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

prescriptions 33 and led the Committee to employ the paid dispenser. 34 He
was Mr Frederick Malton who had been apprenticed for two years to Mr
Hutchins in the apothecary‘s department and it would seem that he had not
completed his indentures, but was adequately trained in dispensing. 35
In discussing the situation at St George‘s in 1860, Crellin also
distinguishes between the assistant apothecary and the dispenser when he
says, ―… that the work [of dispensing] has been carried out for the last six
months, by the assistant apothecary and the dispenser, assisted by a
pupil.‖ 36 We also know from him that in about 1840, the dispensing was
performed by apothecaries, dispensers and laboratory men. 37 This view is
supported by Jordan, who states that the dispensing of prescriptions was
performed by dispensary porters and laboratory boys and that this practice
was coming under criticism. 38 From that time the apothecaries started to
transfer the dispensing of prescriptions to dispensers, some of whom held
the Apothecaries‘ Assistant‘s Certificate, and subsequently to men with the
Pharmaceutical Society‘s qualification. This arrangement was endorsed at
St George‘s hospital in 1882 when a motion was adopted that in future all
33 Crellin, „Apothecaries, Dispensers, Students and Nineteenth Century Pharmacy at St Georges
Hospital‟, 137-138.
34 Crellin, „Apothecaries, Dispensers, Students and Nineteenth Century Pharmacy at St Georges
Hospital‟, 135.
35 Crellin, „Apothecaries, Dispensers, Students and Nineteenth Century Pharmacy at St Georges
Hospital‟, 136.
36 Crellin, „Apothecaries, Dispensers, Students and Nineteenth Century Pharmacy at St Georges
Hospital‟, 138.
37 Crellin, „Apothecaries, Dispensers, Students and Nineteenth Century Pharmacy at St Georges
Hospital‟, 136.
38 Jordan, „Suitable and Remunerative Employment‟, 432.
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