The Acts do not extend to or interfere with the business of any legally qualified apothecary, or veterinary surgeon; nor with the making or dealing in patent medicines, nor with the business of wholesale dealers when supply ing poisons in the ordinary course of wholesale dealing. Upon the decease of any chemist actually in business at the time of his death, the executor, administrator, or trustee of his estate may continue to carry on the business if and so long only as it is conducted by a duly qualified and regis tered chemist and druggist, and his name and qualification is conspicuously exhibited in the premises. Registration by the Pharmaceutical Society does not entitle any person so registered to practise medicine or surgery, or any branch thereof; nor to prescribe drugs as an apothecary. See BRITISH PHARMACOPEIA; POISONS.
cheque is one of the most remarkable instances to be found in recent times of the efficacy of usage of trade. Within the last half century the practice of banking, with the exception of that of the Bank of England, has undergone an entire change. Instead of the banker issuing his own notes in return for the money of the customer deposited with him, he now gives credit in account to the depositor, and leaves it to the latter to draw upon him, to bearer or order, by what is called a cheque. Upon this state of things the older general course of dealing between hankers and their customers gradually attached incidents previously unknown, and these by the decisions of the Courts, and ultimately by the codifying Act of 1882, have become fixed law. Thus while an ordinary drawee, although in possession of funds of the drawer, is not bound to accept, unless by his own agreement or consent, the hanker, if he has funds, is bound to pay on presentation of a cheque on demand. Even admission of funds is not sufficient to bind an ordinary drawee, while it is sufficient with a banker ; and money deposited with a banker is not only money lent, but the banker is bound to repay it when called for by the draft of the customer. Beyond this even, a custom has grown up among bankers themselves of marking cheques as good for the purposes of clearance, by which they become bound to one another. Where, therefore, a person is required to make a payment in cash, his cheque for the amount will be taken as cash by the payee, when it is marked good by the banker upon whom it is drawn.
A cheque is defined by statute as a bill of exchange drawn on a hanker payable on demand ; in practice it is known as an order drawn by a cus tomer upon his banker for the payment upon demand of a certain sum to a person therein named who is called the payee. The banker's customer, who
draws the cheque, is called the drawer. If the banker has in his possession sufficient assets of the drawer to meet the cheque, he is bound to pay it upon presentation, unless he has received notice of the drawer's death, or the drawer has countermanded payment Death of a partner would not stop payment of cheques drawn by him in his firm's name, nor of a treasurer in respect of cheques signed by him officially. A drawer would desire to countermand payment of the cheque when, subsequently to his having parted with it, circumstances have arisen which render it expedient that the payee should not obtain the cash. This is called stopping payment, and the drawer should w rite the following letter to the bank :— Should the bank pay the cheque notwithstanding this notice, it will be liable to the drawer for the amount thereof.
Presentment for payment —Where a cheque is not presented for pay ment within a reasonable time of its issue, and the drawer had the right at the time of such presentment as between him and the banker to have the cheque paid, and suffers actual damage through the delay, he is discharged to the extent of such damage; that is to say, to the extent to which the drawer is a creditor of the banker to a larger amount than he would have been had the cheque been paid. To determine what is such a reasonable time, regard must be had to the nature of the cheque, the usage of trade and of bankers, and the facts of the particular case. Twelve months would cer tainly be an unreasonable time to hold a cheque without presenting it, and upon presentation it would probably be refused ; but the drawer is personally liable upon the cheque for six years from its date. Where a crossed cheque is received from a person whose financial state is doubtful, and the payee is desirous of knowing at once the probable fate of the cheque when presented, he should request his bank to send the cheque direct to the paying bank, and not through the clearing house. His bank can arrange to hear at once by telegram from the paying bank whether the cheque is honoured. The holder of a cheque, as to which the drawer is discharged as before mentioned, will be a creditor in lieu of the drawer, of the banker to the extent of the dis charge, and will be entitled to recover the amount from him.