PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 293 
a joint stock company, and the establishment of a laboratory 
at their Hall, for their own use, and for supplying their mem- 
bers with drugs. The attention paid by them to the practice 
of medicine, naturally led to a neglect of pharmaceutical ope- 
rations, and this circumstance, aided by the efforts of the 
physician, had the effect of bringing forward, in a more 
prominent manner, the retail chemist and druggist, or that por- 
tion of the apothecaries who abstained from medical practice. 
In 1732, the larger portion of the practice of the kingdom 
having fallen into their hands, the Legislature constituted the 
apothecaries, who now regularly studied physic, a medical 
body. By another act of parliament, passed more recently, 
(1813,) it is directed that twelve persons should be appointed 
by the Society of Apothecaries, to " ascertain the skill and 
abilities of such person or persons, (applying for certificates 
to practice as apothecaries,) in the Science and Practice of 
Medicine, and his or their fitness to practice as an apotheca- 
ry, and they are empowered either to reject such person or 
grant a certificate of his qualification." None to be allowed, 
but to such as are[twenty-one years old, who have served an ap- 
prenticeship of at least five years to an apothecary, and who 
shall produce testimonials of a sufficient medical education. 
The act also contains directions with respect to their prepar- 
ing and dispensing medicines, imposing certain penalties 
upon them, in case they refuse to prepare, or unfaithfully com- 
pound the prescriptions of physicians. Thus it will be seen, 
that the law, fully recognizing them as practitioners of phy- 
sic, considers them, also, as dispensers of medicine. They 
appear, however, to be generally dropping the pharmaceuti- 
cal portion of their duties; many of them, indeed, now call 
themselves " General Practitioners," discarding the title of 
apothecary, which of right belongs to the retail chemist and 
druggist, whose establishment is the true arfoflj^.* 
*<TtQ»/xi (to put or place,) 9 too (from, or away,) 'whence the noun 
'dm&MH (apotheca) a repository, and the modern Latin word apothe- 
carius, a keeper of a repository of things laid up for special uses. 
