Society of Physicians

The Society of Physicians is a British professional body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly concluded the endorsement of physicians by examination. Founded in 1518, it set the first international standard in the classification of diseases, and its library embraces medical texts of great historical interest.

The College congregations four training faculties: the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, the Faculty for Pharmaceutical Medicine, the Faculty of Professional Medicine and the Faculty of Physician Associates. The College is sometimes referred to as the Royal College of Physicians of London to discriminate it from other similarly-named bodies. Its home in Regent's Park is one of the few post-war buildings to be contracted Grade I listed status.

A small group of distinguished physicians, led by the scholar and humanist Thomas Linacre, appealed King Henry VIII to be incorporated into a College similar to those initiate in a number of other European countries. The main functions of the College, as set down in the founding Charter, were to grant licenses to those competent to practice and to punish unqualified practitioners and those engaging in dereliction. This included apothecaries as well as physicians. It was originally founded as the College of Physicians when it received a Royal Charter in 1518, confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1523.