preparations or admixtures containing 0·2% or more of strychnine, opium and all preparations and admixtures containing 1% or more of morphine, picro-toxine, prussic acid and all preparations and admixtures containing 0·1% or more of prussic acid, savin and its oil, and all preparations or admixtures containing savin or its oil. None of these may be sold to any person who is unknown to the seller, unless introduced by a person known to the seller, and not until after an entry is made in a book kept for the purpose, stating, in the prescribed form, the date of sale, name and address of purchaser, the name and quantity of the article sold, and the purpose for which it is stated by the purchaser to be required. The signature of the purchaser and introduce (if any) must be affixed to the entry.
The following poisons may not be sold, either retail or wholesale, unless distinctly labelled with the name of the article, and the word poison, with the name and address of the seller:—
Almonds, essential oil of (unless deprived of prussic acid). Antimonial wine. Cantharides, tincture and all vesicating liquids, preparations or admixtures of. Carbolic acid, and liquid preparations of carbolic acid and its homologies containing more than 3% of those substances, except preparations for use as sheep-wash or for any other purpose in connexion with agriculture or horticulture, contained in a closed vessel distinctly labelled with the word “poisonous,” the name and address of the seller, and a notice of the special purposes for which the preparations are intended Chloral hydrate. Chloroform, and all preparations or admixtures containing more than 20% of chloroform. Coca, any preparation or admixture of, containing more than 0·1% but less than 1% of coca alkaloids. Digitalis. Mercuric iodide. Mercuric sulphocyanide. Oxalic acid. Poppies, all preparations of, excepting red poppy petals and syrup of red poppies (Papaver Rhoeas). Precipitate, red, and all oxides of mercury. Precipitate, white. Strophanthus Sulphonal. All preparations or admixtures which are not included in part 1 of the schedule, and contain a poison within the meaning of the pharmacy acts, except preparations or admixtures, the exclusion of which from this schedule is indicated by the words therein relating to carbolic acid, chloroform and coca, and except such substances as come within the provisions of section 5 of the act.
It has been erroneously represented by interested persons that the Pharmaceutical Society desires a monopoly of the sale of poisons. This is not the case. Any poisonous substance that is not included in the schedules can be sold by anyone, as, for instance, red lead, sulphate of copper, &c. The duty of the Pharmaceutical Society is a purely legal one, and relates only to the schedules of poisons framed by the government to protect the public by rendering it a difficult matter to obtain the poisons most frequently used for criminal purposes. In continental countries the laws are even more stringent.
In response to an agitation originated by certain manufacturers (one of whom was a member of parliament), who were prosecuted for omitting to label arsenical and nicotine preparations as poisons, as required by the Pharmacy Act of 1868, a new act was passed in 1908, by which persons, without any training in toxicology, and being neither pharmaceutical chemists, nor chemists and druggists, may be granted licences by local authorities to sell poisonous substances used exclusively in agriculture or horticulture, for the destruction of insects, fungi or bacteria, or as sheep dips or weedkillers, but which are poisonous by reason of containing the scheduled poisons, arsenic or nicotine, &c. One condition concerning the granting of such licences has been, it is said, deliberately ignored in many towns, viz that the local authority, before granting a licence, “shall take into consideration whether, in the neighbourhood, the reasonable requirements of the public are satisfied with regard to the purchase of poisonous substances, and also any objections they may receive from the chief officer of police, or from any existing vendors of the substances to which the application relates.” It is left to the Pharmaceutical Society to take legal action against any infringement of the law, although it is obvious that this should be carried out at the government expense, since it is for the benefit of a section of the public, and obviously to the loss of the members of the Pharmaceutical Society. Moreover, the present act nullifies the object of the previous act of 1868, which was to reduce the facilities for obtaining poisons. The fact that a voluntary society with limited funds must contest the illegal decisions of local councils, without government support, seems likely to render this portion of the act of 1908 a dead letter.
At the time of the passing of the Pharmacy Act of 1852 co-operative associations did not come under consideration, and no provision was made concerning them as regards the title of chemist, or as to any action such associations might take to evade the law. It has been decided in the law courts that a limited liability company is not a person in the eye of the law, and therefore does not come under the operation of the act of 1868. The result of this decision was that any chemist who failed to pass the qualifying examination could constitute himself with a few others, even if ignorant of pharmacy, into a limited liability company, which would then have been outside the powers of the act, and not subject to its provisions. This false position was remedied by the act of 1908, which brings companies into line with individuals.
On the continent of Europe the dispensing of prescriptions Foreign Regulations. is confined to pharmacists (pharmaciens and apothekers). They are not allowed to prescribe nor the medical men to dispense, except under special licence, and then only in small villages, where the pharmacist could not make a living. The principle of “one man one shop” is general; a pharmacist may not own more than one shop in the same town. In Holland he may not enter into any agreement, direct or indirect, with a medical man with regard to the supply of medicines. In Austria, Germany, Italy, Rumania and Russia the number of pharmacies is limited according to the population In France, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland the number is not limited, and every qualified pharmacist has the right to open a shop or buy a pharmacy. Where the number of pharmacies is limited by law prescriptions may only be dispensed at these establishments. The original prescription is kept by the pharmacist for either three or ten years, according to the country, and a certified copy given to the patient, written on white paper if for internal use, or on coloured paper (usually orange yellow) if for external use. The price of the drugs and the tariff for dispensing prescriptions is fixed by government authority. In Russia a prescription containing any of the poisons indicated in the schedules A and B in the Russian pharmacopoeia may not be repeated, except by order of the doctor. The use of pharmacopoeia preparations made by manufacturers is allowed, but the seller is held responsible for their purity and strength. The prices charged for dispensing are lower in countries where the number of pharmacies is limited by law, the larger returns enabling the profit to be lessened.
The educational course adopted in different countries varies as to the details of the subjects taught. The preliminary, or classical examination, is usually that of university matriculation, or its equivalent. The period of study is eighteen months in Denmark or Norway, and two in Austria, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland, three in Belgium, France, Greece and Italy, four to six in Holland, and five in Spain. In Great Britain the period of study is voluntary, and usually occupies only one year. Two or three years of apprenticeship is required in most countries, including Great Britain, but none in Belgium, Greece, Italy or Spain.
The subject of patent medicines is but little understood by the general public. Any medicine, the composition of which is kept Patent medicines. secret, but which is advertised on the label for the cure of diseases, must in Great Britain bear a patent medicine stamp equal to about one-ninth of its face value. The British Medical Association published in 1907 a work on Secret Remedies, what they cost and what they contain. The analyses published in this work show that nearly all the widely advertised secret remedies contain only well-known and inexpensive drugs. The Pharmaceutical Society on the other hand has also published a Pharmaceutical Journal Formulary, including several hundred formulae of proprietary medicines sold by pharmacists, so that it is now possible for any medical man to ascertain what they contain. The government accepts all the therein published formulae as “known, admitted and approved” remedies, and therefore not requiring a patent medicine stamp. In this way widely advertised secret remedies can be replaced by medicines of known composition and accepted value in any part of the world. Most continental countries have issued stringent laws against the sale of secret remedies, and these have been lately strengthened in Germany, France and Italy. In Switzerland secret remedies cannot be advertised without submitting the formula and a sample of the remedy to the board of health. (E. M. H.)
