2108 Society Handbook 2021-2022 Digital v11

Society History
The Society is a Livery Company of the City of London, with a Royal Charter dating from 1617, and
has been a medical licensing body since the Apothecaries’ Act of 1815.
The organisation of apothecaries in London can be traced back to the Guild of Pepperers, an
association formed in the City in 1180. By 1316, the Pepperers had been joined by the Spicers and
their business chiefly concerned the importing and sale of spices and peppers from Asia, Africa, the
Middle East and the Mediterranean. The trade in spicery and the development of pharmacy became
interdependent and led to the emergence of the spicer-apothecary.
The Pepperers, who subsequently evolved into wholesale merchant traders dealing en gros, were
incorporated in 1428 as the Worshipful Company of Grocers. The apothecary members of this
Company had shops in Bucklersbury where they stored and sold spices, confectionery, perfumes,
spiced wines, herbs, and drugs that they compounded and dispensed to the public. The great
mediaeval houses and royal households employed their own apothecaries who worked under the
supervision of physicians.
By the mid-16 th century, the apothecary had become what, today, we would call a community
pharmacist, dealing only with the preparation and sale of substances for medicinal purposes. The
London apothecaries, with their specialist skills, agitated for several years to break away from the
Grocers’ Company, and eventually succeeded in 1617.
King James I and VI granted the apothecaries their Charter of Incorporation on 6 December 1617,
later justifying his decision by remarking: “Grocers are but merchants, the business of an Apothecary
is a misterie [craft] wherefore I think it is fitting that they be a corporation of themselves.”
At this time, the Royal College of Physicians held unrivalled authority over medical practice in
England. Apothecaries frequently impinged on the jurisdiction of physicians by dispensing
medicines without a prescription. The College of Physicians countered this outrage by asserting
their right to inspect apothecaries’ shops and by imposing stringent quality controls on raw drugs
and medicinal preparations.
The Society and the College were at bitter variance with each other over these issues for many years
until a test case reached the House of Lords in 1704. William Rose, an apothecary, had been
prosecuted by the physicians for visiting a sick man in his home, prescribing medicines for him and
then dispensing the drugs. Bowing to recognised common practice, the Lords ruled in favour of the
apothecary, as physicians were relatively few and most people could not afford their fees.
Thereafter, apothecaries were entitled to both prescribe and dispense medicines – although they
could only accept payment for the drugs – and so became forerunners of today’s General
Practitioners.
Examinations
Medical reform and the regulation of the medical profession, especially for
education and training, became a major issue at the close of the 18 th century.
Members of the Society were at the forefront of developments that gathered
momentum between 1810 and 1814, and resulted in the first Medical Act – the
Apothecaries’ Act – which received Royal Assent on 12 July 1815. This gave the
Society the right to examine medical students and to grant licences to successful
candidates to practise Medicine in England and Wales. Until the General Medical
Council was set up by the Medical Act of 1858, the Society effectively regulated
the profession.
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