300 
THE MEDICINE STAMP AND LICENCE ACTS. 
usually imported and not particularly rated in the Book of Kates, referred to in the 
Act of Tonnage and Poundage made in the Twelfth Year of the Keign of King 
Charles the Second, with Eules, Orders, and Kegulations, signed by the Right Honour¬ 
able Spencer Compton, Speaker of the Honourable House of Commons, and mentioned 
and referred to by an Act made in the eleventh year of the reign of his Majesty King 
George the First.’ 
c; ‘ All medicinal drugs whatsoever which shall be uttered or vended entire, without 
any mixture or composition with any other drug or ingredient whatsoever, by any 
surgeon, apothecary, chemist, or druggist, who hath served a regular apprenticeship, or 
by any person who hath served as a surgeon in the navy or army under any commission 
or appointment duly entered at the War Office or Navy Office, or by any other person 
whatsoever licensed to sell any of the medicines chargeable with a stamp duty. 
“ ‘ And also all mixtures , compositions or preparations whatsoever , mixed or compounded 
with, or prepared from medicinal drugs, medicated or chemical preparations or compositions 
or other ingredients, bearing different denominations, or having different properties, quali¬ 
ties, virtues, or efficacies, which shall be uttered or vended by any such surgeon , apothecary , 
chemist , or druggist as aforesaid, or by any such person who hath served as a surgeon in 
the navy or army , under any such commission or appointment as aforesaid, the different 
denominations, properties, qualities, virtues, and efficacies of which mixtures, composi¬ 
tions, and preparations as aforesaid, are known , admitted, and approved of, in the pre¬ 
vention, cure, or relief of any disorder, malady, ailment, or complaint incident to, or in 
anywise affecting the human body [and wherein the person mixing, compounding, pre¬ 
paring, uttering, or vending the same hath not, nor claims to have any occult secret or 
art for the mixing, compounding, or preparing the same], [nor hath, nor claims to have, 
any exclusive right or title to the mixing, compounding, or preparing, or to the vending 
of the same; and which mixtures, compositions, or preparations have not been, are not, 
nor shall hereafter be prepared, uttered, vended, or exposed to sale under the authority 
of any letters patent under the great seal], [nor at any time heretofore have been, now 
are, or shall hereafter be, by any public notice, advertisement, or by any written or 
printed papers or hand-bills, or by any labels or words written or printed and affixed to 
or delivered ivith any such packet, box, bottle, pot, phial, or other enclosure aforesaid, 
held out or recommended to the public by the owners, proprietors, makers, compounders, 
original or first venders thereof, as nostrums or proprietary medicines , or as specifics , or 
as beneficial, for the prevention , cure , or relief of any such distemper , malady , ailment , or 
complaint as aforesaid .’ ” 
Mr. Price, in the pamphlet already quoted, has given the following explana¬ 
tion, which, with the extracts above given, w T ill place our readers in possession 
of the most important features in the Acts, although we have not attempted to 
go into every detail. 
There are, on the whole review of these Acts considered together, and with 
reference to their objects, and to each other, four classes of persons contemplated 
by the legislature, and three sorts of things as within the scope of the medicine 
duty laws. 
The classes of persons are :— 
First, Those who by apprenticeship to surgeons, apothecaries, chemists and 
druggists (and surgeons of the navy and army), derive the qualification of skill 
from discipline, for engaging and practising in the sale of drugs and medical 
preparations. 
Secondly, Persons procuring the legal or statutory qualification of a licence. 
Thirdly, Patentees of proprietary preparations in medicine, quacks, or nos¬ 
trum-makers ; and 
Lastly, All unlicensed* venders of drugs and medical compounds.f 
* “Unlicensed persons” must not be deemed to include persons unlicensed on the groun 
of the higher qualification. 
f Confectioners, etc., arc merely an exception. 
