[1009] Loureiro Flora Cochin-Chin. p. 447.
APOTHECARIES.
The history of the materia medica is a subject fit to be undertaken only by physicians like Baldinger, Hensler, Mohsen[1010], and Gruner, who to an intimate acquaintance with what belongs to their own profession, have united a knowledge of every other branch of science. By making this acknowledgment, I wish to guard against the imputation of vanity, which I might incur as attempting to encroach on the province of such learned men. That however is not the case. My intention is only to lay before the public what I have collected respecting this subject, because I have reason to flatter myself, that, however trifling, it may be of some use until a complete history be obtained; and because I may have met with some scattered information, which, without my research, might have escaped the notice of abler writers. Whoever is acquainted with such labour, will at any rate allow that this is possible; and I hope the following essay towards a history of apothecaries will not prove unacceptable to my readers.
That the medicines prescribed by the Greek and Roman physicians for their patients were prepared by themselves is so well known, that I think it unnecessary to produce proofs with which no one can be unacquainted who has read Theophrastus, Hippocrates, and Galen. They caused those herbs, of which almost the whole materia medica then consisted, to be collected by others; and we have reason to believe that the gathering and selling of medicinal plants must have at an early period been converted into a distinct employment, especially as many of them being exotics, it was necessary to procure them from remote countries, which every physician had not an opportunity of visiting; and as some of them were applied to a variety of purposes, they were sought after by others as well as by medical practitioners. Several of them were employed in cookery and for seasoning different dishes; many in dyeing and painting, some of them as cosmetics, others for perfumes, some for ointments, which were much used in the numerous baths, and not a few of them may have been employed also in other arts and manufactures. It must have been very convenient for the physicians to purchase from these dealers in herbs, such articles as they had occasion to use; but it is probable, and can even be proved, that these people soon injured them in their profession, by encroaching on their business. In the course of time they acquired a knowledge of the healing virtues of their commodities, and of the preparation they required, which was then extremely simple: and many of them began to sell compounded medicines, and to boast of possessing secrets more beneficial to mankind. To these dealers in herbs belong the pigmentarii, seplasiarii, pharmacopolæ, medicamentarii, and others who were perhaps thus distinguished by separate names on account of some very trifling circumstances in which they differed, or by dealing in one particular article more than in another. Some of these names also may possibly have been used only at certain periods, or in some places more than in others; and perhaps it would be fruitless labour to attempt to define their difference correctly. That the pigmentarii dealt in medicines is proved by the law which established a punishment for such as sold any one poison through mistake[1011]. The herbs which Vegetius[1012] prescribes for the diseases of cattle were to be bought from the seplasiarii; and that they sold also medicines ready prepared is proved by the reproach thrown out by Pliny against the physicians of his time, that instead of making up their medicines themselves as formerly, they purchased them from the seplasiarii, without so much as knowing of what they were composed[1013]. That the pharmacopolæ carried on a like trade appears evident from their name; but people of judgement placed no confidence in them, and they were despised on account of their impudent boasting, and the extravagant praises they bestowed on their commodities[1014]. The medicamentarii do not often occur, but we are given to understand by Pliny[1015], that they followed an employment of the same nature; and it appears that they must have been very worthless, for in the Theodosian code, male and female poisoners are called medicamentarii and medicamentariæ[1016].
It may be readily perceived that these herb-dealers had a greater resemblance to our grocers, druggists, or mountebanks, than to our apothecaries. It is well known that the word apotheca signified any kind of store, magazine, or warehouse, and that the proprietor or keeper of such a store was called apothecarius[1017]. It would be a very great mistake, therefore, if in writings of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, where these expressions occur, we should understand under the latter apothecaries such as ours are at present[1018]. At these periods, those were often called apothecaries who at courts and in the houses of great people prepared for the table various preserves, particularly fruit incrusted with sugar, and who on that account may be considered as confectioners. What peculiarly distinguishes our apothecaries is, that they sell drugs used in medicine, and prepare from them different compounds according to the prescriptions given by physicians and others. But here arises a question: When did physicians begin to give up entirely the preparation of medicines to such apothecaries, who must now be more than herb-dealers, and must understand chemistry? And when did the apothecaries acquire an exclusive title to that business and to their present name? It is probable that physicians gradually became accustomed to employ such assistance for the sake of their own convenience, when they found in their neighbourhood a druggist in whose skill they could confide, and whose interest they wished to promote, by resigning in his favour that occupation.
Conring asserts, without any proof, but not however without probability[1019], that the physicians in Africa first began to give up the preparation of medicines after their prescriptions to other ingenious men; and that this was customary so early as the time of Avenzoar in the eleventh century. Should that be the case, it would appear that this practice must have been first introduced into Spain and the lower part of Italy, as far as the possessions of the Saracens then extended, by the Arabian physicians who accompanied the Caliphs or Arabian princes. It is probable, therefore, that many Arabic terms of art were by these means introduced into pharmacy and chemistry, for the origin of which we are indebted to that nation, and which have been still retained and adopted. Hence it may be explained why the first known apothecaries were to be found in the lower part of Italy; but at any rate we have reason to conclude, that they obtained their first legal establishment by the well-known medical edict of the emperor Frederic II., issued for the kingdom of Naples, and from which Thomasius deduces the privileges they enjoy at present[1020]. By that edict it was required that the confectionarii should take an oath to keep by them fresh and sufficient drugs, and to make up medicines exactly according to the prescriptions of the physicians; and a price was fixed at which the stationarii might vend medicines so prepared, and keep them a year or two for sale in a public shop or store. The physicians at Salerno had the inspection of the stationes, which were not to be established in every place, but in certain towns. The confectionarii appear to have been those who made up the medicines or confectiones. The statio was the house where they were sold, or, according to the present mode of expression, the apothecary’s shop; and the stationarii seem to have been the proprietors, or those who had the care of selling the medicines. The word apotheca seldom occurs in that edict; when it does, it signifies the warehouse or repository where the drugs were preserved. I however find no proof in it that the physicians at that time sent their prescriptions to the stationes to be made up. It appears rather that the confectionarii prepared medicines from a general set of prescriptions legally authorised, and that the physicians selected from these medicines, kept ready for use, such as they thought most proper to be administered to their patients. A physician who had passed an examination, and obtained a licence to practise, was obliged to swear that he would observe formam curiæ hactenus observatam; and if he found quod aliquis confectionarius minus bene conficiat, he was obliged to give information to the curia. The confectionarii swore that they would make up confectiones, secundum prædictam formam. It was necessary that electuaries, syrups, and other medicines, should be accompanied with a certificate from a physician to show that they were properly prepared. I must acknowledge that the edict alludes here only to some medicines commonly employed; and I am surprised that the recipes are not mentioned, if such were then in use. I have never had the good fortune to meet with the word Receptum used to signify a prescription in any works of the above century. The practice of physicians writing out, almost at every visit, the method of preparing the medicines which they order, may perhaps have been introduced at a later period. The book of receipts most in use, by which the medicines of that time were made up, was the Antidotarium, which the physicians of Salerno caused to be collected and translated into Latin from the works of the Arabian physician Mesues, and from those of Avicenna, Galen, Actuarius, Nicolaus Myrepsius, and Nicolaus Præpositus, by the celebrated professor in that city, Nicolaus di Reggio, a native of Calabria.
If it be true that the separation of pharmacy from medicine first took place in Africa, it is highly probable that the well-known Constantinus Afer may have contributed to introduce it also into Italy. This man, who was a native of Carthage, having learned the medical art from the Arabians, made it known in that country, particularly after the year 1086, when he was a Benedictine monk in a monastery situated on Mount Cassino; and the service which he rendered to the celebrated school of physic in the neighbouring city of Salerno, is well known. After his time, the monks in many of the monasteries applied to the preparing of medicines, which they sold to the wealthy, but distributed gratis to the poor, and by these means were much benefited in various respects.
It is well known that almost all political institutions on this side the Alps, and particularly every thing that concerned education, universities, and schools, were copied from Italian models. These were the only patterns then to be found; and the monks, despatched from the papal court, who were employed in such undertakings, clearly saw that they could lay no better foundation for the Pontiff’s power and their own aggrandizement, than by inducing as many states as possible 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, however, in other countries than in Italy. The physicians of that period used no other drugs than those recommended by the ancients; and as these were to be procured only in the Levant, Greece, Arabia, and India, it was necessary to send thither for them. Besides, according to the astrological notions which then prevailed, herbs, to be confided in, could not be gathered but when the sun and planets were in certain constellations, and certificates of their being so were requisite to give them reputation. All this was impossible to be done without a distinct employment, for physicians were otherwise engaged. It was found convenient therefore to suffer some of the principal dealers in drugs gradually to acquire monopolies. The preparation of drugs was becoming always more difficult and expensive. After the invention of distillation, sublimation, and other chemical processes, laboratories, furnaces, and costly apparatus were to be constructed, and it was proper that men who had regularly studied chemistry should alone follow pharmacy; and that they should be indemnified for their expenses by an exclusive trade. These monopolists also could be kept under closer inspection, by which the danger of their selling improper drugs or poison was lessened or entirely removed. It would appear that no suspicions were at first entertained, that apothecaries could amass riches by their employment, so soon and so easily as they do at present; for they were allowed many other advantages, and particularly that of dealing in sweetmeats and confectionary, which were then the greatest delicacies. In many places they were obliged on certain festivals to give presents of such dainties to the magistrates, by way of acknowledgment, and hence probably has arisen the custom of sending new-years gifts of marchepanes and other things of the like kind.
In many places, and particularly in opulent cities, the first apothecaries’ shops were established at the public expense, and belonged to the magistrates. A particular garden also was often appropriated to the apothecary, in order that he might rear in it the necessary plants, and which therefore was called the apothecary’s garden[1021]. Apothecaries’ shops for the use of courts were frequently established and directed by the consorts of princes; and it is a circumstance well-known, that many of the fair sex, when they have lost the power of wounding, devote themselves much to the healing and curing art, and to the preparation and dispensing of medicines. [Such indeed is the case at present in France, medicines being both prepared and dispensed by the Sisters of Charity, who attend the sick at the public hospitals, much to the annoyance of the chemists and druggists, who have frequently petitioned the government to interfere to protect their interests.] Dr. Mohsen says that the first apothecaries in Germany came from Italy. This may be probable, but I know no proof of it. I shall now proceed to give some account of the oldest mention made of apothecaries, which will serve to confirm what I have said above.