xxiv PREFACE. 



wise than that, with the dispensing physician, or modern apothe- 

 cary, medical practice is the principal object, retail and dis- 

 pensing the secondary ; while, with the chemist and druggist, 

 or old apothecary, retail and dispensing are the principal, and 

 medical practice, mostly confined to the counter or to a few 

 personal acquaintance, the secondary ; a fortiori, the midwives, 

 herbalists, cuppers, barbers, electricians, galvanisers, dentists, 

 farriers, veterinary surgeons, village wisemen, and cow-leeches, 

 are left in full possession of their ancient practice, and may be 

 employed by those who place confidence in them, as they cannot 

 be confounded with apothecaries, though the chemist and druggist 

 may. 



The originators of the Bill were displeased with the supposed 

 ambiguity of the words " to practise as an apothecary.*" It is 

 true that it took one hundred and fifty years of litigation, to 

 determine the meaning of the phrase " to practise physic," as 

 used in the statute of 15 Henry VIII. For the Court of King's 

 Bench always adjudged, that this expression did not allow a 

 seller or dispenser of medicines, that is to say, an apothecary, to 

 give his advice to sick persons, as to what medicines it might be 

 advantageous for them to take ; and even went so far as to give 

 verdicts, at the instance of the College of Physicians, against 

 persons for selling articles accompanied with a printed description 

 of their virtues, as coming within the legal meaning of this 

 phrase. Yet, when in the case of the King v. Rose, an apothe- 

 cary, for practising physic by selling a patient such medicine as 

 he judged proper for his disorder, a more determined stand was 

 made, and the matter carried into the House of Lords, as the 

 dernier resort of law, they determined the matter in favour of 

 the sellers of medicine ; and this decision is the authority by 

 which all dispensing practitioners now practise physic, as sellers 

 only of medicines. Whether " to practise as an apothecary" 

 will take as long to determine, must be left to time. The ques- 

 tion will probably remain in this undetermined state, until the 

 parties whom the Society of Apothecaries, or rather their neigh- 

 bours who are licentiates of that society, prosecute for practising 

 as apothecaries, although they disclaim that title, shall unite for 

 their mutual defence, and follow the example set by the apothe- 

 caries themselves in 1721, by an appeal to the definitive sentence 



