An Emulsion, 4_s._ 6_d._ A Mucilage, 3_s._ 4_d._ Gelly of Hartshorn, 4_s._ Plaster to dress Blister, 1_s._ An Emollient Glister, 2_s._ 6_d._ An ivory pipe, armed 1_s._ A Cordial Bolus, 2_s._ 6_d._ The same again, 2_s._ 6_d._ A cordial draught, 2_s._ 4_d._ The same again, 2_s._ 4_d._ Another bolus, 2_s._ 6_d._ Another draught, 2_s._ 4_d._ A glass of cordial spirits, 3_s._ 6_d._ Blistering plaster to the arm, 5_s._ The same to the wrists, 5_s._ Two boluses again, 5_s._ Two draughts again, 4_s._ 8_d._ Another emulsion, 4_s._ 6_d._ Another pearl julep, 4_s._ 6_d._ Mr. Dalby’s bill for five days came to £17 2_s._ 10_d._, and this was declared to be not an isolated case but illustrative of the practice of apothecaries when attending patients of the higher classes. CONTEST BETWEEN THE PHYSICIANS AND APOTHECARIES. In 1687 the College of Physicians adopted a resolution binding all Fellows, Candidates, and Licentiates of the College to give advice gratis to their neighbouring sick poor when desired within the city of London or seven miles round. But in view of the gross extortions of the apothecaries it was asked, What was the use of the physicians’ charity if the cost of compounding the medicines was to be prohibitory? The apothecaries, of course, denied that the examples of their charges which were quoted were at all general, and probably they were not. It was not to the interest of the apothecaries to destroy free prescribing. Indeed a proposal was made to the physicians on behalf of a numerous body of London apothecaries to accept a tariff for medicines dispensed for the poor to be fixed by the physicians themselves. The relations of the two bodies had become, however, so strained that arrangement was no longer possible. The apothecaries had in fact obtained the upper hand. They treated many cases themselves, and calling in the physician was largely within their discretion. At this time (about 1700) the ordinary fee paid to a physician was 10_s._ University graduates expected more, but they too, in the majority of cases, were only too glad to take the half sovereign, and it was alleged that they would sometimes pay the apothecary who called them a percentage off this. Such was the condition of affairs when in 1696 an influential section of the physicians, fifty-three of them, associated themselves in the establishment of Dispensaries, where medicines should be compounded and supplied to the poor at cost price. The fifty-three subscribed ten pounds each, and Dispensaries were opened at the College premises in Warwick Lane, in St. Martin’s Lane, and St. Peter’s Alley, Cornhill.