614 
BRISTOL PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
land and his colleagues; the practice of medicine was, at this date, wholly unregu¬ 
lated, and it was an even chance whether patients were cured or poisoned, perhaps 
with a slight balance in favour of the latter probability. 
It was not until the time of Henry YIII. and his superb premier, Cardinal Wolsey, 
that any special examinations were appointed or privileges allowed. 
In 1511, Thomas Lineacre, a celebrated physician, procured from the errant king a 
royal edict, in which it was decreed, that no subject should practise physic in London, 
or within seven miles thereof, who had not been examined and approved by the Bishop 
of London and the Dean of St. Paul's ! 
The preamble of the original Act gives us a clear idea of the chaotic condition of 
pharmacy at tins date, and fully justifies the clerical interference. It says, “ Before 
this period a great multitude of ignorant persons, of whom the greater part had no 
insight into physic, nor into any kind of learning; some could not even read the 
letters and the book,—so far forth, that common artificers, as smiths, weavers, and 
women (unkind cut), boldly and accustomably took upon themselves great cures, to the 
high displeasure of God , great infamy to the Faculty, and the grievous hurt, damage, 
and destruction of the King’s liege people.” 
Rapidly following upon this, and, no doubt, at the instigation of Lineacre, who lived 
to be of service to Edward VI. and Princess Mary, the physicians were incorporated 
in 1518, and their college founded. Lineacre became its first president, and the 
meetings were originally held at his house, 5, Knight Ryder Street, Doctors’ Commons. 
(A lesson to ourselves, gentlemen, not to despise small beginnings.) 
The surgeons seem to have been left out in the cold ; but about twenty years after¬ 
wards (in 1540), they also were incorporated; and as there appeared to be some con¬ 
nection between the knife of the surgeon and the scissors of the barber, the two pro¬ 
fessions were connected, and the barber-surgeons continued to amputate legs and locks 
for many generations. 
This legislation did not by any means prevent large numbers of outsiders from prac¬ 
tising medicine. These interlopers were so numerous and important, that it soon 
became needful to look after them, and accordingly, in 1543, a curious “ permissive 
bill” w r as passed, entitled, “An Act that persons, being no common surgeons, may 
administer outward medicines.” 
All those irregulars who kept open drug-shops, etc., were included; and here, at 
last, after a long and tiresome journey, I have brought you to your own beginnings ; 
for in these gentlemen, permitted to “ minister outward medicines,” in the sixteenth 
century, you have the true predecessors of the Pharmaceutical Chemists permitted to 
deal in poisons in the nineteenth. They were recognized generally as apothecaries, 
and it is gratifying to know, that some of them, at least, appear to have been decent 
and kindly souls, for the permissive Act gives them great praise for their treatment of 
the poor, many of whom they seem to have attended upon without fee or reward, 
giving both advice and medicines gratis ; and their conduct is placed in striking con¬ 
trast to that of then’ more learned and avaricious rivals, the physicians and surgeons. 
Matters remained in this condition until the time of James I. ; and then, in 1606, 
the apothecaries were first constituted a corporation, only, however, in connection with 
the grocers, and lienee they became known as spicers. 
This ill-assorted marriage lasted only a few years, and, in 1617, the grocers were 
divorced, and the apothecaries became a distinct body under the title of The Master, 
Wardens, and Society of Apothecaries in London. 
No doubt it was intended originally that their office should be limited to the pre¬ 
paration and dispensing of medicines ; but finding this brought them either too little 
honour or too little profit, they presently began to visit and prescribe, and there arose 
at once a fierce controversy between themselves and the physicians, which produced 
a paper war, worthy of a Bristol election. 
The physicians, enraged at the rapid popularity and success of the apothecaries, 
and plotting to destroy their gains, whilst, at the same time, courting public favour 
for themselves, established dispensaries, at which the poor might obtain medicine and 
advice for nothing. It may be conceded that the object was twofold, and that, with 
a large quantity of spite, there w T as mixed up a handful of benevolence ; but there 
can be no doubt, that the foundation of the useful institutions which now grace our 
