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THE PHARMACY AND POISONS BILL
534
difference in methods of blood-sugar estimation makes it difficult to compare the results of different observations, and that the level is generally lower in childhood. Though certain broad generalisations are being formed it is obvious that the interpretation of the individual case of hypoglycaemia will remain largely a matter of medical polemic until the action of the hormones regulating carbohydrate metabolism is more precisely understood.
retail. The clauses about poisons, later in the Bill, propose considerable changes. As the departmental committee proposed, and in spite of Lord HEwART’s suspicions of encroachment upon Parliamentary functions, the Poisons List is to be taken out of the statute-book and left to be settled by a Poisons Board of 16 or more members including representatives of the Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal Colleges of Physicians, the General Medical Council, British Medical Association, and Institute of Chemistry, as well as nominees of the Home Office, Scottisli Office, and Ministries of Health and THE PHARMACY AND POISONS BILL Agriculture. The Poisons List, to be prepared by the Poisons Board and confirmed by the Home of CHANGES in the profession pharmacy and in are the the law of poisons projected by Pharmacy Office, will be in two parts. Part I. poisons will be and Poisons Bill (H.M. Stationery Office, 6d.) saleable only by " authorised sellers of poisons " ; which has been introduced in the House of Lords. Part II. will contain those which can be sold only The report of the Departmental Committee of 1926 by such " authorised sellers " or by persons on the regretted- that these two subjects were so curiously local authority’s list, the latter list corresponding entangled in the statute-book. The new Bill seeks to the present list of persons locally authorised to to simplify the law. Like its predecessor in 1931, sell poisonous preparations used for agricultural it is based on the draft Bill appended to the 1926 and other non-medical purposes. The Poisons but there are Board will have a free their sole occasional featuresnew hand ; report ; statutory e.g., the proposed prohibition of the sale of any guidance is the suggestion that they shall restrict poison from an automatic machine. The 1931 Bill Part II. to articles which are in common use " for passed through the House of Lords in spite of purposes other than the treatment of human opposition from Lord DAWSON OF PENN, who ailments," and which the public should have complained that there had been too little consulta- adequate facilities to obtain. tion of the medical profession, and that the control The proposed restrictions on the sale of poisons of poisons, hitherto managed with success by the are partly set out in the Bill and partly left to Pharmaceutical Society, was being handed over to Home Office rules. Except as provided by the a new bureaucratic body imperfectly acquainted rules (a rather vague exception which will require with the needs of medicine. In the Commons the vigilant scrutiny), this part of the Bill is not to Bill made no headway. Its successor deserves a interfere with the sale of articles to duly qualified better fate, for the existing law is full of anomalies. doctors or to registered dentists or veterinary Last September a man was found dead on Porlock surgeons for professional use or with sales to Hill in Somerset with enough arsenic in his pockets approved hospitals or to research workers for use to kill 642 persons. He worked for a paint firm, in research. Amongst other conditions, it will be and poison was easy to get. " I could not go to a unlawful to sell a poison unless its container is chemist’s and buy 5 grains of arsenic without labelled with the name of the poison, the proportion a convincing explanation," said his employer ; of the poisonous ingredient to the total ingredients, giving " but I can write an order for 5 hundredweight the name and address of the seller, and the word and have it delivered here in a couple of hours " poison " or other prescribed indication of the without having to answer a question." character of the article. The words which we have The pharmacy clauses early in the new Bill give italicised seem to be new law. Unless rules relax membership of the Pharmaceutical Society to regis- the requirement, a Part I. poison must not be sold tered pharmacists ; it will no longer be a matter of to anyone unless he is either " certified in writing " election. Names will be removed from the register (more new law) or known to the seller to be a person for good cause through the agency of a Statutory to whom the poison may properly be sold. The Committee, subject to a right of appeal to the High seller of the Part I. poison must not deliver it until Court. In this part of the Bill the Privy Council he has entered in a book (with the purchaser’s A registered signature) the name and address of the purchaser remains the central authority. who retails will become an and of the person who certifies the purchaser. drugs pharmacist " authorised seller of poisons," provided that he These special provisions as to sale of Part I. poisons or another registered pharmacist is in personal however, are not to apply to medicine supplied control of the premises, and of each set of premises, by duly qualified doctors, registered dentists, and where the retailing is carried on, and provided that registered veterinary surgeons for professional the name and certificate of registration of the treatment. A rather complicated subclause about person in control is conspicuously exhibited. No book entries of all prescriptions containing poisons unregistered person is" to call himself " pharma- has a saving for medicine supplied on prescription ceutical chemist," chemist and druggist," under the National Health Insurance Acts. The or " druggist," "pharmacist." " The difficulty of Bill seeks to protect the public ; poisons are not thus restricting the title of chemist," which to find their way too easily into the wrong hands. members of the Institute of Chemistry have a right At the same time, Parliament must so fashion the to share, is met by legislating only as to that title Bill that medical practice and research are not if used in connexion with the sale of goods by made too difficult.
difference in methods of blood-sugar estimation makes it difficult to compare the results of different observations, and that the level is generally lower in childhood. Though certain broad generalisations are being formed it is obvious that the interpretation of the individual case of hypoglycaemia will remain largely a matter of medical polemic until the action of the hormones regulating carbohydrate metabolism is more precisely understood.
retail. The clauses about poisons, later in the Bill, propose considerable changes. As the departmental committee proposed, and in spite of Lord HEwART’s suspicions of encroachment upon Parliamentary functions, the Poisons List is to be taken out of the statute-book and left to be settled by a Poisons Board of 16 or more members including representatives of the Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal Colleges of Physicians, the General Medical Council, British Medical Association, and Institute of Chemistry, as well as nominees of the Home Office, Scottisli Office, and Ministries of Health and THE PHARMACY AND POISONS BILL Agriculture. The Poisons List, to be prepared by the Poisons Board and confirmed by the Home of CHANGES in the profession pharmacy and in are the the law of poisons projected by Pharmacy Office, will be in two parts. Part I. poisons will be and Poisons Bill (H.M. Stationery Office, 6d.) saleable only by " authorised sellers of poisons " ; which has been introduced in the House of Lords. Part II. will contain those which can be sold only The report of the Departmental Committee of 1926 by such " authorised sellers " or by persons on the regretted- that these two subjects were so curiously local authority’s list, the latter list corresponding entangled in the statute-book. The new Bill seeks to the present list of persons locally authorised to to simplify the law. Like its predecessor in 1931, sell poisonous preparations used for agricultural it is based on the draft Bill appended to the 1926 and other non-medical purposes. The Poisons but there are Board will have a free their sole occasional featuresnew hand ; report ; statutory e.g., the proposed prohibition of the sale of any guidance is the suggestion that they shall restrict poison from an automatic machine. The 1931 Bill Part II. to articles which are in common use " for passed through the House of Lords in spite of purposes other than the treatment of human opposition from Lord DAWSON OF PENN, who ailments," and which the public should have complained that there had been too little consulta- adequate facilities to obtain. tion of the medical profession, and that the control The proposed restrictions on the sale of poisons of poisons, hitherto managed with success by the are partly set out in the Bill and partly left to Pharmaceutical Society, was being handed over to Home Office rules. Except as provided by the a new bureaucratic body imperfectly acquainted rules (a rather vague exception which will require with the needs of medicine. In the Commons the vigilant scrutiny), this part of the Bill is not to Bill made no headway. Its successor deserves a interfere with the sale of articles to duly qualified better fate, for the existing law is full of anomalies. doctors or to registered dentists or veterinary Last September a man was found dead on Porlock surgeons for professional use or with sales to Hill in Somerset with enough arsenic in his pockets approved hospitals or to research workers for use to kill 642 persons. He worked for a paint firm, in research. Amongst other conditions, it will be and poison was easy to get. " I could not go to a unlawful to sell a poison unless its container is chemist’s and buy 5 grains of arsenic without labelled with the name of the poison, the proportion a convincing explanation," said his employer ; of the poisonous ingredient to the total ingredients, giving " but I can write an order for 5 hundredweight the name and address of the seller, and the word and have it delivered here in a couple of hours " poison " or other prescribed indication of the without having to answer a question." character of the article. The words which we have The pharmacy clauses early in the new Bill give italicised seem to be new law. Unless rules relax membership of the Pharmaceutical Society to regis- the requirement, a Part I. poison must not be sold tered pharmacists ; it will no longer be a matter of to anyone unless he is either " certified in writing " election. Names will be removed from the register (more new law) or known to the seller to be a person for good cause through the agency of a Statutory to whom the poison may properly be sold. The Committee, subject to a right of appeal to the High seller of the Part I. poison must not deliver it until Court. In this part of the Bill the Privy Council he has entered in a book (with the purchaser’s A registered signature) the name and address of the purchaser remains the central authority. who retails will become an and of the person who certifies the purchaser. drugs pharmacist " authorised seller of poisons," provided that he These special provisions as to sale of Part I. poisons or another registered pharmacist is in personal however, are not to apply to medicine supplied control of the premises, and of each set of premises, by duly qualified doctors, registered dentists, and where the retailing is carried on, and provided that registered veterinary surgeons for professional the name and certificate of registration of the treatment. A rather complicated subclause about person in control is conspicuously exhibited. No book entries of all prescriptions containing poisons unregistered person is" to call himself " pharma- has a saving for medicine supplied on prescription ceutical chemist," chemist and druggist," under the National Health Insurance Acts. The or " druggist," "pharmacist." " The difficulty of Bill seeks to protect the public ; poisons are not thus restricting the title of chemist," which to find their way too easily into the wrong hands. members of the Institute of Chemistry have a right At the same time, Parliament must so fashion the to share, is met by legislating only as to that title Bill that medical practice and research are not if used in connexion with the sale of goods by made too difficult.