32 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OE PHARMACY. 
ISTo fresh, cases of cholera have developed amongst the passengers by the 
Dorunda during the fortnight. 
The total quantity o£ sugar exported from the colony from June, 1884, to 
1st of January of this year, was 32,092 tons. 
10th January, 1886. 
In the Australian colonies and New Zealand pharmacy, during the last 
ten years, has advanced with gigantic strides, keeping pace in its progress 
onwards with the social politics of each colony. In the colonies generally, as 
the political education has been added to by experience, we see that justice 
has been done to each profession, whether law or medicine, and the educational 
standard raised equal to the strain likely to be imposed by a dependent public. 
Thus we find that those being admitted to the ranks of the profession in 
Victoria, New South Wales, Adelaide, and Brisbane are superior in scientific 
education to those who have preceded them ; but when comparing the past with 
the present pharmacist we do not mean to disparage the scientific knowledge of 
those who, having gallantly struggled in the face of many difficulties— ever present 
to us all— to perfect themselves in all branches of the profession, have^been the 
means of raising the status of the chemist to its present position. 
In Australia we find the pharmaceutical chemist holds a good position, and 
certainly a more respectable title than that by which he is designated in 
Tasmania, viz., “Dealer in Poisons.” Such has been the title conferred by the 
law since 1835, and the main body of this bill has not been altered since. 
Briefly, the main point is that “none but those who have passed an examination 
before the Board of Examiners (consisting of medical men only) shall retail drugs 
or poisons, unless more than four miles from any registered 4 Dealer in Poisons* 
or chemist.” Tasmania thus was the first to legislate on our behalf, but has been 
the last to advance. Lately the southern chemists, having formed an association, 
desired to improve their present status, and with that object forwarded proposals 
to the northern society asking their assistance in passing through Parliament a 
Pharmacy Bill similar to those in existence in the sister colonies. But, unex- 
pectedly, they were met with opposition, on the grounds that, “since the present 
Act prevented other than a registered dealer in poisons retailing drugs and patents, 
they were amply protected, at the same admitting that the present mode of 
examination by medical men was unsatisfactory, and the period of acquaintance 
with the business before examination too short.” From the influential support 
promised by the Government there would have been no doubt, had the northern 
society co-operated, that the management of the profession would have been in 
our own hands by the present time. In the present year the southern society 
will make another attempt to overcome these scruples of the northern society, 
and we earnestly trust to be successful. In my next I hope to deal with the 
objections raised against this course being taken. 
Dr. Smart, Dr. Perkins, Mr. George Crisp, and Mr. Henry Hunter have 
been asked to form the Central Board of Health under the Health Act. 
The Court of Medical Examiners at Hobart have registered the following 
persons as qualified dispensers Jas. Turnbull (Certificate of Pharmacy Board of 
Victoria) ; Michael Mason (by examination). 
