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STATE  OF  PHARMACY  IN  GERMANY  AND  PRUSSIA. 
This  is  the  limitation  of  the  number  of  Pharmacies  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  legal  tariff  for  the  sale  of  medicines. 
The  consideration  of  this  petition  was  entrusted  by  M.  Dumas, 
then  minister  of  agriculture  and  commerce,  to  a  commission  con- 
sisting of  MM.  Soubeiran,  Boudet,  and  Bussy,  the  latter  of  whom, 
in  order  justly  to  appreciate  the  advantages  and  inconvenience  of 
the  system  desired,  has  undertaken  the  examination  of  its  practical 
working  in  the  several  German  states  were  it  has  existed  from  time 
immemorial.  On  account  of  the  interest  of  the  question  which  has 
thus  been  raised,  he  has  published  the  result  of  his  inquiry  and  the 
opinions  he  has  formed  of  the  different  systems  which  now  obtain 
in  France  and  Germany. 
The  medical  institutions  of  Germany  are  for  the  most  part 
modelled  after  those  of  Prussia.  In  the  free  towns  and  small  states 
which  do  not  possess  a  special  Pharmacopoeia,  that  of  Prussia  is 
invariably  adopted. 
This  circumstance  is  owing  not  merely  to  the  greater  territorial 
importance  of  Prussia  and  its  political  influence  over  the  smaller 
states,  but  is  in  a  great  measure  the  result  of  the  especial  care 
which  that  power  bestows  upon  every  subject  connected  with  the 
public  health. 
It  will,  therefore,  be  convenient  to  give  particular  attention  to 
the  institutions  of  that  country,  the  administration  and  political 
organization  of  which,  in  many  respects,  closely  resemble  that  of 
France. 
Medical  legislation  in  Prussia  is  centralized  under  the  manage- 
ment of  a  single  minister,  whose  supervision  extends  not  only  to 
Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  affairs,  but  likewise  to  everything 
connected  with  the  exercise  of  these  professions,  mid  wives,  dentists, 
veterinarians,  and  all  that  relates  to  public  medical  institutions. 
He  has  under  his  immediate  authority  a  superior  medical  council 
at  Berlin,  and  in  each  province  a  government  medical  adviser 
charged  with  the  administration  of  all  medical  affairs. 
Besides  the  government  medical  advisers  there  are  other  func- 
tionaries, who,  under  the  titles  of  <;  physicus "  and  "  kreis- 
physicus,"  are  charged  with  the  surveillance  of  medical  affairs 
in  towns  and  districts,  and  all  the  details  relative  to  the  execution 
of  the  special  laws  and  regulations  of  the  medical  professions. 
Questions  of  a  purely  scientific  nature  are  submitted  at  Berlin  to 
