PROGRESS OF PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 275 
In 1723 further difficulties occurred between the physi- 
cians and apothecaries, some of the former having behaved 
in a very arbitrary manner, in reference to one Goodwin, 
(as it afterwards appears without sufficient cause,) entered 
his shop during his absence, condemned certain of his drugs, 
and burnt them in the street before his door. This act was 
again committed by them, and although the utmost en- 
deavours of Goodwin could not repeal the law, yet he 
obtained ^600 damages. 
These inquisitorial visits were occasionally marked with 
some laughable anecdotes. On one of these occasions an 
apothecary placed by accident or design on his counter a 
jar labelled " Ung : Alhuyn^^^ which contained graecum 
album, (white dog's dung.) The medical gentlemen seized 
on the jar, each giving his opinion of the quality of the 
simple ointment ; one said it was too hard, another that it 
did not smell enough of the camphor, a third averred that it 
should be malaxated with oil, whilst the last got in a pas- 
sion and was for throwing it out at once, at which the shop 
boy, who had been amused with their remarks, objected, 
said it was a good medicine, and told them what it was. 
The Pharmacopoeia of 1721 rejected many useless items 
of the materia medica, but it was not until 1746 that that 
work became a rational formulary. The number of com- 
pound syrups and ointments was greatly reduced, as was 
the very complex electuaries, plasters, &c. Yet the 
formulas for Mithridate with forty and Theriac with sixty 
ingredients were retained. 
In 1748 the Apothecaries Company obtained chartered 
powers to license apothecaries to sell medicines in London, 
or within seven miles, and gave them the authority to visit 
shops and examine drugs within their limits. This acqui- 
sition of power caused difficulties amongst the apothecaries 
and produced another pamphlet war. On one occasion, an 
