§ Order read for resuming Adjourned Debate on Amendment to Motion for appointment of Select Committee [23rd June.]
§ (12.4.) THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. JACKSON, Leeds, N.)I beg to move that the Order for this Motion be discharged. I have put it down in an amended form.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Order be discharged."—(Mr. Jackson.)
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Longford, N.)I am very glad the Government have acceded to our views on this matter, and that they have also acceded to the suggestion of the hon. Member for Tyrone (Mr. T. W. Russell) in regard to the question of the consumption of ether as an intoxicant. I would suggest that now the Pharmacy Bill has gone to the House of Lords the Government should take some means for the protection of the Revenue by insisting that ether should not be allowed to be sold by the ordinary druggist, and that it should pay some Licence Duty. They might then prevent this stuff, which is most injurious to health, being drunk in every little village in the mountains.
§ (12.5.) SIR L. PLAYFAIR (Leeds)I would point out that ether is used as an anæsthetic quite as much as chloroform, and anything that rendered it difficult for the medical profession so to use it would be a great misfortune. Ether is a product of alcohol; but in itself is not an article of Excise at all, 1032 and I think it would be well to limit the reference to the use of ether as an intoxicant so as not to put any difficulty in the way of its use as an anæsthetic.
§ (12.6.) MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)I put my Amendment upon the Paper because there are certain districts in Tyrone, and Londonderry especially, where the sale and consumption of ether has become a positive danger. It is not sold by druggists alone, but in every small she been. Ether is publicly sold much to the destruction of the public health.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Order discharged.