PHARMACY  IN  GERMANY  AND  PRUSSIA. 
441 
habits  acquired  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  legislation 
relating  to  pharmacy. 
It  is  very  easy  to  perceive  that  a  similar  limitation  with  such 
a  reserved  power  in  the  hands  of  the  government,  would,  when 
adopted  in  a  country  governed  by  such  principles  of  liberty  as 
obtain  in  France,  neither  be  attended  with  the  dangers  which  are 
feared,  nor  with  all  the  advantages  which  might  be  anticipated 
from  it,  for  it  would  in  reality  be  almost  equivalent  to  a  state  of 
absolute  liberty. 
It  would  indeed  be  very  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible,  that 
any  government  left  to  its  own  free  exercise,  without  any  pre- 
cise course  of  action  laid  down  beforehand,  without  any  admi- 
nistrative traditions  with  regard  to  the  matter,  could  long 
offer  any  resistance  to  the  solicitations  of  those  who  might  de- 
mand the  establishment  of  new  pharmacies,  or  to  the  pressure  of 
opinion,  always  disposed  in  France  to  the  view  that  the  public  is 
interested  in  the  extension  of  professions,  and  in  competition 
between  those  who  belong  to  them.  In  order  that  the  limitation 
of  the  number  of  pharmacies  in  France  should  be  attended  with 
any  serious  results,  especially  if  it  was  accompanied  by  the  appli- 
cation of  a  tariff,  it  would  be  absolutely  necessary  not  to  leave 
the  matter,  as  in  Prussia,  to  the  decision  of  an  administrative 
body,  but  that  the  law  itself  should  lay  down,  in  a  precise  man- 
ner, the  conditions  of  such  limitation. 
In  regard  to  all  points  which  do  not  directly  relate  to  the 
limitation  and  the  tariff,  the  provisions  of  the  French  and 
Prussian  legislation  differ  but  slightly.  They  both  tend  to  the 
same  object,  and  almost  always  by  the  same  means.  There  is, 
however,  a  fundamental  difference  in  the  mode  of  their  applica- 
tion ;  for,  according  to  the  Prussian  system,  the  supervision 
being  more  complete,  more  constant,  more  comprehensively 
organized,  the  power  of  the  administration  being  better  estab- 
lished and  more  extended,  it  is  possible  to  prevent  the  commission 
of  many  offences  which  it  is  necessary  in  France  to  refer  to  the 
legal  tribunals. 
But  by  instituting  a  legal  prosecution  against  a  pharmaceutist 
a  severe  blow  is  given  to  his  reputation,  and  recourse  cannot  be 
had  to  such  an  extremity  without  some  very  efficient  grounds ; 
consequently,  many  circumstances  which  are  not  without  some 
