THE ALUMNI JOURNAL, 



^35 



I must for want of time pass on from 

 Hippocrates to the dawn of modern medi- 

 cine in the sixteenth century. 



The Royal College of Physicians was 

 founded in 1518. The history of medi- 

 cine, as recognized by law, dates from 

 the year 1511, when an Act was passed 

 for appointing physicians and surgeons. 

 The examination of these gentlemen was 

 placed in the hands of the Bishop of 

 London and the Dean of St. Paul's Cathe- 

 dral, By this Act the faculty of medicine 

 was vested in one body, the members of 

 which practiced medicine, surgery, and 

 pharmacy; the assistants to the physi- 

 cians were called apothecaries. This 

 happy and peaceful family party was 

 broken up by the establishment of a 

 Royal College of Physicians by Thomas 

 lyinacre, physician to Henry VIII., in 

 the year 15 18 A. d. This Act, we must 

 observe, gave the College of Physicians 

 full and penal powers against the apothe- 

 caries. In the same year the College of 

 Surgeons was united to the College of 

 Barbers, the surgeons abandoning the 

 dignified and lucrative operation of shav- 

 ing, while the barbers promised to con- 

 fine their practice of surgery to the draw- 

 ing of teeth. The surgeons appear to 

 have behaved so badly that another Act 

 was passed in 1542, which was directed 

 at the quack system of practice without 

 remuneration. In 1552 an Act was passed 

 which declared that it was illegal for a 

 surgeon to administer medicine. In the 

 year 1553 the College of Physicians ob- 

 tained a new Act, in which their former 

 powers were confirmed and enlarged, and 

 in which it is stated that their four cen- 

 sors, or any three of them, shall have 

 power to examine, survey, govern, cor- 

 rect, and puni.sh all and singular physi- 

 cians and practitioners in the faculty of 

 physic, apothecaries, druggists, distillers, 

 and sellers of waters and oils and pre- 

 parers of chemical medicines, according 



as the nature of his or their oSences may 

 seem to require. It is uncertain at what 

 time the physicians gave up the practice 

 of preparing their own medicines. The 

 apothecaries, who had been incorporated 

 with the grocers, obtained their charter 

 in 161 7; it was enacted at the same time 

 that no grocer should keep an apothe- 

 caries' shop, and that no surgeon should 

 sell medicines. The first pharmacopoeia 

 was published in 161 8 by the College of 

 Physicians of London. Twelve subse- 

 quent editions were published, the last in 

 1836. This Society prospered, and in 

 1671 built a laboratory. Mr. Bell gives 

 an instance of the enormous charges of 

 these people : — 



Apothecaries' bill for attending Mr. 

 Daly, of Ludgate Hill, five days. Total ; 

 £\'] 2s. lod. The following are some of 

 the items : — 



s.d. 

 Another bolus 2 6 



i. d. 



6 

 6 

 6 



Another draught 



A glass of cordial 



Blistering to arms 



The same to wrist 



Two boluses again 



Two draughts again 



Another emulsion 



Another pearl julep. 



An emulsion 4 



A mucilage 3 



Gilly of hartshorn— 4 



Blister i o 



An emollient glyster 2 6 



An ivory pipe, armed i o 



A cordial bolus 2 6 



The same again 2 6 



A cordial draught-. 2 4 



The same again_ 2 4 



This was the amount of medicine taken 

 in one day by the unhappy victim. Mis- 

 conduct of this kind on the part of the 

 apothecaries gave their natural oppo- 

 nents, the physicians, a powerful weapon 

 of offence against them, but their great 

 public usefulness as a class prevented the 

 annihilation of the Society then as in the 

 present time. In 1748 the apothecaries 

 appear to have obtained the same juris- 

 diction over the chemists that the physi- 

 cians previously had over them, and led 

 to the friction which has happily termi- 

 nated in the foundation of the Phar- 

 maceutical Society of Great Britain in 

 1841 and the foundation in 1875 of the 

 sister Society in Ireland, whose guests we 

 have the honor of being to-night. For 



