PROPOSED LEGISLATION AFFECTING PHARMACY. 577 
the public, until its spirit and its letter are more nearly agreed upon by those 
who have had the opportunity of considering them. 
The Bill would, in its present state, press unfairly upon some for whoso 
benefit it is intended ; and this is perhaps unavoidable in any Act which has 
for its object the benefit of any large and varied section of the community. 
But the evils may yet be very much reduced, and when reduced to their mini¬ 
mum, must be borne for the sake of the general good. But it is not desirable 
to let it be supposed that we are either blind to, or careless of, the various 
points which require alteration. 
It may be that I take more extreme views than many of my neighbours ; 
and I must now state that this letter is not in any measure official, and I alone 
am responsible for its contents. 
My own conviction is, that one great object would be effected by the Bill 
in its present state, that is, the registration, officially, of all chemists and drug¬ 
gists actually carrying on the trade. If there had been such a register a few 
years ago, I am satisfied that all, and not a portion only, of the trade would 
hare been exempted from juries. Had there been such a register at an earlier 
date, I am satisfied that there would not now be the anomaly of the trade 
divided into two sections, each of which contains men of superior and men of 
inferior attainments, instead of the classification indicating the qualifications 
of the two parties. If the Bill effected nothing else, this registration alone 
is an object worth all the trouble and expense of an Act of Parliament. It 
would be the foundation upon which many other good things might be raised 
from time to time, with comparatively little trouble or difficulty. 
But even this matter of registration is not so simple as it at first sight ap¬ 
pears ; of this any one may convince himself who will endeavour to define a 
“ chemist ” so as to include all who carry on the trade of “ chemist and drug¬ 
gist,” as this term is generally understood, and not interfere with manufac¬ 
turing and professional chemists. It would be clearly unjust to deprive the 
latter class of the right to call themselves chemists, and any legislation re¬ 
garding the title of chemist and druggist would certainly be abortive so 
long as the titles of “ manufacturing and consulting chemist,” were not pro¬ 
tected. 
Again, a difficulty arises in the attempt to restrict dispensing to those vdio 
are registered. Turning to first clause, it is said, “ It shall not be lawful for 
any person to carry on the business of a chemist and druggist in the keeping 
of open shop for the compounding of the prescriptions of duly qualified medi¬ 
cal practitioners.” If a customer brings a “familyrecipe,” can the unregistered 
tradesman lawfully prepare it ? According to the words of the Bill we might 
say he could. But suppose the recipe was originally the prescription of a 
qualified practitioner, we will suppose it to have been copied from ‘Grraham’s 
Domestic Medicine,’ or copied by the customer from an autograph, or copied 
by the dispenser from an autograph; how will the line of distinction be drawn? 
To permit the last, is to allow any one to dispense anything from a prescrip¬ 
tion he first copies. To attempt the prohibition of preparing medicines from 
published prescriptions would be simply impossible, so long as the keeping 
and selling of these medicines, simple and compounded, are not also pro¬ 
hibited. 
Public safety is more endangered by the sale of powerful medicines by un¬ 
educated tradesmen, whether they are called chemists or grocers, than it is 
by the dispensing of medicines from prescriptions ; and my conviction is, that 
useful legislation affecting our trade must be based upon the restriction of 
the retail sale of poisons and powerful drugs to registered, and ultimately to 
examined dealers. 
There are various clauses affecting the position or standing to be occupied 
