The 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.
History 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.
Motto and arms
The society was granted Arms by William Camden (Clarenceux) on 12 December 1617, less than a week after receiving its royal charter; the efficiency possibly indicating some planning of the break from the Grocers' Company. The society was not as speedy in settling its bill from the College of Arms however, as payment for the grant was not directed by the court until April 1620. Described in the blazon of the society's grant of arms of 1617 as "the inventor of physic" (i.e. medicine), Apollo is depicted in the coat of arms with his head radiant, overcoming pestilence which is represented pictorially by a wyvern (a "serpent" in the blazon). Apollo was the father of Asclepius and therefore grandfather of Hygeia (goddess of health, cleanliness, and sanitation), Panacea (goddess of universal health), Iaso (goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (goddess of the healing process) and Aglaea (the goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, magnificence and adornment). His usual attributes are a bow and arrow. The society motto – which, unusually, is specified in the blazon of the Grant of Arms and is therefore immutable – is Opiferque Per Orbem Dicor, a Latin part-quotation from Ovid referring to the Greek deity Apollo, meaning: "and throughout the world [I am] called [the bringer of] help". The full quotation, from the first book of Metamorphoses (Daphne and Apollo), which describes what Apollo says when he and Daphne are struck by Cupid's arrows but Daphne flees from him (Cupid – whose power had been doubted by Apollo – shot a golden arrow at Apollo but a leaden one at Daphne). This puts the motto in context and makes it particularly relevant to apothecaries:
The society's supporters are golden unicorns, and its crest is a rhinoceros. The unicorns may have been a compliment to James I, and the horns of unicorns and of the rhinoceros are reputed to be of medical use. The illustration of the crest in the Grant is based on Dürer's 1515 depiction of a rhinoceros, an animal which he had never seen but which he drew from a description, the dorsal horn may have been intended to be on the dorsum of its nose, rather than on the animal's back. The illustration in the original grant of arms accords the society the helmet of a peer (noble), and the text specifies the red/white mantling usually associated with a peer. This is specific and unusual, although it is not unique (peers' helmets are also borne with some apparent authority by the Fishmongers', Goldsmiths' and Clockmakers' companies). The use of the term society rather than the usual company is purely traditional, though – the charter and grant themselves use both terms, as do grants to other City companies (including the Bowyers, Framework Knitters and Fanmakers).
Apothecaries' Hall
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