UNITED STATES v. CALHOUN.

District Court, D. South Carolina.

August 29, 1889.

INTERNAL REVENUE—SALE OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS BY APOTHECARY.

An apothecary, who bona fide uses spirituous liquors in the preparation of a medicine, to be used as such, and not as a beverage, does not violate Rev. St. U. S. § 3242, by not paying the special tax required of a retail liquor dealer.

Indictment for Selling Liquor without Payment of Special Tax.

Abiel Lathrop, Dist. Atty.

A. H. Dean, for defendant.

SIMONTON, J., (charging jury.) The defendant, an apothecary, is charged with violating section 3242, Rev. St., being a retail liquor dealer without paying the special tax. It is not denied that he sold to the several persons, witnesses for the government, a compound of rye whisky and calisaya bark. The defense is that this was a medicine originally put up under a prescription of a physician. An apothecary who bona fide uses spirituous liquor exclusively in the preparation or making up of medicines need not pay the special tax. These are the questions you must answer in this case: In the sale made by defendant to the witnesses for the government, did he bona fide sell them the compound as medicine, and not as a beverage, or was the compound simply whisky in disguise? Is it a medicine to cure disease, or is it intended to gratify the thirst for drink? If it is a medicine, has it intoxicating quality? If so, was this known to defendant? Did he sell it knowing or having reason to know that it was purchased to be used as a beverage? If it was sold bona fide as a medicine, to be used as a medicine, defendant is not guilty.

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