Report from the Select Committee on Pharmacy bill : together with the proceedings, minutes of evidence and index.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Pharmacy Bill.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Pharmacy bill : together with the proceedings, minutes of evidence and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    R Roilon, Esq., it. r. e. 27 April 1852. his customers will not be in the slightest degree affected by the Bill, will they ? No, if he is allowed still to keep open his shop as heretofore. 1991. But he is not to be allowed to put up the words pharmaceutical chemist ? —Undoubtedly not; I would visit his doing so with high penalties. 1992. Chairman.] Then on the subject of penalties there is very little if any difference between us ?—I am glad to hear you say so. 1993. And on the subject of the Board of Examiners the only difference appears to be as to the jurisdiction; you have heard it stated that the Board of Examiners would not object to the attendance of any medical practitioner on behalf of the col- lege, but the Board require that the corporation should retain its jurisdiction over its own body?—We do not wish to mix ourselves up with the powers of the Phar- maceutical Society, further than that we would wish if an individual is sent to the examining Board from the College of Physicians, the college should nominate the individual and not the Pharmaceutical Society ; that is the whole point ; further than that we have no wish to interfere, in the remotest degree, with the Phar- maceutical Society. 1994. There is another objection which you raise to the third clause, permitting voting by proxy ; you have heard, I believe, that that clause has been altered ?— I have heard that it has been altered very much to my satisfaction. 199.5. Altered in such a way that every member of the society is to have a paper transmitted to him, which he will send back to the secretary, containing his vote ?—Just so. 1996. So that each member shall have the privilege of voting?—That is a decided improvement, I think. 1997. There are heavy penalties against fraudulently obtaining a certificate, are there not?—Yes; hut I think that that penalty is a great deal too small. I would make it very large.; a man who could be guilty of such an act of fraud as that I should fine very severely. 1998. Have you any other suggestion which you would wish to make to the Commiltee?—No, nothing else occurs tome; the objections which 1 had have been in many respects explained, and obviated. Alexander Wood, Esq. m.d., called in; and Examined. A. Wood, Esq., 1999. Sir W. G. Craig.] YOU are a Physician in Edinburgh ?—Yes. M- D* 2000. Are you Secretary to the College of Physicians ?—I am. 2001. And do you lecture on the practice of medicine ?—I do. 2002. Are you of opinion that chemists and druggists at present are not suffi- ciently educated ?—I think so, decidedly. 2003. Are you aware of the course of education which has been introduced by the Pharmaceutical Society ?—Yes, I have paid some attention to it. 2004. Do you think that that course is a judicious one, and likely to be of use ? —I think it would improve the character of the pharmaceutical chemists who availed themselves of it to a considerable extent. 2005. Will you state generally your opinion with regard to this Bill, as to whether you think it would effect the objects contemplated?—I have some doubt whether the Bill would effect the objects intended by it; for this reason, that I think the course of education required would add to the expense which a man wishing to start as a druggist would require; and I think that in the smaller towns of Scotland there is not sufficient encouragement for a man to lay out more in education than he at present does; and that, in consequence of that, many of those who are tolerably well qualified at present, would shut their shops, as they could not register themselves as pharmaceutical chemists, and their place would be taken by an inferior class; I believe it would improve the character of chemists in larger towns very considerably where there is less need of that improvement. 2006. Do you think that the public is tolerably well supplied with drugs under the existing system?—I think the great injury that is done to the public is more by fraud than by ignorance, and I think that fact is brought out by a report of a Committee of the College of Physicians, who examined into the state of the drugs which were offered for sale in various of the chemists’ and druggists’ shops. The report of that Committee, I think, showed that there was more adulteration in order that the chemists might he enabled to sell medicine at a cheap rate than from igno- rance ; for example, in the case of laudanum, which ought, by the Pharmacopoeia, to
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