In a general sense, an apothecary was one who kept a shop or laboratory for preparing, compounding, and vending medicines, and for the making up of medical prescriptions. In England the term was long applied to a regularly licensed class of medical practitioners, being such persons as were members of, or licensed by, the Apothecaries Company in London. The apothecaries of London were at one time ranked with the grocers, with whom they were incorporated by James I in 1606. In 1617, however, the apothecaries received a new charter as a distinct company. They were not yet regarded as having the right to prescribe, but only to dispense, medicines; but in 1703 the House of Lords conferred that right on them, and they latterly became a well-established branch of the medical profession. In 1815 an act was passed providing that no person should practise as an apothecary in any part of England or Wales unless after serving an apprenticeship of five years with a member of the society, and receiving a certificate from the society's examiners. As in country places every practitioner had to be to some extent an apothecary, this act gave the society an undue influence over the medical profession. Dissatisfaction therefore long prevailed, but nothing of importance was done until the Medical Act of 1858, which brought the desired reform. The Apothecaries' Society later prescribed a course of medical instruction and practice which candidates for the license of the society had to pass through. After 1874 apprenticeship was not necessary. Apothecaries were replaced by pharmacists and pharmacies in the 20th century. Research Apothecary
Guillaume Dubois French cardinal. He was born in 1656 at Brives-la-Gaillarde and died in 1723.The son of an apothecary, when he was only thirteen he took the tonsure, being known as the 'Little Abbe.' In 1687 he became tutor to the Duke of Chartres, afterwards Duke of Orleans and regent,, and in 1701 Chartres, then Duke of Orleans, made him his secretary, and when he became regent of France in 1715 made him his chief minister. Dubois maintained his influence by pandering to the vices of his pupil. He became privy-councillor and overseer of the duke's household, and minister for foreign affairs under the regency.
As the best means of thwarting the schemes of Philip V of Spain and his supporters in France in 1716, Guillaume Dubois, on November the 28th, signed a defensive alliance between France and England. Accepted by Holland on January the 4th 1717, this was known as the Triple Alliance. Guillaume Dubois then supported England in opposing the Spanish attempt to conquer Sardinia and Sicily, and in demanding the dismissal of Giclio Alberoni, which he effected, after a short war with Spain, in December 1720.
The archbishopric of Cambrai having become vacant, Guillaume Dubois ventured to request it of the regent, although he was not even a priest. The regent was astonished at his boldness; but he obtained the post, having in one morning received all the clerical orders, and, a few days after, the archbishopric. By his consummate address he obtained a cardinal's hat, and in 1721 was appointed prime-minister.
Guillaume Dubois was an avaricious, lying, licentious creature, yet clever and industrious, and able to make himself very agreeable where it suited his interest. Research Guillaume Dubois
Sir Humphry Davy was an English chemist. He was born in 1778 at Penzance and died in 1829.
After having received the rudiments of a classical education he was placed with a surgeon and apothecary, and early developed a taste for scientific experiments. He studied under Lavoisier and Nicholson and became superintendent of the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. There he studied the properties of nitrous oxide, and as a result was made assistant lecturer and was appointed professor of chemistry in the Royal Institution at the age of twenty-four.
In 1803 he was chosen a member of the Royal Society. His discoveries with the galvanic battery, his decomposition of the earths and alkalies and ascertaining their metallic bases, his demonstration of the simple nature of the oxymuriatic acid (to which he gave the name of chlorine), etc, obtained him an extensive reputation; and in 1810 he received the prize of the French Institute. In 1814 he was elected a corresponding member of that body. Having been elected professor of chemistry to the Board of Agriculture he delivered lectures on agricultural chemistry during ten successive years. The numerous accidents arising from fire-damp in mines led him to enter upon a series of experiments on the nature of the explosive gas, the result of which was the invention of his safety-lamp.
He was knighted in 1812, and created a baronet in 1818. In 1820 he succeeded Sir J Banks as president of the Royal Society, and at the time of his death he was a member of most of the scientific societies of Europe. His health had been failing for some time, and in his last year he had gone abroad for his health. His most important works are: Philosophical Researches;
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry; Electro-Chemical Researches; Elements of Chemical Philosophy; Researches on the Oxymuriatic Acid; On Fire-damp. He also contributed some valuable papers to the Philosophical Transactions, and was author of Salmonia, or Days of Fly-fishing; and Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher. Research Humphry Davy
John Mason Good was an English physician and the author of various poems, translations, and professional treatises. He was born in 1764 and died in 1827. He was apprenticed to a surgeon at Gosport, and in 1784 engaged in practice at Sudbury. In 1793 he removed to London, where he carried on business for several years as a surgeon and apothecary. He obtained the diploma of MD from the University of Aberdeen in 1820, and from that period practised exclusively as a physician until his death. His best-known work is a blankverse translation of Lucretius' Latinpoem De Natura Rerum. Research John Mason Good
Abbreviations
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