PHARMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION. 
593 
learned friend, it provides that no person shall make lip any prescription unless he shall 
have previously gone through these examinations, (hear, hear.) conducted under the 
supervision of the council of the Pharmaceutical Society. Now the House will agree that 
it is a great pity that this great and important subject, most important to every person 
in the kingdom and to everybody’s home,—I say it is a great pity that this great subject 
should be a bone of contention between these two large and respectable Societies. (Hear, 
hear.) I think it would have been better that these two Societies should have come 
together, and have agreed upon a scheme which should not have affected free trade. 
These Societies ought to have mutually agreed upon the principles of a Bill which should 
not have interfered with the freedom of trade, but which at the same time should give the 
public at large that protection which is absolutely necessary in regard to the sale of 
poisonous drugs. The United Society of Chemists and Druggists—the larger Society— 
have, so far as that Society is concerned, made certain advances to the Pharmaceutical 
Society to that end, and in that respect that Society have placed themselves right in that 
point of view. And, in the hope of promoting harmony between the whole body of 
Chemists and Druggists, they suggested in the interests of the people, who are more 
particularly concerned, that there should be one general measure which might meet with 
and be introduced in this House under the sanction of all parties. (Hear, hear.) I 
think that this would have been a better course for the great Pharmaceutical Society to 
have followed. (Hear, hear.) It might have prevented many disputes between the two 
Societies. The suggestion was however rejected by the Pharmaceutical Society, and the 
House will see that, so far as the natural interests of the United Society are concerned, 
they have been driven to bring in a Bill of their own. As the Pharmaceutical Society 
would not recognize the appeal made to them, no one will deny that the United Society 
have taken the proper course. The House will see that the Pharmaceutical Society not 
only would not recognize the larger Society, but they wished to force the United Society 
to come into Parliament under the shadow of their wings. The Secretary of the United 
Society wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society in the month of 
February, 18GI, suggesting that the secretaries of the different branches of the United 
Society in various parts of the country should meet together and make some overtures in 
reference to the important and difficult subject under consideration, and it was also 
suggested that some general arrangements should be made. The letter which was written 
stated in effect, that the Council of the United Society had received several communi¬ 
cations from the different district committees, in which were contained resolutions strongly 
recommending them, and pointing out the desirability of a co-operation with the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society with reference to the proposed new Medical Bill. The letter further 
stated that the matter had been taken into consideration, and that the Council of the United 
Society were deeply impressed with the importance of the results which would follow 
from acting together in a cordial and friendly spirit, with a view of obtaining an Act of 
Parliament for the extension of the Pharmacy Act of 1852, and which should recognize 
all existing interests, and which should provide a full and fair representation of the trade. 
In that respect my honourable and learned friend’s Bill and my own do not agree, because 
it appears to me that my honourable and learned friend’s Bill does not provide for a fair 
representation of the trade at large, for the Pharmaceutical Society proposes to regulate 
the trade under their system of examinations and to receive certain fees, and that Society 
do not propose to regulate the trade unless the members of it become members of their 
Society. The letter further suggested the consideration, or expediency, of ascertaining an 
inexpensive mode of examination. Now, upon that point, it is necessary to observe that 
under the system carried on by the Pharmaceutical Society the charge for the examina¬ 
tions, if I have made the account out correctly, amounts to something like the sum of 
ten guineas. Now, I think that this is a sum which is much too large tor persons to 
pay for being allowed to sell medicines, and to make up physicians’ prescriptions, and to 
sell domestic articles ; I think that such a sum should not be required. (Hear, hear.) 
But, in addition to that sum, there will be the expense of coming up to London from all 
parts of the country for the purpose of undergoing the examinations prescribed by the 
Pharmaceutical Society. It has been represented to me that the expenses necessarily 
attendant on such a course of examination, and in residing in London for that purpose, 
will not be less than thirty or forty guineas more. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, I say, that 
the Pharmaceutical Society ought not to require an examination of such an expensive 
sort, and which will put it out of the power of many persons to undergo. It was sug- 
