In Ireland, the “Fraternity of Barbers and Chirurgeons of the Guild of S. Mary Magdalene” was incorporated by Henry II. The apothecaries belonged to this body until 1745, when, with the aid of a statute, they set up for themselves, as “The Guild of S. Luke,” or “The worshipful Company of Apothecaries.” In 1784 the regularly educated surgeons of Dublin became incorporated under the name of “The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.”
In the twelfth century medicine seems to have been first studied as a science in England. The Universities enacted that none should practise physic without passing through a certain course of study. In the fourteenth century the degree of Doctor of Physic was by no means uncommon. For many years physicians were greatly aided in chemistry and medical science by the discoveries of alchemists, and the search after the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life gave many useful hints to practitioners. Chaucer well describes a “Doctour of Phisike,” in the Prologue to the |7| Canterbury Tales, and gives an insight into the state of medical knowledge in the fourteenth century.
——He was grounded in astronomie.
He kept his patient a ful gret del
In houres by his magike naturel.
He knew the cause of every maladie,
Were it of cold, or hote, or moist, or drie,
And when engendred, and of what humour.
He was a veray parfite practisour.
The cause yknowe, and of his harm the rote,