26 
THE AU STEAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
business ability of this gentleman, and the success that has attended his former 
ventures, we may expect another flourishing and handsome pharmacy. The 
managing assistant is Mr. C. A. Kerans, formerly of the Mudgee Dispensary. 
The Act of Incorporation of the Pharmaceutical Society of New South 
Wales will shortly be presented to the House for its consideration in detail, and 
the present members of the council appear very sanguine of its adoption as an 
Act of legislation ; but there are some who think that the hardships under 
which we labour in this colony will not be lessened by the passing of such 
an Act. What is urgently required is an Act that will abolish the present 
system of procedure regarding the control of the sale of poisons, and positively 
prevent any person from trading as a chemist and druggist unless duly registered 
as such. 
The legal proceedings instituted by Mr. Beehag against W. H. Soul and 
Co. resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff of £25. The claim was £200 for 
damages sustained through wrongful dispensing of a prescription by the 
defendant’s assistant. The case caused a great sensation amongst the druggists 
in this city, as the firm of Soul and Co. are considered to be at variance 
with the interests of chemists and druggists. But as long as any person can 
open as a chemist and druggist in New South Wales, and no person can deny 
them the right so to do, Messrs. Soul and Co. have as much right to trade as 
chemists and druggists as the most highly qualified pharmacist in the land. 
They have no right to sell poisons, it is true, and this they never claim, and 
always refer a customer who requires poison to the nearest druggist’s shop 
where poisons are sold. But what an absurdity to allow persons to dispense 
poisons, and yet refuse them the right to sell threepenny worth of oxalic acid, 
and yet such is the law in New South Wales. We do not doubt but that 
Messrs. Soul and Co.’s dispensers are competent to perform their duties, and 
that the accident was a misadventure, caused more by carelessness than through 
ignorance. What is necessary in the interests of the trade is an Act similar 
to that in force in Victoria, and it is of no use for druggists of this colony to 
lament the hardness of their lot unless they are prepared to stand up for their 
rights and agitate for the passing of an Act that shall prevent any person calling 
himself a dispensing chemist, or prescribing and consulting chemist, or chemist 
and druggist, or pharmaceutical chemist, unless he be duly qualified by pro- 
fessional education and examination. 
At the present time our colony is overrun with medical adventurers, and in 
a land where any man may style himself doctor, and practice as a physician, it 
is not to be wondered at if the pharmacists should fare any better. What is 
needed is radical reform. The Pharmaceutical Society of New South Wales has 
proved itself unequal to the task of grappling with the difficulty of the situation, 
and, unless the trade is prepared to undertake the work of its own protection, it 
must learn to bear uncomplainingly the hardships under which it labours at the 
present time. 
In the present unsatisfactory state of affairs a society to regulate matters 
distinctly outside the province of the Pharmaceutical Society would be a great 
boon. A Chemists and Druggists’ Association, to regulate hours, prices, &c., if 
it could be formed, would offer great advantages to every one. The present 
hours in Sydney are simply barbarous. What necessity can there possibly be 
to keep men working from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, in many instances 
Sunday included, or at least every alternate one, besides night duty. 
There are a good many changes going on just now. 
Mr. Jones, of Crown-street, Surrey Hills, has purchased the business lately 
opened by Mr. T. Ellis iu Market-street, and is having it altered and fitted up 
