Penalty on unqualified Che

gists.

the seller for such purpose to entries made at the time of sale therein of the day of such sale, and the quantities sold, and the purpose for which required: Provided always, that this provision shall not extend to the sale of any such Drugs or Chemicals when the same form part of the ingredients of any medicine required to be made up or compounded according to the prescription of any legally qualified Medical Practitioner or to the sale of such Drugs and Chemicals by wholesale and retail Chemists and Druggists upon orders in writing in the ordinary course of their business: Provided also, that any person offending against the aforesaid enactments shall be liable to a penalty, recoverable upon summary conviction before two Justices of the Peace, not exceeding twenty pounds, at the suit of the Chemists and Druggists' Society of England and Wales.

19. Any person or persons who shall keep shop, store, or other place for the retailing of drugs and medicines, and shall wilfully and falsely mists and Drug hold himself or themselves out or pretend to be or take or use the name or title of a Chemist and Druggist, or any name, title, addition, or description, such person or persons, being required by this Act to be registered under the provisions thereof, shall upon a summary conviction before two Justices of the Peace for any such offence pay and forfeit a sum of money not exceeding twenty pounds.

Mode of recovering Penalties.

Certificates of

Registration to be given by the Registrar on application.

A Register of
Chemists and

20. All proceedings for the recovery of penalties under this Act shall be brought and carried on by the Council in their corporate name, and by no other persons; and any sums or sum of money recovered or adjudged to be paid by way of penalty under the provisions of this Act shall be paid to the Treasurer of the Council for the use and benefit of the said corporate body.

21. The Registrar shall be bound, on the application of any person paying one shilling, to certify under his hand whether or no any person whose name and address shall be furnished to him appears in the said register of Chemists and Druggists or not; the certificate of such Registrar, purporting to be signed by the said Registrar and sealed with the corporate seal of any entries in the said register, shall in the absence of evidence to the contrary be sufficient evidence of the facts therein stated up to the date of the said certificate.

22. The Registrar shall from time to time make out and maintain a complete register, and enter therein the names and addresses of all Druggists to be persons being Chemists and Druggists entitled to be registered under kept. this Act, and also of all persons being registered assistants and apprentices respectively, and shall keep a proper index of the register, and all such other registers and books as may be necessary for the purposes of this Act, or required by the Council of the said Society.

Exemption of re

23. Every person who shall be registered under the provisions of this gisteredChemists Act shall be exempt, if he so shall so desire, from serving on any jury or inquest whatsoever, and from serving in the militia.

and Druggists from serving on Juries.

Annual fee and appropriation of surplus funds of the Society.

24. An annual fee of half-a-guinea shall be paid by all Chemists and Druggists registered under this Act engaged in business as principals, and that any surplus monies remaining in the hand of the Treasurer after liquidating all demands and charges to be from time to time incurred in carrying out the objects of this Act, shall and may from time to time, and in such manner as the said Council shall see fit to set apart and appropriate to the formation and maintenance of a charity for the relief and benefit of poor Chemists and Druggists who may have been registered under this Act, and their families.

SCHEDULES TO WHICH THIS ACT REFERS.

SCHEDULE (A.)

DANGEROUS DRUGS.

The following are dangerous drugs to which Section 14 of this Act relates :-Almonds, Essential Oil of.

Antimony(Pharmaceutical Preparations Ipecacuanha and{

Lettuce

Lobelia and

Lead

Male Fern

Meadow Saffron
Mercury

Nux Vomica and
Opium and

Pharmaceutical Preparations of.

Creasote.

Croton Oil.

Oxalic Acid

Foxglove and

33

Hellebore and

Hemlock and

Henbane and

Indian Hemp

Wild Cucumber

NOTICE OF CLAIM BY EXISTING CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS.

To the Registrar of the Chemists and Druggists' Society of England and Wales. I hereby give you notice that I claim to be registered as a Chemist and Druggist in the Register Book of the Chemists and Druggists' Society of England and Wales; and I hereby declare that I was a Chemist and Druggist [or was an Assistant or an Apprentice to a Chemist and Druggist, as the case may be] at the time of the Chemists and Druggists Act coming into operation. the year

The following are Active Poisons referred to in Section 18 of this Act :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL.

Sir,-Your columns are freely open to all varieties of opinion, about the Pharmacy Bill as well as other things connected with our Society, but few letters published there will be read, I think, with greater surprise than that of Mr. Proctor in your last number. That he failed to convince his brother members of the Council will be less strange by far than that any member of the Council should hold the opinions he has advanced.

He says that unless the trade of a Chemist be placed under restrictions as well as the title, some other body of men will spring up under some other name, 2 P

VOL. VI.

to take the place of the present Chemists and Druggists. Now, the great object of the present Bill is to place the trade of Chemists under complete restriction as far as the making up of prescriptions is concerned; Mr. Proctor wishes, instead of this, that the sale of a certain number of poisons should be prohibited. Whether this last plan would protect the trade more than the first we shall probably see as we go on; but at all events, protection to the trade is the object of one plan as much as the other.

If any man will take the trouble to draw up what he calls a Schedule of Poisons, which are in future only to be sold by Chemists who have passed an examination, and then will make inquiry of some practical man acquainted with the real requirements of the arts and manufactures of the country, and with the necessities of the public in all localities, in villages, hamlets, and thinlypeopled districts as well as large towns, he will find himself obliged to strike off one thing after another, until he feels that his Schedule, as "the one point to model a Bill upon to protect the trade," is a perfect absurdity.

He will see that the quantities used by Chemists of some of our most common and dangerous poisons are perfectly insignificant compared with those used in manufactures and compounds of daily need; that, to the makers of them, it would be hardly noticeable if the whole body of Chemists were to drop out of existence; that you must enact an examination for the painter, the dyer, the calico-printer, the paper-stainer, the photographer, the workers in glass and metal and a host of others, who all demand to buy their articles where they please and how they please, and where they can get them cheapest and most conveniently, and who would not tolerate any interference with their business by Chemists or anybody else. The list would be reduced still further by the requirements of the public who live far from towns, and who would claim to get at hand anything they stood in need of in case of emergency; and the Schedule of Poisons would be left in such a state that, if the trade could only be protected by prohibiting the sale of these, it would be a miserable protection indeed. "Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus" would certainly be written upon the Bill whose "one simple point" was this.

Mr. Proctor says that in the provinces many Druggists make up prescriptions so seldom that the prohibition would be a thing they did not care for. Very well, then the Bill would leave them, in that respect where it found them, but it would still meet the complaint made by the public and the medical profession: that the lives of the sick are continually imperilled because the prescriptions, upon which their life or death may depend, may be made up by persons totally incompetent, and that there is no way by which the friends of the sufferer may guard themselves from this, for they can neither read the prescription themselves nor know by any title or distinction the educated man from the pretender. And if a prohibition to make up prescriptions would not seriously affect the trade of a Druggist, depend upon it, the Schedule which the former inquiry would have left would make very little difference to him.

Mr. Proctor says that there will be no difficulty in finding other titles than Chemist and Druggist to evade the Act, such as Medical Hall, etc. No doubt of it, and that is why the Bill does not confine itself to protecting a title, but protects also the trade, and awards a penalty for keeping open shop, under any name, for the making up of prescriptions. In every town the man who has a right to make up prescriptions will stand higher than the man who has not, whatever title he may give his establishment; he will have the best trade, whether the prescriptions that come be many or few.

I say but little upon the plan Mr. Proctor proposes as the practical result of all his arguments, viz. to give everybody, whoever he may be, ignorant or not, Pharmaceutical Chemist or Grocer," the power to sell all sorts of poisons as long as he lives, if he apply for it up to a certain date, and pay a license to the

Government. I will only express my astonishment that such a proposal should be put forth, and add, that if this be the superior way of benefiting the public and protecting the trade, the more completely we are delivered from this protection the better.

One other recommendation remains, garnished with all the titles of liberality, etc., which is, Mr. Proctor says, to ensure the hearty support of all concerned," and that is to admit to perfect equality with the present Pharmaceutist "everybody now exercising the calling." Will it meet with the "hearty support" of the 800 men who have been examined-who have, with industry and application, and at cost and inconvenience to themselves, won by examination the title they possess? One of them told us in a letter to the Journal, a few months ago, that the Council did not dare to set forth such a proposition, and that if it were thought to be seriously contemplated, it would raise a storm such as Bloomsbury Square had never known. Would it have the " hearty support of the public," who are calling for more protection from incompetency, to give the highest title (for, to have distinctions of grade or name is denounced as narrow, illiberal, etc.) to " every one who now exercises the calling," huckster or chandler-shop keeper though he may be? Would it ensure the hearty support of the medical profession, who have declared that it is one of the existing evils, which ought at once to be redressed, that there is no restriction upon the making up of medicine by any, however ignorant? And would it have the hearty support of the Legislature, which declared thirteen years ago that it was desirable that a title should be given to enable the public to distinguish the man entitled to their support, if we were to go back to the state of things in 1853, and give the very title it framed as a mark of distinction and honour, to every man who chooses to put up a blue bottle?

And what is the reason advanced for all this ?-that there are some men out

side of us who are equal to any among us. Certainly, men who cared so little about this equality which they now clamour for that they would not come amongst us when they were asked,-who have never spent a shilling to advance the education or promote the welfare of the youth who were coming forward in our business,-who, whilst the members of the Pharmaceutical Society, examined and unexamined, have spent thousands every year, not for themselves, but to find education and opportunities for improvement for the young Chemists throughout the country, have never troubled themselves to help, or have done all in their power to hinder or abuse. Truly, the charge of illiberality has very little foundation in the face of such facts as these, and the measure which is to ensure the hearty support of all is scarcely likely to be that recommended by Mr. Proctor. į Depend upon it, that if the Society were to yield to clamour, at the expense of consistency and justice, and to undo all that the last thirteen years has done, they would not only be promise-breakers to the public and their own examined members, but be looked upon with contempt by all who have entrusted them with administrative powers, and by none be more despised than by those who now charge them with exclusiveness and illiberality. I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

OPIFEX.

FALSE ACCUSATION AGAINST A LOCAL SECRETARY OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY.

In the Chemist and Druggist' of February is an address from the Executive Committee of the United Society to the trade, in which certain charges are preferred against those who obtained the signatures of the trade to the declaration in favour of the Bill of the Pharmaceutical Society, of having made use of

misrepresentations. The only instance, however, in which such charge is defined and authenticated, is that in which Mr. Hazeldine, who is at present the Mayor of Walsall, accuses our Local Secretary in that town of such unjustifiable conduct. Mr. Watkins has received the following letters in reply to his inquiries on the subject, and we publish them, as they completely exonerate him from the charge in those cases. He says he has received verbal replies to a similar effect from the three other individuals that were named.

Family Dispensing Establishment,

84 & 85, Stafford Street, Walsall, March 13, 1865. Dear Sir,-In your note just received, I perceive you request answers to two questions:—

What misrepresentations were made to me to induce me to sign the memorial to the Pharmaceutical Society?—Answer. None whatever, that I am aware of.

Have I given sanction to the Local Secretary of the "Chemists and Druggists," to withdraw my name to the said memorial?—Answer. No, certainly

not.

Your note gave me the first tidings respecting the existence of such a letter in the Chemist and Druggist,' and for myself I can safely say that the Local Secretary to the "Chemists and Druggists' Society" has never seen or spoken to me on the subject, nor I to him.

You are aware, from the conversation I had with you at the time I signed the memorial, that I am very anxious to become a member of the Pharmaceutical Society; but situated as I am, without an assistant, I am unable to leave my shop to go to London to pass an examination, or otherwise should have done so long ago, and I should esteem it a favour if you could suggest any other mode by which I could attain the fulfilment of my wish in this respect. I am, dear Sir, yours truly,

Mr. G. H. Watkins.

HENRY J. SMITH. Walsall, March, 13, 1865.

Dear Sir,--I am very much surprised to find a letter in the Chemist and Druggist' of February 15th, accusing you of misrepresentation in obtaining signatures to a memorial to the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society; as far as I am concerned, that letter is quite false. The entire facts are these:You showed me the memorial, and merely asked "if I had any objection to sign." After looking at it I did so, most willingly.

I have known you for the last fifteen years as a straightforward, honourable, and truthful man, and am quite sure you can well afford to treat so base an attack with the contempt it deserves. In conclusion, I need scarcely add that I have not requested my name to be withdrawn from the memorial. I am, dear Sir, yours very sincerely,

To Mr. Watkins, Chemist, High Street.

JOSEPH DAY.

You are at liberty to make what use you think fit of this letter.

PHARMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL.

Sir, The two Bills at last bid fair to become a subject of discussion by our Legislature, and must stand or fall, on their relative merits.

The acrimony which has hitherto prevailed is, I fear, likely to culminate in