Glass and British pharmacy, 1600-1900 : a survey and guide to the Wellcome Collection of British glass / J.K. Crellin and J.R. Scott.

  • Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine
Date:
1972
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Glass and British pharmacy, 1600-1900 : a survey and guide to the Wellcome Collection of British glass / J.K. Crellin and J.R. Scott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Grocers’ Company after the apothecaries separated from the grocers in 1617. Cf Roberts, R.S., ‘The early history of the import of drugs into Britain’, in Poynter, F.N.L., (ed.) The Evolution of Pharmacy in Britain, London, 1965, pp165-185. 18 The Family Physician, London, 1676, p136. 19 In 1747 R. Campbell (op. cit., fn16, p62) remarked that the druggist’s business was to ‘buy up [in] large quantities, all manner of uncompounded drugs, both foreign and domestic; these he sells to the apothecary who compounds them; yet generally speaking he compounds drugs for sale in his own shop, like the apothecary’. See also the pamphlets: [Chandler, J.,] Frauds Detected: or Considerations offered to the Public shewing the Necessity of Some effectual Provision against Deceits, Differences, and Incertainties in Drugs, London, 1748; The Apothe- cary Display’d, or an Answer to the Apothecary’s Pamphlet called Frauds detected in Drugs, London, 1748; and An Enquiry into the Designs of the late petition presented to Parliament by the Company of Apothecaries, London, 1748. 20 There was even the comment in 1825 that, owing to the serious results that could occur from dispensing errors, ‘it is regretted by some that the practice of pharmacy is not now in the hands of apothecaries who are its legitimate professors, but is chiefly practised by retail chemists’. (Encyclo- paedia Londinensis, London, 1825, vol 20, p54.) 2 — Good, J.M., for example, in his The History of Medicine, London, 1796, makes many comments on chemists and druggists dispensing medicines (p148 et seqg.). However, in 1790 The Royal College of Physicians of London had only 45 fellows and 88 licentiates (see Clark, G., A History of the Royal College of Physicians of London, London, 1966, vol 2. p738). 22 The question of the economic viability of manu- facturing chemists has been raised in Crellin, J.K., ‘British Pharmacy and Industrial Chemistry, 17th to 19th Centuries’, to be published. 23 Operative chemists were so designated in London directories. For instance, the 1842 Post Office London Directory, under the main heading Chemists and Druggists. 24 Feldmann, J.E., Quacks and Quackery Unmasked, London, 1842, pp12-15. 25 Culverwell, R.J., The Life of Dr Culverwell, written by himself, London, nd, p40. The contrast between the apothecary’s private shop and the chemist’s public premises is also seen in a letter written in 1837, by the royal physician James Clarke to the chemist and druggist Peter Squire, when the latter became the first chemist, as distinct from an apothecary, to hold the Royal Warrant. This is reproduced in Crellin, J.K., ‘The Growth of Professionalism in nineteenth-century British Pharmacy’, Med. Hist., 1967, XI, 215-227. In mentioning a ‘licensed tenant’ Culverwell was referring to membership of the Pharmaceutical Society, though in 1850 this was entirely optional. 26 27 28 pay) 30 af 32 33 34 35 36 Sy) 38 39 Mortimer, J., The Universal Director, London, 1763, p18. For reviews of the subject see Griffenhagen, G., The Show Globe — A Symbol of Pharmacy’, J. Amer. Pharm. Assoc. (Pract. Ed.), 1958, 19, 233- 235; Dillemann, G., ‘Les emblémes corporatifs des pharmaciens frangais. II. Les bocaux de couleur des pharmaciens’, Prod. et Prob. Pharm., 1965, 20, 203-210. Davis, D., A History of Shopping, London, 1966, p191 (italics added). Cowen, D., The New Jersey Pharmaceutical Association 1870-1970, Trenton, 1970, p118, has reproduced an interesting advertise- ment for the sale of various items, from the New Jersey Gazette, January 13th, 1779 which lists window glass of different sizes, viz., ‘Best London and Bristol Crown, 13 by 11, 14 by 12, 15 by 21, 15 by 13, 16 by 10, 20 by 14, 18 by 13, 15 by 18, 21 by 18, 214 by 184, 254 by 194, 20 by 16, and 1) DyY432 Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine ms. 74265. For a recent reference to this question see Matthews, L.G., ‘Apothecarjes’ Pill Tiles’, Trans. Eng. Cer. Circle, 1970, 7, 200-209. Pitt, R., The Antidote, London, 1704, p105. For some examples of Boyle’s Head, see Maddison, R.E.W., The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle, London, 1969, pp222-223. See, for instance, Larwood, L., and Hotton, J.C., The History of Sign-boards, London, 1869. Anon., The Apothecary display’d or, an answer to the Apothecary’s Pamphlet, called Frauds detected in Drugs, London, 1748, p16. The Art of Curing Diseases by Expectation, London, 1689, p145. See Lichtenberg’s Visits to England as described in his Letters and Diaries, translated and annotated by M.I. Mare and W. H. Quarrell, Oxford, 1938, pp63-64. (Also noted in Griffenhagen, op. cit. (fn 27)). The full quotation is: “The street [Cheapside and Fleetstreet ] looks as thoughit were illuminated for some festivity: the apothecaries and druggists display glasses filled with gay-coloured spirits, in which Dieterich’s lackey could bathe; they suffuse many a wide space with a purple, yellow, verdigris- green, or azure light’. Quoted in Griffenhagen op. cit. (fn27) Gottling also said that ‘behind each such glass is an Argand’s Lamp, which will burn all evening. On each glass is also painted a large chemical symbol which catches the eye of one passing and announces to him that here chemical preparations and medicines are sold’. Griffenhagen op. cit. (fn27). Ibid. Also in Davis, op. cit. (fn28), p195.