4 9 G 
THE TWO BILLS FOB REGULATING 
title indicating that he is qualified for the higher duties of pharmacy. The 
dispensing of physicians’ prescriptions is considered to be a higher duty, re¬ 
quiring a qualification that ought to be tested by examination, and no one 
will therefore be allowed, in future, to enter upon this duty without a certi¬ 
ficate of qualification. 
A register of qualified medical practitioners has already been established, 
so that the public may be able to distinguish between the regularly educated 
and examined man, and the mere pretender. 
The Bill of Sir Fitzroy Kelly aims at the establishment of a similar 
register of qualified dispensers, to whom the responsible duty of acting as 
agents between physicians and their patients may be safely entrusted. The 
legally qualified medical practitioner would thus have some guarantee for 
the exercise of the knowledge and skill required for carrying out his in¬ 
structions, and the public would be protected against accidents arising from 
ignorance. 
There are some points connected with the sale of dangerous drugs which 
would be left for subsequent legislation, but the provisions of this Bill would 
greatly facilitate the attainment of what is required in that direction. 
The Chemists and Druggists Bill Ho. 2, which has been introduced by 
Sir John Shelley, is a far more sweeping measure than the one to which we 
have just alluded. It emanates from the United Society of Chemists and 
Druggists ; but as this body has been but imperfectly organized, and is wholly 
deficient in the arrangements for conducting examinations and otherwise 
realizing objects which are contemplated by the Bill, it would be necessary to 
create a corporate body for that purpose. There was the Pharmaceutical 
Society, it is true, with all the mechanism that was required, in full, active, 
and vigorous operation, but of course it would not have answered the purpose 
of the originators of the measure to seek assistance in that quarter ; so they 
propose the appointment by the Government, of a Lord High Commissioner 
with power to summon all the Chemists and Druggists in England and Wales 
by public advertisement, and those answering to the summons, without any 
further question, are to be assumed to be the Chemists and Druggists of 
England and Wales,—just as the individuals of all ages, both sexes, and 
various occupations, including Crosse and Blackwell the picklemongers, 
Bowerbank the distiller, Bowles the printer, Howlett the cabinetmaker, 
Rimmel the perfumer, Howland’s Macassar Oil, Brett’s Brandy, Harper 
Twelvetrees’s Washing Powder, Lady Clifton, Mrs. D’Aubney, Miss Totten¬ 
ham, etc., have been similarly represented, to swell out a list of members by 
the Society from which the proposition emanates. These assembled so-called 
Chemists are to elect a President and Vice-President, and a Council of twenty- 
one Members,—the Commissioner, however, with the Secretary of State, having 
the power, if they are dissatisfied with the proceedings, of annulling them and 
ordering a new election, and of repeating this for an unlimited number of times 
—a very necessary provision under the circumstances. Then the body thus in¬ 
corporated, which would be distinct from, and wholly unconnected with the 
Pharmaceutical Society, w r ould have to appoint a Registrar and have a 
Register made of all Chemists and Druggists not connected with the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, over which body they would have no control whatever. 
There would thus be two Societies having similar objects, and two separate 
registers prepared by different registrars and kept in different places, but 
both containing the names of men engaged in the same occupation, although 
assuming different titles. There would be the Register of Pharmaceutical 
Chemists, kept by the Registrar of the Pharmaceutical Society, already com¬ 
prising the names of more than one-third of all the Chemists and Druggists 
in England and Wales, and representing probably two-thirds of the legitimate 
