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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2012
1 J G L Burnby and D A Hutton, A guide to sources in pharmaceutical history, London, British Society for the History of Pharmacy, 1990; A C Wootton, Chronicles of pharmacy, with a bibliography, London, Macmillan, 1810; Charles H LaWall, Four thousand years of pharmacy: the curious lore of drugs and medicines, Garden City, NY, Garden City Publishing Co., 1927; Edward Kremers, Kremers and Urdang's history of pharmacy, Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1976; Jacob Bell and Theophilus Redwood, Historical sketch of the progress of pharmacy in Great Britain, London, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 1880; Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Centenary commemoration, 15 April 1941, London, Pharmaceutical Press, 1941; Leslie G Matthews, History of pharmacy in Britain, Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1962; S W F Holloway, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain 1841–1991: a political and social history, London, Pharmaceutical Press, 1991; Stuart Anderson (ed.), Making medicines: a brief history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals, London and Chicago, Pharmaceutical Press, 2005.
2 M P Earles, ‘The pharmacy schools of the nineteenth century’, in Frederick N L Poynter (ed.), The evolution of pharmacy in Britain, London, Pitman Medical Publishing, 1965, pp. 79–95, on pp. 88–9.
3 C R B Barrett, The history of the Society of Apothecaries of London, London, Elliot Stock, 1905; W S C Copeman, The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London: a history 1617–1967, London, Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, 1980; Penelope Hunting, A history of the Society of Apothecaries, London, Society of Apothecaries, 1998.
4 A Bill to amend the laws relating to the medical profession of Great Britain and Ireland, introduced by Benjamin Hawes. For a summary, see The Chemist, 1840, 1: 373–9.
5 Jacob Bell (1810–1859), MP, architect and co-founder of the Pharmaceutical Society, and editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal for eighteen years, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (hereafter ODNB), vol. 4, pp. 943–5; Willian Allen (1770–1843), FRS (1807), scientist and philanthropist, lecturer at Guy's Hospital (1802–26), first President of the Pharmaceutical Society (l841–43), ODNB, vol. 1, pp. 833–5.
6 The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, 1842–1895; continued as The Pharmaceutical Journal, 1895–1908; continued as The Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist, 1909–1932; continued as The Pharmaceutical Journal, 1933 to date.
7 Census returns for Great Britain for 1861, PP 1863, LIII, p. 231.
8 W J Reader, Professional men: the rise of the professional classes in nineteenth-century England, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966, esp. ch. 9; Geoffrey Millerson, The qualifying associations: a study in professionalization, London, Routledge & Paul, Humanities Press, 1964, ch. 5, pp. l20–47.
9 David Sugarman, A brief history of the Law Society, London, The Law Society, 1995, pp. 8–l3; Albert Gibson and Arthur Weldon, How to become a solicitor, 5th ed., London, The Law Notes Publishing Office, l937.
10 R C Simmonds, The Institute of Actuaries 1848–1948, London, Cambridge University Press, 1948, pp. 3–36; Robert Parsons, A history of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, l847–l947, Centenary Memorial Volume, London, 1947, pp. 47, 61, 69.
11 Charles E Newman, The evolution of medical education in the nineteenth century, London, Oxford University Press, 1957. See also Reader, op. cit., note 8 above, pp. 16–2l.
12 A list of “qualifying associations” (with dates of their foundation, incorporation and introduction of examinations, together with membership size and grades) has been compiled by Millerson, see note 8 above, pp. 222–45.
13 Chemical Society, The jubilee of the Chemical Society of London, London, 1896; Tom Sidney Moore and James C Philip, The Chemical Society, 1841–1941: a historical review, London, Chemical Society, 1947.
14 Some comparable figures are: Pharmaceutical Society: 1841: 800; 1842: 2000; 1941: 25,000; 1951: 27,000; 1962: 28,000. Chemical Society: 1841: 77; 1846: 185; 1850: 271; 1860: 323; 1951: 9,000.
15 The British Council, Scientific and learned societies of Great Britain, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1951, p. 53.
16 Colin A Russell, Science and social change: 1700–1900, London, Macmillan, 1983; Colin A Russell, Noel G Coley and Gerrylynn K Roberts, Chemists by profession: the origins and rise of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Milton Keynes, Open University Press in association with the Institute of Chemistry, 1977; Richard B Pilcher, The Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland: history of the Institute 1977–1914, London, Institute of Chemistry, 1914.
17 Sir Edward Frankland (1825–1899), FRS (1853), ODNB, vol. 20, pp. 763–70; Edward Frankland, Sketches from the life of Edward Frankland, edited and concluded by his two daughters MNW and SJC, London, Spottiswood, 1902, pp. 20–36, esp. pp. 21, 23.
18 C A Russell, in reassessing Frankland's bitter reminiscences (set down some fifty years after the event) suggests that Frankland derived in fact greater advantages from the discipline and experience of his apprenticeship than he realized or was prepared to admit, but concedes that exploitation and neglect of apprentices was by no means uncommon in Victorian times. See Colin A Russell, Lancastrian chemist: the early years of Sir Edward Frankland, Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1986; idem, Edward Frankland: chemistry, controversy and conspiracy in Victorian England, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
19 Ernest Cripps, P1ough Court: the story of a notable pharmacy, 1715–1927, London, Allen & Hanburys, 1927, pp. 31–4.
20 Anon., ‘Apprenticeship’, Chemist and Druggist, 1932, 116: 63.
21 Stuart Anderson, ‘Comunity pharmacy in Great Britain: mediation at the boundary between professional and lay care, 1920 to 1995’, in M Gijswijt-Hofstra, G M Van Heteren and E M Tansey (eds), Biographies of remedies: drugs, medicines and contraceptives in Dutch and Anglo-American healing cultures, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2002, pp. 75–97.
22 For a general account of English scientific education and institutions in the nineteenth century, see D S L Cardwell, The organisation of science in England, London, Heinemann, 1972.
23 J W Hudson, History of adult education, London, Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 185l, pp. 222–36; Thomas Kelly, George Birkbeck, pioneer of adult education, Liverpool, University Press, 1957.
24 Russell, Coley and Roberts, op. cit., note 16 above, pp. 75–81; Gerrylynn K Roberts, ‘The establishment of the Royal College of Chemistry: an investigation of the social context of early-Victorian chemistry’, Hist. Stud. Phys. Sci., 1976, 7: 437–85.
25 August Wilhelm Hofmann (1818–1892), ODNB, vol. 27, pp. 526–8.
26 William H Brock, Justus von Liebig: the chemical gatekeeper, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
27 Among other leading chemists, the College's roll of past students listed four future Presidents of the Chemical Society, namely Warren de la Rue (1815–1889), ODNB, vol. 48, pp. 97–9; Sir Frederick Abel (1827–1902), ibid., vol. 1, pp. 62–3; William Odling (1829–1921), ibid., vol. 41, p. 498; Sir William Crookes (1832–1919), ibid., vol. 14, pp. 398–400.
28 An authoritative survey of all statutes enacted between 1853 and 1908 relating to the practice of pharmacy and the sale of poisonous substances, together with leading examples of case-law under these acts, is the treatise by W S Glyn-Jones, The law relating to poisons and pharmacy, with notes of cases, London, Butterworth, 1909.
29 Initially, the School of the Pharmaceutical Society in Bloomsbury Square catered for only a very small proportion of the estimated 2000 to 3000 young men under the age of twenty who were engaged in the vocation. According to one source, on average eighty students attended its lectures annually, and only twenty-five could be accommodated in its laboratory at a time (see Holloway, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 110). There was, therefore, an obvious need for additional training facilities.
30 Earles, op. cit., note 2 above, p. 90.
31 A souvenir: the work of George S V Wills and the Westminster College of Chemistry and Pharmacy (privately printed), 14 February 1899, 190 pages, illustrated, with an (unpaginated) Appendix of the names and addresses of above 800 past students in business in 1899 on their own account. This somewhat artless production contains a great deal of detail concerning Wills's career and character, amid the day-to-day work of the College. Prospectus and syllabus of the Westminster College of Chemistry and Pharmacy, London, SE, 1877 (Fifth Session); the same, a later version, 1901, with index, illustrated, 96 pages (bound in with Wills's Manual of practical analysis, see Appendix, no. 2).
32 The biographical details of Wills's early life are mostly gleaned from the souvenir volume (see note 31 above).
33 Claudius Francis DuPasquier (1812–1897), FRCS (1859) combined a fashionable general practice at 4 Cleveland Row, adjoining St James's Palace, later at 62 Pall Mall, with the appointment as Surgeon-Apothecary to the Queen and the late Prince Consort, and Apothecary-in-Ordinary to the Royal Household (Medical Directory, 1847, 1872, 1897).
34 For a list of Wills's manuals and textbooks, see Appendix.
35 The relative weight given to the individual subjects of both the Minor and Major courses is also reflected in the detailed contents of the postal courses (see Table 1).
36 The guinea, though no longer coined after 1813, continued as a unit of account, especially in medical, legal and scholastic remuneration, and, being reckoned at £1 1 shilling, was an automatic device of raising charges by 5 per cent.
37 Prospectus, 1901, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 25; these figures must be multiplied by a factor of 40 to 50 to correspond to current price levels.
38 Prospectus, 1901, op. cit., note 31, p. 26.
39 Chemist and Druggist, 1909, 75: 603.
40 See note 63 below.
41 Wills's son, H Sampson Wills, who had himself been a student at Westminster College, acted as a junior demonstrator until 1904. Qualifying in that year, he joined a local firm, Boilerine Ltd, as a research chemist, and was eventually appointed its Secretary (Chemist and Druggist, 1925, 103: 375). Percival Woodnoth, MPS, was the future Principal of the College.
42 Wyndham R Dunstan (ed.), Chemical papers from the research laboratory of the Pharmaceutical Society of London, London, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 1892. Most of the research contributions are by the editor, though there are papers by others.
43 W Chattaway, Digest of researches and criticisms bearing on the revision of the British Pharmacopoeia 1898, prepared for the Pharmacopoeia Committee of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration in the United Kingdom, London, Spottiswoode, 1903. The scope of the Pharmaceutical Society's researches of this period is illustrated by the request of the General Medical Council to its laboratory to determine to what extent the standardization of potent drugs can be performed with accuracy; the percentage of ash in certain drugs; the melting points of certain substances; and the solubilities of certain salts of the British pharmacopoeia.
44 The case of Dr John Muter (1841–1911), the Principal of the South London School of Pharmacy (see note 63 below) was exceptional. He published between 1877 and 1900 fifteen memoirs on the analysis of foods, all of which appeared in the Analyst, of which he was a co-founder (1877) and co-editor (1877–91). The work was done in his capacity as Public Analyst for several South London boroughs and the County of Lincolnshire (see Royal Society Catalogue of Papers, 1874–83, 1884–1900, vols, ix, xiii. Obituary, Journal of the Chemical Society, 1912, 101: 691).
45 Prospectus, 1901, op. cit, note 31, above, p. 24.
46 Chemist and Druggist, 1908, 73: 940.
47 Chemist and Druggist, 1912, 80: 506.
48 Chemist and Druggist, 1916, 88: 343. At that time, sixty-six Westminster men were serving in the armed forces (Chemist and Druggist, 1915, 87: 43).
49 Prospectus, 1877, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 2.
50 Holloway, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 405.
51 Publisher's 16-page Advertisement Section, bound with Wills's Vegetable materia medica, see Appendix, no. 8.
52 A souvenir, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 71.
53 Prospectus 1901, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 10.
54 A souvenir, op. cit., note 31 above; Appendix: List of names and addresses of Westminster alumni conducting their own businesses.
55 John Attfield, A pamphlet on the relation to each other of education and examination, especially with regard to Pharmacy in Great Britain, London, M'Corquodale, 1880 (2nd ed. l882). John Attfield (1835–1911), FRS, was trained in the Society's School, where he won first prize in all subjects (1854). He joined its teaching staff at an early age, and was its professor of practical chemistry, 1862–96. His book, Chemistry, general, medical and pharmaceutical, became the standard text that held its own against all competitors, from its first edition in 1867 to the nineteenth in 1906. Obituary, Chemical News, 1911, 103: 155–6.
56 Students of the Society's School complained openly that they spent much time and effort on matters in which they were not examined (especially in chemical analysis and botany), but received inadequate tuition in those that they were expected to know.
57 Editorial, Pharmaceutical Journal, 28 April 1888.
58 In addition to the President and Vice-President ex officio, the Board of Examiners, as originally constituted in 1843, consisted of eight “dispensing chemists”, who originally gave their services free, hut later received a fee of 3 guineas per day. According to the list of the examiners who responded to Attfield's memorandum (see note 55 above), they were, with few exceptions, principals of pharmacies situated in the best locations in London, Edinburgh, and the largest provincial towns.
59 A souvenir, op. cit., note 31 above, chap. xxiii, pp. 154–60; Chemist and Druggist, 1877, 19: 131.
60 Chemist and Druggist, 1908, 72: 632; 1909, 74: 725, 775, 821–2; 1909, 75: 742.
61 The building was occupied by the “Biopictureland Theatre” (giving “dioramic presentations”, 1909–13), and later by the Trinity Cinema (1915–c.1940) (see Post Office Directory, Trinity Street, Southwark, 1880–1940). It was described as “derelict” in a survey of 1955 (Ida Darlington, ‘St George's Fields’, in Sir J R Howard Roberts (ed.), Survey of London, vol. 25, London County Council, 1955, p. 108). Today, its site, together with that of two former flanking town-houses, is taken up by an unprepossessing block of apartments.
62 Chemist and Druggist, 1908, 73: 274; 1909, 75: 297.
63 The instutions were: (1) The Westminster College of Chemistry and Pharmacy, 402 Clapham Road (from 1908; transferred to number 190 in 1919). Both the buildings and their surroundings fell victim to air-attacks during the Second World War; they have entirely vanished, their sites being occupied by modern open-plan housing estates. (2) South of England College of Pharmacy, 186 Clapham Road; Principal: H Lucas, PhC, FCS. (3) London College of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Botany, 323 Clapham Road; Principals: Henry Wootton (Wills's former partner at Trinity Street, until 1898), and A Kirkland. (4) South London School of Pharmacy, 325 Kennington Road (Kennington Cross, adjoining Clapham Road); Principal: John Muter, MA, PhD, FCS, Public Analyst. (5) Brixton School of Chemistry and Pharmacy, 78 Stockwell Park Road; Principal: Dr A B Griffiths, FRSE. (6) London College of Pharmacy, 361 Clapham Road; Principal: Irvine G Rankin, BSc, PhC.
64 See, for example, Chemist and Druggist, 1910, 77: 838; 1911, 79: 464; 1914, 84: 480; 1921, 94: 224.
65 Chemist and Druggist, 1924, 100: 533; 1918, 90: 654.
66 Editorial, ‘Pharmacy by post’, Chemist and Druggist, 1877, 19: 116.
67 ‘Rules Applicable to Postal Courses’, printed in the set of Major Lectures, 1877 (see Appendix, no. 21). Some of the more draconian regulations and fines appear to have been relaxed by 1900 (see Prospectus, 1901, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 84).
68 Several press opinions had endorsed the postal system warmly at an early date, and Wills was not slow in quoting them in his Prospectuses. When he reprinted them time and time again, the Chemist and Druggist (1917, 89: 370) commented drily, “the College should affix dates to the opinions published regarding the postal courses”.
69 Wills’ new postal system. Minor lectures (see Appendix, no. 20): Notice after Lesson 110/111. Major lectures (see Appendix, no. 21).
70 The student was urged to do so promptly to avoid “losing much of the benefit of the study he has given to the various subjects”.
71 Wills’ new postal system. Preliminary lectures (see Appendix, no. 19).
72 The course comprised 50 lessons in Latin, 16 in English, and 22 in arithmetic, with 12 model examination papers interspersed. Pupils had again to supervise their progress by self-assessment, aided by answers supplied to some of the questions in subsequent lessons.
73 For a brief survey of tuition by correspondence, “a characteristic branch of Victorian educational industry”, and assessment of its significance in widening access to professional qualifications, see Millerson., op. cit., note 8 above, pp. 140–1.
74 Sugarman, op. cit., note 9 above, pp. 10, 12. Albert Gibson, Gibson's Law Notes: A Monthly Magazine for Students and Others. With Supplements: Questions and Answers, London, 1882–1944.
75 The considerably higher cost of legal as compared with pharmaceutical tuition (see p. 487) may reflect the relative social and financial expectations of the two professions, as well as the location of the teaching establishments respectively in the heart of London's legal quarter, and the municipal suburbs. Moreover, the postal courses of the law tutors paid greater regard to the student's individual needs than the inexpensive stereotype guidance sent out by Westminster College.
76 Holloway, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 405.
77 Matthews, op. cit., note 1, p. 165; ‘Pharmacy schools filling up’, Chemist and Druggist, 1919, 91: 126, 142.
78 Editorial, ‘New examination regulations’, Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist, 1932, 128: 494–503.
79 ‘Teaching institutions’, Chemist and Druggist, 1932, 117: 193–7.
80 A chart showing the number of teaching institutions existing between 1880 and 1963, classified into groups conducted by the Pharmaceutical Society, by private proprietors, by technical colleges, and by universities has been compiled by Earles (op. cit., note 2 above, p. 92).
81 See, for example, Chemist and Druggist, 1932, 117: 193; 1933, 119: 259; 1935, 123: 197.
82 Chemist and Druggist, 1939, 131: 197.
83 Since the names of the occupiers of the adjacent houses, nos.186 and 192, were omitted from the Post Office Directory at the same time, it is probable that the immediate neighbourhood was severely damaged or destroyed in the air-attacks on London.
84 Centenary commemoration, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 12.
85 F W Chapman, ‘The late G S V Wills’, Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist, 1932, 128: 408.
86 A souvenir, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 189.
87 Answers to Correspondents on Every Subject under the Sun, No. 1–82 (1888–89); continued as Answers, No. 83–3311 (1889–1955); continued as Answers and TV Pic, No. 3312–3329 (1955–56) then discontinued. London Bridge was regarded as “the most crowded bridge in the world”, as City workers used it twice daily in crossing the river between their offices and London Bridge railway station on the south bank.
88 A souvenir, op. cit., note 31 above, p. 183.
89 Chemist and Druggist, 1913, 83: 235.
90 Some of these occasions were combined with an excursion to the Botanic Gardens at Kew. Although mid-February hardly seems a time for botanizing, the famous conservatories, both temperate and tropical, provided more than sufficient scope for botanical studies, and trips were rounded off by a celebration at the adjacent Rose and Crown Hotel, where the students were their Principal's guests.
91 Chemist and Druggist, 1922 , 96: 738.
92 Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1824–1892), famed minister and preacher, regularly attracted audiences that filled to overflowing Exeter Hall, and later (1861) the Metropolitan Tabernacle (with its capacity for 6000 persons), where he ministered until his death.
93 A souvenir, op. cit., note 31 above, pp. 167–80.
94 In South Croydon, Wills's house in Croham Road was only a short walk from the railway station, 11 miles from London Bridge Station, itself close by the College in Trinity Street. The daily commuting thus presented no problem.
95 Anon., ‘Obituary: G S V Wills’, The Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist, 1932, 128: 386; anon., Obituary, Chemist and Druggist, 1932, 116: 624; details of his will, ibid., p. 672 . This is a very brief announcement by the chairman of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society at its meeting of 1 June 1932, who referred to the greater number of students who had been trained by Mr Wills than by any other proprietor of such an institution, and thought that he would be especially remembered for his genial personality.
96 Centenary commemoration, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 12.
97 Holloway, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 403.
98 Melvin Earles, ‘The development of pharmaceutical education’, in Anderson (ed.), op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 97–114, esp. pp. 104–5.
99 These developments brought the education of the pharmacist in Britain in line with that prevailing in Continental Europe, where the “pharmacien” in France and “Apotheker” in Holland and Germany were university-trained. There the licensed pharmacies were restricted to supplying exclusively medicines and surgical products. See J D C Anderson, ‘Pharmaceutical education in Europe’, Chemist and Druggist, 1958, 170: 173–4; Alois Kernbauer, Zwischen Zunft und Wissenschaft. Der oesterreichische Apotheker- und Pharmazeutenstand in der Krise. Von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis in das Jahr 1922, Geschichte der pharmazeutischen Ausbildung, Graz, Akademische Druck und Verlagsgesellschaft, 1989, pp. 372–80. The latter gives a useful comparison of the educational system in Britain and Continental countries.
100 See, for example, Editorial, ‘Is pharmacy education in crisis, or is it simply changing?’, Pharmaceutical Journal, 2003, 271: pp. 790–1.
101 Viviane Quirke, ‘From alkaloids to gene therapy: a brief history of drug discovery in the 20th century’, in Anderson (ed.), op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 177–202.
102 Shirley Ellis, ‘The development of pharmacy in hospitals’, in Anderson (ed.), op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 135–54.
103 Judy Slinn, ‘The development of the pharmaceutical industry’, in Anderson (ed.), op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 155–76.
104 A chain of chemist shops prominent in Britain has long been the firm of Boots the Chemists, built up since 1877 by Jesse Boot, ultimately from his father's modest herbalist store in Nottingham. By his extraordinary business acumen and enterprise, Boot rapidly increased the number of his branches to 181 by 1900, to 560 by 1914, and opened his thousandth shop in 1933. The acquisition of a rival multiple firm (Timothy Whites & Taylor) in 1968 added at one stroke another 622 outlets to the Boots empire. Many of its larger branches were purpose-built chemists’ emporia, occupying the most prominent commercial sites of town-centres. The whole enterprise was backed by the ample manufacturing capacity of the firm's own factories at Nottingham, supplying its own requirements and supporting a substantial wholesale trade. However, its premier position has in recent years been encroached by rival chains and supermarkets. See Stanley D Chapman, Jesse Boot of Boots the Chemists: a study in business history, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1974; Christopher Weir, Jesse Boot of Nottingham: founder of the Boots Company, Nottingham, Boots Company, 1994; Kathryn A Morrison, English shops and shopping: an architectural history, Newhaven and London, Yale University Press, 2003, pp. 209–19.
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