xiv PREFACE. 



the old models of Mesue and Nicolaus, have confined their direc- 

 tions to the Galenic department, since the chemicals are usually 

 prepared in the country, where house-room, labour, and fuel are 

 cheap, by manufacturers, who totally disregard the directions of 

 the college. This being the case, the chemicals are not likely 

 ever to be prepared by the apothecaries themselves ; besides, much 

 of the merit of chemical processes depends upon their concatena- 

 tion with others carried on in the same laboratory, to make the 

 waste of one process serve as the ingredient for another, a circum- 

 stance that cannot be considered by the college as depending upon 

 an infinite variety of circumstances, but which has a most material 

 influence upon the price at which the articles can be brought into 

 the market ; and it may be added, that the chemicals are always 

 identical, or nearly so, in whatever manner they are prepared. 



The Pharmacopoeia printed in 1815 is only a corrected impres- 

 sion of the edition of 1809 ; and the new Pharmacopoeia of 1824 

 is very slightly altered, in a few points, from its predecessor. 



To enforce the performance of the directions of the Pharma- 

 copoeia, the censors of the college, and the wardens of the apothe- 

 caries, were, on the separation of the society of apothecaries from 

 the company of grocers, empowered to search the shops of apo- 

 thecaries in and about London, to destroy all they found unfaith- 

 fully prepared, and even fine the parties. The ill-will occasioned 

 by this separation, and by the examination being referred to the 

 apothecaries, was so great, that it was made one of the grievances 

 complained of by the House of Commons in 1627 ; and from the 

 answer made to this petition of grievances, by King James, in his 

 last notice from the throne, a few months before his death, we learn 

 that this separation was devised by our British Solomon himself*. 



* Petition of the Commons (in 1624) to the King, complaining of divers 

 grievances— [Cobbett's Parliamentary History, vol. i. col. 1491.] 



'^ Apothecaries.] Whereas the apothecaries of the city of London have been 

 anciently members of the Company of Grocers of the same city, and whereas 

 the said grocers did and do far exceed the number of apothecaries, and did 

 even buy and sell all manner of drugs as well as apothecaries, which drugs, at 

 several times of the year, were by the President and Censors of the College of 

 the Physicians searched out and viewed whether the same were useful or not ; 

 and whereas as well the said grocers, as others, did use to distil all kinds of 

 waters, a great part whereof was transported beyond the sea, to your Majesty's 

 great and yearly benefit. The said apothecaries, without the consent of the 

 said grocers, obtained letters patent, bearing date 6th December, in the 15th year 

 of your reign, whereby the said apothecaries are incorporated and divided from 



