Henry Brewer of the H, & J. Brewer Drug Store, Springfield, Masssachusetts, 1850. Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use. From the 15th century to the 16th century, the apothecary gained the status of a skilled practitioner, but by the end of the 19th century, the medical professions had taken on their current institutional form, with defined roles for physicians and surgeons, and the role of the apothecary was more narrowly conceived as that of pharmacist. The history of pharmacy as an independent science dates back to the first third of the 19th century. Before then, pharmacy evolved from antiquity as part of medicine. No artist credited.