THE AMENDED PHARMACY BILL, 1867 . 
671 
This is owing to the fact that the Government will allow no one whatever to 
deal in drugs, etc., without passing an examination before a medical board ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor. Any person, however, who can produce evidence 
of having passed the Minor or Major Examinations is exempt from such an 
ordeal. The “ medical board” expects the candidate to have a proficient know¬ 
ledge of Materia Medica, Pharmacy, Botany, and Chemistry, eic., and the ex¬ 
amination altogether is quite as stringent as the “ Minor.” 
Thus, all over the country, men that sell medicines are men who know the 
diflTerence between Epsom salts and oxalic acid; consequently fewer blunders 
(comparatively) are made here than in England. 
I am, Sir, yours, etc., 
Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. J. WiLKiNSON. 
A BILL TO REGULATE THE SALE OF POISONS AND 
ALTER AND AMEND THE PHARMACY ACT, 1852. 
Whereas it is expedient for the safety of the public that persons 
keeping 0 ])en shop for the retailing, dispensing, or compounding of 
poisons, or for the compounding the prescriptions of duly qualified 
medical practitioners, and commonly know n as Chemists and Drug¬ 
gists, should possess a competent practical know ledge of their busi¬ 
ness, and to that end, that from and after the day herein named all 
persons not already engaged in such business should, before com¬ 
mencing such business, be duly examined as to tiieir practical know¬ 
ledge, and that a register should be ke[)t as lierein provided, and 
also that the Act passed in the 15th and 16th years of the reign of 
her present Majesty, entitled An Act for Regulating the Qualifica¬ 
tion of Pharmaceutical Chemists, hereinafter described as the Phar¬ 
macy Act, should be amended: Be it enacted, by the Queen’s Most 
Excellent Majesty, by and wuth the advice and consent of the Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament 
assembled, and by authorit}^ of the same : 
1. From and alter the 31st day of December, 1867, it shall be Persons 
unlaw ful tor any person to keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, 
or compounding poisons, or for compounding the prescrijitions of pounding 
duly qualified medical practitioners, or to assume or use the title prescHp- 
“ Chemist and Druggist ” or Ciiemist or Druggist in any part of quaUiied!^ 
Great Britain unless such person shall be a Pharmaceutii'al Chemist, 
or a Chemist and Druggist within the meaning of this Act. 
2. The several Articles named or described in the Schedule A poisons 
shall be deemed to be poisons within the meaning of this Act, and "ithm the^ 
the Council of the Pnarmaceutical Society of Great Britain (herein- 
after referred to as the Pharmaceutical Society) may, from time to 
time, by resolution d dare that any article in such resolution named 
ought to be deemed a poison within the meaning of this Act; and 
thereupon the Registrar hereinafter named shall submit such reso¬ 
lution to the Medical Council, and if the Medical Council shall re¬ 
solve that such resolution ought to be confirmed, the said Registrar 
shall then submit the same for the approval of one of Her Majesty’s 
Principal Secretaries of State, and it such approval shall be given, 
then such resolution, confirmation, and approval shall be advertised 
in the ‘ London Gazette,’ and on the expiration of one month from 
such advertisement, the article named in such resolution shall be 
deemed to be a poison within the meaning of this Act. 
