at Apothecaries? Hall. 195 



them from persons who were neither subscribers nor members of 

 the society, for, in 1682, the committee of managers were called 

 upon to consider the propriety of acceding to such applications. 

 Whether it was at that time consented to, or not, does not appear, 

 but it must have taken place wittiin a few years after. 



In the early part of the reign of her late majesty Queen Anne, a 

 new era took place in the affairs of this society. So much diffi- 

 culty had arisen in providing pure and genuine drugs and medi- 

 cines for the use of the Royal Navy, and the credit of the society 

 in their chemical preparations was so fully established, that appli- 

 cation was made to them by his royal highness Prince George of 

 Denmark, Lord High Admiral, to undertake that service, which 

 was readily consented to, and became the origin of a separate 

 commercial establishment under the title of the Navy Stock. 



Until this time chemical processes only were carried on at their 

 hall, but as it now became necessary to provide both drugs and 

 their preparations, as well as the various galenical medicines at 

 that period employed, a considerable capital was formed, and 

 warehouses and laboratories erected for that purpose. The great 

 expense attending the establishment of this stock, which, from the 

 extensive erections of such various kinds, became unavoidable, 

 rendered it for the first half century a source of small pecuniary 

 profit to the proprietors. It is only subsequently to that period, 

 that the numerous and extended wars in which the nation has 

 been engaged, and the consequent large supplies of medicines re- 

 quired for the service of the navy, in addition to the great quanti- 

 ties exported to India, by order of the Honourable East India Com- 

 pany, and the large sums which have been of late years received 

 for medicines furnished for public institutions, as well as private 

 families, that a profit has accrued by which the society and its 

 members have been indemnified for the losses and other disad- 

 vantages sustained in the infancy of this commercial establish- 

 ment. 



As the concerns of the society have been, at all times, conducted 

 with that accuracy and integrity which has acquired for the me- 

 dicines prepared at Apothecaries' Hall the highest character, both 

 O 2 



