61 



MAINE. 



CHAPTER 379. 

 A.N ACT To prevent incompetent persons from conducting the business of apothecaries. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as fol- 

 lows: 



SECTION 1. From aiid after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful for any 

 person, within the limits of the State, to conduct the business of an apothecary, or 

 any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided. 



SEC. 2. The governor, under the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint 

 three suitable persons to be commissioners of pharmacy, one commissioner to be 

 appointed as the term of each of those now holding office shall expire, to hold office 

 for the term of three years, unless removed for cause, and until a successor is 

 appointed and qualified. If a vacancy occurs in said commission another shall bo 

 appointed as aforesaid to fill the unexpired term thereof. Before entering on the 

 duties of their office the commissioners shall be sworn to faithfully and impartially 

 discharge the same, and a record shall be made thereof on their commission. Said 

 commissioners shall make a report of their proceedings annually to the governor and 

 council, who shall cause such a number of said reports to be printed as they deem 

 necessary. 



SEC. 3. Said commissioners shall examine any person who desires to carry on the 

 business of an apothecary, and if he is found skilled in pharmacy, shall give him a 

 certificate of that fact and that he is authorized to engage in the business of an 

 apothecary, and such certificate must be signed by at least two commissioners. They 

 shall register in a suitable book, to be kept in the office of the secretary of state, the 

 name and place of residence of all to whom they issue certificates, and the date 

 thereof. 



SEC. 4. Every person not now registered, unless he was engaged in the business 

 of apothecary in the State of Maine, on the eleventh day of March, in the year of 

 our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, continuing in or hereafter entering on 

 the business of an apothecary, shall bo examined by said commissioners, and shall 

 present to them satisfactory evidence that he has been an apprentice, or employed in 

 an apothecary store where physicians' prescriptions are compounded, at least three 

 years ; or has graduated from some regularly incorporated medical college or college 

 of pharmacy, and is competent for the business ; and the commissioners may then 

 grant him a certificate and registry as hereinbefore provided; but only one of the 

 partners in a firm need be a registered druggist, provided the partner who com- 

 pounds medicines be registered. And any physician who has a diploma as a gradu- 

 ate of a duly established medical college iiithe United States, and in active practice, 

 may do the business of an apothecary without being registered. 



SEC. 5. For each examination under the provisions of this act, the commissioners 

 shall be entitled to receive from the person examined ten dollars, except as herein- 

 after provided, which shall be in full for all services and expenses. In case the result 

 of the examination is unsatisfactory, and no certificate is granted, the applicant 

 shall have the right to another examination without charge after an interval of two 

 months and within twelve mouths after the date of his first examination. 



SEC. 6. Certificates of two grades or kinds may be issued, whereof one shall declare 

 that the holder is skilled in pharmacy, as in section four of this act, and the other 

 kind, which after the examination of the applicants therefor, may be issued to such 

 as shall be not less than eighteen years of age and who have served two full years in 

 an apothecary store where physicians' prescriptions are compounded, shall declare 

 that the holder is a qualified assistant and is competent to take charge of the busi- 

 ness of an apothecary, during the temporary absence of the registered apothecary ? 

 and the fee for such assistant's examination shall be five dollars. 



SEC. 7. It shall not,be lawful for anj r apothecary store to be kept open for the sale 

 of medicines or poisons, or for compounding physicians' prescriptions, nor shall such 



