To report if any confectionarius
Mingles his drugs with matters various.
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.
The Reproduction of a Sixteenth Century Pharmacy in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg.
Beckmann gives much minute information concerning the establishment of apothecaries’ shops in the chief cities of Germany.[1] 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.”)