DEBATES ON PHARMACY BILL. 
67 
selling poison must label it “poison.” It is a well-known fact that the best medicines 
are sometimes composed of the most deadly poisons. Homoeopathic chemists use deadly 
poisons to a large extent, and what I want to know is, whether, if I go to one and ask 
him for a bottle of his little gilded or silvered pills, he is to label the bottle poison ? 
and must I give him my name and address, and state to him for what purpose I want 
them, and also must I take with me a witness to test to the truth of my statement? 
It seems to me that this would be the inevitable consequence of this clause. 
Mr. Lowe : I doubt if a whole bottle of homoeopathic medicine could do much harm. 
Clause 17 was struck out. 
Clause 18, Mr. T. Cave remarked that chemists and druggists ought to be excused 
from the jury list. The clause, however, was struck out. 
Clauses 19, 20, and 21, with amendments according to notices by Lord R. Montagu, 
were agreed to, and ordered to stand part of the Bill. 
Clauses 22, 28, and 24 were agreed to without amendments. 
Clause 25 was agreed to with an amendment by Lord R. Montagu, that on and after 
the passing of this Act all powers vested by the Pharmacy Act in one of her Majesty’s 
principal Secretaries of State shall be vested in the Privy Council. 
Clauses 26 and 27 were agreed to. 
Lord Elcho then proposed his substituted clause for clause 4. 
Mr. Low t e : I must oppose this clause on the ground that it is wholly indefensible. 
Either these persons have vested interests, or they have not; if they have not, then they 
have to undergo an examination the same as all others who are in a similar position. 
If it is desirable to have an examination, it should be one of a defined and satisfactory 
character. 
.Lord Elcho : As the clause originally stood in the Bill all assistants, if they regis¬ 
tered themselves up to the 31st of December in this year, were to be registered as pro¬ 
perly qualified chemists to compound medicines, etc., without an examination. That, I 
thought, was too loose; but at the same time I thought they should not be called upon 
to pass too stringent an examination, and that it was desirable some compromise should 
be adopted that should give protection to the public and not press too hardly on these 
persons. I agree to the suggestion of the honourable Member for Barnstaple that the 
operation of the clause should be limited to assistants of four years’ standing. The 
examination, though of a modified character, is to be one laid down by the Privy 
Council and the Pharmaceutical Society. 
Mr. Thomas Cave : Some of these assistants have been in business and have failed, 
others are married men with families, consequently too high a standard of examination 
for them would almost ruin their prospects. 
Lord R. Montagu : I think the clause should be amended by the insertion of words 
applicable to assistants who, before the passing of the Act, were duly qualified under 
the Pharmacy Act, and a further amendment that they should have been actually en¬ 
gaged in dispensing and assisting in a shop for not less than four years. 
Mr. Alderman Lusk : I should think two or three years sufficient. We should not 
be too hard on these men. 
The first amendment was agreed to, and the clause as amended was agreed to, and 
was ordered to be added to the Bill. 
Mr. Lowe : I beg to move the following clause:—“ The persons who at the time cf 
the passing of this Act shall have been duly admitted Pharmaceutical Chemists, or shall 
be chemists and druggists within the meaning of the Act, shall be entitled to be regis¬ 
tered under the Act without paying any fee for such registration; provided, however, 
as regards any such chemist and druggist, that his claim to be registered must be by 
notice in writing signed by him and given to the Registrar, with certificates according 
to the Schedules C and D to this Act; and provided also, that for any such registration 
of a chemist and druggist, unless it be duly claimed by him on or before the 31st day of 
December, 1868, the person registered shall pay the same fee as persons admitted to the 
register after examination under this Act.” 
The clause w r as agreed to, and was ordered to be added to the Bill. 
Lord Elciio: I beg to move a new clause for the clause 17 which we have struck 
out of the Bill. 
Mr. Lowe : I see that certain poisons are designated by an asterisk which are not to 
be sold by the chemist to a person unknown to the seller, I wish to know upon what 
principle this distinction is based. 
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