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Local Authorities under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, it is also an offence
under Section 15 of the Pharmacy Act of 1868, which enacts that:—
"Any chemist who shall compound any medicines of the British
"Pharmacopoeia, except according to the formularies of the said Pharma"copoeia,
shall for every such offence be liable to pay a Penalty or sum of
"Five Pounds."
The writer of the article referred to states that:—
"Local Authorities acting on the reports of their analysts may even
"persuade the Privy Council to move the Pharmaceutical Society to
"take action. Proceedings could only be instituted by the Registrar,
"and it will be noted that medical practitioners, apothecaries and patent
"medicine mongers cannot be hit for the foregoing offence."
Although the Pharmaceutical Society has not had occasion to exercise the
powers which it has in this connection, it must be borne in mind that such
powers have not lapsed, and that if in consequence of habitual carelessness on
the part of compounders the Council is called upon to exercise powers conferred
upon them by Section 26 of the Act referred to, it will be seen that the
consequences may be of much gravity to the offender.
This Act provides that:—
"The Privy Council may direct the name of any person who is con"victed
of any offence against this Act, which in their opinion renders
"him unfit to be on the Register under this Act, to be erased from such
"Register, and it shall be the duty of the Registrar to erase the same
"accordingly."
It is a curious fact that in the existing Sale of Food and Drugs Acts no
allusion whatever is made to the British Pharmacopoeia, and it is probably due
to the reference to that authority in Section 15 of the Pharmacy Act, 1868,
before quoted, that for many years it had been customary for magistrates to
accept it as a standard in dealing with cases of drug adulteration.
It was not until the year 1901 that it was definitely decided in the High
Court that:—
"If a drug to be found in the Pharmacopoeia is asked for, this drug
"must be supplied, and that if it is not sold with the ingredients and in
"the proportions prescribed by the Pharmacopoeia, there is at least
"primd facie evidence that what is sold is not of the nature, substance,
"and quality which was demanded."
The above is an extract from the judgment of the Court delivered by
Mr. Justice Phillimore in the case of Dickins v. Randerson in the King's
Bench Division on the 29th January, 1910.