I^^ecurei 



PREFACE. xxi 



!ured by a proposal made in the committee, but not appearing 

 in the bill, that the licensing money should be appropriated to the 

 use of the widows and orphans of medical men. 



In spite of these manoeuvres of the associated apothecaries, it 

 was speedily discovered, that even in this amended state the bill 

 was not likely to pass into an act. They therefore gave notice, 

 tliat they meant to expunge everything relative to the compound- 

 ing chemist and druggist, to the erecting of a medical school, or 

 to the uniting of the heads of the already constituted medical 

 bodies with the superintending bod}' ; and, indeed, confined their 

 views entirely to causing apothecaries and surgeon-apothecaries 

 to be examined as to their proficiency, and to obtaining for them 

 a different mode of recompence for their visits and professional 

 skill : but not a word about the original object, the procuring 

 of apprentices. Feeling, however, that the hostility against the 

 bill was still too active for them to encounter, the idea of form- 

 ing a fourth medical corporation was given up by the associated 

 apothecaries; but as more than a thousand of the apothecaries 

 had thus agreed to a taxation of their apprentices, and urged the 

 necessity of their attending certain courses of lectures before 

 setting up in business, although they had, in signing the inden- 

 tures of their own apprentices, covenanted to teach them the 

 whole art and mystery of an apothecary ; by which these men 

 proclaimed to the world their own remissness in performing their 

 engagements, the Society of Apothecaries seized ihe opportunity 

 of extending their controul from London and its neighbourhood, 



' one over the whole kingdom, and of raising a revenue for 

 their own members by taxing the apprentices, not only of their 

 own members, but also of all apothecaries, when they should 

 wish to set up in business. Accordingly, a new bill was brought 

 into Parliament by this Society, which, after some opposition, 

 passed on the third reading, by a single vote, at the moment the 

 House was breaking up for the session. 



This Act, repealing the power of the Society of Apothecaries 

 of examining medicines in shops, houses, cellars, &c., in and 

 alx)ut London, substitutes for it the power of examining the 



ledicines in the " shop or shops '^ of apothecaries through Eng- 

 land and Wales, with power of fining the party if the medicines 

 are not found good ; the first time 01. , the second 10/., and every 



