Editing Imperial units (section)

==Implementation==
The [[Weights and Measures Act 1824]] was initially scheduled to go into effect on 1 May 1825.<ref name="google339">{{cite book|author=Great Britain|title=The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1807-1865)|url=https://archive.org/details/statutesunitedk02britgoog|access-date=31 December 2011|year=1824|publisher=His Majesty's statute and law printers|pages=[https://archive.org/details/statutesunitedk02britgoog/page/n373 339]–354}}</ref> The [[Weights and Measures Act 1825]] pushed back the date to 1 January 1826.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Great Britain|author2=William David Evans|author-link2=William David Evans|author3=Anthony Hammond|author4=Thomas Colpitts Granger|title=A collection of statutes connected with the general administration of the law: arranged according to the order of subjects|url=https://archive.org/details/acollectionstat08evangoog|access-date=31 December 2011|year=1836|publisher=W. H. Bond|pages=[https://archive.org/details/acollectionstat08evangoog/page/n397 306]–27}}</ref> The 1824 act allowed the continued use of pre-imperial units provided that they were customary, widely known, and clearly marked with imperial equivalents.<ref name="google339"/>

===Apothecaries' units===
[[File:Imperial standards of length 1876 Trafalgar Square.jpg|thumb|right|Imperial standards of length 1876 in [[Trafalgar Square]], London]]

[[Apothecaries' system|Apothecaries' units]] are not mentioned in the acts of 1824 and 1825. At the time, apothecaries' weights and measures were regulated "in England, Wales, and [[Berwick-upon-Tweed]]" by the [[London College of Physicians]], and in Ireland by the [[Royal College of Physicians of Ireland|Dublin College of Physicians]]. In Scotland, apothecaries' units were unofficially regulated by the [[Edinburgh College of Physicians]]. The three colleges published, at infrequent intervals, [[pharmacopoeia]]s, the London and Dublin editions having the force of law.<ref name="Edinburgh medical and surgical journal">{{cite book|title=Edinburgh medical and surgical journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DwUbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA398|year=1824|publisher=A. and C. Black|page=398}}</ref><ref name="IrelandButler1765">{{cite book|author1=Ireland|last2=Butler|first2=James Goddard|last3=Ball|first3=William (barrister.)|title=The Statutes at Large, Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland: From the twenty-third year of George the Second, A.D. 1749, to the first year of George the Third, A.D. 1761 inclusive|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iIdRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA852|year=1765|publisher=Boulter Grierson|page=852}}</ref>

Imperial apothecaries' measures, based on the imperial pint of 20 fluid ounces, were introduced by the publication of the ''[[London Pharmacopoeia]]'' of 1836,<ref name="Gray1836">{{cite book|last=Gray|first=Samuel Frederick|author-link=Samuel Frederick Gray|title=A supplement to the Pharmacopœia and treatise on pharmacology in general: including not only the drugs and preparations used by practitioners of medicine, but also most of those employed in the chemical arts : together with a collection of the most useful medical formulæ ...|url=https://archive.org/details/supplementtophar00grayuoft|access-date=29 July 2012|year=1836|publisher=Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman|page=[https://archive.org/details/supplementtophar00grayuoft/page/516 516]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/atranslationpha01philgoog#page/n19/mode/2up|title=A Translation of the Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1836.: With ...|publisher=S. Highley, 32, Fleet Street.|year=1837}}</ref> the ''[[Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia]]'' of 1839,<ref name="The Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh">{{cite book|title=The Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTjY2_xKm9UC&pg=PR13|year=1839|publisher=Adam and Charles Black and Bell and Bradfute|pages=xiii–xiv}}</ref> and the ''[[Dublin Pharmacopoeia]]'' of 1850.<ref name="DublinIreland1850">{{cite book|author1=Royal College of Physicians of Dublin|author2=Royal College of Physicians of Ireland|author-link2=Royal College of Physicians of Ireland|title=The pharmacopœia of the King and queen's college of physicians in Ireland|url=https://archive.org/details/pharmacopiaking00dublgoog|access-date=29 July 2012|year=1850|publisher=Hodges and Smith|page=xxii}}</ref> The [[Medical Act 1858]] transferred to [[the Crown]] the right to publish the official pharmacopoeia and to regulate apothecaries' weights and measures.<ref name="Britain1858">{{cite book|author=Great Britain|title=A collection of the public general statutes passed in the ... year of the reign of ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkovAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA306|year=1858|publisher=Printed by G. W. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen|page=306}}</ref>