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BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
in our history,—they were incorporated by James I., in April, 1606 ; but the 
alliance does not seem to have worked well, for, in December, 1617, or eleven 
■years after, they were disunited, and the Apothecaries’ Company was formed, 
with the designation of “ The Master, Wardens, and Society of the Art and 
Mystery of Apothecaries of the City of London;” and it is by this charter 
they still exist, but with considerably diminished powers. It is curious to 
observe the dissatisfaction of the grocers after their separation, for, in the 
year 1624, a petition was presented to King James by them, wherein they 
complain that notwithstanding they are by far the largest body, the apothe¬ 
caries have appropriated to themselves the “ whole buying and selling of all 
drugs, and the whole distillation and selling of all waters within the said city (of 
London) and seven miles thereabout ; this they say is against the law and to 
the impoverishing of many persons and their families, and they implore his 
Majesty to declare ‘the letters patent’ to be void, and not hereafter to be 
put in execution.” However, the King disregarded their petition, and, in his 
reply, says, I myself did devise the corporation, and do allow it; that the 
grocers are only merchants and unskilled, whilst the apothecaries possessing 
the requisite knowledge, I think it fitting that they should be a corporation 
of themselves. 
The quarrels betwixt the grocers and apothecaries resulted, in 1639, in a 
further subdivision of labour ; the spirituous liquors and cordial compounds, 
which had been represented as distilled waters, were no longer to be made 
either by the apothecary or grocer, but by a separate company, and this 
seems the first establishment of “distillers” or “vintners.” I may inci¬ 
dentally mention a curious combination that existed as far back as Edward II ., 
1461, up to George II., betwixt the barbers and surgeons, so that for upwards 
of two hundred years this seemingly ungenial alliance continued, when it 
was discovered that the business or trade of a barber was “foreign to and in¬ 
dependent of the practice of surgeryso says the Act of Parliament, and 
henceforth the barbers were not to practise surgery further than drawing of 
teeth ; and the surgeons were strictly prohibited from exercising “ the feat or 
craft of barbery or shaving and, furthermore, they were required to have 
an open sign on the street side, whereby the king’s liege people passing might 
know whither to resort in case of need. This publicity is still given by the 
barbers, but in most cases, I apprehend, without their knowing that the Pole 
displays the painted spiral emblem of the bandage used in Phlebotomy. 
The Apothecaries’ Company, consisting as it did of a joint stock company, 
soon began to usurp power; and we find they memorialized the Lord High 
Admiral, by representing the defective manner and bad drugs supplied by 
the London chemists to the naval surgeons. The result was an order, dated 
June, 1703, requiring all surgeons belonging to the navy to have their chests 
furnished at the common hall of the Company of Apothecaries, on condition 
that they should be good and cheap ; they then made a further effort to supply 
the E. I. Co., and they obtained an order to do so, but it was to be subject 
to the approval of a competent committee, who had called in to their aid two 
eminent wholesale apothecaries, and they jointly expressed dissatisfaction 
with the quantity and price. Upon this rebuff the Company felt sore, and 
endeavoured to retaliate on the apothecaries by condemning some of their 
chests, but in this they failed ; however, nothing daunted, they visited the 
shop of one of them (Mr. Lawrence) during his absence, and took samples 
of his goods for examination at the Hall (a privilege they obtained in 1722 and 
expired seven years after). Mr. Lawrence foreseeing the result, got some of 
his friends to go to the shops of the managers of the Company and purchase 
similar articles to those which they had taken from him; so, that when sum¬ 
moned, he pleaded that the articles taken were not finished making, but 
