122 
EXTRACTS FROM MINUTES OF EVIDENCE 
persons of that kind. If you want a prescription made up, no person can do that 
unless he has undergone an examination as a pharmacien. 
99. Are those examinations conducted by the State, or by private bodies?—I am 
not quite aware of that; to answer your question strictly, I believe there is a college 
of pharmacy, but there is a power of examining in the country departments as well as- 
in Paris. 
100. There are bodies in the country ?—At Lyons and Montpellier. In France, 
they have what are called faculties in some of tlie principal cities. These faculties are 
empowered to examine and to license for country practice in the district in which 
they are; but in the higher grade of pharmacien it is necessary for the persons to 
undergo a more strict examination, and they must be examined in Paris. 
102. Do you think it would be possible to establish in this country, looking at the 
state of the population in Wales and Scotland, a system by which, whoever in any 
village or small country town ought to be allowed to dispense medicines, should go 
through an examination ?—I would say, in answer to that, the difficulty of having to 
apply to a country vendor, with the railway communication there is now, for the 
making up a prescription, would be a great point to the safety of the public. I think 
I would not allow any medical prescription,—and I would take it as the basis of all the 
evidence I give you,—no medical prescription should be made up except by an exa¬ 
mined person. I would not take medicine, and I would not recommend a friend to 
take medicine, compounded in village shops. I do not say it is always wrong, but 
persona run a great risk. 
103. It might not be internal, but external?—There is equal danger ; oil of vitriol 
might be used instead of something else. 
104. There is such a thing as a choice of evils, and you might find yourself in that 
position ; you had no means of getting this, and you wanted it immediately, and the 
person had to take the chance of whether he would go to a person who was thoroughly 
competent, and do without the laudanum, or he would choose the other evil, and go 
to the person not competent ?—That is a matter of opinion ; I was going to try and put 
myself in the position. Suppose I am in a small village or town, and I saw there was 
some medicine required to be made up, and it was a question of whether one would 
wait to get it from a country town, where there was a regular druggist, or have it 
made up by a man known to have undergone no examination; I should prefer waiting 
for an opportunity till I could put it fairly into the hands of a man who knew what he 
was about. The unexamined person may go right, or he may go wrong, from not being- 
acquainted with the art of compounding drugs. 
105. Would you deprive a man of the power of exercising that judgment for him¬ 
self whether he would or would not do so ?—Yes, I would. 
106. Would you look more to the safety of the public, and rather lay down strict 
rules from which there is to be no departure ?—I would. 
107. Do you think that would go down in this country ?—I think, after a time, that 
this strictness would wear off. 
108. After what time ?—It woxxld be very much felt at first, no doubt. Anybody 
may go and buy anything anywhere, and of course feel a gx-eat restriction from any le¬ 
gislation that might be attempted. There was much the same difference more than 
a hundred years ago, in the reign of George II., when the sux-geons were separated 
from the barber surgeoixs. That was a complete severance of a sort of body or com¬ 
bined body that existed from the time of Henry VIII., and it was considered the bar¬ 
bers were seriously damaged in being parted from the surgeons. Ever since that time 
the surgeons have gone on as a separate body, and the barbers have beexi kept sepa- 
l’ately. It was a question aboxxt bleeding and cupping. For a long time the barbers 
kept up the old plan of bleeding and cupping, and the public felt it was a sort of 
injustice to take the practice out of their hands. I think it has died off entii-ely. I 
do not think anybody now goes to a barber to be bled. It was thought at that time it 
wa 3 an improper inteifference, that people should not be bled by whom they liked ; 
but the change was borne, and so it would be in this case. At first it would be 
thought vei*y hard. 
109. May a man be bled by a barber now if he likes ?—Yes, he may ; and he may 
take the consequence of being bled in an artery instead of a vein. 
