Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
August,  1910.  f 
Michael  Carteighe. 
389 
that  every  person  who  dispensed  poisons  should  be  qualified  and 
registered  and  then  immediately  set  to  work  to  undo  that  by  saying 
that,  in  the  event  of  the  death  of  a  registered  person,  the  qualification 
which  was  vested  in  his  person  should  pass  to  executors,  or  his 
widow  and  children,  provided  a  registered  assistant  were  kept.  The 
report  of  Mr.  Carteighe's  remarks  on  that  occasion  was  as  follows : 
"  The  insertion  of  that  clause  was  a  grave  mistake.  He  and  another 
member  of  the  Council  tried  to  exclude  it  from  the  draft  Bill,  but 
were  unsuccessful.  The  Bill  created  on  the  one  hand  a  sort  of 
statutory  professional  title,  which  was  to  be  purely  personal  in  its 
character,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  tacked  on  to  it  something  which 
simply  applied  to  the  conduct  of  a  mere  business  which  went  like 
machinery.  If  chemists  and  druggists  really  believed  that  it  was 
right  and  proper  that  their  widows,  administrators,  or  executors 
should  have  power  to  carry  on  business  in  the  way  now  provided,  it 
was  hopeless  and  illogical  to  ask  any  legislature  to  deal  with  com- 
pany traders." 
By  a  singular  coincidence  the  year  in  which  Mr.  Carteighe  re- 
turned to  the  Council  was  the  memorable  year  in  which  the  House 
of  Lords  judgment  confirmed  the  view  which  he  had  unsuccessfully 
endeavored  to  impress  upon  his  colleagues  in  the  years  immediately 
preceding  the  legislation  of  1868 — to  wit,  that  the  position  of  chem- 
ists and  druggists  would  be  assailable  always  as  long  as  the  Widow's 
Clause  remained.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  natural  to  assume 
that  Mr.  Carteighe  and  his  colleagues  realized  that  the  duty  of  the 
Society  lay  in  the  direction  of  removing  the  anomaly  thus  revealed. 
Several  methods  of  obtaining  this  end  suggested  themselves.  In  the 
first  place,  there  was  the  legislative  method,  and  shortly  after  the 
decision  the  Council  drafted  a  Bill  to  amend  the  Pharmacy  Act  of 
1868.  The  Bill,  commonly  known  as  the  "  Omnibus  Bill,"  contained 
sixteen  clauses,  one  of  which  would  have  limited  the  period  during 
which  executors  or  trustees  could  carry  on  the  business  of  a  deceased 
chemist.  The  Bill  would  also  have  restricted  the  compounding  of 
medical  prescriptions  to  registered  chemists,  and  have  made  em- 
ployers liable  for  the  acts  of  their  assistants ;  while  it  was  proposed 
that  all  duly  registered  persons  should  be  exempted  from  serving 
on  juries  and  inquests.  It  also  provided  that  "  in  Section  12  of  the 
Pharmacy  Act,  1852,  and  also  in  Section  15  of  the  Pharmacy  Act, 
1868,  the  word  '  person  '  shall  include  corporate  bodies."    This  Bill 
