BLOOMSBURY COUNTY COURT. 
553 
“ These pills were put into an ordinary pill-box. The lady, being in her nursery, and 
having no pocket in her dress, placed the box in her bosom (I suspect next the skin). 
In three-quarters of an hour a severe explosion took place; her under-clothes over the 
part were reduced to tinder , and her right breast severely scorched, and smoke issued 
freely from beneath her dress. She seized the parts with both hands, and thus put out 
the tire ; but since then I have had to dress a rather severe burn on the bosom.” 
BLOOMSBURY COUNTY COURT. 
February 9th , 1870. 
(Before G. L. Russell, Esq., Judge.) 
Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v. M‘Call. 
The action w r as brought to recover <£5 upon particulars as follows :—“ To amount of 
penalty incurred by the defendant in selling or keeping open shop for retailing, dispens- 
ing, or compounding poisons or a poison, and in taking, using, or exhibiting the name 
or title of chemist, contrary to the provisions of the ‘Pharmacy Act, 1868 ’ (31 & 32 
Viet. cap. 121).” 
Mr. Flux ( Flux , Argles , and Rawlins), for the plaintiffs, read the preamble, and 
clauses 1, 2, 5, 13, and 15 of the ‘Pharmacy Act, 1868,’ and section 12 of the 15 & 16 
Viet. cap. 56. 
The Defendant in person said: I admit that I have sold poison, and called myself 
chemist during the last six months. 
The Judge , to the defendant.—I will take a note of that admission. Do you admit 
also that this action is brought by the authority of the Council of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain. 
The Defendant. —Yes. 
J\lr. Flux. —Then it appears unnecessary for me to call any witness, because the 
defendant has admitted all facts requisite to entitle me to a judgment against him if 
he be not a registered chemist and druggist, and as to that I have to ask your honour 
to take judicial notice that the defendant’s name does not appear in the published re¬ 
gister of chemists and druggists as such register is in the possession of the Court, it 
having been supplied to the Court by the medical department of the Privy Council, and 
section 13 making that register evidence. 
r The Judge. —So it appears to me. 
The Defendant. —There has been a case in the north of England which I have read 
of, where the Judge expressed a doubt as to whether the Pharmaceutical Society of 
Great Britain could recover a penalty under the Act of Parliament. 
Mr. Flux— That is so, your honour. I did not mention the fact, because of enter¬ 
taining the wish that your honour should consider the legal bearings of the case un¬ 
biassed by anything precedent. I am glad of the opportunity now to supply the Court 
with the fullest information. The case in the north of England is reported in the first 
number for this year of the ‘Law Times,’ and there the Judge adjourned the case for 
the purpose of my obtaining an opinion upon the Act of Parliament from her Majesty’s 
Attorney-General. I have obtained that opinion, and I have it in Court at your 
honour’s service. 
The Judge (to the defendant).—Do you w r ish to have that'opinion read? 
The Defendant. —Yes. 
Mr. Flux. —I will read the opinion. It is a joint opinion of her Majesty’s Attorney- 
General and Mr. E. Bullock, of the Norfolk circuit. It is as follows:— 
“ We are of opinion that an action to recover a penalty or sum of <£5 may be brought, 
against any person who is within the description given in section 1 of the ‘ Pharmacy 
Act, 1868,’ viz., ‘Any person who shall sell or keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, 
or compounding poisons, or who shall assume or use the title chemist and druggist, or 
chemist or druggist, or pharmacist, or dispensing chemist or druggist, in any part of 
Great Britain, unless such person be registered under that Act, and that such action, if 
brought in England or Wales, must be brought in the County Court or in any Court for 
YOL. XI. 2 O 
