PUBLIC OPINION ON THE TWO BILLS. 
(307 
qualification for a chemist and druggist, does not appear to contemplate an extravagantly 
high standard. In several Continental countries the ordinary drug-dispenser would pass 
such an examination without difficulty. There would still be nothing to prevent any¬ 
body from putting blue and red bottles in a window, or to restrain the sale of drugs, 
either simple or compounded ; but the use of the designations ‘Pharmaceutical Chemist,’ 
or ‘ Chemist and Druggist,’ or 4 Chemist,’ or ‘ Druggist,’ by unqualified persons, would 
be prohibited ; and if people chose to trust unqualified persons in matters affecting health, 
they must be left to take the consequences. This, at any rate, is the conclusion of the 
clients of Sir Fitzroy Kelly, who propose only to prohibit ‘ carrying on the business of a 
chemist and druggist in the keeping of open shop for the compounding of the prescrip¬ 
tions of duly-qualified medical practitioners,’ as well as the use of the titles above 
enumerated, by persons who shall not be duly registered. 
“ It is urged by the opponents of the Pharmaceutical Society that their proposal is 
better adapted for large towns than for small and secluded villages. Lord Elcho told the 
House of Commons that, having occasion to get a prescription made up, he had to go to 
the post-office of a village, which he found to be a store for the sale of almost every 
article, from fiddles to hobnails. But if a village cannot support a pharmaceutical 
chemist, it usually does support, although in a poor and mean way, a doctor, as he would 
be called, who is probably both surgeon and apothecary; and no doubt such a doctor 
would consent, on an emergency, to make up a prescription of another doctor practising 
in a more conspicuous sphere. It may be that the far-shooting Apollo, having some 
family" influence over pharmacy, took Lord Elcho under his special care, but it would 
probably be imprudent in ordinary people to have their prescriptions made up at a 
village post-office. It would, at any rate, be hard that large towns should not have pro¬ 
tection because small villages cannot afford to pay for it. There is an almost immeasur¬ 
able distance between Professor Faraday and a shopkeeper who displays coloured 
bottles on one side of his door and grocery on the other, and yet both are called chemists. 
It may be that the heads of the Pharmaceutical Society belong rather to the class of 
the professor than to that of the country shopkeeper, and it is possible that, if they were 
uncontrolled, they would fix the standard of examination higher than would be suitable 
to the wants and duties of that numerous body of persons who, although Sir John 
Shelley’s Bill makes them gentlemen, would not object to be called tradesmen. But it 
would be easy to correct this tendency, if it exists, by infusing a little common sense 
into the proceedings of a body which possibly sets too high a value upon science. There 
can, however, be little doubt that the Pharmaceutical Society, whose examinations are 
satisfactory to the medical profession, and are the only recognized examinations for army 
dispensers, will satisfy the Select Committee that it deserves an increased amount of 
public confidence. Whatever be the means employed, it is to be hoped that Parliament 
will ensure the competency of persons keeping open shops for dispensing medicines and 
compounding prescriptions.” 
From the 1 Scotsman? April %fh. 
“ Men busy themselves often the least with that with which they have the closest 
connection; or they busy themselves only with it in part, forgetful that the arrange¬ 
ment which is not complete everywhere is complete nowhere. Thus the Legislature has 
recently given us, by means of a register recording the names of all duly authorized for 
medical practice, the opportunity of ascertaining the identity and qualifications of those 
whose momentous duty it is to bestow that guidance and aid in times of sickness and 
suffering, which few are inclined to slight, unless when the need of them can be contem¬ 
plated at a distance. But the ablest of medical practitioners is no unfettered autocrat, 
who has but to direct wisely in order to have his injunctions fulfilled faithfully and 
successfully. In addition to the docility of the patient, and the assiduity of the nurse, 
he must have, what is most to the present purpose, the skill and care of the compounder 
and dispenser of medicines to sustain him in his efforts, otherwise his best-devised plans 
may prove but a source of failure, in the worst of forms of deception and disappoint¬ 
ment, to himself and to his charge. And yet the public, however lavish its faith, and 
whatever the real merit of individual exceptions, has no existing guarantee that the 
larger portion of those who assume the function of the compounder of medicines, or of 
chemist and druggist, as they generally prefer to style themselves, may not be so 
thoroughly ignorant of chemistry, and of the characters and qualities of druns, as to 
