“‘Nobody sells things out of this shop without my knowledge.’
“The Irishman was puzzled—he looked round the shop. ‘Well, then, if this a’n’t the shop, it was own sister to it.’”
“Like all embryo apothecaries,” says Japhet, “I carried in my appearance, if not the look of wisdom, most certainly that of self-sufficiency, which does equally well with the world in general. My forehead was smooth and very white, and my dark locks were combed back systematically and with a regularity that said, as plainly as hair could do, ‘The owner of this does everything by prescription, measurement, and rule’. Altogether I cut such a truly medical appearance that even the most guarded would not have hesitated to allow me the sole conduct of a whitlow, from inflammation to suppuration, and from suppuration to cure, or have refused to have confided to me the entire suppression of a gumboil.
“Such were my personal qualifications at the time I was raised to the important office of dispenser of, I may say, life and death.”
[FOOTNOTES:]
[1] Etc. is probably a direction ad lib. for the doctor speaking the formulæ.
[2] Hanbury’s Notes on Chinese Materia Medica.
[3] Lilly’s Autobiography, 1774.
[4] The Egyptian magical texts show that hair, feathers, the serpent’s skin, and “the blood of the mystic eye,” were used as charms of protecting or destroying power. This very probably denotes what is known as the charm of dragon’s blood, which is still employed as a potent love charm or philtre, the blood being now typified by the red resin of this name.
[5] Bullen’s Governmente of Health. 1558.