Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
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Worshipful Society of Apothecaries

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Worshipful Society of Apothecaries

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the livery companies of the City of London. It is one of the largest livery companies (with over 1,600 members in 2012) and ranks 58th in their order of precedence.

The society is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine and its guild church is the Church of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. The Society's modern roles include educational, charitable and social activities, in addition to supporting the City of London, its governance and the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Prior to the foundation of the Society in 1617, London apothecaries were in the Grocers' Company (founded 1345, and whose trade was described in 1365 as the "Mistery of Grossers, Pepperers and Apothecaries"). In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Grocers, Pepperers, Spicers and Apothecaries were the trades constituting the Fraternity of St Anthony. Before that, apothecaries had been Spicer-Apothecaries or Spicers since the 12th century.

Having sought autonomy for many years, the apothecaries finally separated from the Grocers' Company on 6 December 1617 when they were granted a royal charter by James I. During the remainder of the 17th century its members (including Nicholas Culpeper) challenged the College of Physicians members' monopoly of practising medicine. In 1704, the House of Lords overturned a ruling of the Queen's Bench in the Rose case, which effectively gave apothecaries the right to practice medicine, meaning that apothecaries may be viewed as forerunners of present-day general (medical) practitioners or family physicians.

The Apothecaries Act 1815 gave the Society the power to license and regulate medical practitioners throughout England and Wales. The Society retained this role as a member of the United Examining Board until 1999; the Society could license doctors thereafter, but did so rarely since the dissolution of the United Examining Board.

Amongst the notable people who qualified in medicine as a Licentiate of the Society (LSA) were the poet John Keats (1816), Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1865, thereby becoming the first openly female recipient of a UK medical qualification) and Nobel Prize winner Sir Ronald Ross (1881).

The Society throughout its history has been a pioneer in the nurturing of medical specialist knowledge, including for general medical practice, obstetrics, occupational medicine, public health medicine, legal & forensic medicine and GU medicine, through its qualifications and educational programmes.

The Apothecaries' Garden, established in 1673 by the Society to grow plants to be used as medicines, still exists as the Chelsea Physic Garden.

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