REVIEW OF THE FRENCH CODEX. 
393 
it is to be remembered that laws and regulations which look severe upon paper, and 
sound harshly when their technical verbiage is grated upon the ears of those whom they 
are to affect, are not necessarily of a character to be practically intolerable. Laws are 
to be viewed in two aspects, in their spirit and in their letter. There are, perhaps, few 
laws which could not be made actually cruel, if rigidly and offensively enforced, by 
persons constantly and repulsively seeking an occasion; but the object of all good 
government is not to annoy the good, but to terrify the bad, and it is more than possible 
that what, in the letter of the French regulations, may seem to be a little stringent, and 
to savour somewhat of bureaucracy, may in the spirit of their administration be very 
inoffensive. Moreover, a form of legislation which is quite in accordance with the habits 
of one country may not be adapted to the people of another, so that what may appear 
to you to be unnecessary restraint, may possibly be accepted by the French without a 
murmur. One thing is certain, that no government will grant protection to any class 
of its people without assuring themselves that by affording privileges to that they are 
not prejudicing the interests of others. If you get, you must give also; if you seek 
monopoly, you must grant security. 
The Society will probably be aware that in France there are three principal or superior 
schools of pharmacy, namely, at Paris, Montpellier, and Strasbourg, w'here are also 
situated the three large medical schools, and that besides these there are many minor or 
preparatory schools of medicine and pharmacy. These schools were established by the 
Loi du 21 Germinal, an XL, that is, in April, 1803, during the first French Eepublic, and 
at that time they received certain powers, and were endowed with certain functions 
which they yet retain. They have the power to receive pupils destined to the practice 
of pharmacy in France, and to examine them, and they are charged with the duties of 
teaching the principles of pharmacy by public lectures, of watching over its piacbice 
throughout the country, of denouncing abuses to the authorities, and of extending its 
investigations. 
The pharmacien is protected in his calling; for, by a declaration of the King, bearing 
date 27th April, 1777, grocers and all other persons are prohibited from the manufacture, 
sale, or traffic in any salts, compounds, or preparations entering into the human body in 
the form of medicine, and from making any mixture of simple drugs to be administered 
in the form of medicine, under the penalty of five hundred livres (about £25). More¬ 
over, by another article of the same decree, it was forbidden to every association, 
whether secular or clerical, even to hospitals and to mendicant orders, to have an 
apothecary’s shop, except for their own internal service; they were prohibited from 
trafficking in drugs, whether simple or compound, under a penalty of five hundred livres. 
Officers of health, however, in situations where there is no pharmaceutist having an 
open shop, may, notwithstanding the above decretal, supply medicines, simple or com¬ 
pound, to persons requiring their aid ; but they may not keep an open shop. 
Wholesale druggists are not allowed to compete with pharmaceutists; for it is decreed 
that grocers and druggists may not sell any pharmaceutical composition or preparation, 
under a penalty of five hundred francs. They may continue a wholesale trade in simple 
drugs, but they arc not allowed to retail them in medicinal quantities. Any sale in 
medicinal quantities, any exposure of drugs and medicinal preparations on stalls, in 
public places, fairs, and markets, any announcement or printed advertisement indicating, 
secret remedies, under whatever denomination they may be presented, is strictly for¬ 
bidden. Whoever renders himself culpable of this misdemeanour is liable to prosecution 
by the police, and to be punished conformably to Article LXXXIII. of the Code. The 
punishment which attends an infraction of this Article (XXXVI.), according to the Loi 
du 29 Pluviose, an XIII., is a fine varying from twenty-five to six hundred livres, and, 
in case of a repetition of the offence, an imprisonment of from three to ten days. 
No person may even deal in indigenous medicinal plants, or parts of plants, fresh or 
dried, nor exercise the profession of herbalist, unless he have previously satisfied a school 
of pharmacy, or a board of examiners, that he is accurately acquainted with the cha¬ 
racters of such plants. 
In order that there may be no doubt in the public mind as to the persons who are 
legally entitled to dispense medicines, the Prefets are required to print and post up each 
year a list of the pharmaceutists established in the different towns of their departments. 
These lists contain the Christian and surname of the pharmaceutists, the dates of tlicir 
diplomas, and their places of residence. 
VOL. VIII. 2 D 
