July 9, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
21 
PHARMACEUTICAL PROSPECTS IN CANADA. 
BY J. BAKER EDWARDS, PH.D., F.C.S. 
From some previous reports* your readers will be 
prepared to understand the present position of Cana¬ 
dian Pharmacy,—at least in Lower Canada, now 
best known as the province of Quebec. During the 
last' session of the Local Legislatures, Bills were 
introduced to regulate the practice of Pharmacy both 
in the province of Quebec and in that of Ontario. 
Both of these Bills, though diverse in character, 
and each supposed to be best adapted to the several 
localities, failed to pass into law, chiefly in conse¬ 
quence of medical opposition. 
The Bill brought forward in Ontario closely follows 
the British Acts, and is likewise trammelled with 
poison regulations; that of Quebec, on the other hand, 
simply incorporated a College of Pharmacy, with 
powers of registration, examination, and penal statutes 
against offenders. 
In Ontario no legislation at present exists touch¬ 
ing Pharmacy, so that the Bill had to run the 
gauntlet of the free-traders. It was quietly shelved 
in Committee. 
In Quebec, on the other hand, Pharmacy has had 
some recognition from the times of early settlement, 
and licences were required in order to practise it, 
which were obtainable from the Governor-General 
on presentation of satisfactory documents. This 
power, founded so far back as the 28th Geo. III. 
c. 8, in the year 1787, is probably the oldest enact¬ 
ment restricting British Pharmacy on record. A 
provincial medical board, appointed by the Governor, 
conducted the examination of candidates and granted 
licences to persons selling, vending, or distributing 
by retail, medicines in Lower Canada.f In 1847, 
the physicians and surgeons of Lower Canada ob¬ 
tained an Act of Incorporation, and assumed the 
functions of the Provincial Board; but the clauses in 
their Bill regulating the druggists and apothecaries 
were expunged, on the understanding and assurance 
that the chemists would incorporate themselves as a 
pharmaceutical society and make proper regulations 
for their own body. This they neglected to do, and, 
in 1864, the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
amended their Act, and obtained a clause requiring 
that no person should carry on the business of an 
apothecary| or chemist and druggist without a 
licence from the Board, to be granted after passing 
such examination as the Board may deem satisfac¬ 
tory. In 1865, the Board, by a bye-law, added the 
condition, “ That the candidate for Pharmacy must 
also furnish proof that he has attended at some uni¬ 
versity, college, or incorporated school of medicine or 
of pharmacy within her Majesty’s dominions, lec¬ 
tures on the following branches, viz. Chemistry, two 
courses, six months each; Materia Medica and 
Pharmacy, two courses, six months each; Botany, 
one course, three months.” At present, although 
tills curriculum has not been very strictly insisted 
on in individual cases, it is a legal barrier to the ex¬ 
amination of competent persons already in business 
or of young men arriving from abroad. In the de¬ 
bates on the College of Pharmacy Bill at Quebec, 
the representatives of the Medical Board urged with 
* See ‘ Pharmaceutical Movements,’ vol. ix. p. 9; Montreal 
C. A. vol. ix. p. 104; ‘ Pharmacy in Canada,’ vol. xi. p. 354. 
+ ‘ Canada Medical Journal,’ vol. vi. no. 11. 
J This term is generally adopted in America to denote a 
pharmacist, not a medical practitioner. 
Third Series, No. 2. 
great effect that many of the promoters of the Bill 
were persons who had neglected the existing regula¬ 
tions, and that the public had no proof of their com¬ 
petence ; this objection was really of the most tech¬ 
nical character, because the promoters were well 
known as leading members of the trade, both whole¬ 
sale and retail, and most of them had been many 
years in business. To meet it, however, several pre¬ 
sented themselves to the College Board at the next 
meeting, and applied for licences, but were informed 
that they must comply with the bye-law requiring 
attendance on lectures before the College could pro¬ 
ceed to their examination. The present powers are, 
therefore, unsatisfactory to all parties, and probably 
both the chemists and the College will apply for 
further legislation during the next session of Parlia¬ 
ment. Every such discussion tends to show how 
unsatisfactory is the attempt of the medical profes¬ 
sion to legislate for or to attempt to regulate Phar¬ 
macy. This, the most thoughtful of the profession 
have from time to time acknowledged; and the 
worthy editor of the ‘ Canada Medical Journal ’* sup¬ 
ports this view in the following graceful terms :— 
“ With regard to the apothecaries and druggists 
obtaining an Act of Incorporation, we most fully en¬ 
dorse the views held by the late talented editor of 
the * British American Medical Journal,’ viz. ‘ We 
have long thought that, considering their number, 
their respectability, and the specific objects of their 
pursuits, they should be specially endowed with 
powers peculiar to themselveswith this addition, 
that twenty-three years have more than quadrupled 
their number, and that the druggists and apotheca¬ 
ries of this part of the Dominion are, as a class, re¬ 
liable, trustworthy, and thoroughly conversant with 
the details of their profession.” ... a It is in every 
way desirable that they should be incorporated, nor 
can we see what just grounds can be urged against 
their having the management of their own affairs.” 
On the other hand, an unthinking majority of the 
profession desire simply to retain power, and effec¬ 
tually resist reform measures. 
In this respect, the French element is especially 
felt to be a great barrier to educational progress, 
being eminently conservative. 
The debate in Committee at Quebec on this Bill 
was the most exciting and impassioned that has been 
seen or heard there for years. Some of the doctors, 
members of the Assembly, simply ignored all that 
had been done in Great Britain and America during 
the past twenty years; refused to recognize the 
examination of the Pharmaceutical Society; and 
rested their arguments entirely upon their own ante¬ 
cedents and “vested interests;” and the question 
assumes the aspect of a battle of races, with a large 
French majority, or a pitched battle between Mont¬ 
real and Quebec, with French Canadians as um¬ 
pires. 
The French pharmaciens have generally complied 
with the law, but the English sturdily resisted it. 
In Quebec nearly all the druggists are licensed by 
the College, whilst in Montreal only four or five 
have complied with the law. The College has no 
penal clauses to enforce its laws, so that its powers 
may be set at defiance with impunity; but, upon the 
other hand, the unlicensed chemist has no power to 
recover a just debt, because he has placed himself 
ultra legem. 
* Dr. G. E. Fenwick, C. M. J. vol. vi. no. 11, p. 526. 
