The Royal College of Physicians of London had the power to inspect apothecaries’ products in the London area, and to destroy defective stock. The first list of approved drugs, with information on how they should be prepared, was the London Pharmacopoeia, published in 1618. The first edition of what is now known as the British Pharmacopoeia was published in 1864, and was one of the first attempts to harmonise pharmaceutical standards, through the merger of the London, Edinburgh and Dublin Pharmacopoeias.