Apoth´ecary, in a general sense, one who keeps a shop or laboratory for preparing, compounding, and vending medicines, and for the making up of medical prescriptions. In England the term was long applied (as to some little extent still) to a regularly licensed class of medical practitioners, being such persons as were members of,
or licensed by, the Apothecaries' Company in London. The apothecaries of London were at one time ranked with the grocers, with whom they were incorporated by James I in 1606. In 1617, however, the apothecaries received a new charter as a distinct company. They were not yet regarded as having the right to prescribe, but only to dispense, medicines; but in 1703 the House of Lords conferred that right on them, and they afterwards became a well-established branch of the medical profession. In 1815 an Act was passed providing that no person should practise as an apothecary in any part of England or Wales unless after serving an apprenticeship of five years with a member of the society, and receiving a certificate from the society's examiners. As in country places every practitioner must be to some extent an apothecary, this Act gave the society an undue influence over the medical profession. Dissatisfaction therefore long prevailed, but nothing of importance was done till the Medical Act of 1858, which brought the desired reform. The Apothecaries' Society, governed by a master, two wardens, and twenty-two assistants, has prescribed a course of medical instruction and practice which candidates for the licence of the society must pass through. Since 1874 apprenticeship has not been necessary.
Apothe´cium, in botany, the receptacle of lichens, consisting of the spore-cases or asci, and of the paraphyses or barren threads.
Apotheo´sis (deification), a solemnity among the ancients by which a mortal was raised to the rank of the gods. The custom of placing mortals, who had rendered their countrymen important services, among the gods was very ancient among the Greeks. The Romans, for several centuries, deified none but Romulus, and first imitated the Greeks in the fashion of frequent apotheosis after the time of Cæsar. From this period apotheosis was regulated by the decrees of the senate, and accompanied with great solemnities. Almost all the Roman emperors were deified.
Appalachian Mountains (ap-pa-lā´chi-an), also called Alleghanies, a vast mountain range in N. America extending for 1300 miles from Cape Gaspé on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, s.w. to Alabama. The system has been divided into three great sections: the northern (including the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, the White Mountains, &c.), from Cape Gaspé to New York; the central (including a large portion of the Blue Ridge, the Alleghanies proper, and numerous lesser ranges), from New York to the valley of the New River; and the southern (including the continuation of the Blue Ridge, the Black Mountains, the Smoky Mountains, &c.), from the New River southwards. The chain consists of several ranges generally parallel to each other, the altitude of the individual mountains increasing on approaching the south. The highest peaks rise over 6600 feet (not one at all approaching the snow-level), but the mean height is about 2500 feet. Lake Champlain is the only lake of great importance in the system, but numerous rivers of considerable size take their rise here. Magnetite, hematite, and other iron ores occur in great abundance, and the coal-measures are among the most extensive in the world. Gold, silver, lead, and copper are also found in small quantities, while marble, limestone, fire-clay, gypsum, and salt abound. The forests covering many of the ranges yield large quantities of valuable timber, such as sugar-maple, white birch, beech, ash, oak, cherry tree, white poplar, white and yellow pine, &c., while they form the haunts of large numbers of bears, panthers, wild cats, and wolves.
Appalachicola (-chi-cō´la), a river of the United States, formed by the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, which unite near the northern border of Florida; length, about 100 miles; it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and is navigable.
Appam, the name of a British merchant ship of the Elder-Dempster line captured by the German raiding cruiser Moewe (Sea-gull) on 16th Jan., 1916. A German prize crew succeeded in bringing the Appam westward, and was able to pass the British cordon off Chesapeake Bay and to reach Norfolk, Virginia. The vessel was carrying, among others, an ex-governor of Sierra Leone and some military officers from the west coast of Africa, but the passengers were at once released and allowed to return to England.
Appanage. See Apanage.
Appa´rent, among mathematicians and astronomers, applied to things as they appear to the eye, in distinction to what they really are. Thus they speak of apparent motion, magnitude, distance, height, &c. The apparent magnitude of a heavenly body is the angle subtended at the spectator's eye by the diameter of that body, and this, of course, depends on the distance as well as the real magnitude of the body; apparent motion is the motion a body seems to have in consequence of our own motion, as the motion of the sun from east to west, &c.