A HERBALIST'S VICTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11854, 4 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

A HERBALIST'S VICTORY.

ACT OP HENRY. VIII. DEFEATS THE APOTHECARIES'' SOCIETY. Judgment was given a few days ago in the Bow County Court in the case in which the Apothecaries' Society sought to recover a penalty of £20 from a Limehouse herbalist, Mr. Walter Purdue, for practising as en apothecary without a certificate. Mr. Purdue denied that he acted as a doctor. A child, he said, was taken to him in a state of collapse, and he told, the mother he would treat the child without payment, and only charge for the medicines bought in the shop. At the first -hearing Mr. Purdue pleaded that an Act of Henry VIII. entitled him to act as he did, and. the case was adjourned for the Act to be consulted. Counsel for the herbalist now quoted the Act, which authorised persons having knowledge of herbs to treat wounds and diseases " according to their cunning, experience, and knowledge." - • • Judge French : I see by. reference to the Act of Henry VIII. there was a strong feeling among scientific men in favour of herbalists as against surgeons, who are spoken of in the harshest terms. If it is thought -right to abolish herbalists why has not an Act been brought forward by the many medical societies to annul this Act? ' Mr. Lane (for the society) : Possibly it has been a case of omission. . ' ,* • Judge French : There is very good reason for it —they don't intend to challenge a division on it. ' - > ': : vJudgment was given for the herbalist, with costs. . . •