100 
THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION. 
cording to the interpretation hitherto pnt upon the -wording of the 17th 
section of the Act. It is there stated as follows“ Nor shall any of the 
provisions of this section apply to any medicine supplied by a legally qualified 
apothecary to his patient, nor apply to any article when forming part of the 
ingredients of any medicine dispensed by a person registered under this Act, 
provided such medicine be labelled in the manner aforesaid with the name and 
address of the seller , and the ingredients thereof be entered, with the name of 
the person to whom it is sold or delivered, in a booh to be Icept by the seller for 
that purpose .” If there could be any doubt here as to the meaning of the 
words u labelled in the manner aforesaid,” that has since.been removed, by 
the “ Pharmacy Amendment Act,” which, by a singular coincidence, received 
the royal assent on the very day the above transaction occurred. 
We think the magistrates are clearly wrong in the decision they have 
come to, and as the case is one of very great importance to every chemist 
and druggist throughout the country, and to the medical profession, we hope 
that no time will be lost in appealing to a higher tribunal, and that any 
assistance that may be required will be afforded to Mr. Berry in asserting 
and supporting the rights of himself and his brethren. 
It was never contemplated, and indeed it would be highly objectionable, 
that medicines dispensed from prescriptions, whenever they contain as an 
ingredient one of the articles included in the schedule of poisons, should be 
subjected to all the regulations relating to the sale of poisons. The part of 
section 17 which we have quoted, was intended to obviate such a result, and 
the Amendment Act renders it more clear than does the Act itself what the 
intention of the Legislature was in this respect. 
THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION. 
We are glad to observe that the Council and Board of Examiners are alive 
to the necessity of maintaining all the examinations of the Pharmaceutical 
Society on firm and well-defined bases. It is right they should be so fixed, and 
this year of 1869, which has been called by many “the commencement of a new 
era in Pharmacy,” is the proper occasion for whatever adjustment may be 
required. The ‘Pall Mall Gazette,’in commending Pharmacy (not Pharma¬ 
cists) to the ladies, says, “ The business of Pharmaceutical Chemist and Drug¬ 
gist must , under the new Act , be held to rank next to the learned professions.” 
Of course we must look to those who have the ordering of the qualification to 
see that individuals engaged in that business do not fall short of the proper 
standard. In our last number we published the regulations adopted by the 
Council, at their July meeting, on the recommendation of the Board of Ex¬ 
aminers, for conducting the first or Preliminary examination. We found that 
some discussion had taken place in the Council as to the persons proper to 
examine candidates, residing more than ten miles from London, who could 
not conveniently present themselves at Bloomsbury Square. That discus¬ 
sion, as evidenced by the division reported, was caused by a desire, on the 
part of the Council, to secure something like uniformity in the examinations, 
at least so far as there could be uniformity in an examination conducted by a 
diversity of examiners, the subjects only being given by the Council. 
The same desire for uniformity seems since that time to have worked more 
strongly on the Board of Examiners, and on their recommendation at the last 
meeting of Council, it was resolved to rescind the former regulations, and vir¬ 
tually to make the preliminary a written instead of a viva-voce examination. 
Not the subjects only, but the actual questions are to be set by the Board, and 
