Queen Mary and Westfield College London University PhD Thesis ...

the hospitals by checking the Apothecary's bills against the Physician's book of prescriptions
and, from the 1670s, subjecting them to a regular audit 82 . Medicine as thus reduced to some-
thing of an economic equation. James attempted to reclaim his place by offering to charge just
'Twelve pence a potion', and sure enough succeeded in obtaining a period of grace before he was
indeed restored83 . It was the expense and authorisation of physic for I3ridewell and for hospital
staff, rather than for Bethlem patients, however, which was the major source of controversy, no
'Method or Standing Rule' to govern the rights of officers to such attention being arrived at
until 169984. Hardly ever did the Court refuse to pay for any dosage delivered to a Bethlem
patient.
The enormous expense and 'the Embezzlement of Medicines' continued to be a problem
not just for I3ridewell and Bethiem, but for most metropolitan hospitals during the eighteenth
century, although this was less the fault of extortionate apothecaries than of the exorbitant
method by which medicines were supplied to hospitals85 . At the former, by the 1740s, the cost
of medicine had risen in excess of £400 a year. Despite the appeal of one energetic governor,
Walter Pryse, in 1739, for a method of reduction to be found and an investigation by the
Bethiem Committee, another decade passed before any effective economy measure was taken86.
The construction of an apothecary's shop at Bethlem in 1750-5 1 and the election of a resident,
salaried apothecary, went a considerable way towards achieving the desired end87. Henceforth
82 See e.g. ibid, 19 Dec. 1645, 18 Dec. 1646, 24 Dec. 1647, 6 July 1649, 6 Dcc. 1672, fol 232, 286, 328, 390
& 465.
83 Ibid, 7 Feb. & 29 March 1672, fol 371 & 382-3
See BCGM, e.g. 5 Jan. 1672, 12 July 1677, 25 Jan. 1678, 3 & 17 July 1685, 11 Jan. 1689, 30 April & 26
Nov. 1697, 17 Nov. 1699, loIs 367-8, 401, 4, 88, 93, 353, 106, 150 & 326-7.
85 See e g. ibtd, 5 Dec. 1718, fol. 369, where the Bridewell Committee reports that the Apothecary's bills for
the past year had been very high, but the Physician confirmed that they were reasonable, & LEP, No. 3660, 4-6
April 1751.
86 Pryse estimated the expense in 1739 as 'near £400 a year', while the enquiry by a specially selected
Committee in 1750, calculated the 'Average' for the past 7 years as £444 3/8 p/a, cosuprising £372 17/ p/a
for Bethiem & £71 6/8 for Bridewefl. See BCGM, 12 April & 16 May 1750, loIs 444 & 446; BweIIGCM, 8 May
1750. See also BWCUGCM, 13 April 1739, fol. 38. where the Apothecary's bills amount to £38 13/ for Bridewell
& £318 7/ for Bethlem.
87 For more on which, see niJra. Auditors accounts surviving for the 1760s reveal that expenses on supplies of
medicines from Apothecaiies Hall & on 'Apothecary's Shop Disbursements' normally n amounted to less than
£150; see BAA, 1708-9 & 1759-68.
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