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A BILL TO REGULATE THE SALE OE POISONS AND 
ALTER AMD AMEND THE PHARMACY ACT, 1852. 
Whereas it is expedient for the safety of the public that persons 
keeping open shop for the retailing, dispensing, or compounding of 
poisons, or for the compounding the prescriptions of duly qualified 
medical practitioners, and commonly known as Chemists and Drug¬ 
gists, should possess a competent practical knowledge of their business, 
and to that end, that from and after the day herein named all persons 
not already engaged in such business should, before commencing such 
business, be duly examined as to their practical knowledge, and that 
a register should be kept as herein provided, and also that the Act 
passed in the 15th and 16th years of her present Majesty, intituled An 
Act for Regulating the Qualification of Pharmaceutical Chemists, 
hereinafter described as the Pharmacy Act, should be amended : be it 
enacted, by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons 
in this present Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same: 
1. From and after the 31st day of December, 1868, it shall be un- p ersons 
lawful for any person to keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, or selling Poi- 
compounding poisons, or for compounding the prescriptions of duly sons ^ om_ 
qualified medical practitioners, or to assume or use the title u Che- prescrip- 
mist and Druggist ” or Chemist or Druggist in any part of Great tions to he 
Britain unless such person shall be a Pharmaceutical Chemist, or a quai ec ' 
Chemist and Druggist within the meaning of this Act. 
2. The several articles named or described in the Schedule A shall within the 
be deemed to be Poisons within the meaning of this Act, and the meaning of 
Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (hereinafter Act - 
referred to as the Pharmaceutical Society) may, from time to time, by 
resolution declare, that any article in such resolution named ought to 
be deemed a poison within the meaning of this Act; and thereupon 
the Registrar hereinafter named shall submit such resolution to the 
Medical Council, and if the Medical Council shall resolve that such 
resolution ought to be confirmed, the said Registrar shall then submit 
the same for the approval of one of her Majesty’s Principal Secre¬ 
taries of State, and if such approval shall be given, then such resolu¬ 
tion, confirmation, and approval shall be advertised in the 1 London 
Gazette,’ and on the expiration of one month from such advertise¬ 
ment, the article named in such resolution shall be deemed to be a 
poison within the meaning of this Act. 
3. Chemists and Druggists within the meaning of this Act shall chemists 
consist of all persons who, at any lime heretofore, have carried on, in and Drug- 
Great Britain, the business of a Chemist and Druggist, in the keep- ni&muJg of 
ing of open shop for the compounding of the prescriptions of duly Act. 
qualified medical practitioners, also of all assistants and associates 
duly registered under or according to the provisions of the Pharmacy 
Act, and also of all such persons as may be duly registered under this 
Act. 
4. Any person who, for two years prior to the time of passing Apprentices 
this Act, shall have been apprenticed to, or who, at the time of the be 
passing of this Act, shall be of full age and shall have been actually registered, 
engaged and employed in dispensing and compounding prescriptions, 
as assistant to any Pharmaceutical Chemist, or any such Chemist 
and Druggist as defined by Clause 3 hereof, may, on transmitting to 
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