Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
August,  1909.  j 
Coii} founding  and  Dispensing. 
375 
of  life,  as  that  of  pharmacy,  has  as  yet  received  legislative  recogni- 
tion in  but  a  very  few  States." 
About  that  time,  however,  questions  of  public  health  were  begin- 
ning to  claim  attention  in  this  country  and  it  has  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  this  generation  to  recognize  and  enforce  their  importance  in  the 
public  economy,  and  within  our  recollection  there  has  grown  up 
that  immense  body  of  laws  providing  for  public  health  and  safety 
and  held  to  be  constitutional  as  a  valid  exercise  of  what  is  termed 
"  police  power." 
In  1872  the  first  regulation  of  the  business  of  druggist  was 
attempted  in  this  State  and  its  operation  was  confined  to  the  City  of 
Philadelphia.  In  1887  this  regulation  was  enlarged  and  extended 
by  the  Act  of  Assembly  of  May  24  to  include1  the  State.  This  Act 
created  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Examining  Board  and  authorized 
it  to  exercise  supervision  over  the  pharmacists  of  this  State  in 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  said  Act.  Then  .it  may  be  said  the 
profession  of  pharmacy  was  established  in  Pennsylvania. 
The  enactments  first  considered  the  status  of  the  pharmacist  and 
aimed  to  restrict  the  profession  to  competent  and  qualified  persons, 
requiring  of  every  practitioner  that  he  obtain  a  certificate  of  com- 
petency and  qualification  from  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Examining 
Board,  and  prescribing  the  manner  of  obtaining  said  certificate  and 
distinguishing  between  the  qualified  assistant  and  the  registered 
manager.  The  Act  provided  certain  penalties  for  such  as  violated 
its  provisions.  Section  6  applied  to  any  person  engaging  as  manager 
without  having  obtained  such  certificate,  three  exceptions  being 
noted :  first,  the  practitioner  of  medicine  who  supplied  his  own 
patients  ;  second,  the  storekeeper  dealing  in  commonly  used  medi- 
cines and  poisons ;  and  third,  the  makers  and  dealers  in  patent  medi- 
cines. Section  8  provides  that  no  person  shall  be  allowed  by  the 
proprietor  or  manager  of  any  store  to  compound  or  dispense  the 
prescriptions  of  physicians  except  under  the  immediate  supervision 
of  said  proprietor  or  his  qualified  assistant,  unless  holding  a 
certificate. 
Having  thus  established  the  status  of  the  pharmacist,  the  legis- 
lature then  concerned  itself  with  the  regulation  of  his  business, 
respecting,  first,  the  sale  and  registry  of  poisons,  second,  the  quality 
and  purity  of  his  drugs.  The  development  of  the  second  of  these 
regulations,  viz.,  the  quality  and  purity  of  drugs,  has  been  most 
