599 
PHARMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION. 
with an accident in the Highlands which rendered it necessary that I should, hav 
a prescription dispensed, and I accordingly went to the village for that purpose. I 
went into a village shop or store there, and I inquired where I could have it made up, 
and I was directed to the Post-Office. I there found that the person who kept the 
Post-Office, and dispensed medicines, sold hobnailed shoes, hobnails, fiddles, and a 
variety of other things, and there was besides attached to the establishment a circulating 
library. (Hear, and laughter.) I said to the man, “Good heavens! why you seem to 
sell everything here, from hobnails to fiddles ; ” and that was really the case. The man, 
however, went into a back shop and got out certain compounds, made up the prescrip¬ 
tion, and 1 derived great benefit therefrom. (Laughter.) Now, you must leave a dis¬ 
cretionary matter in these things, because you cannot expect men of that class to submi 
to an examination, and it is for the interest of the public that that class of persons shall 
exist. (Hear, hear.) I therefore told the promoters of the Bill that unless some pro¬ 
vision was made for guaranteeing the existence of that class of persons I could not bring 
in the Bill; and I subsequently was informed by them that the honourable and learned 
gentleman had undertaken to take charge of it without qualification, and that he 
intended to ask the leave of the House to introduce it. We have now two Bills before 
us; one of them is promoted by the Pharmaceutical Society and the other by the United 
Society of Chemists and Druggists ; and, having looked over the latter Bill, I find that 
having objected to the Bill of the honourable and learned gentleman as not being suffi¬ 
ciently liberal, I find that the Bill of the honourable baronet, the Member for West¬ 
minster, is still more illiberal. All that the Bill of the honourable and learned gentleman 
professes to do is that these gentlemem shall be registered, and that they shall not be 
allowed to dispense medicines unless they are registered. The honourable baronet’s 
Bill, on the other hand, says that no man shall sell drugs of any description, whether 
poisonous or not, unless he shall be registered. 
Sir John Shelley. —No, that is not so. 
Lord Elcho. —I will read the words of the 14th Clause, which are as follows:— “All 
persons now keeping or who shall hereafter keep shop or store for the retailing of drugs, 
and all persons who shall be in any manner engaged in retailing or dispensing dangerous 
drugs.” I maintain that the class of persons I have referred to cannot be expected to be 
examined in any way, if this Bill is to have any effect in raising the standard of educa¬ 
tion, and, therefore, I maintain that the honourable baronet’s Bill is more illiberal than 
, than that of the honourable and learned gentleman’s opposite. Let us for one moment 
look at the two Societies by which these two Bills are brought in. The Pharmaceutical 
Society has existed ever since 1841. I have, within the last two hours, visited the hall 
belonging to that body, and I must say that I was immensely struck by all I saw there. 
The Society has a perfect library and museum, an admirable laboratory, and a great 
lecture-room. They are, in fact, an educational body, and I maintain, that if you are 
going to build a superstructure it is better to have a sound than an unsound foundation 
to build upon, and the foundation of the Pharmaceutical Society is so much better to 
build upon than that of the United Society of Chemists and Druggists, that it is on those 
grounds that I have come down prepared to support this Bill in preference to that brought 
in by the other Society. (Hear, hear.) Now what is the other Society ? (Hear, hear.) I 
have the Bye-rules of that Society, and I find from them that they are nothing more nor 
less than a Trading Society and a Benefit Society. (Hear.) The first rule is the es¬ 
tablishment of a benevolent fund for the assistance of the members in sickness, in desti¬ 
tution, or at death. They also promote the early closing movement, and they look after 
all questions for the especial benefit of the trade. They have no hall, no museum, no 
library, and all they have is a ten-shilling room where they occasionally meet; and they 
are nothing more or less than a trading body. They are nothing more than a Chemists 
and Druggists’ trading club, and no matter what are their members, they cannot be put 
on the same footing as the Pharmaceutical Society, which is an honour to the country, 
and upon which the late Jacob Bell, who was at one time a well-known member of this 
House, and who, I am sorry to say, died some years since, spent money in raising and 
endowing. It is evident from the feeling of the House, that it will not take the re¬ 
sponsibility of deciding the merits of these two bodies, (hear, hear,) and I am 
strongly of opinion that her Majesty’s Government instead of handing over, as is too 
much the fashion nowadays, the responsibility of the Government to a committee up¬ 
stairs who are to deal with the subject, that the Government should undertake all mea- 
