Worshipful Society of Apothecaries

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London.

The society is one of the largest City Livery Companies and ranks fifty-eighth in the order of precedence. Its motto is Opiferque Per Orbem Dicor, a Latin reference to the Greek deity Apollo (depicted in the society's Arms overcoming the dragon of disease) meaning I am called a bringer of help throughout the world. The society's crest is the rhinoceros.

Prior to the foundation of the society in 1617, London apothecaries were in the Grocers' Company (founded 1345) and before that they were members of the Guild of Pepperers (founded before 1180).

The Apothecaries separated from the Grocers in 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 practitioners.

The Apothecaries Act 1815 granted the society the power to licence and regulate medical practitioners throughout England and Wales. The society retained this official role as a member of the United Examining Board until 1999.

Notable people who qualified in medicine as a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA) include John Keats (1816), Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1865, thereby becoming the first openly female recipient of a UK medical qualification) and Ronald Ross (1881).

At present, in addition to its charitable activities, the society organises lectures and courses through two faculties. It grants postgraduate diplomas in fields such as:

• Medical jurisprudence
• History of medicine
• Philosophy of medicine
• Forensic medical sciences,
• Forensic and clinical aspects of sexual assault
• GenitoUrinary medicine
• HIV medicine
• Medical care of catastrophes

The Society of Apothecaries is perhaps best known for its foundation in 1673 of the Chelsea Physic Garden, London, one of Europe's oldest botanical gardens and the second oldest in Britain. After Sir Hans Sloane granted the society rights to the manor of Chelsea, the four-acre (16,000 m²) garden became the richest collection of medicinal plants in Europe under the direction of Philip Miller. Its seed exchange programme, originally initiated with the Leiden Botanical Garden, led to cotton being planted for the first time in the Colony of Georgia. Jealously guarded during the tenure of the society, in 1983 the garden became a charity and opened to the public for the first time.

The society is based at Apothecaries' Hall in Blackfriars. The building, originally part of the Dominican priory of Black Friars, was called Cobham House prior to its purchase by the society in 1632. The building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. A new hall was built on the same site and completed in 1672 to the design of Edward Jerman: an "Elaboratory" was included for the first ever large-scale manufacture of drugs. A major restoration and (external) building programme was carried out in the 1780s. Although the hall underwent further redevelopment in the 1980s, its external appearance has altered little since the late-eighteenth century. Apothecaries' Hall is the oldest extant livery hall in the City of London, with the first-floor structure and arrangement of the Great Hall, Court Room and Parlour remaining as rebuilt between 1668 and 1670.

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 comprises (in ascending rank):

• Apprentices (not technically members of the society)
• Freemen (most of whom are "Yeomen")
• Liverymen (in two classes, "couchant" and "guardant")
• Officers (the "Court" or "Assistants")
• two Wardens (Junior and Senior)
• the Master

Liverymen are "clothed" upon attaining that rank (modernly with a solicitor's-type black robe and a blue/cream épitoge); those more senior have traditional blue and cream-coloured costumes. The Beadle's robe is decorated with miniature hanging rosettes.

However, the society's only truly academic dress was a blue lambskin-trimmed robe with an épitoge, for Master of Midwifery (this examination ceased in 1963; Trans Burgon Soc 2008; vol.8, 81-90).