394 
PIIAllMACEUTICAL MEETING, EDINRUllGH. 
Then, on the other hand, pharmaceutists are themselves subject to certain regulations. 
It is the law that at Paris, Montpellier, and Strasbourg, where are situated the superior 
schools of medicine and pharmacy, two doctors and professors in the schools of medicine, 
accompanied by members of the schools of pharmacy, and assisted by a commissary of 
police, shall visit at least once a year the shops and warehouses of pharmaceutists and 
druggists, in order to test the quality of the drugs and medicines, simple and compound. 
The jurisdiction of this commission extends to a radius of ten leagues around the above- 
named places, and authority is given to enter all warehouses, shops, and manufactories, 
whether recognized or illegal. The magistrates are required to prepare an official report 
of their visits, so that in the event of any infraction of the law the delinquent may be 
proceeded against. In other parts of the country these visits were formerly made by a 
board of medical examiners, associated with four pharmaceutists; but by an Imperial 
decree, dated 3rd March, 1859, the duty of inspection in the country districts w^as trans¬ 
ferred from that commission to the Board of Health, three members of which still make 
the annual inspection. The superior schools of Paris, ]\Iontpellier, and Strasbourg, how¬ 
ever, still continue to make the visits to their districts as formerly. 
Again, pharmaceutists may not sell any secret remedy. They are required to conform 
—respecting the preparations and compositions which they are expected to keep in their 
shops—to the formulae inserted and described in the ‘ Codex Medicamentarius.’ They 
are not allowed to conduct in the same locality or shop any other trade than that relat¬ 
ing to drugs or medicinal preparations. No pharmaceutical preparation or other remedy 
can be patented, nor can any secret remedy legally be sold; but any new remedies 
which have been recognized by the Academy of Medicine, the formula) for the prepara¬ 
tion of which has been approved by the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Com¬ 
merce, with the sanction of the inventors or proprietors, cease to be considered in the 
light of secret medicines, and may be sold by pharmaceutists, although the formula! be 
not yet in the Codex. 
Adulterations of medicines, as well as of articles of diet, false weights, and false 
measures, are severely punished by the Code Penal. 
Let me add but a few sentences with reference to the education of pharmaceutists, for 
this may not be without interest to some of my younger hearers, and I think it will 
serve to reconcile them to the prospect of a little compulsory education and examination. 
In France, in order to be received into the community of pharmaceutists, candidates 
must not be less than twenty-five years of age; they must give evidence not only of 
having passed through the curriculum of professional study, but also that they have 
obtained the degree of Bachelor of Sciences, and at their examinations they must be 
approved by at least two-thirds of the Board. Having accomplished this, the newly- 
made pharmaceutist receives from the School of Pharmacy, or from the Board of 
Examiners, a diploma, which he has to present to the Prefet de Police if at Paris, or if 
in any other town to the Prefet de Departement, before whom he takes the oath of pro¬ 
bity and fidelity in the exercise of his art. The Prefet then returns to him his diploma, 
and along with it a copy of the register of the oath. No person can obtain a licence to 
exercise the profession of a pharmaceutist, to open an apothecary’s shop, to prepare, sell, 
or traffic in drugs, who has not fulfilled the prescribed laws and been regularly admitted 
by one of the schools of pharmacy, or by a board of examiners. According to a decree 
dated August, 1854, every candidate for the title of Pharmaceutist of the First Class must 
produce evidence of three years’ study at one of the three superior schools of pharmacy, 
and also of three years’ pupilage in a shop, except in the cases of those who have kept 
ten terms at a preparatory school of medicine and pharmacy, when one year at a supe¬ 
rior school of pharmacy will be accepted. Candidates for the title of Jirst-class phar¬ 
maceutists are not allowed to keep their first terra, whether at a preparatory or superior 
school, until they have obtained the degree of Bachelor in Science. The fees exigible 
in the superior schools of pharmacy for the title of pharmaceutist of the first class are 
fixed as follows:— 
Terms (12 to 30 francs each) . ..3G0 francs. 
Practical operations during three years, at 100 francs each year . 3C0 „ 
Five half-yearly examinations (30 francs each).150 „ 
The two first examinations at the end of studies at 60 francs each . 120 ,, 
The third examination at the end of studies. 200 
