Meanwhile, however, the apothecaries of London were incorporated by James I. on the 9th of April, 1606, and united with the Company of Grocers. They re mained thus united till the 6th of De cember, 1617, when they received a new charter, by which they were formed into a separate company, under the designa tion of the "Master, Wardens, and So ciety of the Art and Mystery of Apothe caries of the city of London." This charter ordains that no grocer shall keep an apothecary's shop ; that every apothe cary shall have served an apprenticeship of seven years ; and before he is permitted to keep a shop, or to act as an apothecary, he shall be examined before the master and wardens to ascertain his fitness. It also gave the Company extensive powers to search for and destroy in the city of London, or within seven miles, com pounds and drugs which were adulterated or unfit for medical use. This is the charter which still constitutes them one of the city companies, although various subsequent acts of parliament have ma terially changed the character of the society.
It appears to have been only a few years before the close of the seventeenth cen tury that the apothecaries, at least in London and its neighbourhood, began gradually to prescribe, as well as to dis pense medicines. This encroachment was strongly resisted by the College of Physicians, who, by way of retaliation, established a dispensary for the sale of medicines to the poor at prime cost at their hall in Warwick Lane. A paper controversy rose out of this measure ; but the numerous tracts which were issued on both sides are now all forgotten, with the exception of Garth's burlesque epic poem, entitled 'The Dispensary,' first published in 1697. The apothecaries, however, may be considered as having made good the position they had taken, although for a considerable time their pretensions continued to be looked upon as of a somewhat equivocal character. Addison, in the Spectator,' No. 195, pub lished in 1711, speaks of the apothecaries as the common medical attendants of the sick, and as performing the functions both of physician and surgeon. After men tioning blistering, cupping, bleeding, and the inward applications employed as ex pedients to make luxury consistent with health, he says, "The apothecary is per petually employed in countermining the cook and the vintner." On the other hand, Pope, in his ' Essay on Criticism,' published the same year, has the follow ing lines in illustration of the domination which he asserts to have been usurped by the critic over the poet So modern 'pothecartes, taught the art By doctors bills to play the doctor's part, Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools." Nor, indeed, did the apothecaries them selves contend at this time for permission to practise as medical advisers and at tendants any further than circumstances seemed to render it indispensable. In a clever tract written in their defence, pub lished in 1724, and apparently the pro duction of one of themselves, entitled Pharmacopohe Justificati ; or, the Apo thecaries vindicated hum the Imputation of Ignorance, wherein is shown that an Academical Education is nowise noes nary to qualify a Man for the practice of Physic,' we find the following opinion expressed (p. 31):—" As to apothecaries practising, the miserable state of the sick poor, till some other provision is made for their relief, seems sufficiently to warrant it, so long as it is confined to them." We may here observe, that the custom of persons being licensed by the bishops to practise medicine within their dioceses continued to subsist at least to about the middle of the last century. It is ex claimed against as a great abuse in a tract entitled ' An Address to the College of Physicians,' published in 1747.
It has been often stated that the dealers in medicines called chemists or druggists first made their appearance about the end of the last century. As they soon began to prescribe, as well as to dispense, the rivalry with which they were thus met was as eagerly opposed by the regular apothecaries as their own en croachments had in the first instance been by the physicians. In certain resolutions passed by a meeting of members of the Associated Apothecaries, on the 20th of November, 1812, among other causes which are asserted to have of late years contributed to degrade the profession, is mentioned the intrusion of pretenders of every description:" Even druggists," it is said, " and their hired assistants, visit and administer to the sick ; their shops are accommodated with what are denomi nated private surgeries ; and, as an ad ditional proof of their presumption, in stances are recorded of their giving evi dence on questions of forensic medicine of the highest and most serious import I" But in all this the druggists did no more than the apothecaries themselves had be gun to do a hundred years before. We doubt, too, if the first appearance of these interlopers was so recent as has been as sumed. In a tract, printed on a single folio leaf " at the Star iu Bow Lane in 1683," entitled' A Plea for the Chemists or Non-Collegiats,' the author, Nat Merry, stoutly defends the right of him self and the other manufacturers of che mical preparations to administer medi cines, against the objections of the mem bers of the Apothecaries' Company, who seem to have been themselves at this time only beginning to act as general --practitioners. And in 1708 we find a
series of resolutions published by the Court of Apothecaries, in which they complain of the intrusion into their busi ness of foreigners—that is, of persons not free of the company. Their charter, though it appeared to bestow upon them somewhat extensive privileges, had been found nearly inoperative from the omis sion of any means of executing its pro visions, and of any penalties for their infringement. In 1722, therefore, an act of parliament was obtained by the com pany, giving them the right of visiting all shops in which medicinal preparations were sold in London, or within seven miles of it, and of destroying such druir as they might find unfit for use. This act expired in 1729 ; and although an attempt was made to obtain a renewal of it, the application was not persevered in. But in 1748 another act was passed, em powering the society to appoint ten of their members to form a court of exa miners, without whose licence no one should be allowed to sell medicines in London, or within seven miles of it. It was stated before a Committee of the House of Commons, that there were at this time about 700 persons who kept apothecaries' shops in London, not one half of whom were free of the company. This act probably had the effect of putting the unlicensed dealers down ; which may account for the common statement that no such description of dealers ever made their appearance till a comparatively re cent period. In an Introductory Essay prefixed to the first volume of the 'Trans actions of the Associated Apothecaries and Surgeon Apothecaries of England and Wales' (8vo. London, 1823), in which it is admitted that anciently "the apothecary held the same situation which appertains, or ought to appertain, to the present druggist, who arose," it is affirmed, "about thirty years ago," the following remark is added :—" For some time pre vious to that period, indeed, certain apo thecaries existed who purely kept shop, without prescribing for diseases ; but very few of these existed even in Lon for in the memory of a physician lately dead, there were not more, as he stated, than about half a dozen persons in London who kept what could be called a druggist's shop." Up to within the last few years the Company of Apothecaries had never at tempted to extend their authority beyond the metropolis and its immediate neigh bourhood. But in 1815 an act was passed (55 Geo. III. c. 194) which placed the society in a new position, by giving to a Court of Examiners, composed of twelve members, who must be apothecaries, the sole right of examining and licensing apo thecaries throughout England and Wales. The examiners must be apothecaries who have been in practice for not less than ten years. They are appointed by the master, wardens, and assistants of the company. The master and wardens, or the Court of Examiners, may appoint five apothecaries in any county in Eng land above thirty miles from London, who are empowered to examine and license apothecaries' assistants. The power of searching for adulterated drugs given by the charter was repealed by the above act, and in lieu thereof the master, wardens, or assistants, or the exa miners, or any two of them, are em powered to enter the shops of apothe caries in any part of England and Wales, and to search, survey, and prove medi cines, and to destroy the same ; and also to impose fines on the offenders, of 51., 101., and 15/. for the first, second, and third offences, half of which goes to the informers and half to the Company. From twelve to twenty members are em ployed annually, in parties of two each, in suitable divisions, to conduct the searches. They sometimes destroy drugs and medicines in pursuance of their powers ; but it is more usual to direct the clerk to send letters to each de faulter, directing them to supply them selves with drags of good quality. The pecuniary advantages which the company derive from this act are not large enough to allow them to carry on the searches on a very extensive scale. The act also empowers the Society of Apothecaries to prosecute persons who unlawfully exercise the functions of an apothecary. It is a subject of complaint with the Society that the machinery for accomplishing this ob ject is very imperfect. The punishment for the offence is a penalty recoverable only by action of debt, which must be tried at the assizes for the county in which the offence is committed. As it is of importance that prosecutions instituted by a public body should not fail, the Society are not in the habit of instituting frequent prosecutions. In only one case have they failed. The expenses of pro secutions are very great, six recent actions having cost 320/. each. (Statement, tc., May, 1844.) From the small number of prosecutions, owing to the want of a more summary process, it is stated that " the number of unqualified persons who are engaged in practice is very considerable." The act of 1815 provided that, after the 1st of August in that year, no person not licensed should practise as an apothecary, except such only as were already in prac tice. It is required by the act that candi dates for examination should have attained the age of twenty-one. and have served an apprenticeship of at least five years with an apothecary legally qualified to prac tice ; and they are also required to pro duce testimonials of good moral conduct, and of a sufficient medical education.