding of the public against the risks of accidental and criminal poisoning. Arsenious oxide, often called arsenious acid, or while arsenic, for industrial purposes, formed the basis of most of the industrial preparations. It was a powerful poison, two grains being a possible fatal dose. It was a. white, inodorous, almost tasteless powder, and so might be taken in food or drink without any suspicion arising from alteration in taste, smell, or colour. • It had on various occasions been used in the preparation of food in mistake for baking powder, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, flour, and meal. It could bo bought in any quantity from pharmacists, or persons licensed to sell it. If sold in quantities less than 101 b it must be coloured with at least one-sixteenth its weight of soot or one-lliirty-second its weight of indigo. The evidence of recent notable trials showed that this rule was not always followed. In the Armstrong oaso 4oz of arsenic had been purchased which was not coloured. If sold in a single r-uanlity of over 101 b it was not. necessary for tho arsenic to bo coloured if its usefulness would (hereby be impaired. The provisions of the i’oisons Act must, of course, he complied with, and the sale duly recorded in (he poisons register. An easily available source of white arsenic which was often forgotten was the chemical laboratory. Examples of its industrial preparations were weed-killefs, which might ho in liquid or solid form, arsenical wood preservatives, sheep digs, flypapers, and fly-killing solutions, rat powders, and ant destroyers. It was a very dangerous principle to assume that poisons when packed and labelled, such as “weed killers’’ or' “sheep dips,” would safely be sold and distributed like articles of ordinary merchandise. Tho dangers to tho public from .the sale- of industrial preparations of arsenic bad during the past 14 years been proved to bo so great that it appeared to him (bat the time had come for tho safeguarding of the public against (ho dangers of arsenical poisoning. The first safeguard was that the sale of arsenical preparations should be limited to properly qualified and competent. persons—namely, to registered pharmacists. A second and important safeguard Would bo that the sale of dangerous poisons, .such as the industrial preparations of arsenic, should bo limited to purchasers who obtained a license for the possession of such dangerous articles. A tin or packet of weed-killer or sheep-dip was at least as dangerous a possession as a firearm, and the number of persons requiring such articles was net great. It would bo little hardship to them and a very groat safeguard to tho public if persons requiring to use industrial preparations of arsenic were required to obtain a license for the possession of these dangerous substances.

A resolution was passed expressing tlio opinion that- the sale of arsenical preparations included in section II of (he Poisons and Pharmacy Act; ISOS, should bo limited to properly qualified and competent persons —namely, registered pharmacists, and that purchasers should be required to have a license for the possession of such dangerous articles MAKING A NEUROTIC. Dr J. A. Hadfield delivered an address on “The making of a Neurotic.” Conceptions v'e formed 'of ourselves in childhood—from about the age_ of three years-lived with us through life, he said. Ihey tended to get reprosse i through the fuels of life, and they emerged in the form of fantasies. Men who wore lame went; about with the fantasies of stopping runaway horses, or things of that kind. Relating hinny curious experiences among patients, Dr Hadfield said an artist who, at. the age of three, hud a fantasy that (he,re was nobody so perfect on earth as ho was developed that belief. He could not bear criticism of any kind. He used lo thmv his pictures, ami if they met with too slightest criticism lie would become furiously angry. That was directly due to his early fantasy. The child that, was always told ho was elevor obtained a fantasy that expressed itself later in dogmatism. Such victims were not consciously aware- of the defect. It was easy to sec how some men broke down. A man who went out. to conquer the universe, and conquered only one hemisphere, regarded himself as a proved “dud.” although, comparatively, he had succeeded. He was_ judging his achievement by the strength of his phantasy. Dr Hadfield cited the extraordinary case of a patient of his—a doctor—who, while in the consulting room, with patients waiting to see him, would suddenly steal away and go to London, just to get away from his practice. Three times this doctor bolted, and got himself certified at an asylum for homicidal tendencies. He was suffering from a princely fantasy of being of- great importance, but at. the same time crushed by his father. In the one phase he was a god, and in the other a. worm. He always bolted when anybody blamed him, or when ho thought he would bo blamed for anything. MADNESS AND CRIME.

“The criminal responsibility of tho alleged insane has given rise to sharp conflict between law and medicine,” observed Dr Andrew Allison, of Glasgow-,' in a. paper on the importance of teaching medical jurisprudence to students of medicine and law. ‘■The difference is duo largely, to failure to recognise the standpoint of the other •side. A criminal act implies tho existence of intention, will, and malice, and involves punishment': but if the accused is proved to have been insane at the time he committed the act ho is either sent to an asylum or handed fiver to (ho care of his friends. The difficulty lies in determining •w-hat constitutes insanity. According to the law of England, ‘to establish a defence on the ground of insanity it must bo clearly proved that at the time of committing the act tho accused was labouring under such a defect of reason from disease of tho mind as not to know tho nature and quality of tho net ho was doing, or. if he did know it, that ho did not know that what he was doing was wrong. To Iho jury is left the task of deciding. Tho idiot and the maniac may satisfy the legal tost, but certainly not the majority of tho certified insane. Medical men recognise that there is no infallible symptom or character that will distinguish tho criminal of unsound mind from (lie sane criminal. It has been truly said that ‘The mad and tho bad. pass by finsePsihle gradations .(ho one into tjho other.' The state of the law is clearly unsatisfactory. The jury are swayed by many considerations, and no one can tell what their verdict may he. In a particular case there is always the danger that the merely vicious may escape punishment, while the mentally unsound may lie sent to imprisonment, or even to the scaffold. Merc recriminations will not cause tho difficulties to disappear, and it is the duly of the medical and legal professions to assist each other in reaching a satisfactory conclusion.’’