§ MR. FRYE (Kensington, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, it having been stated by the Parliamentary Committee of the British Medical Association, in their recent Report on the sale of patent medicines, that the further action of the Public Prosecutor in respect of actions taken by him has been limited by the directions given to the officers of the Treasury by the Attorney General, firstly, to prosecute only in the event of a particular preparation being really poisonous or dangerous on the ground of poisonous ingredients; and, secondly, that the mere presence of a poisonous ingredient, if not in sufficient quantity to make the article sold poisonous, would not justify proceedings under the 17th section of the Act, is the Pharmaceutical Society justified, in face of this restriction, in continuing to demand penalties from tradesmen throughout the Kingdom; and, if so, on what grounds?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTThe directions given by the late Attorney General to the Department of the Solicitor to the Treasury are correctly quoted, and they have been, and are still, acted upon by the Director of Public Prosecutions; but I am not prepared to give a legal opinion on the action to be taken by the Pharmaceutical Society in the exercise of its discretion, or in accordance with the advice of its own legal advisers.