Pharmacy Act (Ireland) 1875

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PHARMACY ACT (IRELAND) 1875

CHAPTER 57.

An Act to institute a Pharmaceutical Society, and to regulate the Qualifications of Pharmaceutical Chemists and of Chemists and Druggists, in Ireland. [11th August 1875.]

31 G. 3. (Irish).

WHEREAS by an Act passed by the Parliament of Ireland in the thirty-first year of the reign of His Majesty George the Third, intituled “An Act for the more effectually preserving the health of His Majesty’s subjects, for erecting an Apothecaries Hall in the city of Dublin, and regulating the profession of an apothecary throughout the kingdom of Ireland,” (in this Act referred to as “the Act of 1971,”) it is enacted that no person shall open shop or practise the art and mystery of an apothecary within the kingdom of Ireland until he shall have been examined as to his qualification and knowledge of the business by the persons and in the manner by the said Act prescribed, and shall have received a certificate to open shop or follow the art and mystery of an apothecary within the kingdom of Ireland from the Governor and Directors of the Apothecaries Hall of the city of Dublin:

And whereas a great deficiency exists throughout Ireland of establishments and shops for the sale of medicines and compounding of prescriptions, and great inconvenience thereby arises to the public in many parts of the country:

And whereas to remedy such inconvenience it is expedient to amend the Act of 1791, and to enable persons who, although they do not desire to practise the art and mystery of an apothecary, desire and are qualified to open shop for the retailing, dispensing, and compounding of poisons and medical prescriptions, to keep open shop for the purposes aforesaid:

And whereas for the purposes aforesaid it is expedient that provisions such as are in this Act contained should be made for the formation of a Pharmaceutical Society in Ireland, and for the examination of persons desiring to keep open shop for the purposes aforesaid, and for the registration of such of the said persons as may be found, on examination, to possess a competent practical knowledge of pharmaceutical and general chemistry and other branches of useful knowledge, as fit persons to keep open shop for the dispensing and compounding of prescriptions of duly qualified medical practitioners:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as “The Pharmacy Act (Ireland), 1875.”

Limit of Act.

2. This Act shall apply to Ireland only.

Interpretation of terms.

3. In this Act,—

The term “Lord Lieutenant” shall mean the Lord Lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being:

The term “Privy Council” shall mean Her Majesty’s Privy Council in Ireland:

The term “licentiate of Apothecaries Hall” shall mean a person who has a certificate to open shop or to follow the art and mystery of an apothecary under the provisions of the Act of 1791.

Constitution and Incorporation of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.

Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland constituted and incorporated.

4. A society to be called “the Pharmaceutical Society Ireland” shall be constituted as herein-after mentioned, such society shall by such name be a body corporate, and perpetual succession and a common seal, and sue and be and have power and authority to take, purchase, and hold for the purposes of this Act.

Members of Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.

5. The following persons, that is to say, William Allen, of Henry Street, Dublin, Miles Vernon Bourke, M.D., of Limerick, Thomas Collins, M.R.C.S.E., of Harcourt Street, Dublin, Sir Dominic Corrigan, Baronet, Physician in ordinary to the Queen in Ireland, William Frazer, F.R.C.S.I., of Harcourt Street, Dublin, John Goodwin, of Merrion Row, Dublin, William Goulding, of Summerhill House, Cork, William Harrington, Licentiate of Apothecaries Hall, of Cork, William Hayes, of Grafton Street, Dublin, John Frederick Hodges, M.D., of Belfast, Edward M. Hodgson, of Capel Street, Dublin, John Thomas Holmes, of Upper Baggot Street, Dublin, Charles Henry Leet, M.D., of Rathmines, near Dublin, Rawdon Macnamara, F.R.C.S.I., of Stephen’s Green, Dublin, George B. Owens, M.D., of Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, Richard Ward Pring, of Belfast, James Emerson Reynolds, M.D., of Upper Leeson Street, Dublin, John Ryan, M.D., of Francis Street, Dublin, Aquilla Smith, M.D., of Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, Charles R. C. Tichborne, of Waltham Terrace, Blackrock, near Dublin, Henry Whitaker, M.R.C.S.E., of Belfast, and all other persons who shall be qualified and elected in the manner prescribed by this Act, shall be members of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, and the said persons in this section specifically named as such members as aforesaid shall constitute and be the first council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.

There shall be a president and vice-president of the said Society, and the said Sir Dominic Corrigan, Baronet, shall be the first president, and the said Aquilla Smith, M.D., the first vice-president of the said council.

Persons who may be elected members of Pharmaceuticals Society and of the council.

6. Every person who shall be registered under this Act as a pharmaceutical chemist shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the said Pharmaceutical Society; and every person so registered and elected a member of the said Pharmaceutical Society shall be qualified to be elected, and when elected to act as a member of the council of the said Pharmaceutical Society.

Term of office of president and vice-president.

7. The persons by this Act named as president and vice-president of the said council, and their successors in such offices respectively, shall hold the office of president and vice-president respectively during one year, but shall be eligible for re-election, and in case of any vacancy in the office of president or vice-president of the said council caused by such president or vice-president ceasing to be a member of the said council, or by the resignation or incapacity of any such president or vice-president, such vacancy shall be filled by the election of some member of the said council to fill such vacancy.

Council to go out of office by rotation.

8. The members of the said council shall go out of office by rotation in the following manner; viz., on the first Monday of October in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six one third of the members of such council shall go out of office, and on the first Monday of October in the following year another third of the members of such council shall go out of office, and on the first Monday of October in the following year the remainder of the members of such council shall go out of office; and on the first Monday of October in every subsequent year one third of the members of such council (being those who have been longest in office) shall go out office; and in each instance the places of the retiring members of such council shall be supplied by the election by the members of the said Pharmaceutical Society on the first Monday of October in each year of a like number of their body so act as members of the said council in the place of the retiring members.

Manner of making the rotation list.

9. In order to determine the rotation by which the first members of the said council shall go out of office, the said council shall at their first meeting under this Act form a rotation list, and at such meeting the chairman shall write the names of all the members on separate slips of paper, all as nearly as may be of equal size, and having folded them up in the same manner, be shall put them into a ballot box, and shall in the presence of the meeting draw out such slips of paper in succession, and the names upon the slips so drawn shall be written by the chairman in a list in the order in which they are drawn; and every such list shall be kept among the papers of the said council, and the names therein shall be numbered consecutively, and the members of the said council shall retire from office in the order in which their names appear on such list, in the proportions in this Act mentioned.

Retiring members eligible to be re-elected.

10. Every member of the said council going out of office by rotation may be re-elected, and after such re-election he shall with reference to going out by rotation be considered as a new member.

As to filling up of occasional vacancies.

11. If any extraordinary vacancy shall be occasioned in the said council, the said council shall, on a day to be fixed by the president of the said society (such day not to be later than ten days after such vacancy has been signified to the said president), elect another person to supply such vacancy, and every person so elected shall continue a member of the said council until the time at which the person in the room of whom he was chosen would regularly have gone out of office, and he shall then go out of office, but shall be capable of immediate re-election.

Elections.

12. Elections of members of the said council, and of president and vice-president thereof, under this Act, shall be held and the voting and other proceedings in the case of a contest shall be conducted in the manner prescribed by regulations made in pursuance of this Act.

Proceedings at meetings council.

13. At a meeting of the said council the president, or in his absence the vice-president, shall act as chairman, and in case the president, and vice-president shall both be a one of the members present shall be elected chairman by the majority present.

At all meetings of the said council the questions there considered shall be decided by a majority. In case of an equal division, the chairman shall, in addition to his own vote, have a casting vote.

No business shall be transacted at any meeting of the said council unless seven members of the council be present, and all the powers under this Act vested in the council may be exercised by any seven or more of the council present at any meeting of the council.

First meeting.

14. The council of the said Pharmaceutical Society shall hold their first meeting within six months after the passing of this Act at such place in the city of Dublin, at such hour, and on such day as the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant may respectively order and appoint, and they may adjourn such meeting from time to time as shall seem fit.

Council may allow certain persons to acquire title of chemist and druggist.

15. The said council may at their first or any subsequent meeting by resolution determine upon allowing certain persons to acquire the title of chemist and druggist, subject to such terms and conditions as the said council shall think proper.

Regulations for execution of Act.

16. At the first meeting of the said council, or some adjournment, of the same, they may, subject to the provisions of this Act, make regulations with respect to the matters following:

(1.) The meetings and other proceedings of the said council;

(2.) The examinations of persons desirous of being registered as pharmaceutical chemists under this Act;

(3.) The examinations of persons desirous of being registered as chemists and druggists under this Act, in case the said council shall think proper to allow persons to acquire the title of chemist and druggist;

(4.) The times at which and the mode in which elections of members and associates of the said Pharmaceutical Society are to be held and conducted;

(5.) The mode in which elections of members of the council, and of president and vice-president thereof, are to be held and conducted;

(6.) The fees to be charged for examination, license, and registration under this Act, and the entrance fees and annual subscriptions to be paid by members of the said Pharmaceutical Society, and the application of the same, and of all moneys received by the treasurer under this Act;

(7.) The duties of the registrar, treasurer, clerks, and other subordinate officers, and the manner, in which the same shall be discharged, and the salaries to be paid to such officers respectively; and

(8.) Generally for all such other matters as may be necessary for the due execution of this Act.

The said council may from time to time, at any meeting of the council held at any time after the expiration of six months after such first meeting, revoke or alter any such regulation, and make new regulations instead thereof or in addition thereto.

Resolution and regulation to be approved by Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council.

17. Any resolution made under the authority of this Act with respect to the title of chemist and druggist, and every regulation made under the authority of this Act, shall be subject to the approval of the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council, and shall be of no force or effect until the same shall respectively be so approved, and notice of such approval shall be published in the Dublin Gazette.

Any resolution and all regulations made under the authority of this Act and approved as aforesaid shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within twenty-one days after the same shall be made, if Parliament be sitting at such time, or if Parliament be not sitting, within twenty-one days after the commencement of the next session of Parliament after the making thereof.

Any such resolution and all such regulations when so approved shall be of the like force and effect as if they had been enacted in this Act.

Persons who may be elected associates of the Pharmaceutical Society.

18. Every person who shall be registered under this Act as a chemist and druggist shall be qualified to be elected an associate of the said Pharmaceutical Society, subject to the regulations made in pursuance of this Act; and every person so elected and continuing as such associate, being in business on his own account, shall have the privilege of attending all meetings of the said society, and of voting thereat, and otherwise taking part in the proceedings of such meeting in the same manner as member of the said society: Provided always, that such associates contribute to the funds of the said society the same fees or subscriptions as members contribute for the time being under the regulations thereof.

General Provisions.

Following provisions not to take effect until approval of regulations.

19. The following provisions of this Act shall not take effect until after the publication in the Dublin Gazette of the notice of the approval of the regulations made at the first meeting of the said council, and so far as the said provisions relate to chemists and druggists under this Act they shall only take effect after the publication in the Dublin Gazette of the notice of the approval of a resolution with respect to the title of chemist and druggist.

Appointment of registrar and treasurer.

20. The said council may from time to time appoint a fit and proper person as a registrar under this Act, and shall have power to remove any such registrar from the said office, and may also appoint and remove from time to time a treasurer, and such clerks and other subordinate officers as may be requisite for carrying out the purposes of this Act, and also to pay suitable salaries to the said registrar, treasurer, clerks, and officers.

Examination.

21. For the purpose of ascertaining the qualification of persons desirous of keeping open shop for the retailing, dispensing, or compounding poisons or medical prescriptions and being registered as pharmaceutical chemists or as chemists and druggists under this Act, the said council shall cause examinations to be held at such times and in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations made in pursuance of this Act, and the said council shall appoint examiners to conduct the same: Provided always, that no person shall conduct any examination for the purposes of this Act until his appointment has been approved by the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council, and such appointment shall not in any case be in force for more than five years; and that it shall be the duty of the said Pharmaceutical Society to allow any officer appointed by the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council for that purpose to be present during the progress of any examination held for the purposes of this Act.

All persons desirous of being registered as pharmaceutical chemists under this Act may at any such examination present themselves for examination, and they shall be examined with respect to their knowledge of the Latin and English languages, of arithmetic, of botany, of materia medica, of pharmaceutical and general chemistry, of practical pharmacy, of the British Pharmaeopæia, and of such other subjects as may from time to time be prescribed by any regulations made in pursuance of this Act; and all persons desirous of being registered as chemists and druggists under this Act may at any such examination present themselves for examination, and they shall be subjected to such a modified examination with respect to their knowledge of the subjects aforesaid as may from time to time be prescribed by any regulations made in pursuance of this Act: Provided always, that such examinations shall not include the theory and practice of medicine, surgery, or midwifery, or any branch of medicine or surgery; and the examiners appointed by the council are hereby empowered, after such examinations respectively, to grant or refuse to such persons, as in their discretion may seem fit, certificates of competent knowledge and qualification and skill to be registered as pharmaceutical chemists or as chemists and druggists under this Act: Provided always, that in case, of rejection a rejected candidate shall not present himself for re-examination until after six months after such rejection.

Persons entitled to be registered under this Act.

22. Every person by this Act nominated as a member of the council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland shall be entitled to be entitled to be registered as a pharmaceutical chemist without payment of any fees or charges; and every person who shall be duly examined in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and who shall be certified by the examiners to be qualified to act as a pharmaceutical chemist, and every licentiate of Apothecaries Hall, shall upon giving to the registrar such reasonable proof thereof as may be required under any regulations made by the council of the said Pharmaceutical Society in that behalf, and upon payment of the proper fees and charges, be entitled to be registered under this Act as a pharmaceutical chemist.

Every person who shall be duly examined in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and who shall be certified by the examiners to be qualified to act as a chemist and druggist shall, upon giving to the registrar such reasonable proof therefore as may be required under any regulations made by the council of the said Pharmaceutical Society in that behalf, and upon payment of the proper fees and charges, be entitled to be registered under this Act as a chemist and druggist.

Fees for examination, license, and registration.

23. For every examination, license, and registration such reasonable fees or charges shall be paid as shall from time to time be fixed and determined by any regulation or regulations to be made by the said council in pursuance of this Act, and such fees shall be paid to the treasurer, and shall by bin be applied to the purposes of this Act in manner prescribed by such regulations.

Register of pharmaceutical chemists and of chemists and druggists.

24. The registrar to be appointed under or by virtue of this Act shall from time to time make out and maintain a complete list (to be called the “Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists for Ireland”) and also a complete list (to be called the “Register of Chemists and Druggists in Ireland”) of all persons registered as pharmaceutical chemists or as chemists and druggists respectively under this Act, and in such registers the names shall be in alphabetical order according to the surnames, with the respective residences, in the form set forth in the schedule to this Act annexed, or to the like affect, and shall keep proper indexes of such registers, and all such other lists and books as may be required by the said council and as may be necessary for giving effect to the regulations of the said council and to the provisions of this Act.

Duty of registrar to make and keep registers.

25. It shall be the duty of the registrar to keep the said registers corrected, and to erase the names of all registered persons as and when they shall die, and from time to time to make the necessary alterations in the addresses of the persons registered under this Act; and to enable the registrar duly to fulfil such duties, it shall be lawful for him to write a letter to any registered person, addressed to such person according to his address on the register, to inquire whether he has ceased to carry on business, or has changed his residence, such letter to be forwarded by post as a registered letter according to the post office regulations for the time being, and answer shall be returned to such letter within the period of six months from the sending of the letter, a second of similar purport shall be sent in like manner, and if no answer be given thereto within three months from date thereof it shall be lawful to erase the name of such person from the register; provided always, that the same may be restored by direction of the said council, should they think fit to make an order to that effect.

Evidence of qualification to be given before registration.

26. No name shall be entered in the said registers except of persons authorised by this Act to be registered, nor unless the registrar be satisfied by the proper evidence that the person claiming is entitled to be registered; and any appeal from the decision of the registrar may be decided by the said council; and any entry which shall be proved to the satisfaction of the said council to have been fraudulently or incorrectly made may be erased from or amended in the register under an order in writing of the said council.

Annual registers to be published, and to be evidence.

27. The registrar shall, in the month of January in every year, cause to be printed, published, and sold correct copies of the register of pharmaceutical chemists and of the register of chemists and druggists, in alphabetical order according to the surnames; and printed copies of such registers for the time being in force, purporting to be so printed and published as aforesaid, or any extract therefrom, or from the original registers, certified under the hand of the said registrar, and countersigned by the president or two members of the said council, shall be evidence in all courts and in all proceedings that the persons therein specified are registered according to the provisions of this Act, and the absence of the name of any person from any such copy of either of the said registers shall be evidence, until the contrary shall be made to appear, that such person is not registered in such register according to the provisions of this Act.

Penalty on wilful falsification of registers or for obtaining registration by false representation.

28. Any registrar who shall wilfully make or cause to be made any falsification in any matter relating to the said registers, or either of them, and any person who shall wilfully procure or attempt to procure himself to be registered under this Act, by making or producing, or causing to be made or produced, any false or fraudulent representation or declaration, either verbally or in writing, and any person aiding or assisting him therein, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, and shall on conviction thereof be sentenced to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding twelve months.

Notice of death of pharmaceutical chemist, or chemist and druggist, to be given by registrars of deaths.

29. Every registrar of deaths in Ireland, on receiving notice of the death of any person registered under this Act as a pharmaceutical chemist or as a chemist and druggist, shall forthwith transmit by post to the registrar under this Act a certificate, under his own hand, of such death, with the particulars of the time and place of death, and on receipt of such certificate the said registrar under this Act shall erased the name of such deceased pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist from the proper register, and shall transmit to the said registrar of deaths the cost of such certificate and transmission, and may charge the cost thereof as an expense of his office.

Persons selling or compounding poisons or assuming the title of pharmaceutical chemist to be qualified.

30. So much of the Act of 1791 as prohibits the keeping of open shop within the meaning of the said Act by any person other than a licentiate of Apothecaries Hall shall be repealed; provided always, that it shall be unlawful for any person to sell or keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, or compounding poisons within the meaning of the Act of the session of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter twenty-six, or medical prescriptions, unless such person be registered as a pharmaceutical chemist or a chemist and druggist under this Act, or to assume or use the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist, or Pharmaceutist, or Pharmacist, or Dispensing Chemist, or the title of Chemist and Druggist in any part of Ireland, unless such person shall be registered as a pharmaceutical chemist or as a chemist and druggist respectively under this Act; and any person acting in contravention of this enactment, or compounding any medicines of the British Pharmacopæia, except according to the formularies of the said Pharmacopæia, shall for every such offence be liable to pay a penalty of five pounds; but no such penalty shall exempt any person from being liable to any other penalty, damage, or punishment to which he would have been subject if this Act had not passed: Provided always, that nothing in this section contained shall affect any licentiate of Apothecaries Hall, or any person who shall have been registered as a legally qualified medical practitioner before the passing of this Act, or who shall be registered as a legally qualified practitioner after the passing of this Act, and who, in order to obtain his diploma, shall have passed an examination in pharmacy.

Reserving rights of certain persons.

31. Nothing in this Act contained shall extend to or interfere with the making or dealing in patent medicines, or with the business of wholesale dealers in supplying poisons in the ordinary course of wholesale dealing, or of chemists or druggists who are practising as such in Ireland upon their own account at the time of the passing of this Act, save and except the provisions against the compounding of poisons or medical prescriptions, and against the preparing of any mecines of the British Pharmacopæia except according to the formularies of the said Pharmacopæia; and nothing in this Act contained shall prevent any person who is a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons of Great Britain, or holds a certificate in veterinary surgery from the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, from dispensing medicines for animals under his care.

Provision for continuation of business in case of death.

32. Upon the decease of any person registered under this Act as a pharmaceutical chemist or as a chemist and druggist, actually in business at the time of his death, it shall be lawful for any executor, administrator, or trustee of the estate of such pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist to continue such business, if and so long only as such business shall be bonâ fide conducted by a duly qualified assistant, and a duly qualified assistant within the meaning of this section shall be a pharmaceutical chemist or a chemist and druggist registered as such under this Act.

Registration not to entitle to practice of medicine, &c.

33. Registration under this Act shall not entitle any person so registered to practise medicine or surgery, or any branch of medicine or surgery.

Pharmaceutical chemist may be apothecary in lunatic asylum &c.

34. Any person registered as a pharmaceutical chemist under this Act shall be qualified to be appointed to and to hold the office of apothecary in any district lunatic asylum or county gaol or prison in Ireland, but shall not be entitled to prescribe for patients.

Power to erase names from register.

35. The Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council may direct the name of any person who is convicted of any offence against this Act which in their opinion renders him unfit to be on any register under this Act to be erased from such register, and it shall be the duty of the registrar to erase the same accordingly.

Recovery and application of penalties.

36. Every penalty recoverable under the provisions of this Act shall be recoverable in a summary way, with respect to the police district of Dublin metropolis subject and according to the provisions of any Act regulating the powers and duties of justices of the peace for such district or of the police of such district, and with respect to other parts of Ireland, before a justice or justices of the peace sitting in petty sessions, subject and according to the provisions of The Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, and any Act amending the same.

One third of every sum of money recovered as a penalty under this Act shall be paid to the person who shall be the means of bringing to justice any person committing any offence against any of the provisions of this Act, and the remainder of such sum shall be paid to the treasurer, and shall by him applied to the purposes of this Act in the manner prescribed by any regulation made in pursuance of this Act.