Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Pharmaceuticals, Crime, Professionalization

    Discusses a letter published in The Times in which the author criticizes the law forbidding chemists to leave their shops in order to render medical assistance even in the most urgent cases. Presents the correspondent's description of a case in which the death of a lady could have been averted had two chemists done more than just send for a doctor. Punch disagrees, distinguishing the 'profession and business of a chemist and druggist' ('to make and sell medicines') from that of a physician (who 'practise[s] physic'). Warns that chemists who gave medical assistance would endanger patients' lives and their own careers.