HC Deb 04 March 1869 vol 194 c683

Act read; considered in Committee.

(In the Committee.)

LORD ROBERT MONTAGU

, in moving that the Chairman be directed to move the House that leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend "The Pharmacy Act, 1868," said the Bill consisted of only one clause. In England medical practitioners, who were generally licensed apothecaries also and veterinary surgeons, were able to take medicines with them and to dispense them, but in Scotland neither of those classes of professional men were able to dispense medicines; for there was no licensing power in Scotland for apothecaries, and many veterinary surgeons were licensed by the Highland Society, but were not veterinaries of Great Britain. It was a matter of serious consequence that this state of things should be altered, for it might happen that a doctor might be attending a patient in the Highlands some twenty miles away from the nearest druggist's shop. This Bill was to make the necessary change in the Act of last year.

An HON. MEMBER

hoped the noble Lord would extend the wording of the Bill, so as to include the case of Scotch practitioners practising in England.

MR. W. E. FORSTER

, on the other hand, thought that the Bill had better remain as drafted.

MR. BREWER

said, he feared that the action of the Bill would be of a retrogade character.

Resolved, That the Chairman be directed to move the House, that leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend "The Pharmacy Act, 1868."

Resolution reported:—Bill ordered to be brought in by Lord ROBERT MONTAGU and Sir GRAHAM MONTGOMERY.

Bill presented, and read the first time. [Bill 37.]

House adjourned at Nine o'clock.