Part 17

The physician was strictly forbidden to enter into any arrangement with a druggist whereby he would derive any profit by the sale of medicaments, and he was not permitted himself to conduct a pharmacy. The “confectioners” were required to take an oath to prepare all medicines according to the Antidotary of the Salernian School. Their profits were limited and graduated, less being allowed on those of frequent consumption than on those which they had to keep for more than a year. Pharmacies were only allowed in the principal cities, and in each such city two notable master-apothecaries were appointed to supervise them. The “confectioners” had to make their syrups and electuaries and other compounds in the presence of these two inspectors, and if they were detected in any attempt at fraud their property was subject to confiscation. If one of the inspectors was found to have been a party to the fraud his punishment was death.

“It is well known,” says Beckmann in “Ancient Inventions,” “that almost all political institutions on this side the Alps, and particularly everything that concerned education, were copied from Italian models. These were the only patterns then to be found; and the monks despatched from the papal court saw they could lay no better foundation for the Pontiff’s power and their own aggrandizement than by inducing other States to follow the examples set them in Italy. Medical establishments were formed, therefore, everywhere at first according to the plan of that at Salerno. Particular places for vending medicines were more necessary in other countries than in Italy. The physicians of that period used no other drugs than those recommended by the ancients; and as these had to be procured from the Levant, Greece, Arabia, and India, it was necessary to send thither for them. Besides, herbs, to be confided in, could only be gathered when the sun and planets were in certain constellations, and certificates of their being so were necessary to give them reputation. All this was impossible without a distinct employment, and it was found convenient to suffer dealers in drugs gradually to acquire monopolies. The preparation of medicines was becoming more difficult and expensive. The invention of distillation, sublimation, and other chemical processes necessitated laboratories, furnaces, and costly apparatus; so that it was thought proper that those who devoted themselves to pharmacy should be indemnified by an exclusive trade; and monopolists could be kept under closer inspection so that the danger of their selling improper drugs or poisons was lessened or entirely removed. They were also allowed to deal in sweetmeats and confectionery, which were then great luxuries; and in some places they were required to give presents of these delicacies to the magistrates on certain festivals.”

This extract shows how the German provision of protected pharmacy originated. In many of the chief cities the apothecaries’ shops were established by, and belonged to, the King or Queen, or the municipality. Sometimes, as at Stuttgart, there was a contract between the ruler and the apothecary, the former agreeing to provide a certain quantity of wine, barley, and rye; while the apothecary in return was to supply the Court with its necessary confectionery.

Beckmann gives much minute information concerning the establishment of apothecaries’ shops in the chief cities of Germany. He mentions a conjecture that there was a pharmacy at Augsburg in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but exact dates begin with the fifteenth century. There was a female apothecary established at Augsburg in 1445, and the city paid her a salary. At Stuttgart, in 1458, Count Ulric authorised one Glatz to open a pharmacy. There was one existing at Frankfort in 1472. The police regulations of Basle in 1440 mention the public physician and his duty, adding that “what costly things people may wish to have from the apothecary’s shop they must pay for.” The magistrates of Berlin, in 1488, granted to one Hans Zebender a free house, a certain provision of rye, no taxes, and the assurance that no other apothecary should reside in the city. But the Elector Joachim granted a new patent to another apothecary in 1499. At Halle there was only one apothecary. In that year the Archbishop, with the confirmation of the Chapter, granted to his physician, von Wyke, the privilege of opening another, but gave at the same time the assurance that no more should be permitted in the city “to eternity.”

In France apothecaries were in business as such certainly before 1250. A charter of the church of Cahors, dated 1178, describes the retail shopkeepers of the town as “apothecarii,” the term being used evidently as “boutiquiers” is now, and signifying nothing more than shopkeepers. The meaning, however, soon became restricted to dealers in drugs and spices. In the middle of the next century John of Garlande alludes to “appotecarii,” who sold confections and electuaries, roots and herbs, ginger, pepper, cumin, and other spices, wax, sugar, and licorice. Officially, however, these tradesmen were classed at that time among the “espiciers.” The two guilds, indeed, continued in formal association until 1777, but royal ordinances of 1484 and 1514 clearly established the distinction between them. Even in 1271 the Faculty of Medicine of Paris forbade “herborists and apothecaries” to practise medicine. Special responsibilities, duties, and privileges were expressly provided for the apothecaries, and in the ordinance of 1514 it is specifically declared that though the apothecary is always a grocer, the grocer is not necessarily an apothecary. (“Qui est espicier n’est pas apothicaire, et qui est apothicaire est espicier.”)

In the fourteenth century the apothecaries of Paris were required to subscribe to a formal oath before they were permitted to practise. They swore to live and die in the Christian faith, to speak no evil of their teachers or masters, to do all in their power for the honour, glory, ornament, and majesty of medicine, to give no remedy or purge without the authority of a physician, to supply no drugs to procure abortion, to prepare exactly physicians’ prescriptions, neither adding, subtracting, nor substituting anything without the express permission of the physician, to avoid the practices of charlatans as they would the plague, and to keep no bad or old drug in their stocks. An ordinance of 1359 provides that no one shall be granted the title of master-apothecary unless he can show that he can read recipes.

The edict of 1484, issued during the minority of Charles VIII, sets forth that, “We, of our certain science, especial grace, full power, and royal authority, do say, declare, statuate, and ordain” the curriculum to be observed by those who desire to learn the trade of an apothecary. A four years’ apprenticeship was essential, and the aspirant had to dispense prescriptions, recognise drugs, and prepare “chefs d’œuvres” in wax and confectionery in the presence of appointed master-apothecaries. Latin was added to the examination in 1536, and ten years’ experience after the apprenticeship was also insisted upon ultimately before the candidate could be admitted as a master-apothecary. One of the ordinances of the sixteenth century gave to the apothecaries the monopoly in the manufacture and sale of gingerbread.

These edicts all related particularly to the apothecaries of Paris. There were similar ones in the provinces, with some peculiarities. At Dijon, for example, it was provided that no apothecary could receive a legacy from one of his clients. En revanche he had the first claim on the estate of a deceased debtor for the payment of his account.

In 1629 the Hotel de Ville of Paris granted to the apothecaries of that city a banner and blazon, the latter, which I do not venture to translate, being thus described:--“Couppé d’azur et d’or, et sur l’or deux nefs de gueulle flottantes aux bannieres de France, accompagnés de deux estoiles a cinq poincts de gueulle avec la devise ‘Lances et pondera servant,’ et telles qu’elles sont cy-dessous empreinctes.”

In 1682, under Louis XV, after the Brinvilliers panic, the poison register was introduced, and regulations were framed forbidding apothecaries to sell any arsenic, sublimate, or drug reputed to be a poison except to persons known to them, and who signed the register stating what use they intended to make of their purchase. Earlier in the same reign the practice of pharmacy was strictly forbidden to persons professing the reformed religion.

The last of the royal edicts applying to pharmacy was issued in 1777 by Louis XVI, and, as already stated, this was the authority which finally separated the apothecaries from the grocers. Then came the Revolution, and in 1791 all restrictions on trades or professions, including pharmacy, were abolished. Some accidents having occurred, the Assembly passed an ordinance on April 14, 1791, declaring that the old laws, statutes, and regulations governing the teaching and practice of pharmacy should remain in force until a new code should be framed. This did not appear until April, 1803, under Napoleon’s Consulate, and the law, which is still in force, is to this day cited in legal proceedings as the law of Germinal, year XI.

VIII

PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

For none but a clever dialectician Can hope to become a great physician: That has been settled long ago. Logic makes an important part Of the mystery of the healing art; For without it how could you hope to show That nobody knows so much as you know. --LONGFELLOW: “Golden Legend.”

BRITISH PHARMACY IN SAXON ENGLAND.

The condition of medicine and pharmacy in Saxon times has been carefully portrayed in three volumes published, in 1864, under the authority of the Master of the Rolls at the expense of the Treasury. These were edited by the Rev. Oswald Cockayne, M.A., and appeared under the title of “Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft.” Many old documents were translated and explained, and from these the ideas of medicine in these islands a thousand years ago were made manifest.

Mr. Cockayne gave at length a Saxon Herbarium, written, he supposed, about the year 1000, and professing to be a translation from Apuleius, a Roman physician of the second century, with additions from Dioscorides, and some from native science. A few specimens will suffice to show the character of the herb treatment in England before the Conquest.

CRESS, WATERCRESS (Nasturtium officinale).

1. This wort is not sown, but it is produced of itself in wylls (springs), and in brooks, also it is written that in some lands it will grow against walls.

2. In the case that a man’s hair fall off take juice of the wort which one nameth nasturtium, and by another name cress; put it on the nose; the hair shall wax (grow).

3. For sore of head, that is for scurf and for itch, take seed of this same wort and goose grease. Pound together. It draws from the head the whiteness of the scurf.

4. For soreness of the body (the Latin word is ad cruditatem, indigestion) take this same wort nasturtium, and pennyroyal; seethe them in water, give to drink; then amendest thou the soreness of the body, and the evil departs.

5. Against swellings, take this same wort, and pound it with oil; lay over the swellings; then take leaves of the same wort, and lay them thereto.

6. Against warts, take this same wort and yeast, pound together, lay thereto, they be soon taken away.

MAYTHE (Anthemis nobilis).

For sore of eyes, let a man take ere the upgoing of the sun, the wort which is called Chamaimelon, and by another name Maythe, and when a man taketh it let him say that he will take it against white specks, and against soreness of the eyes; let him next take the ooze, and smear the eyes therewith.

POPPY (Papaver somniferum).

1. For sore of eyes, that is what we denominate blearedness, take the ooze of this wort, which the Greeks name Makona and the Romans Papaver album, and the Engles call white poppy, or the stalk with the fruit; lay it to the eyes.