BERRY V. HENDERSON". 
565 
using or exercising the art and mystery of an apothecary to prepare with exactness, and to 
dispense such medicines as may be directed for the sick by any physician lawfully licensed 
to practise physic by the President and Commonalty of the Faculty of Physic in London.” 
Mr. Justice Lush. —That is, to give the patient directions how to use it, I suppose. 
Mr. Quain .—Yes, my lord ; and in clause 20 we have got this : “ And if any person shall, 
after the 1st day of August, 1815, act as an assistant to any apothecary, or compound or 
dispense medicines, without having obtained”—and so on. So that you have this word 
used with a quantity of other words in section 28 : “ That nothing in this Act contained 
shall extend, or be construed to extend, to prejudice or in any way to affect the trade or bu¬ 
siness of a chemist and druggist in the buying, preparing, compounding, dispensing , and 
vending drugs, medicines, and medicinal compounds wholesale and retail; but all persons 
using or exercising the said trade or business shall,” etc. etc. I apprehend that the moment 
a prescription which professed to be written by a lawfully-qualified medical man is brought 
to a chemist, written in the ordinary way, that chemist, acfing in perfect good faith, and when 
he sees that it is a medicine for a lotion, puts up any of these ingredients (for, whether it 
it is for the purpose of external or internal application makes no difference) in the ordinary 
way of business, and inserts the name of the person to whom he professes to sell it in a book 
kept for that purpose, he clearly brings himself within this proviso. What is he to do 9 
When he is making up a prescription he cannot go into the ingredients to see whether it is a 
poison or not, or to what extent it is a poison. He may not know the effect of the medicine 
ordered by the medical man; it may be a poisonous medicine or it may not. 
Mr. Justice Hannen. —He knows whether it is one of the things mentioned in the sche¬ 
dule. 
Mr. Quain. —Any other view of it would be this : that the moment any medicines contain 
any of these poisonous compounds, however small, he is to label them “ Poison.” Just 
fancy if all the bottles that came into our families for_the purpose of external application or 
internal use had the word poison on them. 
Mr. Justice Lush. —But he uses equal quantities of prussic and rose-water, does he not ? 
Mr. Quain. —I do not know the quantities. I do not profess to understand these things. 
It does not appear on the case. 
Mr. Justice Lush. —There are the same marks to both. 
Mr. Quain. —I think not. If your lordship will look, there is another tail to one; they 
are not the same. 
Mr. Lumley Smith. —It is expressly found, my lord, in the case, that there were two 
drachms of hydrocyanic acid put into a two-ounce bottle. 
Mr. Quain. —And then he filled up the bottle with rose-water. There is a great deal 
more rose-water. I do not know how many drachms go to an ounce, or whether Mr. 
Lumley Smith could tell me. Now, my lord, the other statute, which was passed on the 
same day as this conviction took place is this. It only becomes material in case you should 
have any doubt about the construction of the proviso, namely, how it is to be labelled. If 
there was any difficulty at all about the construction of the latter, 1 should have said that 
this was declared on the same day the offence was committed. I should read the recital, 
because the object is to put qualified medical practitioners, not merely apothecaries, into the 
17th section : “ Whereas it is expedient to amend the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, 
in regard to duly-qualified medical practitioners and veterinary surgeons.” The 17th section 
was applied, if your lordships remember, to medicines supplied by a legally-qualified practi¬ 
tioner to his patient. 
Mr. Justice Jlannen. —You do not seek to come under that part of it? 
Mr. Quain. —No, my lord, I only point out what was the object of amending the Act. 
Mr. Justice Lush. —That was the only amendment ? 
Mr. Quain. —That is all. “ Nothing contained in section 17 of the said recited Act 
shall apply to any medicine supplied by a legally qualified medical practitioner to his patient, 
or dispensed by any person registered under the said Act, provided such medicine be dis¬ 
tinctly labelled with the name and address ”—showing what the meaning of the other section 
was—“ 0 f the seller, and the ingredients thereof, be entered with the name of the person 
to whom it is sold or delivered, in a book to be kept by the seller for that purpose.” 
Mr. Justice Lush. —That is the same as the other. 
Mr. Quain. —It is he same practically. 
Mr. Justice Lush. —It only extends it to legally qualified medical practitioners. 
