484 
EXTRACTS FROM MINUTES OF EVIDENCE 
it is not a matter of importance. With regard to compounding drugs, such persons 
ought to be fully acquainted with their properties and doses. 
422. In the first place, you would require some examination in respect of persons 
dealing with poisonous drugs ?—Quite so. I should think they ought to know the 
properties of them. I should require a more careful and rigid examination of those 
who mix and compound medicines. 
423. Compounding drugs would include mixing prescriptions ?—All compounding. 
It would be difficult to draw a line at the compounding merely of prescriptions. I 
would like to say, with regard to one point (the mere fact of danger to life), that, 
besides great value to be attached to the education of chemists and druggists, who sup¬ 
ply physicians with the agencies by which they treat disease, and who, when educated, 
are better capable of understanding the nature of drugs than they would be if igno¬ 
rant, they would supply physicians and surgeons with far better agencies than wo 
could obtain if they were uneducated and ignorant. Pharmacy has so much improved 
in the present day that drugs are better and more efficient than they were. 
424. That being so, what would be the kind of examination you would recommend ? 
—My answer would very much depend on the question, whether all persons should 
be registered. If the law were made so stringent, that nobody could compound medi¬ 
cine unless registered, it strikes me that the examination should be moderate. 
425. Embracing what ?—Chiefly the knowledge of the properties of drugs, and the 
capability of reading ordinary Latin prescripttons. There might be a higher exami¬ 
nation for a higher class who might wish to undergo it. If it be made compulsory on 
all to pass an examination, and bo registered, there ought to be great facilities for 
doing so. 
426. That would be as far as the law would go, I presume P—Quite. 
427. The nature of the examination being such as you have pointed out, whom 
would you recommend as an examining body to carry out such a system ?-—-I know 
none better than the Pharmaceutical Society with its Minor examination, which is 
sufficient, if not more than it need be, for the class of which I speak. I should not 
allow it to remain wholly in the hands of the Society w r ithout some control from Go¬ 
vernment ; this power might become a great monopoly if allowed to be in the hands 
of any society or any corporate body. There ought to be direct control from the Se¬ 
cretary of State or the Privy Council, as to the character of the examination and the 
■fees. 
428. When you use the words u some control,” would you recommend that the 
Crown should have the power of appointing persons to belong to the Council as exa¬ 
miners, or in what manner ?—An assessor, who would be present at the examination, 
and the regulations should be submitted to and approved by the Home Secretary from 
time to time. 
429. Or the Privy Council ?—Certainly ; the assessor would not take an active 
part, but would merely attend for the purpose of supervision. 
430. If such an examination was to be required, you would place it in the hands of 
the Pharmaceutical Society, with certain alterations to make it more general ?—There 
should be no difficulty whatever in admitting to the Minor examination in regard to 
compounding and dispensing medicines. 
431. Are you apprehensive, from the passing of some measure which would require 
a greater education of chemists and druggists, that it would raise the character of the 
class and interfere with the medical profession P—I do not think so; a better class 
would attend more closely to their own business. 
432. Do you think it necessary or desirable to prohibit chemists and druggists from 
giving advice to persons who come into their shops ?—With regard to that, it may 
seem hard to place a restriction on chemists and druggists to which other people are 
not subjected ; but a “ doctor’s shop ” is a familiar place to which to go for advice, and 
hence there is a temptation to the public to go to those shops, and it is done to a 
great extent in poor neighbourhoods and manufacturing districts. I think a clause 
should prohibit chemists and druggists from being systematically engaged in the 
treatment of diseases or injuries, or from practising as medical men. 
_ 433. It would be difficult to prove a person was systematically engaged ?—It is 
difficult to prove most things. It would be thus; a person must not come day after 
