Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

drugs, from the shores of the Red Sea and various Eastern ports.
1316 This guild merged with the Spicers’ Guild in Chepe, London, which was
concerned with retail sales and the compounding of medicines, and together they
made common regulations.
1318–1328 Some grocers (Grossarii, meaning those that sold ‘en gros’) joined the
Pepperers’ Guild.
1345 The Guild became known as the Fraternity of St Antony.
1357–1373 Between these dates the Guild adopted the title of The Grocers’
Company.
1429 The Grocers’ Company were given a charter by Henry VI.
1607 The Apothecaries were members of a separate section of the company.
1617 The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London was incorporated by royal
charter on 6 December 1617 by James I (Whittet, 1968).
1793 The Apothecaries formed the General Pharmaceutical Association to combat
the growing power of the chemists.
1796 ‘Of all branches of the medical profession that of the apothecary, without doubt,
is of most consequence to the health of the nation at large. In this city, where a
physician attends one patient, an apothecary attends twenty; and, in the country, this
proportion is more than double.’ (Good, 1796).
1802 An Act of Parliament imposed a tax on nearly all medicines, which the
apothecaries and the chemists attempted to have repealed, but without success.
1804 Movements to reform the profession were started.
1812 Parliament imposed an exorbitant tax on glass. The apothecaries were
exasperated by this further imposition.
1812–1815 Various attempts were made to protect the public from the dangers of
unorthodox practitioners and to improve the character and respectability of the
surgeon-apothecary. The General Pharmaceutical Association framed a bill to form a
fourth body to examine apothecaries, surgeon apothecaries, accoucheurs, mid-wives
dispensing chemists and assistants, but it was opposed by the Colleges of
Physicians and Surgeons and was not supported by the Society of Apothecaries.
Finally the Society of Apothecaries prepared a bill that became the Apothecaries Act
1815.
1815 The Apothecaries Act. (McConaghey, 1967). These apothecaries became the
first 'General Practitioners'.
Summary
Although there are many references to herbs in the Chinese and Arab works they
do not give much information on ADRs. The ‘laws and regulations’ main theme was
that the writing of prescriptions should be undertaken by physicians and the
preparation of mixtures by pharmacists. After printing became established in Europe
in 1440 and in England in 1477 many books on drugs were produced. The