Medicines, Monopolies and Mortars: the Chemical Laboratory and Pharmaceutical Trade at the Society of Apothecaries in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

In 1672, a laboratory was founded by the Society of Apothecaries at its premises in Blackfriars, London, to manufacture chemical medicines. By exploring the society's motivations for constructing a laboratory and its development during the eighteenth century, this paper examines the roles that chemistry played within the activities of the institution. While the chemistry's primary utility was in drug manufacturing for the society's pharmaceutical trade, through its laboratory, the society used chemistry to develop its corporate and educational aims, thus helping to secure its institutional authority in London's medical marketplace.