172  London  Botanic  Gardens.  {Am,ipS;ffifm' 
lightening  it  in  color,  it  could  not  replace  the  official  solution  when 
that  is  prescribed.  Such  a  modification  might  be  made  to  advan- 
tage when  the  official  solution  is  not  required. 
The  amount  of  soap  used  in  the  official  solution  seems  to  be  need- 
lessly large,  two  thirds  of  the  amount  directed  has  given  equally 
satisfactory  results. 
Care  should  be  taken  to  avoid  heating  the  liquid  after  the  cresol 
has  been  added,  since  it  is  quite  volatile  and  the  vapor  is  inflam- 
mable. 
LONDON  BOTANIC  GARDENS. 
By  Pierre  Ewe  Feux  Perredes,  b.Sc,  F.L.S., 
Pharmaceutical  Chemist. 
A  Contribution  from  the  Wellcome  Research  laboratories,  London. 
{Continued from  p.  121.) 
IV. 
THE  CHELSEA  PHYSIC  GARDEN. 
Before  commencing  an  account  of  the  Chelsea  Physic  Garden,  it 
will  be  necessary  to  give  a  brief  resume  of  the  origin  and  develop- 
ment of  the  society  by  which  the  garden  was  founded.  The  Society 
of  Apothecaries  of  London — in  Latin,  "  Societas  Pharmacopceiorum 
Londinensis"  or  "  Societas  Pharmaceulica  Londinensis  " — was  incor- 
porated by  Royal  Charter  in  1606,  and  was  then  united  with  the 
Grocers'  Company,  an  ancient  City  guild.  The  existence  of  the 
Society  as  an  independent  body  dates  from  1617,  when  a  new  charter 
was  obtained  from  James  I,  and  the  Society  severed  its  connection 
with  the  Grocers'  Company. 
The  Society  of  Apothecaries,  or  "  Societas  Pharmaceutica  Londi- 
nensis,'1 must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of 
Great  Britain,  the  latter  having  been  established  in  1 841,  incorpo- 
rated by  Royal  Charter  in  1843,  and  made,  by  the  Pharmacy  Acts 
of  1852  and  1868,  the  only  legal  body  in  the  United  Kingdom  for 
the  examination  and  registration  of  pharmacists.  It  may  seem 
strange  to  the  American  reader  that  the  title  of  "  apothecary  " 
should  not  be  synonymous  with  that  of  "  pharmacist,"  and  in  order 
to  explain  this  apparent  anomaly,  we  must  go  back  to  an  early  date 
in  the  history  of  the  Society  of  Apothecaries.  The  "  apothecary," 
at  the  time  of  the  Society's  inception,  and  for  a  considerable  period 
