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.
Of English apothecaries I know nothing more than what has been stated
by Anderson[1022], who says that king Edward III., in the year 1345,
gave a pension of sixpence a day to Coursus de Gangeland, an apothecary
of London, for taking care of and attending his majesty during his
illness in Scotland; and this is the first mention of an apothecary in
the Fœdera.
Of apothecaries in France no mention occurs before the year 1484;
when they received their statutes in the month of August from Charles
VIII.[1023] They received others in 1514 under Louis XII.; in 1516 and
1520 under Francis I.; in 1571 under Charles IX.; in 1583 under Henry
III.; and in 1594 under Henry IV. These regulations were renewed and
confirmed by Louis XIII., in the years 1611, 1624, and 1638.
For the most copious information respecting German apothecaries, we
are indebted to Sattler. In the beginning of the fifteenth century an
apothecary’s shop was established at Stuttgard by a person named Glatz,
which, as the only one in the country, was first sanctioned by the
count of Wirtemberg in 1458. In the patent given on that occasion it
was said that Glatz’s ancestors had for many years kept an apothecary’s
shop at Stuttgard, and had furnished it as a proper apothecary ought.
In the year 1457 count Ulric gave to John Kettner, whom the year before
he had appointed to be his domestic physician, leave also to establish
an apothecary’s shop at Stuttgard, and promised to allow no other in
his dominions. The apothecary received yearly from the count a certain
quantity of wine, barley and rye; but, on the other hand, he engaged to
supply the court with as much confectionary as might be necessary, at
the rate of twelve schillings per pound[1024]. Both these shops seem
afterwards to have been abandoned, and the count and the apothecary
to have entertained the same opinion, that each could renounce his
contract when he pleased. In the year 1468, one Albrecht Mulsteiner,
or Altumsteiner, from Nuremberg, was appointed apothecary, with a
promise that no other private or public shop should be tolerated except
that at Wirtemberg. The patent is almost like that given to Kettner;
but it deserves to be remarked that it contains, in an additional
clause, a catalogue of all the different articles, with their prices.
An apothecary’s shop is mentioned at Tubingen, under count Everhard,
as an hereditary fief, the possessor of which bound himself to serve
as physician and apothecary to the army in time of war. In the year
1500 duke Ulric of Wirtemberg allowed one Syriax Horn to establish an
apothecary’s shop at Stuttgard, and appointed him his apothecary for
six years. He was obliged to swear that he would supply government and
all public officers, as well as the duke’s subjects, with medicines;
and the body physician was enjoined to visit the shop once every year,
in order to examine whether Horn conducted himself according to the
regulations laid down for him, and sold his medicines at the fixed
prices. In 1559 four apothecaries were appointed in the duchy, viz. at
Stuttgard, Goppingen, Kalw and Bintigheim, which are still called the
land-apothecaries. At the same period there was an apothecary’s shop in
the ducal palace at Stuttgard, which the consort of duke Christopher
caused to be furnished at her own expense; and from which the poor
received gratis whatever medicines they stood in need of.
That there were apothecaries’ shops at Augsburg so early as the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, according to the conjecture of
Von Stetten, has been mentioned already. By the records of that city
it appears that a public shop was kept there by a female apothecary
in the year 1445; and at that period a salary was paid by the city to
the person who followed that occupation. In 1507 an order was passed
that the apothecaries’ shops should be from time to time inspected;
and in 1512 a price was set upon their medicines, and all others were
forbidden to deal in them.
The antiquity of the first apothecary’s shop at Hamburg, which belonged
to the council, cannot be determined; but it is with certainty known
that one existed there before the sixteenth century. It was situated in
the middle of the city, near the council-house and the exchange; and
had a garden belonging to it, in the new town. Before the year 1618
there was at Hamburg also a private apothecary’s shop. In 1529 a city
physician was appointed, and quacks and mountebanks were then banished.
The annual visitation by the city physician was established in 1557.
The oldest regulation respecting apothecaries is of the year 1586.
Apothecaries’ shops, legally established, existed without doubt at
Frankfort on the Maine before the year 1472; for at that period the
magistrates of Constance requested to know what regulations were made
there respecting the prices of medicines. In 1489 the city physician
was instructed to inspect them carefully, and to see that the proper
prices were affixed to the different articles. In 1500 all the
apothecaries were obliged to take an oath that they would observe the
regulations prescribed for them; and in 1603 a decree was passed that
no more apothecaries’ shops should be allowed for twelve years than the
four then existing; and yet we are told that the fourth was first built
in 1629[1025].
In the police regulations drawn up at Basle in the year 1440, by which
it was ordered that a public physician should be established in every
German imperial city, with the allowance of an ecclesiastical benefice
or canonry, in order that he might exercise his art gratis, it is said,
“What costly things people may wish to have from the apothecary’s shop
they must pay for[1026].” Dr. Mohsen hence concludes that common roots
and herbs were not then sold in the apothecaries’ shops, but expensive
compounds brought from other countries.
The first apothecary’s shop at Berlin, of which any certain and
authentic account can be found in the king’s feudal records, was
established in 1488. At that period the magistrates gave one Hans
Zehender a right to the hereditary possession of a shop, and promised
to allow him yearly, to enable him to support it, a certain quantity
of rye, with a free house, and engaged also to exempt him from all
contributions, watching and other public burthens, and to permit no
other apothecary to reside in the city. This agreement was confirmed in
1491 by the elector John; and in 1499 the elector Joachim I., on his
coming to the government, gave the apothecary a new patent, in which
his body physician was charged to take care that the shop should be
furnished with proper drugs; that the medicines for the elector and his
court should be made up according to the prescriptions; and that they
should not be charged too high, contrary to the regulated prices[1027].
In the year 1573 there was an apothecary’s shop in the palace for the
use of the court; but Mr. Nicolai[1028] conjectures that it was only a
portable one, and consisted of some chests filled with medicines. The
present one was founded in 1598 by Catharine, consort of the elector
Joachim Frederick; but the establishment, as it now stands, began
to be formed in the year 1605, when Crispin Haubenschmid, the first
apothecary to the court, was brought from Halle to Berlin. Catharine,
widow of the margrave John of Custrin, caused an apothecary’s shop for
the use of the court to be established at Krossen, under the inspection
of her physician Wigands, because there was then no shop of that
kind in the place; and at her death in 1574 she bequeathed it to the
magistrates.
In Halle there was no apothecary’s shop till the year 1493. Before
that period medicines were sold only by grocers and barbers. In the
above year however the council, with the approbation of the archbishop,
permitted one Simon Puster to establish an apothecary’s shop, in order,
as stated in the patent, that the citizens might be supplied with
confections, cooling liquors, and such like common things, at a cheap
rate, and that, in cases of sickness, they might be able to procure
readily fresh and well-prepared medicines. Puster was exempted by it
from all taxes and contributions for ten years, but with this proviso,
that during that period he should furnish yearly at the council-house
for two collations in the time of the festivals, eight pounds of good
sugar confections, fit and proper to be used at such entertainments.
It stated, on the other hand, that in future no kind of preserves
made with sugar, or what was called confectionary, or theriac, should
be kept for sale or sold either in the market or in booths, shops or
stalls, except at the annual fair. This apothecary’s shop was the
only one in Halle till the year 1535, when the archbishop gave his
physician, J. N. von Wyhe, liberty to establish a new one; but with
an assurance, that to eternity, no more apothecaries’ shops should be
permitted in Halle; and this declaration was confirmed by the chapter.
Notwithstanding the archbishop’s promise, strengthened by that of his
clergy, one Wolf Holzwirth, a skilful apothecary, who returned from
Italy, found means to procure permission in 1555 to establish a third
apothecary’s shop[1029].
In the year 1409, when the university of Prague was transferred to
Leipsic, and every thing at the latter was put on the same footing as
at the former, an apothecary’s shop was also established, which, as
that at Prague had been, was known by the sign of the Golden Lion.
In the year 1560 there was no apothecary’s shop at Eisenach, and even
in the time of duke John Ernest, who died in 1638, there was none for
the court; but the place of apothecary was supplied by one of the
yeomen of the jewellery.
In the year 1598, count John von Oldenburg caused an apothecary’s shop
to be established at Oldenburg for the common good of the country[1030].
In Hanover the first apothecary’s shop was established by the council
in 1565, near the council-house[1031]. The consort of duke Philip II.
of Grubenhagen, a princess of Brunswick, who was married in 1560,
supported at her court an apothecary’s shop and a still-house, for
the benefit of her servants and the poor[1032]. Duke Julius, who came
to the government of Brunswick in 1568, caused apothecaries’ shops
to be established in his territories; and his consort, a daughter
of the elector of Brandenburg, kept, for the use of the poor, an
expensive apothecary’s shop in her palace; and the citizens of the
new Heinrichstadt, near Wolfenbuttel, were allowed when afflicted by
any epidemic disease, the dysentery, quinsy, scurvy, or stone, to be
supplied with medicines from it free of all expense[1033].
The apothecary’s shop at the court of Dresden was founded by the
electress Ann, a Danish princess, in the year 1581. In 1609 it was
renewed by Hedwig, widow of the elector Christian I.; and in 1718 it
received considerable improvement.
Gustavus Erickson, king of Sweden, was the first person in that country
who attempted to establish an apothecary’s shop. On the 20th of
March, 1547, he requested Dr. John Audelius of Lubeck, to send him an
experienced physician and a good apothecary. On the 5th of May, 1550,
his body-physician, Henry von Diest, received orders to bring a skilful
apothecary into the kingdom. When the king died in 1560, he had no
other physicians with him than his barber master Jacob, an apothecary
master Lucas, and his confessor Magister Johannes, who, according to
the popish mode, practised physic, and prescribed for his majesty.
Master Lucas, as appears, was the first apothecary at Stockholm. On the
21st of March, 1575, one Anthony Busenius was appointed by king John
apothecary to the court[1034]; and in 1623, Philip Magnus Schmidt, a
native of Langensalz in Thuringen, was chosen to fill that office. In
the year 1675 there were five apothecaries’ shops in Stockholm; since
1694 the number has been nine. The first apothecary’s shop at Upsal
was established in 1648 by Simon Wolimhaus, who came from Konigsee in
Thuringen, and from whom the present family of count Gyllenborg are
descended. The first apothecary’s shop at Gottenburg was established
about the same time. Towards the end of the sixteenth century
physicians and apothecaries were invited into Russia by the czar Boris
Godunow[1035].
I shall here take occasion to remark the following circumstance: at
the Byzantine court the keeper of the wardrobe, as the yeoman of
the jewellery at Eisenach in the sixteenth century, had the care of
the portable apothecary’s shop when the emperor took the field. It
was called _pandectæ_, and contained theriac and antidotes, with all
kinds of oils, plasters, salves, and herbs proper for curing men and
cattle[1036].
[In England, in 1543, an act was passed for the toleration and
protection of the numerous irregular practitioners, who were neither
surgeons nor physicians. It was entitled “An Act that persons being
no common surgeons may minister outward medicines;” the persons thus
tolerated comprehending those who kept shops for the sale of drugs,
to whom the name of apothecaries was then exclusively applied. On the
9th of April, 1606, king James I. incorporated the apothecaries of
London and united them with the grocers; they remained so until 1617,
when they received a new charter, forming them into a separate company
under the designation of the master, wardens, and society of the art
and mysteries of apothecaries of the city of London. It appears that
the apothecaries of London did not begin generally to prescribe as well
as to dispense medicines until a few years before the close of the
seventeenth century.]
I must add a few observations also respecting the earliest
_Dispensatorium_. It is almost generally admitted that the first
was drawn up by Valerius Cordus, or at least that his was the first
sanctioned by the approbation of public magistrates. Haller has
remarked one older; but it is now known only from the title mentioned
by Maittaire[1037]. Cordus however appears to have first used the word
_dispensatorium_ for a collection of receipts, containing directions
how to prepare the medicines most in use. This book it is well known
has been often printed with the additions of other physicians; but,
in my opinion, Conring[1038] is in a mistake when he says that it was
improved and enlarged by Matthiolus. I have in no edition found any
additions of Matthiolus; and the error seems to have arisen from the
christian name of Matthias Lobelius, which stands in the title of
some editions, because his annotations are added to them. It is very
singular that Kestner[1039] also has fallen into this mistake, who,
however, says that the name of Matthiolus is only in the title, for in
the book itself he found no appearance of his having had any concern
with it.