334.- INTERFERENCE OF PHARMACY ACT WITH MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. 
to previous Poison Bills had been based on the non-introduction of what they 
deemed the only true safeguard—that which may be called, in the language of 
the present day, the u technical education ” of the vendors,—the isolation of 
poisons in shops, the distinctive shaped bottles, the registration of sales, might 
all be good enough as adjuncts, but have been proved over and over again to be 
insufficient alone ; sometimes even mischievous, by inducing carelessness as to 
the label. With such views it will readily be understood that the Bill of 
1865, by restricting dispensing to proper hands would have ultimately, ac¬ 
cording to the opinion of its promoters, restricted the ordinary trade of che¬ 
mists, and, therefore, have proved the best of Poison Bills. When the Com¬ 
mittee of the House of Commons decided that the sale of poisons should be 
specially restricted, the Pharmaceutical Society bowed to that decision, still 
retaining and basing their new Bill on the proposition set forth in its preamble, 
that “ it is expedient for the safety of the public that persons keeping open shop 
for the retailing , dispensing , or compounding of poisons, and persons known as 
Chemists and Druggists , should possess a competent practical knowledge of their 
business .” 
It never entered the minds of these men to debar persons well qualified from 
the practice of‘ pharmacy, and, therefore, in every Bill proposed by the Society 
a reservation of the customary rights of all “ duly qualified medical practi¬ 
tioners ” was provided. The very Bill which ultimately became an Act of Par¬ 
liament contained these words when it passed from the House of Lords to the 
Commons. There unfortunately (with a view, we believe, to make its language 
more precise and parliamentary) the medical practitioner was, on the motion of 
Lord Robert Montagu, called an Apothecary. Hence the present difficulty, or, 
if not really a difficulty, at least a seeming one to those members of the medical 
profession who are acting as general practitioners without being Licentiates of 
the Society of Apothecaries. 
Our contemporary, the 4 Lancet,’ in an able article on this subject,—being 
satisfied that an Apothecary may sell and compound poisons as heretofore, and 
even keep an open shop for such purposes,—endeavours to prove that a medical 
practitioner, who is not a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, cannot even 
compound and supply the medicines necessary for his own patients, if they con¬ 
tain poison, and a specific charge be made for them. He says, the matter resolves 
itself into two questions, 44 What constitutes a legally qualified Apothecary ?” 
and 44 What constitutes selling?” 
We wish to consider these questions as we think any magistrate who may be 
called on judicially to consider them will, by bringing common sense to aid 
in interpreting the objects and provisions of the statute. An Apothecary is a 
person who dispenses medicine, and to make him legally qualified he must have 
authority from some examining and licensing body recognised by the 44 Medical 
Act.” It is unnecessary to enumerate the various licensing bodies so recog¬ 
nized ; they are described at length in schedule A of the Act itself, and all 
persons possessing their certificates are registered as having power to practise in 
the various branches of medical science. Surely those so authorized to practise 
medicine and pharmacy must be regarded as Apothecaries, and it would be be¬ 
yond the power of the Pharmacy Act to deprive them of statutory rights with¬ 
out repealing the grant of those rights, even supposing for a moment that none 
save Licentiates of the Society of Apothecaries can be correctly described by 
the w r ord 4< Apothecary:” To give a man the power to practise medicine and 
then to limit his choice of medicines by forbidding him to use opium, prussic 
acid, or chloroform, would be a mere mockery. 
And next to consider “ What constitutes selling T’ we will, to complete the 
question, add the words 44 poisons under this Act A Selling any one of the arti¬ 
cles pure and simple which are enumerated in schedule A. It may be objected 
