INTERFERENCE OF PHARMACY ACT WITH MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. 338 
Emetic tartar. 
Corrosive sublimate. 
Cantharides. 
Savin and its oil. 
Ergot of rye and its preparations. 
These are the regulations of the new Pharmacy Act relating to the sale of 
poisons, but it must be recollected that, in addition to these, all the provisions 
of the Sale of Arsenic Act still remain in force. 
Several Poison Books for the registration of the sale of poisons under the 
Act have beeu issued by different publishers, and one of these, published by J. 
Davis, of Old Kent Road, purports to be an “Authorized Edition,” from which 
it has been inferred that it has received the sanction of the Pharmaceutical So¬ 
ciety. As it contains many errors, it may be well to state that neither the 
Society nor any of its officers have authorized the statement referred to. We 
have before us the ‘Register for the Sale of Poisons,’ by Mr. Mackay, of Edin¬ 
burgh, which appears to have been well and carefully prepared. 
There is a distinct provision for the dispensing of poisons by a registered 
Chemist or Pharmacist, which specifies that if any poison form part of the in¬ 
gredients of a medicine dispensed by a person registered under the Act, it shall 
only be necessary to put the name and address of the seller upon it, and to 
make an entry of the ingredients, together with the name of the purchaser, in 
a book to be kept for that purpose. 
Among the provisions of the Act there is one to the effect that any person 
who shall compound any medicines of the British Pharmacopoeia, except 
according to the formularies of the said Pharmacopoeia, shall, for every such 
offence, be liable to pay a penalty or sum of five pounds. This provision, how¬ 
ever, applies only to medicines of the British Pharmacopoeia, and does not pre¬ 
clude any person from making any preparation, not purporting to be a British 
Pharmacopoeia preparation, in other ways. Thus, for instance, some persons 
may prefer the tincture of rhubarb of the London Pharmacopoeia to that of the 
British Pharmacopoeia, and a chemist may, of course, make the former and sell 
it, although he ought not to dispense it unless it be specifically ordered. 
There is also a provision by which the “Act for preventing the Adulteration of 
articles of Food or Drink” are made to extend to all articles usually taken or sold 
as medicines, and any adulteration of any such article is to be deemed an ad¬ 
mixture injurious to health ; and any person registered under the Pharmacy 
Act, who sells any such article adulterated, is, unless the contrary shall be 
proved, to be deemed to have knowledge of such adulteration, and to be subject 
to the penalties imposed by that Act. 
DOES THE NEW PHARMACY ACT PREVENT MEDICAL PRAC¬ 
TITIONERS SUPPLYING MEDICINES TO THEIR PATIENTS ? 
A great discussion has arisen as to the interpretation of those portions of the 
new Pharmacy Act which are said to affect the interests of medical practi¬ 
tioners who are not Licentiates of the Society of Apothecaries. 
In framing the Bill which was introduced to the House of Commons in 1865, 
the Pharmaceutical Society proceeded on the principle that the safety of the 
public would be materially increased if qualified persons only were allowed to 
dispense medicines; they would not have interfered with the sale of drugs, and 
did not even propose to restrict poisons by direct enactment. Their opposition 
