ABSTRACT
The emphasis on education, examination, qualification and registration coincided with their commitment to the canons of orthodox science. The Pharmaceutical Society, under the leadership of the leading London druggists, would transform group disgrace into collective virtue. The play has been described as a vivid portrayal of the public meeting at the Crown and Anchor tavern in the Strand on 15 April 1841 at which the historic resolution to form the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was adopted. In 1829 the threat arising from the exaction of new penalties under the Medicine Stamp Acts led to the formation of ‘The General Association of Chemists and Druggists of Great Britain’. The historic resolution at the public meeting ten days later merely declared: That for the purpose of protecting the permanent interests and increasing the respectability of Chemists and Druggists, an Association is formed under the title of the ‘Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain’.
