Pharmacy new rules

[Osc]

There are three Chemists, as we used to call them

I still say chemist, don’t know where pharmacist came from to be the word used now.

[saundra]

I still say chemist but pharmacy sounds more up market or trendy

[Workingman]

Osc, I think that it is because "chemist" is a generic term for someone working in chemistry of any type whereas "pharmacist" is someone trained to prepare or work with medicines but isn't necessarily a chemist in the real sense.

I'll continue with Chemists.

[meriad]

Spot on Frank..... I have a friend who is a chemist; he works in the chemistry industry and has in the past been very involved in the development of anti viral meds specifically for HIV; he often has to explain the difference between him and what as a career is a pharmacist - because they are two very different fields in the industry

But saying all that; I still call them all chemists

[Workingman]

I think they were originally apothecaries in medieval times where lotions, potions and pills were made from herbs and spices and eye of frog and tail of newt. They evolved into chemists as science and medicine also evolved and medicines were made in the chemist's shop from chemical elements, compounds and minerals. One had to be a qualified chemist to know what to do without killing people. More evolution and pharmaceuticals and pharmacy became healthcare disciplines in their own right.

An ex SiL is a pharmacist in a local hospital with a degree and formal training, but no way is she a chemist!

We once visited the Victorian chemist's shop in Beamish Museum. It was all there, the marble pestle and mortar, brass weighing scales, measuring cups, all the paraphernalia, and all the chemicals in their jars and bottles; arsenic, bismuth, laudanum, iodine, camphor, potassium, menthol, sulphur, you name it he had it. The chemist also had his 'own brand' medicines or would make one up to order. Boy, was it a different world!