“Nane sell retoun poison, asenick, or sublemate, under the pane of ane hundred merkis, excep onlie the apothecaries quha sall be bund to take cautioun of the byaris, for coist, skaith, and damage”.
These powers were confirmed by Charles, “King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland”.
The ancient apothecary believed in the administration of physic in quantities which, in these advanced days of infinitesimal doses and concentrated preparations, would be considered something alarming.
The following interesting extract is from the diary of William Blundell, a celebrated cavalier of Lancashire, who took an active part in many of the conflicts in Cromwell’s time. On being taken ill, we are told, he sent for his medical man, one Dr. Worthington, of Wigan. The doctor’s bill, together with some quaint remarks thereon, are entered in the cavalier’s diary by his man, Master Thelwall, as follows:—
1681. “After my master had been long ill of a violent cold, Dr. Worthington came first unto him on 8th January. He staid two nights, and received for his pains £1 10s. He brought along with him, a lohoch, ten pills, with a bottle of spirits somewhat bigger than one’s thumb, and a paper of lozenges, with French barley and several ingredients for making the water thereof. On the eleventh day he sent a glister, with a large pint bottle of a cordial julep, and a small bottle of syrups, to be sucked up with a liquorice stick, also some small quantity of sal prunella.
A PHYSICIAN.
From a drawing by Amman, Sixteenth Century.