A Short View of the Frauds and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries | Page 7

they endeavour to
prepossess the Members of the House of Commons with strange, and
false prejudices and assertions drawn from irrational, and groundless
suppositions, making us the greatest Tyrants in the World, inferring
ridiculously that a Lady, or Charitable Gentlewoman (for in that
believing Sex they have gain'd a great deal of ground by their falsities)
might not give the Poor a Cordial, &c. without being questioned by the
College; whereas they know in their Consciences, that the College hath
power enough by their first Charter to act as much in this kind against
themselves, and all other persons, as they desired of this present
Parliament; And yet neither Apothecary, or any other who practised
charitably, were ever troubled for so doing. They pretended also they
were abridged wholy from their Trade, and might not sell a
penny-worth of Mithridate, &c. without a Doctors Bill. Whereas there's
not a word in the Charter to that purpose; the sole intent whereof was to
keep them as well as other Mountebanks, from prescribing (which they
call selling) the Physicians only livelyhood. And as to the bill itself so
much railed on by them in Westminster-Hall, Coffee-Houses,
Ale-Houses, &c. 'tis easie to make it out, that this Charter as proposed
gives the Apothecaries more liberty and freedom of exercising their
lawful Trade, then is enjoyed in any other Nation, where both
Corporations are erected, and that it doth in nothing infringe, or
diminish their freedom as Citizens, or their Charter as Apothecaries;
and that our Charter was compiled by some, and perused and approved
by others the most eminent Lawyers in England for Worth and Place;
and yet none of these could find any thing in it either Illegal,

Tyrannical, or unfit to be desired of the Parliament. Nay many
mis-informed Members being rightly instructed in the true state of the
matter, have acknowledged the justice of it; And was no more then
King James by his Letters Patents, dated the 18th of October, in the
15th year of his Reign, granted to the said College; near about the same
time the Apothecaries Charter was granted; and being almost nothing
else but a supply of what was short in their former Grants, viz. That
whereas their Charter granted by King Henry the Eighth, gave power to
punish offenders in the practice of Physic; and because there was no
power given to summon, nor penalty imposed for the non-appearance
of such offenders; therefore by their non-appearance, the said power of
the Censors was eluded; for no such offenders would appear before
them, and consequently no punishment could be inflicted on them,
according to the true meaning of the said Act. Now this Charter so
much declaimed against, prayed only a supply of this defect, and also
better and more necessary ways and means, without which, such and all
other offenders against the lives and healths of his Majesties Subjects
could not be discovered; and they had reason not to doubt a grant of the
said power, since by the said Charter a power was granted them to
imprison offenders, whom the Keepers of the Prisons would not receive,
because no command, nor penalty was imposed on them, for not
receiving such offenders sent by the Censors (a thing ridiculous to our
present Lawyers) however this defect was supplyed by an Act in the
first of Queen Mary. Now whereas since the making of the said Acts
and Powers, granted to the College, several other Trades, besides the
Apothecaries, relating to Physic (being then all Members of the Grocers
Company) viz. Druggists, Chymists, Sellers of Strong-Waters and Oyls,
have arose distinct from each others, and many abuses have been and
are committed in each of them, as they all confess. The said Charter
prays for the publick good only (there being the same reason of all)
they might have the same power of Surveying them also, as they have
of the Apothecaries, which most of the Judicious, and sober of the said
Companies, as well in relation to their own private profit, and also the
publick, by having all Medicines good, did not oppose, but liked well
of. Nay there was nothing in the said Charter, but what was judged
good by all or most of the Judges of England, several times convened
by Order of the King and his Council, to deliver their opinions

concerning some Quæries, which comprised the main of what was
desired and petitioned for by the College, of this present Parliament.
But before the Committee could make report to the House, the
Parliament was adjourned, whereupon Apothecaries falsly gave out,
and made people believe our Charter was taken from us. And in this
transaction before the Committee, one Cocket an Apothecary exhibited
in the name of the Chymists such a Scandalous Libel,