Apothecaries Act 1815

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{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Apothecaries Act 1815The citation of this Act by this short title was authorised by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An Act for better regulating the Practice of Apothecaries throughout England and Wales.

| year = 1815

| citation = 55 Geo. 3. c. 194

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| amendments = {{ubli|Apothecaries Amendment Act 1825 {{small|6 Geo. 4. c. 133}}|Statute Law Revision Act 1887|Statute Law Revision Act 1888|Statute Law Revision Act 1890}}

| repealing_legislation = Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1989

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| status = Repealed

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| original_text = {{GBurl|LaNUAAAAcAAJ|page=602}}

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{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Apothecaries Amendment Act 1825

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An act to amend and explain an Act of the Fifty fifth Year of His late Majesty, for better regulating the Practice of Apothecaries throughout England and Wales.

| year = 1825

| citation = 6 Geo. 4. c. 133

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| royal_assent = 6 July 1825

| commencement = 6 July 1825

| expiry_date =

| repeal_date = 5 August 1873

| amends = Apothecaries Act 1815

| replaces =

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| repealing_legislation = Statute Law Revision Act 1873

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| status = Repealed

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The Apothecaries Act 1815 (55 Geo. 3. c. 194) or the Medical Act 1815 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the long title "An Act for better regulating the Practice of Apothecaries throughout England and Wales". The Act introduced compulsory apprenticeship and formal qualifications for apothecaries, in modern terms general practitioners, under the license of the Society of Apothecaries. It was the beginning of regulation of the medical profession in the UK. The Act required instruction in anatomy, botany, chemistry, materia medica and "physic", in addition to six months' practical hospital experience.{{cite book | pages=316–317 | last=Porter |first=Roy |author-link=Roy Porter | title=The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present | publisher=W. W. Norton & Company | location=New York | isbn=978-0-393-31980-4 |orig-year=1997 |year=1999}}

Despite the Act, training of medical people in Britain remained disparate. Thomas Bonner, in part quoting M. Jeanne Peterson,{{cite book |title=The Medical Profession in Mid-Victorian London |url=https://archive.org/details/medicalprofessio0000pete |url-access=registration |first=M. Jeanne |last=Peterson |publisher=University of California Press |year=1978 |page=[https://archive.org/details/medicalprofessio0000pete/page/5 5]}} notes that "The training of a practitioner in Britain in 1830 could vary all the way from classical university study at Oxford and Cambridge to a series of courses in a provincial hospital to 'broom-and-apron apprenticeship in an apothecary's shop'".{{Cite book |title=Becoming a Physician : Medical Education in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, 1750-1945 |first=Thomas Neville |last=Bonner |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780195362657 |page=167}}