The Censors attended by the representatives of the Society of Apothecaries were empowered to visit the shops of the apothecaries in London to "search, survey, and prove whether the medicines, wares, drugs, or any thing or things, whatsoever in such shop or shops contained and belonging to the art and mystery of an apothecary be wholesome, meet and fit for the cure, health, and ease of his Majesty's subjects." These inquisitorial visits were made at irregular times every summer and autumn. The procession, consisting of the Censors with the Wardens and the Beadle of the Society of Apothecaries, started at one o'clock, and before six in the afternoon from twenty to thirty shops had been visited. At each shop the visitors entered and asked for a few drugs selected at random. They then examined the stock from which the supply was taken, as well as the individual sample offered, a few rough tests were applied, and if the drugs were found to be bad or adulterated they were at once destroyed by the simple but effectual method of throwing them out into the street. The records of each visitation were kept in a book belonging to the College of Physicians. Dr. Robert Pitt, Censor in 1687 and again in 1702 has left us an interesting account of the results of such a visitation, which in all probability did not differ materially from those which it was Harvey's duty to conduct. The Transcript of the Deposition in the time of Dr. Pitt's censorship runs thus-- MR. G----'S SHOP. _London Laudanum_ without either colour or smell. _Oxycroceum_ without saffron. _Pil. Ruff._ no colour of saffron. [This was a pill largely used as a preservative against the plague. It contained myrrh, aloes, and saffron.] MR. R----'S SHOP. _Diascordium_ dark and thin, without a due proportion of the gums. [It was a compound electuary containing no less than 19 ingredients. It was considered useful in the treatment of epilepsy, megrim, want of appetite, wind, colic, and malignant fevers.] _London Laudanum_, a dry, hard substance, without smell or colour. MR. S----'S SHOP. _Diascordium_ too thin (let down with honey, I suppose). _Venice treacle_, a thin body, much candied. [This, like Diascordium and Mithridate, was one of the complex electuary medicines of the Middle Ages. Its proportions were almost word for word those recommended by Galen in his treatise, [Greek: Peri Antidotôn]. It was also known as the treacle of Andromachus.] _London Laudanum_, a dry, hard substance, without smell or colour. MR. G----'S SHOP. _Diascordium_ thin bodied, much candied. _Venice treacle_ thin, candied, without its proportions. _London Laudanum_, a dry, hard substance. MR. G.----'S SHOP. _Paracelsus_ without its powders or gums. _Oxycroceum_ of a dark colour.