The General Apothecaries Company, (limited).

  • General Apothecaries Company (London, England)
Date:
[1856]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The General Apothecaries Company, (limited). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    explain for whal purpose it is wanted. It is tlien sold in bottles of a pecu- liar colour, with yellow labels, and the words indicating its use in plain print upon it. The G eneral Apothecaa-ies’ Company would thus supply a gi-eat de- sideratum of the times, and must become a great public fact (cheers). In reply to several questions put by the guests, the Chanman said the Company were not antagonistic to the Apothecaries’ Company, to the che- mists or druggists, or the wholesale houses. The Apotliecaiies’ Company was a trading and licensing body, and, as he had before remarked, had greatly raised the status of the medical profession. But they had not intro- duced, as tliis Company had already done, new remedies for the relief of disease. The wholesale houses were at this moment tbe best friends of the Company. The Company was not antagonistic to them, for they did not go into the country to ask to supply the chemists and druggists, nor did they projjose to interfere wth the business canned on in the manufacturing dis- ti-icts. They proposed simply to coniine themselves to those articles which were calcialated to relieve suffering humanity, to remove disease, and jireserve health. Bor this purpose they intended to place the best ai’ticles within the reach of the medical profession. Chemists and dniggists would not be in- terfered with by this Company, which did not propose to touch patent medi- cines, perfumeiy, and vaiious articles of a similar description. The shojis of the Comj)any would be simply the old apothecaiies’ shoj)s for the sujiply of drags for the relief of disease, and not the ordinaiy chemist’s shops (heai’). Dr. GiU'duer said the public were gi-eatly indebted to the press for exposhig the system of adulteration in drugs. The present Company was merely fol- lowing the lead of tbe press, and endeavomlng to cany out the suggestions which had been from time to time made in the public journals, and he had no doubt they would be caii’ied out most successfully (cheers). From the “ Morning Herald,” October 16th. The General Apothecaries’ Company.—A number of gentlemen con- nected with the medical profession and others, assembled by invitation to inspect the laboratories and to witness the general workmg of tliis Company, at their Offices, No. 49, Bemers-street, O.xford-street. The Society has been recently established on tlie limited liability principle. It is under the dnec- tion of medical men, and its object is to “ supply the profession and the public with unadidterated drugs, chemicals, and medicinal prepai’ations; to remove the scandal of fraudulent trading attached by tbe parliamentary committee to dealers in medicines, and to sell in every case the article asked and jiaid for.” At the meeting yesterday we found about forty gentlemen prepared to test, to the best of their ability, the justice of the high pretensions of the pro- moters of the association; and, we believe, tlie inquiries thus instituted were calculated to produce on the minds of those by whom they were conducted the most favourable impressions. ])r. Kidge, the Chafrman of tbe Company, showed Ids visitors through the different rooms of the establislimeiit, pointed out and explained to them the admirable machinery employed for the production of the finest and jmrest medicines, and illustrated by a vai’iety of examples the value of the prin- cij)lcs adopted in the management of the institution. The whole of the premises afforded a sfriking proof of the progress of modern scientific dis- coveiy, and the apparent purity, clearness, and even fragi-ance of many of the medicinal preparations were calculated very materially to mitigate that liQiTor with which we have been accustomed to regard the sanitary com- pounds of the chemist. After the ins2)ection of tlie laboratories, the company eat do^vn to a supply of those more agreeable solids and fiuids devised for the sustenance and gratification of humanity in its normal condition; and when these had been disposed ol' with as much zest as if the fear of doctors and their drugs had never entered the world, llic Chairman explained at some length the uses of.
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