A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

only two books and six journal articles that mentioned them at all. Of these
only two of the articles, both by Jordan, discussed them in any detail and
then, as discussed above, only in so far as to cite them as examples of young
women who were early recruits to proto-professional occupations. 264
Holloway‘s book mentions them while briefly discussing the introduction of
the National Insurance Act (1911). Yet the apothecaries‘ assistants played a
major role in dispensing medicines between 1850 and 1920.
It would have been possible to consider the activities of the assistants
from a purely task related point of view, but they existed at a time of so
many complex changes, that it was necessary to take into account the
institutional, sociological and medical aspects that influenced their lives. As
we have seen, the nineteenth century saw great changes in the practice of
medicine. It was becoming accepted that the subject was becoming too
extensive to permit anyone to be an expert in all its aspects, and surgery
and obstetrics were splitting off as specialities. 265 The apothecaries had
metamorphosed into general practitioners, leaving the physicians to
specialise in medicine. Those engaged in the provision of a medical service
were becoming aware of the advantages offered by a professional existence
and the growth of the professions is well exemplified by the way the
chemists and druggists carved out a place for themselves in the overall
medical scene. An examination of the rise of the professions and the
medical institutions is therefore material to the apothecaries‘ assistants‘
264
Jordan, „Suitable and Remunerative Employment‟, 429-456 and Jordan, „The Great Principle of
English Fair Play‟, 381-410.
265
Editorial, Med.-chir. Rev., 1830, NS 6: 211 quoted in Williams, „The Obstetrics Society of 1825‟, 244,
note 36.
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