PREFACE. XV 



While the apothecaries were only dispensers, this regulation 

 could be strictly enforced ; but when thoy changed into dispensing 

 practitioners, and chemists and druggists opened shops under the 

 sanction of the physicians, to supply the place of the old apothe- 

 caries for dispensing, and also sold perfumery, dye stuffs, paints, 

 &c., this power of examination, when not employed as a means of 

 vexation, as in Goodwin's case and some others*, dwindled of ne- 



the Company of Grocers ; by colour of which letters patent the apothecaries have 

 appropriatetl to themselves the whole buying and selling of all drugs, and the 

 whole distillation and selling of all waters within the said city, and seven miles 

 thereabout. A^Tiich division from the grocers, without their consent, and the 

 appropriating of the distillation of the said waters unto the apothecaries, and the 

 sole selling thereof by them, is against the law, to the impoverishing of many per- 

 sons and their families. Your loyal subjects, therefore, humbly pray your Ma- 

 jesty graciously to be pleasetl to declare the said letters patent to be void, and 

 that the same shall not hereafter be put into execution." 



It appears from the pamphlets published on this subject, that the number 

 of apothecaries in London, and within seven miles thereof, was at this time 

 about 140. 



The King's answer to such part of the Commons' petition as related to the 

 apothecaries, in which he thus retaliates on them : 



" Another grievance of mine is, that you have condemned the patents of 

 ie apothecaries in London. 1 myself did devise that corporation, and do 

 How it. The grocers who complain of it are but merchants ; the mystery 

 * these apothecaries were belonging to apothecaries, wherein the grocers are 

 iskilful ; and therefore / think it fitting they should be a corporation of 

 emselves. They bring home rotten wares from the Indies, Persia, and 

 reece, and here with these mixtures make waters, and sell such as belong 

 apothecaries, and think no man must control them, because they are not 

 jothecaries." 



These quarrels between the apothecaries and grocers, respecting the dis- 

 ling and selling of spirituous liquors and cordial compounds, were settled 

 1639, by the distillers, rectifiers, and compounders being then made a 

 )arate company. 



The following is a history of the cases here referred to, as far as can be 

 )llected from the pamphlets preserved by Sir Hans Sloane, and now in the 

 itish Mu.scum : — 



The Apothecaries Company, soon after the subscription of a joint stock for 



trade, memorialized the Lord High Admiral, that the surgeons' chests fitted 



up by the London chemists were defective and furnished with bad articles : 



whereupon the Prince of Denmark, Ivord High Admiral, ordered, 30th June, 



1 7f> ?, tf'o cnrrroons of hcr Majcsty's ships to furnish and provide their chests 



' 1 hall of the Company of Apothecaries, " the said Company 



.1 me that they will furnish l)oth good and cheap." They 



ivourwl to obtain the supply of the Elast India (Company, and 



in onler for that purpose; but the Company appointing a special 



wiiiiee of members having some knowledge in drugs and medicines to 



■t their invoices, the e were dissatisfied with lx)th quantity and price, 



-llerl in two eminent wholesale apothecaries to join in a report to the 



committee to this effect. 



I this rebuff, the Apothecaries Company attempted to condemn 



chests which ha<l been fitted out by these two apothecaries ; but not 



they visited the sliop of one of tiicm (Mr. Lawrence), when the 



