APOTHECARY, one who practises the art of pharmacy, or that part of physic which consists in the preparation and composition of medicines.
A youth intended for this profession• should be t pretty good scholar, and have such a knowledge in the I.atin tongue, SS to be able to read the best writers upon the subject of botany, phttrmacy, anato my, and znedicine. III London, the apo thecaries are one of the city companies, and by an act, which was made petpetual in the ninth year of George I. are exempt ed from serving upon juries, or in ward and parish offices. They are obliged to make up their medicines according to the formulas described in the College Dis pensatory, and are liable to have their shops visited by the censors of the college, who are empowered to destroy such me dicines as they think not good. In Penn sylvania, and we believe the United States generally, no obligation of this kind is imposed. Any person, however ignorant of the qualities and properties of medi cines, or unskilful in the preparation of them, may nevertheless establish himself as an apothecary ; the consequence is, the occurrence of many accidents; the inju dicious application of drugs ; and, as he is amenable to no authority., the consequent
adulteration of his compounds.
The apothecaries have a Hall in Black friars, London, where there arc two fine laboratories, front which all the surgeons' chests arc: supplied with medicines for the royal navy. In China, they have a singu lar mode of dispensing their medicines. In the public squares of their cities there is a very high stone pillar, on which are engraven the names of all sorts of medi cines, with the price of each ; and when the poor stand in need orally relief from physic, they go to the treasury,. where they receive the price each medicine is rated a.t.