Thorbecke's Medicines Act of 1865 sought to end the competition between pharmacists and chemists. The question of who was allowed to sell which drugs had to be resolved. Thorbecke therefore abolished the existing druggists' examination.

For medicines approved by medics, people could now go to the pharmacist. People went to the chemist's for so-called 'secret remedies', commercial pills, potions, powders and ointments with, in many cases, a placebo effect. The newspapers around 1900 were full of advertisements loudly touting these products as miracle remedies. A well-known example was Jacoba Wortelboer's herbal bitters.