THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. V.—No. I.—JULY 1st, 1863. 
PROPOSED NEW MEDICAL BILL, AEEECTING PHARMACY. 
A Committee of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration 
has recently been considering the provisions of the Act under which the Medical 
Council is appointed, with a view to its amendment, and the Report of this 
Committee has just been presented. It recommends to the Council to apply to 
Parliament for a new Medical Act, embodying all the principal provisions of the 
Act of 1858, entitled “ An Act to Regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in 
Medicine and Surgery,” but with some important alterations and additions. 
The proposed new Medical Bill involves questions of such vast importance to the 
pharmaceutical body, that we publish it entire, at page 38, in the form in which 
it appears on the minutes of the Medical Council,—the several clauses of the Bill 
being placed in columns beside those of the existing Medical Act. It will be 
seen that the Medical Council propose to include pharmacy among the depart¬ 
ments of medical practice over which they are to exercise control: this appears 
in the preamble to the new Bill. Then, in Section xx., it is provided that the 
General Council shall lay down such regulations respecting the education and 
examination of practitioners in pharmacy as may appear to them fitted to ensure 
adequate knowledge and skill in this department. Those who conform to these 
regulations will be registered under the Act. By Section xxxi., “Every person 
registered under this Act shall be entitled, according to his qualification or 
qualifications, to practise medicine, or surgery, or pharmacy ; or medicine, and 
surgery, and pharmacy, as the case may be,” etc. 
It is unnecessary for us to do more, on the present occasion, than to lay before 
our readers a statement of the propositions affecting pharmacy which have ema¬ 
nated from the Medical Council. These propositions have been submitted to all 
the medical licensing bodies throughout the country for their opinions upon them, 
and they may be expected to undergo some modifications before they are sub¬ 
mitted to Parliament for the sanction of the legislature. In their present form 
they comprise,— 
1. A general system of pharmaceutical education and examination, to be 
regulated by the Medical Council. 
2. The registration of all persons qualified to practise pharmacy, as tested by 
such examinations. 
3. The restriction of the right to dispense or compound the prescriptions of 
physicians or surgeons, to qualified practitioners in pharmacy, and the impo¬ 
sition of a penalty upon those who shall keep open shop for compounding medi¬ 
cines without having passed the required examination. . 
4. The appointment by the Medical Council of inspectors, whose duty it 
shall be to see that the provisions of the Act, affecting pharmacy, are duly 
carried into effect. 
YOL. Y. 
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