602 
REPORT OP MEDICAL COUNCIL ON THE PHARMACY BILL. 
Chemists; to prohibit the use of certain pharmaceutic titles by persons not on the 
Register; to confine to those registered the privilege of executing the prescriptions of 
medical practitioners, subject to the provisions hereinafter named; but not to restrict 
the sale of medicines asked for in any other manner. 
The Committee desire to bring before the Council certain defects which it appears to 
them necessary to correct before the Bill becomes law. 
1. The Bill should be altered so as to apply to Ireland, as well as to England and 
Scotland. They are not aware that any state of things exists in Ireland to render the 
regulation of pharmacy by the State less necessary there than in Britain. 
2. The Committee are of opinion that a clause should be inserted in any Pharmacy 
Bill, rendering it imperative on chemists and druggists to follow, in compounding pre¬ 
scriptions, the formularies of the British Pharmacopoeia, unless otherwise directed by the 
prescriber. 
3. The Committee consider that the promoters of the Bill, probably from a desire to 
disarm opposition, propose to admit, on too easy terms, into their Society, practising 
chemists and druggists not now belonging to it. The proposal is to admit all who offer 
themselves for examination, or who produce a certificate from a qualified medical prac¬ 
titioner that they have been in the practice of dispensing medicines from the prescrip¬ 
tions of medical men before January 1, 1866. The latter alternative implies a facility 
of entrance which will be apt to lead to abuse. The Committee are of opinion that more 
satisfactory evidence of qualification should be required. 
4. The last important defect in the Bill which the Committee have to notice is, that 
no adequate provision has been made towards preventing registered Pharmaceutic 
Chemists from converting themselves into unqualified medical practitioners. 
Looking to the history of medical practice in this country, the Committee see great 
danger to the interests of the public and of the medical profession from the body which 
will be constituted by the Bill, should it become an Act in its present shape. The General 
Medical Council, in carrying out the objects of the Medical Act, have raised, and, it is 
hoped, may further raise, the qualifications of legally-qualified medical practitioners. 
But their labours will be in vain, should the creation of a new race of unqualified prac¬ 
titioners be inadvertently encouraged by an Act of Parliament. It is well known that 
many existing chemists and druggists, both members of the Pharmaceutical Society and 
others, practise medicine, although unqualified by law and not competent by education. 
To a limited extent this practice may be inevitable, and, at all events, cannot be pre¬ 
vented. But the existence of it gives peculiar facilities and temptations to the Pharma¬ 
ceutic Chemist to embark largely in irregular medical practice as an unqualified 
practitioner. 
The Committee have considered whether the danger here indicated might not be 
averted by extending the jurisdiction of the General Medical Council, so as to include 
control over Pharmaceutic Chemists as well as over practitioners in medicine. But they 
believe that such a plan is at present attended with difficulties. 
By Clause 55 of the Medical Act, chemists and druggists are expressly exempted from 
the provisions of the Act, so far as the ‘‘selling, compounding, and dispensing medicines” 
is concerned. Nor is there any provision in the Act which gives the Medical Council 
any greater power to prevent chemists and druggists from practising medicine, also, than 
the Act enables the Council to exercise over all other unqualified medical practitioners. 
It is plain, therefore, that the Act did not contemplate the exercise by the Medical 
Council of any control over chemists and druggists ; and the Committee consider that it 
would be unwise to seek to alter the existing relations between the Medical Council and 
chemists and druggists. 
The Committee have further considered whether the danger they have pointed out 
might be averted by some simple provision in the Pharmacy Bill. By Section 17 of 
the Bill of the Pharmaceutical Society, it is declared that— 
“Nothing in this Act contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to lessen or 
prejudice, or in any wise to interfere with, any of the rights, privileges and immunities 
heretofore vested in, and exercised and enjoyed by any duly qualified medical practi¬ 
tioner.” 
This clause sufficiently protects medical practitioners in such right of practising 
pharmacy as they have hitherto enjoyed, but it does not attempt to prevent Pharma¬ 
ceutic Chemists from practising medicine. Considering their peculiar temptations to 
