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
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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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    lative measure that may be passed should be so comprehensive as to prevent the J.R.Cormack,Esq., evils which now exist in the medical profession on the one hand, and in the phar- N,D* maceutical profession on the other. 2410. Do you not think it a great step in the right direction, the compelling 29 Apnl ,852- chemists and druggists to undergo an examination and receive a certificate?—Yes; but that does not apply to the other question. This Bill would unjustly exalt the pharmaceutical profession at the expense of others. 2411. Have you any other matter which you wish to state to the Committee? —I should not like of course to commit myself to the details of a measure which I cannot be supposed thoroughly to understand. But I think the Bill might be very much improved if there were some provisions introduced into it as to the sale of dangerous medicines and the dispensing of prescriptions which contain danger- ous quantities of medicines. Such a provision as this exists, for example, on the Continent; if a physician prescribes prussic acid or some formidable medi- cine, the whole mixture may contain what is a poisonous dose, although each dose mav not be poisonous; it is requisite, in such a case, that the date of the prescrip- tion be recent, within a certain number of hours, otherwise it cannot be dispensed. But in this country such a prescription is made up repeatedly without the phy- sician’s sanction, and a course of medicine is often applied to other uses besides that for which it was originally intended. I should think that a variety of such points might be introduced into the Bill with advantage to the public. 2412. Chairman.] Do you not think that by elevating the character and intelli- gence of the chemists and druggists they would be more able to consider the best method of introducing these additional reforms which you desire, and that conse- quently this Bill would be a step in the right direction ?—Yes ; but then I would wish to qualify my affirmative answer to that question by recurring to a fact which cannot be lost sight of, that the chemist and druggist and the humbler class of general practitioners, are now competitors ; that you cannot safely legislate for the one without bearing in mind the interests of the other, and also the safety of the public. 2413. But do you think any class of the community has a right to complain because another class of the community desire to improve their education in that branch of the profession which belongs to them ?—No ; but this is not a question entirely of education, it is one of privilege, of status, and of position. 2414. The only privilege consists in the assumption of a name implying that a certain amount of education is possessed ; is that an unfair privilege in your opinion ?—Of course, if it is reduced to that, it ceases to have any value or any evil; hut I suppose it must have a deeper object in view. 2415. This Bill is reduced to that; it simply gives a privilege to a person who is educated in a particular manner, of calling himself by a name implying that he possesses that education which is required, and it prohibits a person who has not had the education from deceiving the public ; there is no prohibition to prac- tice as a chemist and druggist, provided the party does not deceive the public by professing to be a chemist and druggist; this being intended as a first step towards an improvement in the character and education of the body, can you con- ceive any measure which shall do less than that?—Of course different parties may think differently of a measure from reading it. I have read the Bill, and the more I have considered, it the more do I feel impressed with the belief that this is not the proper time for passing it. 2416. Could you state what amendments you wrould make in the Bill ?—I ceuld state some. 2417. Do you not think that a simple measure restricted to the elevation of the qualifications of the body would be all that could be done ?—I think that no mea- sure of this kind could safely pass through Parliament without submitting it to the same Committee that inquire into the subject of medical reform, the two subjects being inseparably commingled. 2418. But many of that Committee are now no longer in Parliament?—But I am supposing a new medical reform measure and a new medical reform Com- mittee. 2419. Mr. Wyld.] You see the principle of registration is enunciated in this Bill; do you not think that that is a step in advance ?—Yes, I think so. That is one of the details of the Bill which would be unobjectionable; it would be essential in any measure of the kind.
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