however be political reasons for making certain allowances to the members of the reigning family, independent of the civil list that is granted to the ruling prince. But as in modern times neither the honour of a nation nor the dignity of the members of a reigning family depends in any degree on the amount of the expenditure which such members make out of the public treasury, so there are no reasons whatever for making them any independent allowance, except reasons of general interest. Accordingly in what are commonly called constitutional monarchies, where the princes of the royal family are called to any active participation in the offices of state, the allowance of a suitable income out of the public treasury may serve to give them a more independent position with respect to the head of the state. Such an allowance may also serve in the case of princes who stand in the line of succession, to give to those who may be the future heads of the state the respect due to their station, and to secure them a suitable and certain income, and thus to draw more closely the ties which unite them and the people. (Rotteck and Welcker, StaatsLexicon, art. by P. A. Pfizer.) [CIVIL LIST.] APOTHECARIES, COMPANY OF, one of the incorporated Companies of the city of London. The word Apothecary is from the French apoticaire, which is defined by Richelet to be "one who prepares medicines according to a physician's prescription." The word is from the low Latin Apothecarius, and that is from the genuine Latin apotheca, which means a storehouse or store-room generally, and, more particularly, a place for storing wine in: the Latin word is, however, from the Greek (ἀποθήκη). In England, in former times, an apothecary appears to have been the common name for a general practitioner of medicine, a part of whose business it was, probably in all cases, to keep a shop for the sale of medicines. In 1345 a person of the name of Coursus de Gangeland, on whom Edward III. then settled a pension of sixpence a day for life, for his attendance on his Majesty some time | before while he lay sick in Scotland, is called in the grant, printed in Rymer's Fœdera,' an apothecary of London. But at this date, and for a long time after, the profession of physic was entirely unregulated. It was not till after the accession of Henry VIII. that the different branches of the profession came to be distinguished, and that each had its province and particular privileges assigned to it by law. In 1511 an act of parliament (3 Hen. VIII. c. 11) was passed, by which, in consideration, as it is stated, of "the great inconvenience which did ensue by igno rant persons practising physic or surgery, to the grievous hurt, damage, and destruction of many of the king's liege people," it was ordered that no one should practise as surgeon or physician in the city of London, or within seven miles of it, until he had been first examined, ap proved, and admitted by the Bishop of London or the Dean of St. Paul's, who were to call in to assist them in the examination "four doctors of physic, and of surgery other expert persons in that faculty." In 1518 the physicians were for the first time incorporated, and their college founded, evidently with the view that it should exercise a general superintendence over all the branches of the profession. In 1540 the surgeons were also incorporated and united, as they continued to be till the beginning of the present century, with the barbers. The two associations thus established appear, however, to have very soon begu to overstep their authority. It was found necessary, in 1543, to pass an act for the toleration and protection of the numerous irregular practitioners, who did not belong to either body, but who probably formed the ordinary professors of healing throughout the kingdom. In this curious statute (34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 8) the former act of 1511 is declared to have been passed," amongst other things, for the avoiding of sorceries, witchcraft, and other inconveniencies;" and not a little censure is directed against the licensed and associated surgeons for the mercenary spirit in which they are alleged to have acted; while much praise is bestowed upon the unincorporated practitioners for their charity in giving the poor the benefit of their skill and care, and for the great public usefulness of their labours generally. The import of the enactment is expressed in its title, which is, “An Act that persons being no common surgeons may minister outward medicines." The persons thus tolerated in the administration of outward medicines, of course comprehended those who kept shops for the sale of drugs, to whom the name of apothecaries was now exclusively applied. The acceptation of the name, as thus confined, may be gathered from Shakspere's delineation of the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet' (published in 1597), as one whose business was "culling of simples," who kept a "shop," the "shelves" of which were filled with "green earthen pots," &c., and who was resorted to as a dealer in all sorts of chemical preparations. Nothing is said of his practising medicine; and it certainly was not till nearly a century later that apothecaries in England, as distinguished from physicians and surgeons, began regularly to act as general practitioners. It appears to have been only a few years before the close of the seventeenth century that the apothecaries, at least in London and its neighbourhood, began gradually to prescribe, as well as to dispense medicines. This encroachment was strongly resisted by the College of Physicians, who, by way of retaliation, established a dispensary for the sale of medicines to the poor at prime cost at their hall in Warwick Lane. A paper controversy rose out of this measure; but the numerous tracts which were issued on both sides are now all forgotten, with the exception of Garth's burlesque epic poem, entitled 'The Dispensary,' first published in 1697. The apothecaries, however, may be considered as having made good the position they had taken, although for a considerable time their pretensions continued to be looked upon as of a somewhat equivocal character. Addison, in the Spectator,' No. 195, published in 1711, speaks of the apothecaries as the common medical attendants of the sick, and as performing the functions both of physician and surgeon. After menMeanwhile, however, the apothecaries tioning blistering, cupping, bleeding, and of London were incorporated by James I. the inward applications employed as exon the 9th of April, 1606, and united pedients to make luxury consistent with with the Company of Grocers. They re-health, he says, "The apothecary is permained thus united till the 6th of De-petually employed in countermining the cember, 1617, when they received a new cook and the vintner." On the other charter, by which they were formed into hand, Pope, in his Essay on Criticism,' a separate company, under the designa-published the same year, has the followtion of the "Master, Wardens, and So- ing lines in illustration of the domination ciety of the Art and Mystery of Apothe- which he asserts to have been usurped by caries of the city of London." This the critic over the poet :charter ordains that no grocer shall keep an apothecary's shop; that every apothecary shall have served an apprenticeship of seven years; and before he is permitted to keep a shop, or to act as an apothecary, he shall be examined before the master and wardens to ascertain his fitness. It also gave the Company extensive powers to search for and destroy in the city of London, or within seven miles, compounds and drugs which were adulterated or unfit for medical use. This is the charter which still constitutes them one of the city companies, although various subsequent acts of parliament have materially changed the character of the society. "So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art By doctors' bills to play the doctor's part, Nor, indeed, did the apothecaries themselves contend at this time for permission to practise as medical advisers and attendants any further than circumstances seemed to render it indispensable. In a clever tract written in their defence, published in 1724, and apparently the production of one of themselves, entitled Pharmacopola Justificati; or, the Apothecaries vindicated from the Imputation of Ignorance, wherein is shown that an Academical Education is nowise necessary to qualify a Man for the practice of Physic,' we find the following opinion | practitioners. And in 1708 we find a expressed (p. 31):-"As to apothecaries series of resolutions published by the practising, the miserable state of the sick Court of Apothecaries, in which they poor, till some other provision is made for complain of the intrusion into their busitheir relief, seems sufficiently to warrant ness of foreigners-that is, of persons not it, so long as it is confined to them." We free of the company. Their charter, may here observe, that the custom of though it appeared to bestow upon them persons being licensed by the bishops to somewhat extensive privileges, had been practise medicine within their dioceses found nearly inoperative from the omiscontinued to subsist at least to about the sion of any means of executing its promiddle of the last century. It is ex- visions, and of any penalties for their claimed against as a great abuse in a infringement. In 1722, therefore, an act tract entitled An Address to the College of parliament was obtained by the comof Physicians,' published in 1747. pany, giving them the right of visiting all shops in which medicinal preparations were sold in London, or within seven miles of it, and of destroying such drugs as they might find unfit for use. This act expired in 1729; and although an attempt was made to obtain a renewal of it, the application was not persevered in. But in 1748 another act was passed, empowering the society to appoint ten of their members to form a court of examiners, without whose licence no one should be allowed to sell medicines in London, or within seven miles of it. It was stated before a Committee of the House of Commons, that there were at this time about 700 persons who kept apothecaries' shops in London, not onehalf of whom were free of the company. This act probably had the effect of putting the unlicensed dealers down; which may account for the common statement that no such description of dealers ever made their appearance till a comparatively recent period. In an Introductory Essay prefixed to the first volume of the Trans actions of the Associated Apothecaries and Surgeon Apothecaries of England and Wales' (8vo. London, 1823), in which it is admitted that anciently "the apothecary held the same situation which appertains, or ought to appertain, to the present druggist, who arose," it is affirmed, "about thirty years ago," the following remark is added:-"For some time previous to that period, indeed, certain apothecaries existed who purely kept shop, without prescribing for diseases; but very few of these existed even in London; for in the memory of a physician lately dead, there were not more, as he stated, than about half a dozen persons It has been often stated that the dealers in medicines called chemists or druggists first made their appearance about the end of the last century. As they soon began to prescribe, as well as to dispense, the rivalry with which they were thus met was as eagerly opposed by the regular apothecaries as their own encroachments had in the first instance been by the physicians. In certain resolutions passed by a meeting of members of the Associated Apothecaries, on the 20th of November, 1812, among other causes which are asserted to have of late years contributed to degrade the profession, is mentioned the intrusion of pretenders of every description:--" Even druggists," it is said, "and their hired assistants, visit and administer to the sick; their shops are accommodated with what are denominated private surgeries; and, as an additional proof of their presumption, instances are recorded of their giving evidence on questions of forensic medicine of the highest and most serious import!" But in all this the druggists did no more than the apothecaries themselves had begun to do a hundred years before. We doubt, too, if the first appearance of these interlopers was so recent as has been assumed. In a tract, printed on a single folio leaf" at the Star in Bow Lane in 1683," entitled 'A Plea for the Chemists or Non-Collegiats,' the author, Nat Merry, stoutly defends the right of himself and the other manufacturers of chemical preparations to administer medicines, against the objections of the members of the Apothecaries' Company, who seem to have been themselves at this time only beginning to act as general in London who kept what could be called | for the offence is a penalty recoverable a druggist's shop." Up to within the last few years the Company of Apothecaries had never attempted to extend their authority beyond the metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood. But in 1815 an act was passed (55 Geo. III. c. 194) which placed the society in a new position, by giving to a Court of Examiners, composed of twelve members, who must be apothecaries, the sole right of examining and licensing apothecaries throughout England and Wales. The examiners must be apothecaries who have been in practice for not less than ten years. They are appointed by the master, wardens, and assistants of the company. The master and wardens, or the Court of Examiners, may appoint five apothecaries in any county in England above thirty miles from London, who are empowered to examine and license apothecaries' assistants. The power of searching for adulterated drugs given by the charter was repealed by the above act, and in lieu thereof the master, wardens, or assistants, or the examiners, or any two of them, are empowered to enter the shops of apothecaries in any part of England and Wales, and to search, survey, and prove medicines, and to destroy the same; and also to impose fines on the offenders, of 51., 10%, and 151. for the first, second, and third offences, half of which goes to the informers and half to the Company. From twelve to twenty members are employed annually, in parties of two each, in suitable divisions, to conduct the searches. They sometimes destroy drugs and medicines in pursuance of their powers; but it is more usual to direct the clerk to send letters to each defaulter, directing them to supply themselves with drugs of good quality. The pecuniary advantages which the company derive from this act are not large enough to allow them to carry on the searches on a very extensive scale. The act also empowers the Society of Apothecaries to prosecute persons who unlawfully exercise the functions of an apothecary. It is a subject of complaint with the Society that the machinery for accomplishing this object is very imperfect. The punishment only by action of debt, which must be tried at the assizes for the county in which the offence is committed. As it is of importance that prosecutions instituted by a public body should not fail, the Society are not in the habit of instituting frequent prosecutions. In only one case have they failed. The expenses of prosecutions are very great, six recent actions having cost 3201. each. (Statement, &c., May, 1844.) From the small number of prosecutions, owing to the want of a more summary process, it is stated that “the number of unqualified persons who are engaged in practice is very considerable." The act of 1815 provided that, after the 1st of August in that year, no person not licensed should practise as an apothecary, except such only as were already in practice. It is required by the act that candidates for examination should have attained the age of twenty-one. and have served an apprenticeship of at least five years with an apothecary legally qualified to practice; and they are also required to produce testimonials of good moral conduct, and of a sufficient medical education. The history of the steps taken to procure this act is very minutely detailed in the Essay prefixed to the Transactions of the Associated Apothecaries and Surgeons,' already referred to. They did not seek for such extensive powers as the act of 1815 subsequently gave; for in a report dated 5th December, 1812, the committee of management express themselves as of opinion "that the manageof the sick should be as much as possible under the superintendence of the physician." The examining body proposed by the associated apothecaries was to consist of members of the three branches of the profession; but the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Apothecaries' Company themselves, having joined in opposing the bill, it was withdrawn after its first reading. The next bill was promoted by the Apothecaries' Company, on the College of Physicians intiinating that they would not oppose a measure for the regulation of the practice of apothecaries, by which the Society of Apothecaries should be appointed the examining body. This bill received the royal assent. Du ring its progress, the opposition of the chemists and druggists rendered it necessary to introduce a clause which exempted that class of dealers altogether from its operation. From the circumstance that in country places, with very few exceptions, no person can practise medicine without keeping a supply of drugs for the use of his patients, or in other words, acting as an apothecary, this statute has given to the Society of Apothecaries control over the medical profession throughout England. Every general practitioner must not only have obtained his certificate, but must have served an apprenticeship of five years with a licentiate of the Company. The payment required by the Act of Parliament for a licence to practise in London, or within ten miles of it, is ten guineas; in any other part of the country, six guineas; and the licence to practise as an assistant is two guineas. The penalty for practising without this licence is twenty pounds. It is declared in the act that the society may appropriate the moneys which they thus receive in any way they may deem expedient. It appears that from the 1st August, 1815, when the new act came into operation, to the 31st January, 1844, 10,033 practitioners have been licensed by the Court of Examiners. Dividing the twentyseven years from August, 1816, to August, 1843, into three periods of nine years each, the annual average number of persons examined, rejected, and passed, is as follows: Examined. Rejected. 1816-25 308.6 20.0 1825-34 453.1 68.3 1834-43 485.8 70-2 Passed. 288.6 384.7 408.8 That the examination is not a mere matter of form is shown by the number of pupils rejected, which in the first period of nine years was 1 in about 15; in the second, above 1 in 66; and in the nine years ending August, 1843, one in 6-2. The rejected candidates no doubt frequently obtain their diplomas at a subsequent examination, after preparing themselves better; but the fact of so many being rejected is creditable to the Court of Examiners. No fees are paid by the rejected candidates. From a return printed by order of the House of Commons in 1834, it appears that from the 29th March, 1825, to the 19th June, 1833, the money received by the company for certificates was 22,8221. 16s. Of this, in the course of the eight years, 10,2187. 128. had been paid to the members of the Court of Examiners, besides 980l. to their secretary. Before the act of 1815 came into operation, a large proportion of the medical practitioners in country places in England were graduates of the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin, or licentiates of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of these cities, or of that of London; but the state of medical education generally was at that period very defective. The London College of Surgeons required no medical examination whatever, and twelve months only of surgical study. Persons thus qualified are admitted as surgeons in the army and navy, and into the service of the East India Company, after an additional examination by their respective boards; but they are not allowed to act as apothecaries in England. Except in regard to experience in the compounding of medicines, it is not denied that, twelve or fourteen years ago, the course of education prescribed by the Company's Court of Examiners was very defective. In their regulations, dated August, 1832, referring to the improved system which had been recently introduced, they say, "The medical education of the apothecary was heretofore comducted in the most desultory manner; no systematic course of study was e joined by authority or established by usage; some subjects were attended to superficially, and others of great importance were neglected altogether.” * In fact, all the attendance upon lectures and hospital practice that was demanded might have been and often was gone through in six or at most in eight months. The court at that time admitted that still "the attendance upon lectures, but more especially upon the hospital practice, is often grossly eluded or neg lected." The case is now greatly altered. The following abstract of the principal |