From Poison Peddlers to Civic Worthies: The Reputation of the Apothecaries in Georgian England

Abstract

Trust is not automatically granted to providers of professional services. The doctors of Georgian England were, by later standards, deficient in medical knowhow, particularly before the mid-nineteenth-century scientific understanding of antiseptics, and much satirised. Nonetheless, the emergence of a coherent medical profession indicates that the picture was far more intricate and positive than the satirists implied. Patients sought care as well as cure; and medical practitioners had no problems in finding custom. This essay reassesses the apothecaries’ role in the slow transition whereby reputable practitioners differentiated themselves from ‘quacks’. The change was propelled by three linked processes: firstly, the intersection of expanding medical supply with insistent consumer demand, noting that demand plays a key role alongside supply; secondly, the intersection of local power-broking within Britain's growing towns with an ethos of community service, whereby apothecaries joined the ranks of ‘civic worthies’ and trusted care-givers; and, lastly, the intersection of shared medical knowledge among practitioners at all levels with the creation of a distinctive professional identity. As public trust grew, so Parliament was emboldened in 1815 to license the Apothecaries Society as the regulatory body for the medical rank-and-file, so launching the distinctive Anglo-American system of arm's-length state regulation.

Jane Austen (1775–1817) and the cultural history of health

“…For, as Penny Corfield has argued, this was an epoch when such practitioners were indeed 'taking over the clergymen's traditional role as most ubiquitous ''carers'' at the local level'. 23 Persuasion This theme of caring carries over into Persuasion, the last of Austen's completed novels, posthumously published at the end of 1817. It includes the author's most striking episode of 'A & E' -Louisa Musgrove's headfirst plunge at Lyme, from the Upper to the Lower Cobb.…”

A Family Affair: A nineteenth century tale of one family and its business

“…At the time William undertook his training though the symbiotic relationship between various medical practitioners such as apothecaries, physicians and surgeons still existed, with all three preparing and dispensing drugs. Clearly defined practice boundaries for medical occupations were not established until the passing of the 1815 Apothecaries Act (O'Day 2000), and Corfield (2009) states that as the demand for drugs grew throughout the eighteenth century many apothecaries began trading as chemists/druggists. William may therefore have trained as an apothecary and then decided to specialise in dispensing, not prescribing drugs.…”

“…Both Thomas's council role and position as a Freemason would have helped him further his family's business interests and boost their social standing (Corfield 2009), something that might have been needed as Thomas's home life appears to have had problems. He married Ellen Elizabeth Howe in 1867 and the couple had nine children, but Ellen appeared to be in and out of Stafford's lunatic asylum for most of their marriage (SRO: D4338/6/3/4).…”

Seven Hundred Years of Fraternal Orders

“…89 In 1815, the London-based men-only guild, the Society of Apothecaries, was licensed by statute to provide a system of education, assessment and registration. 90 This suggests that men could gain respectability and status for themselves and their communities through their fraternal organizations.…”