APOTHECARIES COMPANY V. GREENOUGH. 
323 
are confident that (even if an action had been brought, which 
is very unlikely,) a different verdict would have been re- 
turned. 
We, therefore, think the case of Mr. Greenough cannot be 
considered a precedent which affects materially, if at all, the 
interests of chemists and druggists in general. 
The Editor of the Lancet expresses the opinion (i that r it 
was the intention of the Legislature, when the act (of 1815) 
was passed, that the new statute should not in any way affect 
chemists and druggists, either in prescribing or otherwise f 
and the law having been thus interpreted from that time to 
the present, we consider that its authority is in no degree im- 
paired by the verdict of a jury in a case of no ordinary intri- 
cacy, which is not applicable to chemists in general. 
But seeing that druggists have this latitude conceded to 
them, it is incumbent upon them to be especially circumspect 
in the exercise of the power they possess. Those who avail 
themselves of a discretionary privilege to the utmost possible 
extent in violation of the dictates of propriety, bring discredit 
and injury on the body to which they belong, and afford a 
pretext for the imposition of restrictions. By acting with 
becoming moderation and prudence, and proving that we are 
worthy of the confidence implied in the privileges granted to 
us, we shall most effectually serve our own interest and dis- 
arm the power of extraneous opposition. 
The question is not — Whether druggists ought to be in- 
vested with all the authority of Medical Practitioners ? This 
we never pretended to claim, as it would nullify the fundamen- 
tal laws which regulate the profession. The definition of the 
term chemist and druggist in the by-laws of the Society, is 
"a person who has been regularly apprenticed to, or educated 
by a vender of drugs or dispenser of medicines, and who does 
not profess to act as a visiting Apothecary or Surgeon." In 
this definition, medical practice is alluded to, merely for the 
purpose of distinguishing the chemist and druggist from the 
Apothecary. Yet it is necessary that druggists should be al- 
lowed to explain the nature and uses of the substances which 
