The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7232 p93
18 January 2003

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Christmas quiz answers

This year’s questions were based on pharmacy, Christmas or events of 2002. Answers are given below.

Winners There was no entry with all 30 answers correct. However, runners-up Karen Wood, MRPharmS, of Glasgow and Anthony Kendall, MRPharmS, of Stockton-on-Tees, each receive a £25 book voucher.

1. How many people will turn up at your front door on the 12th day of Christmas?
50 (8 maids, 9 ladies, 10 lords, 11 pipers, 12 drummers)

2. What acid did Joseph Lister use to prevent operative sepsis?
Carbolic acid

3. Which of the top 10 Great Britons in the recent BBC TV series served an apprenticeship to an apothecary?
Isaac Newton

4. Who said: "If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged"?
Falstaff (Henry IV Part I)

5. What was the first patient safety alert to be issued by the National Patient Safety Agency in July 2002?
The alert recommended that ampoules of concentrated potassium chloride should be withdrawn from general wards in hospitals and be replaced with diluted forms of the drug.

6. Replicas of what item from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's museum have been made available for purchase this year?
Leech jars (£50 each)

7. In which year was the British National Formulary first published?
1957 was the first time that "British" appeared in the title. Before this, the publication was called the National Formulary. However, the BNF website says that the "first BNF proper" was published in 1949 and, according to its preface, the 1957 edition is a fourth edition (ie, the 1949 and 1957 edition are essentially the same book).

In the editor's opinion, both 1949 and 1957 are acceptable answers.

8. Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder and Prancer are seven of St Nick's eight reindeer, who is missing?
Vixen (from "A visit from Saint Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore)

9. What does the acronym CHAI stand for?
The answer we were looking for was Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection. However, other legitimate answers were accepted.

10. In which famous novel does the following paragraph appear?

"We crawled past Mudie's, and there a tall woman with five or six yellow-labelled books hailed my cab, and I sprang out just in time to escape her, shaving a railway van narrowly in my flight. I made off up the roadway to Bloomsbury Square, intending to strike north past the Museum and so get into the quiet district. I was not cruelly chilled, and the strangeness of my situation so unnerved me that I whimpered as I ran. At the northward corner of the Square a little white dog ran out of the Pharmaceutical Society's offices, and incontinently made for me, nose down."
The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells)

11. Who scored the goal that put England out of the 2002 World Cup?
Ronaldhino

12. Which former vice-president of the United States was a graduate of the Denver college of pharmacy and worked for a while in his father's drug store before turning to politics?
Hubert H. Humphrey

13. What is the name of the character played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffanys"?
Holly Golightly

14. In which British city did a pharmacy owned by a consortium of local pharmacists celebrate its 50th anniversary this year?
Sheffield (Associated Chemists [Wicker] Ltd)

15. Which bus company provides the CPD bus in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's "Introducing CPD" videotape?
Arriva

16. Approximately how much does Alan Milburn earn annually as Secretary of State for Health (parliamentary and ministerial salary)?
£125,000

17. What is the title of the second Harry Potter film which was released in November 2002?
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

18. With which tree is aspirin traditionally associated?
Willow tree

19. Where was the original Martindale born?
William Martindale was born in a farm house, south of Carlisle (PJ, 13 June 1992, p787), but the county (Cumberland) was an accepted answer.

20. Who is botanist Pamela Isley's evil alter ego in "Batman"?
Poison Ivy

21. What does the acronym rINN stand for?
Recommended international non-proprietary name

22. Which writer of mysteries, born in 1890, was once a pharmacy technician?
Agatha Christie

23. In the 1800s, most of the opium in Britain was imported from India and which other country?
Turkey

24. What is the legal blood alcohol driving limit (mg/100ml blood)?
80mg/100ml blood

25. What is former American president, Gerald Ford's middle name?
Rudolph

26. Who was the first editor of The Pharmaceutical Journal?
Jacob Bell

27. Which parasitic plant has been reputed to be a treatment for epilepsy and hypertension?
Mistletoe

28. What was the first name of the discoverer of penicillin?
Alexander

29. Which monarch granted the Royal Pharmaceutical Society its first royal charter?
Queen Victoria

30. Which island in the Indian Ocean is famous for its red crabs?
Christmas Island

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