DHMSA awarded to Meredith Temple-Smith

After two years of part-time study Professor Meredith Temple-Smith has been awarded a Diploma in the History of Medicine (DHMSA) from the UK’s Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.

The course required completion of a dissertation, a lecture and an exam. As the highest scoring student, Meredith received the Osler Medal for her lecture and was the joint recipient of the Maccabean Medal for her dissertation. Highlights of the course were lectures from many famous scholars and curators of the several medical museums.

The history of the Society of Apothecaries is fascinating. Apothecaries, who imported spices and herbs, originally were part of the Guild of Pepperers, who later became Grocers (as they dealt with goods ‘en gros’). By the mid-16th Century, the apothecary was effectively what we would call a pharmacist today but could provide medicines without a prescription. Physicians, in contrast,  were few in number and extremely expensive. Following a test case in 1704, apothecaries were given entitlement to both prescribe and dispense medicine and in doing so they paved the way for the general practitioner of today.

The Apothecaries Act of 1815 gave the Society the power to examine medical students and to grant them licence to practice medicine in England and Wales. The Society was the first to subsequently introduce qualifications in a variety of specialised areas that resulted in the establishment of colleges – such as Midwifery (which spawned the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) and Industrial Health (which seeded the Institute of Occupational Medicine). Today the Society examines nine different post-graduate diplomas.

The Apothecaries’ Hall, built in 1670, is the oldest Livery Hall in London. The Hall provided all the medical chests that accompanied surgeons in the Royal Navy and Army, as well as Ships’ surgeons accompanying convicts bound for the colonies. The Hall has some extraordinary paintings, and collections of apothecaries’ drug jars, books and records of members of the Society dating back to 1617. It is well worth a visit if you are in London!!