THE REGISTER. 
3 
of medicines, being apparently ignorant of the existence of the British Pharma, 
copoeia, which has superseded the other, indicates a deficiency in one of the re¬ 
quisite qualifications for a dispenser of medicines, of which we hope there may 
not be many examples. 
THE REGISTER. 
The production of a complete register of all persons in Great Britain who are 
engaged in carrying on the business of chemist and druggist or pharmaceutical 
chemist, as such business is usually conducted, including the sale and dispensing 
of the more powerful and so-called poisonous drugs, has long been considered an 
important desideratum, without which it would be difficult to make any satis¬ 
factory provision for a safer and better administration of medicine than has 
hitherto existed in this country. The Pharmacy Act of last year has provided 
for this want, and the Register, which gives the required information, is now 
before the public. We presume there are but few, if any, names omitted from 
this Register which have a legitimate claim to be there, for ample notice was 
given of the requirement of the law, sufficient time was allowed for registering, 
and no charge was made for doing so. It is more to be apprehended that some 
names may have found their way into the list which ought not to be there, for 
we have reason to believe that certificates have in some instances been signed 
without sufficient consideration of their purport and importance. The list, how¬ 
ever, is subject to revision by the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society, who 
have the power of removing any name from the Register provided they are satis¬ 
fied that the registration was procured by improper means. 
The Register is in two parts, the first comprising pharmaceutical chemists, 
that is, those who either bv examination or as members of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, are authorized to use certain titles indicating that they belong to the 
higher grade of chemists and druggists, and are exempted from the necessity of 
serving on juries; and the second including chemists and druggists of every 
grade, not excepting pharmaceutical chemists. It appears that the total number 
of names of all classes inserted in the general list is 11,638. We have thus for 
the first time ascertained on unquestionable authority how many there are, 
throughout England, Wales and Scotland, who claim to be chemists and drug¬ 
gists, keeping open shop for the compounding of the prescriptions of duly quali¬ 
fied medical practitioners, as certified by themselves, and by a magistrate or 
medical practitioner having knowledge of the fact. The Register however, gives 
something more than the aggregate number of chemists and druggists, it indi¬ 
cates how many of them, namely 2357, are pharmaceutical chemists, and of this 
class it also indicates that 1037, or nearly one-half, have passed the Major ex¬ 
amination. There are besides 464 of those included in the general list who, 
although not pharmaceutical chemists, have passed the Minor examination of the 
Society, and 198 who have passed the Modified examination. 
In former years there has been some discussion in this and other journals as 
to the number of persons engaged in the practice of pharmacy in this country. 
It has been estimated, by some of those who wished to represent the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society as a very small section of the trade, at as large a number as forty 
thousand, and we took some pains five or six years ago to show the absurdity of 
such a statement, appealing to the census returns in support of the view w r e took 
that six or eight thousand would more nearly represent the legitimate chemists 
and druggists in England and Wales, the data for estimating the numbers in 
Scotland and Ireland not being then accessible. Our calculation at that time 
was founded upon the census returns of 1861, which gave the number of che¬ 
mists and druggists, including apprentices and assistants, in England aud Wales, 
as 16,026, of which number 3388 consisted of persons under 20 years of age. 
B 2 
