THE ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES—APOTHECARIES AND THEIR
PRACTICE—APOTHECARIES AND THEIR BILLS—CURIOUS REMEDIES—A DRUG
PRICE LIST OF 1685.
The earliest record of the apothecary in England seems to be of one
Richard Fitznigel, who acted in that capacity to Henry II. This
individual subsequently rose in degree at Court, and exchanging the
pestle for the crozier, eventually became Bishop of London. In 1345
we hear of one Coursus de Gangland receiving for his services as
apothecary to Edward III., and for taking care of and attending his
Majesty during his illness in Scotland, a pension of sixpence a day.
Those who practised medicine, surgery, and pharmacy were called
physicians, while their assistants were known as apothecaries. Many
of the latter, as they began to learn the secrets and habits of their
employers, began business on their own account, also dealing in drugs
and other commodities, until they became a powerful body.
When the College of Physicians was established in 1518, they were soon
empowered “to search, view, and see the apothecaries’ wares, drugs and
stuffs, and destroy such as they found unfit for use”.
In the latter part of the century a distinct separation took place, and
we find that in 1600 there were physicians, surgeons, apothecaries,
barber surgeons, druggists or distillers and sellers of waters and
oils, and preparers of chemical medicines. It was not until the year
1617 that the Apothecaries’ Society had a separate existence, when it
was enacted that no grocer should keep an apothecary’s shop, and that
no surgeon should sell medicines.
In 1623 the Society of Apothecaries established a dispensary, for the
purpose of making some of the most important medicines then used in
a uniform manner, and in May, 1618, the first _Pharmacopœia_ was
published by the College of Physicians. We are told that it was so
imperfect that they brought out an improved edition in December of
the same year. This was published in Latin, and it was through making
and publishing his translation of this work that Nicholas Culpepper
(who was a man of common-sense in his time) got into disgrace with the
College of Physicians, who in consequence refused him a licence to
practise.
[Illustration: A PHYSICIAN.
From a drawing, dated 1490.]
The history of the Society of Apothecaries of London is an interesting
one. It is a mystery or guild which has retained its original function
of a trading corporation. It arose as an offshoot of the Grocers’
Company, which descended from the pepperers and the spicers, who
amalgamated in 1345 under the name of the Fraternity of St. Anthony.
The Grocers’ Company is one of the most powerful and wealthy of the
twelve great Livery Companies of London which have survived from
mediæval times.
King James I. appears to have interested himself in the separation of
the two bodies about the year 1614, and in spite of vigorous opposition
by the grocers, a charter was granted on 6th December, 1617, making
the apothecaries a distinct mystery, under the title of the Society of
Apothecaries. This charter restrained the grocers and all other persons
from keeping an apothecary’s shop in or near London, and it gave the
Society a right which had been inherent in the Grocers’ Company, of
paying domiciliary visits to the apothecaries’ shops to search for, to
seize, and destroy bad drugs and medicines, a power at first limited
to London and seven miles round, but afterwards extended throughout
England and Wales. This was discontinued shortly after 1833.
The first hall or council-house of the society consisted of a house and
grounds known as Cobham House, in Water Lane, Blackfriars, immediately
behind what is now the Ludgate Hill Station. It was purchased in 1633,
mainly through the instrumentality of Gideon Delaune, chief apothecary
to Anne of Denmark, who was one of the retinue sent to attend her from
Norway when she became the wife of James I. This hall was destroyed by
the great fire of London in 1666, and its site lay vacant for ten years
before it was rebuilt. The second hall was enlarged and improved in
1786, and it still stands.
In the reign of Queen Anne, Prince George of Denmark, who was then Lord
High Admiral, applied to the society to know if they would undertake
to supply the navy with drugs, as it was very badly served at that
time. This the society agreed to do, and for so doing was drawn into a
long series of quarrels with the College of Physicians, whose members
thought it was the duty of an apothecary “to remember his office is
only to be the physician’s cooke”.
A knowledge of herbs and simples was soon found necessary to these
early compounders of medicine, and as a means of instruction, botanical
excursions or herborisings, as they were called in those days, soon
formed a prominent feature of the society. This led eventually to
the decision to rent a physic garden, for which purpose the gardens
available near the hall were unsuitable, and in 1673 the Botanic Garden
at Chelsea was leased to the apothecaries for a term of sixty-one
years, by Charles Cheyne, Esq., lord of the manor.
The custom of examination grew up within the society very gradually,
the first examinations being found necessary to ascertain whether the
apprentices could decipher the very illegible handwriting in which the
physicians wrote their prescriptions or bills, an accomplishment for
which apparently they have been ever famous.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF AN APOTHECARY’S SHOP.
From a drawing by Drapentier, 1670.]
Then came the division of the apothecaries from the druggists,
the former in the process of time becoming a subordinate class of
practitioners who attended an individual afflicted with some internal
disease not requiring external or manual aid, and who prescribed for
the cure of such complaint and supplied the medicine; while the latter
were supposed to confine themselves to the dealing in and preparation
of drugs for the apothecary.
The apothecary was paid for the medicine which he supplied, which
was not by any means in small quantities, and so was supposed not to
encroach ostensibly upon the province of the physician, who received
his remuneration for advice only, and did not provide medicine.
In 1812 a tax was put upon glass which increased the price of bottles
greatly, much to the chagrin of the apothecaries, who were paid
according to the number of draughts and potions which they could induce
their patients to swallow. It was customary to place each dose of
medicine in a separate bottle, and charge it at the rate of one or two
shillings a dose, so the apothecary naturally felt aggrieved at the
glass tax, which, however, was soon afterwards repealed.
The following excellent rules and regulations were laid down by William
Bulleyn for the guidance of apothecaries of his time:—
THE APOTICARYE.
1. Must first serve God, foresee the end, be cleanly, pity the poor.
2. Must not be suborned for money to hurt mankind.
3. His place of dwelling and shop to be cleanly, to please the
senses withal.
4. His garden must be at hand, with plenty of herbs, seeds, and
roots.
5. To sow, set, plant, gather, preserve, and keep them in due time.
6. To read Dioscorides; to know the nature of plants and herbs.
7. To invent medicines; to choose by colour, taste, odour, figure,
etc.
8. To have his mortars, stills, pots, filters, glasses, and boxes
clean and sweet.
9. To have charcoals at hand to make decoctions, syrups, etc.
10. To keep his clean ware close, and cast away the baggage.
11. To have two places in his shop—one most clean for the physic,
and a baser place for the chirurgic stuff.
12. That he neither increase nor diminish the physician’s bill
(_i.e._, prescription), and keep it for his own discharge.
13. That he neither buy nor sell rotten drugs.
14. That he peruse often his wares that they corrupt not.
15. That he put not in _quid pro quo_ without advisement.
16. That he may open well a vein for to help pleurisy.
17. That he meddle only in his vocation.
18. That he delight to read Nicolaus, Myrepsus, Valerius, Cordus,
Johannes Placaton, the Lubri, etc.
19. That he do remember his office is only to be the physician’s
cook.
20. That he use true measure and weight.
21. To remember his end and the judgment of God; and thus do I
commend him to God, if he be not covetous or crafty, seeking his
own lucre before other men’s help, succour and comfort.
In Glasgow the sale of drugs and poisons was carefully restricted and
regulated as far back as 1599. Under the terms of a charter granted to
the Faculty by King James VI., and dated November, 1599, visitors were
appointed, and they were given
“Full power to call, sumonnd, and convene before thame, within the
said burgh of Glasgow, or onie otheris of ouir said burrowis, or
publict places of the foirsaids boundis, all personis professing
or using the said airt of Chirurgie, to examine thame upon thair
literature, knawledge and practize; gif they be fund wordie, to
admit, allow, and approve thame, give them testimonial according
to the airt and knawledge that they sal be fund wordie to exercise
thareftir, resave thair aithis, and authorize thame as accordis,
and to discharge thame to use onie farder nor they have knawledge
passing their capacity, laist our subjectis be abusit”.
It was further provided by “James, be the Grace of God, King of
Scottis,” in his fatherly solicitude for his subjects, that
“The saidis visitouris sall visit everie hurt, murtherit, poisonit,
or onie other persoun tane awa extraordinarily, and to report to
the Magistrate of the fact as it is”.
The visitors were also empowered, with the advice of their brethren, to
make regulations for the common weal anent the art of surgery, and to
inflict punishment upon those infringing them. With regard to the sale
of drugs, it was provided that—
“Na manir of personis sell onie droggis within the Citie of
Glasgow, except the sam be sichtit be the saidis visitouris, and
be William Spang, apothecar, under the pane of confiscatioune of
the droggis”.
The responsibility of the seller is clearly defined in a clause which
further stipulates that—
“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.
[Illustration: A PHYSICIAN.
From a drawing by Amman, Sixteenth Century.]
“The doctor was with my master the second time, on 17th January, and
received for his pains 15s.”
Then comes the copy of Dr. Worthington’s bill, dated 24th October,
1681:—
£ _s._ _d._
Spirits 0 4 6
An ointment 0 1 4
January 8.
Spirits 0 4 6
Ten pills 0 2 0
A lohoch 0 2 0
Lozenges 0 4 0
Jujubes and sibertines 0 0 8
French barley 0 1 0
Ingredients 0 1 6
Syrups 0 3 0
A cordial julep 0 10 6
A glister 0 2 6
January 11.
Syrups 0 3 0
White powder 0 0 4
Five pills 0 1 3
The oiled sugar 0 7 0
Syrups 0 5 6
Oil of sweet almonds 0 1 8
Spirits of ptisanne 0 7 6
For a messenger 0 1 6
----------
£3 5 3
==========
Master Thelwall then goes on to say: “My master’s opinion of these
several things in particular, is here to be inserted for further
use, _viz._, that the spirits first named, of which twenty-six drops
were put into one small cup of barley water and beer, had no apparent
effect, although he doth not much doubt but the secret effect might
be good. That the like might be said of the pills, mentioned in two
places, although it seemed that they did somewhat assuage his cough,
which was extremely violent. The lohoch, a liquor like syrup, did
apparently bring up phlegm, and was well liked. The lozenges were
pleasant, and did sometimes stop the cough. Barley water with the
ingredients was cooling and pleasant. Syrups twice mentioned, although
of much different prices, seemed to be the same.
“The cordial julep, of which there was a large pint bottle, was
pleasant, but the effect not apparent. The glister extraordinary
effective and good. White powder, supposed to be sal prunella, assuaged
the thirst. The oiled sugar, with the spirits ptisanne, besides the
extreme dearness, was almost wholly useless, in regard that the patient
being much in the mending hand when they were sent unto him. He sent
back to the doctor about seven-eighths of the oiled sugar, and yet he
paid for the whole. The oil of sweet almonds, of which seven or eight
drops were taken in a bolus of white sugar-candy, frequently helped
the breast made very sore by coughing.”
[Illustration: AN APOTHECARY.
From a drawing, 1641.]
We subsequently learn that the good old cavalier was at length cured
of his ailments, which he certainly ought to have been from the
multiplicity of the remedies employed. Many of the forms in which
medicine was administered in those days have entirely gone out of use,
and others we have still with us.
Another example of the apothecary’s bill appears in the appendix to the
_Eleventh Report of the Historical Manuscripts’ Commission_, among the
transcripts of the manuscripts of the Marquess Townshend. There is one,
dated 24th June, 1619, of a paper endorsed “The Apothycarie’s bill,”
Sir Roger Townshend’s account, which contains the following items:—
_s._ _d._
“Grene ginger” 7 0
Tabacco 2 0
Grene ginger 8 0
A masse of pills 5 0
An electuarye 3 6
Under the name of Mr. Stanhope Townshend, 12th September, 1618, are:—
_s._ _d._
“A clyster” 3 4
A julep 3 0
A cordiall with behoardston 3 0
The cordiall julep 3 0
Hearbs for brothe 0 4
Rose water 0 6
A suppositorye 0 6
Another suppositorye 0 6
An unguent 0 3
A purge 3 0
Purgeing pills 2 6
The lohoch, the base of which consisted of honey or thick syrup, was
a very favourite form of medicine for a cough, such as the lohoch
demulcent, lohoch of fox’s lungs, and lohoch expectorant.
The julep was another ancient form of administration much in vogue.
Balsams, of divers compositions, had great repute as expectorants.
William Blundell in his diary (1681) mentions: “The Elder Lady Bradshaw
sent a bottle containing, as we guess, about one ounce of balsam,
which in her letter she calls ‘Balsam of Sulphur’. That it must be
taken morning and night, three or four drops, naked and alone in a
spoon; that it must be warmed before it will drop at all, by reason its
thick and clammy.” The sugared oils were simply made by triturating
various essential oils with white sugar, and usually given for their
carminative action.
Another favourite vehicle was broth, generally composed of many and
strange ingredients. We have come across the broth of calves’ lungs,
broth of the bones of lizards, and broths made from snails, tortoises,
woodlice, crabs, and vipers.
The recipe for the broth of viper we have taken from an old
black-letter book, and is rather curious:—
“℞ Living viper j.
Remove his head, tail and viscera, excepting his heart and liver,
cut it into little pieces and mix it with the blood, and add—
Well water 12 ounces
in a close vessel, boil for two hours and strain, and the broth
will be made.”
The _materia medica_ of the old apothecary was largely drawn from the
animal kingdom, the greater part of it being, no doubt, handed down
from a very early period, when witchcraft and superstition exerted a
powerful influence on the minds of the people.
Among the many curious things used, we find that the liver of a mad
dog, or a wolf, washed in wine and dried in a stove, was employed as
a remedy for hydrophobia. The nimble lizard had a reputation as a
sudorific and antisyphilitic. Dried toads and the cast-off skins of
snakes and adders, were administered in dropsy as a diuretic.
The horn of rhinoceros was used in epilepsy, and goat’s blood and eel’s
liver as a cure for dysentery. The oil of frog’s spawn was celebrated
as an application for chilblains. The jawbone of a pike and the spine
of a lamprey in powder, were prescribed for leucorrhœa. Pepys
mentions in his diary, that he wore a hare’s foot as a sovereign remedy
against the plague, in which charm he seemed to place more faith than
in the various plague waters that were recommended to him as unfailing
antidotes for that terrible disease.
In the time of Edward I. there was a list of drugs recorded by the
king’s physician, one Nicholas de Tyngewyke, in 1307, which throws an
interesting light on the pharmacy of that period. The list includes
distilled oil of turpentine, aromatic flowers for baths, carminative
electuaries, plasters and ointments of various kinds, the oils
of wheat, ash, and bay, water of the roses of Damascus, wine of
pomegranates, remedies prepared from pearls, jacinths, and coral, and
many other drugs. The king was taken ill at Carlisle, and the cost of
conveying these remedies from London to that city amounted to £159 11s.
10d., the apothecary’s bill for the medicines being £134 16s. 4d.
In 1596 Sir Henry Winton, who was sent as ambassador by Elizabeth
to Henry IV. of France, met with an accident while on his mission.
According to the records “he was physicked with _confectio alcarmas_,
which was composed of musk, amber, gold, pearl, and unicorn’s horn, and
with pigeons applied to his side, and all other means that art could
devise sufficient to expel the strongest poison, and he be not bewitcht
withall”.
The apothecaries of the seventeenth century were not overburdened with
the estimable virtue of modesty, as instanced in the following quaint
announcement:—
“Cornelius Tilbury, sworn chirurgeon-in-ordinary to K. Charles II., to
his late Sovereign K. William, as also to her present Majesty Queen
Anne—address at the Blue Flower Pot, in Great Lincoln’s Inn Fields, at
Holbourn Row (where you see at night a light over the door); and for
the convenience of those that desire privacy, they may come through the
Red Lyon Inn in Holbourn, between the two turnstiles, which is directly
against my back door, where you will see the sign of the Blue Ball hung
over the door.
“I dispose of my famous Orvietan, either liquid or in powder, what
quantity or price you please. This is that Orvietan that expelled that
vast quantity of poison I took before K. Charles II., for which his
Majesty presented me with a gold medal and a chain.”
[Illustration: AN APOTHECARY.
From an engraving, 1517.]
The physician’s fees were by no means small in the time of the
Commonwealth, as may be judged from the following extract from the
_Memoirs of the Verney Family_:—
“Sir Theodore Mayerne is buryed,” writes Dr. Denton, “and died worth
£140,000.” Sir Ralph thought £30 too small a fee to pay Dr. Denton for
his attendance on his wife during her confinement, but for his pressing
poverty he would have sent him £50, equal to about £200 of our present
money. Dr. Radcliffe’s regular fees were estimated to bring him in
an income of at least £4000 a year; Dr. Mead’s were valued at between
£5000 and £6000. Sir George Wheler’s sickness, after a Christmas dinner
at Dr. Denton’s, cost him “the best part of £100”. He had caught a
chill after dancing, which turned to “a spotted feavour”; Sir George
Ent was called in: he had all sorts of “Applications of Blisters and
Loudanums”. “My Apothecary’s ... bill came to £28. He was a good man,
and told me if I fell into a feavour again, Sage Possit would do me as
much good as all the Physitians Prescriptions.”
In Sir Daniel Fleming’s account books we have record of the amount paid
to medical practitioners in 1659, as follows:—
To Doctor Dykes for comeing and laying plasters unto Will £0 10 0
For his plaisters and paines contributed towards the cure
of Will, the sum of 5 0 0
A further entry also shows the value of the midwife’s services at the
same period. Under date
July 30th, 1659. Given unto Daniel Harrison’s wife for being my
wife’s midwife, 5/-.
In the household books of Lord William Howard we learn that on 25th
September, 1612, he paid one Mr. Adamson, an apothecary of Keswick,
“for xxii dayes and his physick, £xiii. vi,s. viii,d”.
Some of the early preparations used in pharmacy were as elaborate as
they were mysterious. The Treacle of Andromachus the elder, a recipe of
great antiquity, contained sixty-three ingredients; and the celebrated
Mithridate of Damocratis contained forty-eight.
The origin of the formula for “Mithridates” is ascribed to Mithridates,
King of Pontus, whose recipe Pompey brought to Rome, where Damocratis
sang its praises and proclaimed its virtues. It was considered by the
ancients a panacea for every ill. Of the historic preparation known as
the Treacle of Andromachus, its invention is attributed to that worthy.
Pliny says that the formula of a similar composition was inscribed in
verse 300 years before the Christian era upon the temple of Æsculapius,
and that Andromachus merely imitated, by order of Nero, the composition
of the Mithridate, which had then been known for a considerable time.
Of the forms of administration there were a great variety in the
sixteenth century, and many, such as the Rob which consisted of the
juice of fruits boiled down to two-thirds, the lohoch, and the treacle,
have quite gone out of use.
But notwithstanding modern research and scientific advance, some of
the ancient formulæ still survive and are employed to-day.
It may not be generally known that the preparation known as hiera picra
was originated by Galen, on the properties of which he placed high
value on account of its excessively bitter taste. Charas states that
the great physician gave it the name of hiera picra or holy bitter.
In the _pil. aloes. et myrrh._ of the _British Pharmacopœia_,
commonly known by the old name of _Pil. Ruffi._, we have a formula
handed down intact for over a thousand years.
In mediæval times ladies were not above using preparations to beautify
their complexions, and among others for this purpose, we find the
formula of a cerate composed of white wax, spermaceti, oil of cole
seed, bismuth, borax, and alum, which was spread on a cloth to cover
the face at night, and worn as a mask.
Among the parts of the body used as medicine was human blood, on which
some early physicians set great value for the cure of epilepsy and
diseases of the brain.
Charas, in his _Royal Pharmacopœia_, says: “In the month of May take
a considerable quantity of healthy young men’s blood, let blood in that
season who are _not red haired_. This blood is to be distilled twice,
or spread on plates and dried in the sun or an oven. All writers extol
the volatile salt of man’s blood, for the cure of epilepsy, it being
also very proper to suppress vapours that arise from the stomach and
spleen.”
In a Celtic leech-book preserved in the University of Leyden, which is
said to have been written in the ninth century, there are the following
curious recipes:—
“1. To prevent wrinkles. Smear the face with a mixture of water and
the pounded root of wild cucumber. Wash with cold water. ‘Hóc sí
triduo fac_er_e uolueris mirabile_m_ effectu_m_ uidebis.’
“2. To remove freckles. Rub a bull’s gall on the face.
“3. To cure headaches. Gather plantain-root before sunrise, and tie
it on the head. Use also the juice of the seed of the elder-tree,
a cow’s brain, goat’s dung dissolved in vinegar; swallows’ nests
mixed with water, and applied to the forehead; water out of which
an ass or an ox has drunk.
“4. To purge the head. Pour the juice of cabbage (_brassica_) into
the nostrils.
“5. For dimness of the eyes. Pound fennel-roots, mix with honey,
and boil over a slow fire; add cistern-water or woman’s milk. Smear
the eyes with the fat of a fox (_adipe volpis_).
“6. Another remedy. Mix a child’s urine (_lotium infantis_) with
the best honey; add a decoction of fennel-roots (‘omnem caliginem
mirabiliter discutiet’).
“7. The beginning of this paragraph has been cut off. The remedies
prescribed are butter and _cram occifæth_ (garlic...?), mixed with
ram’s fat (‘per aruinam ariætis’).
“14. To cure the bite of a dog. Apply two or three onions calcined
and boiled with lard and honey.
“15. To extract a straw from the eye. Chant the psalm _Qui
habitat_ (Ps. 90) thrice over water, with which then douche the
eye, _et sanus ærit_.”
Among the various remedies fish play a prominent part. For gravel it is
recommended that the head of a pike be boiled in a newly-glazed earthen
pot, then reduced to powder and drunk in a glass of white wine. A sure
means of curing gout is to wear continually three or four moles’ feet
tied to one’s garters. For nose-bleeding, the sufferer is advised to
blow up the nose the powder of a stone found in the head of a carp, or
to plug up the nostrils with hare’s fur. A certain remedy for curing
a drunkard of his evil way is to give him as many eggs of the screech
owl, boiled hard, as he can possibly eat, when we are assured he will
ever after be a total abstainer.
In the first book of the _Secretes of the reverent Maister Alexis
of Piemont_, 1562, which is a kind of general receipt-book for the
apothecaries of the time, there occur some curious formulæ, which may
be taken as a fair example of the pharmacy of those days. The process
of making the oil of red dog is given with elaborate detail.
“To make an oile of a redde dogge,” says the chronicler, “by the meane
whereof (beside other infinit vertues that it hathe) I have healed a
Fryer of Saint Onostres, who had by the space of twelve years a lame
and drye withered arme, lyke I styche so that nature gave it no more
nouryshement—
“Take a yonge dogge of redde heare and keep him three days without
meate, and then strangle him with a corde, and let him lie dead a
quarter of an houre, and in the meane time boyle a kettell of ayle up
by the fire, and putte the dogge in whole, or in pieces, it maketh no
matter howe, so that he be all there with the skynne and heare; make
him seethe so untyl he be almost sodden to pieces, keepying always the
kettell close covered: In the meane tyme take scorpions to the number
of four score or a hundred, and put them in a basyn on the fyre untyll
they be thoroughly bruised. Then putte them in the sayde kettell with
the ayle and the dogge, puttinge to it a good dishful of great grounde
wormes, well washed, a good handful of Saint John’s Worte, a handful
of wylde marshe mallowes, and a handful of wallworte, with an once of
saffron. Seethe all these things well to-gether, and then let it ware
colde.” The liquid being strained off and certain aromatic gums added,
the preparation was complete.
The belief that carrying a piece of camphor will ward off infectious
diseases, is a relic of the old days of amulets and charms. In 1547
Alexis recommended compounds to carry against the plague and fever, and
we find that aromatics were used to perfume clothes in the time of the
early Jews, long before the birth of Christ.
Among other secrets of Alexis, there is a curious recipe to “_cause
mervelous dreames_”.
“Take the bloode of a lampwink or black plover, and rubbe your temples
with it and so goe to bedde, and you shall see mervelous thinges in
your sleepe; or else if you eate at nighte a little of the herbe Solani
or Visicaria, or some Mandragora, or elles of the herbe called in
Greek Hyoscymus, in Latin hath these names, Altercum, Appolinaris, and
Symphonia, and in the English some call it Henbane, and you shall see
in the nighte goodly things in your dreame.”
The apothecary apparently omits to mention that a heavy meal of very
ordinary cheese, combined with the succulent fruit of the cucumber,
before you go to bed, will also make you see marvellous and weird
things in your sleep.
The gifts and wisdom of the apothecaries were according to their
writings very wonderful, but none perhaps is more remarkable than the
following recipe on a matter which would baffle the scientists of the
present day.
The chronicler writes: “To make a woman that beareth alwaies daughters
to beare also sonnes, it is a thing very easy, and hath good succes,
and hathe been divers times proved. Let her eate an herbe in English
called mercurie, which hath only two seedes; also the skrapings of an
elephant’s tooth.”
The name of the originator of the “everlasting pill” has not been
handed down to posterity, but whoever he was, he was certainly an
economist, and could not be charged with inventing it for his own
gain. It consisted of a small globule of metallic antimony, which was
believed to have the property of purging as often as it was swallowed.
A single pill of this kind would serve a whole family during their
lives, and was doubtless, transmitted as an heirloom to posterity.
Paris says, “we have heard of a lady who, having swallowed one of these
pills, became seriously alarmed at its not passing through”. “Madam,”
said her physician, “fear not; it has already passed through a hundred
patients without any difficulty.”
It is said to have been the constant custom of Cardinal Wolsey to carry
in his hand an orange deprived of its contents and filled with a sponge
soaked in vinegar, impregnated with various spices, in order to protect
him from infection when passing through the crowds of people which his
splendour of office attracted.
An old writer, one James Penrose of the middle ages, questions if
Cleopatra applied the asp to her breast as is commonly supposed,
because, as he remarks, “the veines are so very slender”.
“Petrus Victorius blames the painters who depict the Egyptian queen
applying the asp to her breast, seeing it is manifest out of Plutarch
in the life of Antonius, and out of Plinie likewise, that she applied
it to her arme.”
“Zonares relates, that there appeared no signe of death upon her, save
two blew spots on her arme.”
“Cæsar also in her statue, which he carryed in tryumph, applyed the
asp to her arme; for in the armes there are great veines and arteries
which doe quickly and in a straight way convey the venom to the heart,
whereas in the papps the vessels are slender.”
Gesnerus gives a method used by the apothecaries for changing the
colour of the hair which is somewhat singular. It is by means of one
of the many waters of the philosophers, and is made as follows, in
the language of the text: “Take a moule which serveth unto the dying
or coloring of heares whyte, eyther of man or beast; let the moule
be artely brought to powder with Brimstone, adde to it the juice of
celandine which orderly be myxed, let to stande for certaine dayes,
after dystill the whole according to taste. The virtue of this water is
in such wise, that if a beast wholy blacke of heare shall be washed all
over with this water, the heare shall in that time became so whyte as
snowe.”
The aloe mentioned in the Bible, usually in connection with myrrh and
frankincense, is not the same drug as that used in medicine to-day, and
is even without its bitterness. It is the product of the _Aquilaria
Agallocha_, a tree of large size growing in the Laos country and Assam.
The wood is light in colour and inodorous, but under certain conditions
a change takes place in it, and it becomes charged with a dark aromatic
juice. It was formerly used as a spice in embalming, and is employed in
China and the East as incense in the temples.
A curious little work, entitled _The House Apothecary_ written by
Dr. Gideon Harvey, physician-in-ordinary to his Majesty, and printed
in 1670, affords a further interesting glimpse at pharmacy 200 years
ago. It would appear that the apothecaries then, like some of their
descendants of the present day, excited a considerable amount of
jealousy among the physicians by prescribing in certain cases, and
meddling generally “in matters which they did not understand”.
[Illustration: AN APOTHECARY.
From an engraving, 1517.]
The worthy doctor begins by recommending people to prepare their
medicine at their own homes, it being a far safer and easier way
than sending it to the apothecary to be made, and as a further
inducement states: “And you shall also save nineteen shillings in
twenty shillings, according to the extravagant rates charged by many
apothecaries, in so doing. I must tell you, I have oft seen bills of
apothecaries rise to twenty, and sometimes thirty pounds in the time
of a fortnight; and what is more, I have known an apothecary’s bill so
extravagant that the sum at the bottom of his account amounted to fifty
pounds in the space of thirty days, when the ingredients of the whole
course could not be computed to stand him in forty shillings.” A severe
indictment indeed.
The doctor then goes on to inform us that “in preparing medicines at
home you may be certain the ingredients are sound and fresh, and you
can have your medicines without attending the apothecary’s leisure or
having the trouble of sending three or four times to his shop for them;
and, most important of all, you may be assured in so doing you shall
save nine pounds in ten, and sometimes forty-eight pounds in fifty”.
Another treatise written to denounce the excessive charges of the
apothecaries was _The Accomplished Physician, the Honest Apothecary,
and the Skilful Surgeon_, published and sold at the “Angel” in Duck
Lane, in 1656. It attacked the unfortunate apothecary on all sides.
It states that “if the apothecary finds you costive he sends you
a clyster, at the price of half a crown, which by consulting _The
Accomplished Physician_, etc., you may learn how to make yourself for
three half-pence. If he apprehends your stomach to be oppressed, he
orders his man to boil a little cardamoms in water, strain it, and put
to it three or four spoonsful of rank oil of sweet almonds, to cause
you to vomit and carry off a little phlegm, and for this he charges you
half a crown, which you can make yourself for two-pence.”
The author finally confides to the public “that it is fortunate
that the little apothecaries and prescribing surgeons have not much
knowledge of the great medicines, such as mercury and antimony, as they
would at most times do great mischief with them, using them at unseemly
times, as if you laid hold of a club to knock down a louse; such great
medicines should only be used by the physicians, who should reserve
them in secret”.
Most of the herbs and roots in common use were brought to the town
markets and vended by the physical herb-women, who would bring them in
baskets to Newgate Market, Gutter Lane, or Covent Garden, and there
sell them by the handful, a dozen for a groat. The measures in use
were of a very primitive description, chiefly the fascicle and the
pugil.
In 1656 a quart white glass bottle cost 1s. 6d., and a green glass
retort 8d. Plague water at certain times was in great demand, and was
usually sold at the apothecaries for 3s. 6d. a pint. The price of most
conserves was 2d. an ounce, and ointments retailed at 8d. an ounce.
An ointment that was much in vogue and very popular among the people
was _Unguentum Ægyptiacum_, similar to the ointment of the great Felix
Wurtz. Its composition is somewhat interesting and quaint. “Take of
verdigriese 12 drachms ground very fine in a brass mortar, observing
while you are powdering to hold your head back from the mortar and
keep your mouth and nose stopped, to prevent those venomous steams
from getting up into your brain. Then take 3 ounces of honey and 12
drachms of sharpest vinegar, place them in a broad brass pipkin, put
in the verdigriese, stir and boil them on a gentle fire unto the
thickness of an oyntment of a purple colour.” Of the waters in common
use the _Accomplished Physician_ gives directions for the preparation
of several. The London treacle water, _aqua mirabilis_ and _aqua
raphani composita_, were noted for scurvy. The London snail water was
recommended as an invaluable remedy in consumption, which, “owing to
the cool, clammy, and glutinous substance of the snail, facilitated the
expectoration and repaired the parts consumed”. Gascon’s powder, or
_pulvis é chelis cancrorum_, was regarded as a valuable medicament, and
much esteemed and ordered by the great physicians. It was an expensive
mixture, and contained equal parts, in powder, of crab’s eyes, the
oriental pearl, red coral, white amber, oriental bezoar, and the black
tops of crab’s claws. It was sometimes ordered and taken in the form
of pills mixed with hartshorn jelly. The apothecary’s price for this
powder was 40s. an ounce, or one penny per grain. We are told that if
made at home the cost would only be 13s. 1¼d. Another preparation
exceedingly popular in the seventeenth century was the emplastrum
opodeldock of Feliz Wurtz, “so much cried up among surgeons beyond
the sea”. It was a red plaster, composed of wax, Venice turpentine,
juice of celandine, oak leaves, ammoniacum, galbanum, and vinegar.
Then some powdered magnets, and such mysterious compounds as _Crocus
Martis_, _Crocus Veneris_, and prepared tutria, were thrown in, and
all boiled together. The following is extracted from an old price list
of the seventeenth century, which gives a good idea of some of the
extraordinary articles kept in the old apothecaries’ shops, and the
prices charged. It is headed “Rates and prices currant of Druggs and
other commodities, belonging to physick, as they are commonly sold at
the Apothecaries and Druggists in London, 1685”:—
Mother of Pearl 6d. per oz.
Crab’s eyes 5s. 4d. per lb.
Crab’s claws 1s. 6d. ”
Fox’s lungs 2s. ”
A mummy 5s. 4d. ”
Bone of stag’s heart 1s. 6d. ”
Borax 4s. ”
Saltpetre 10d. ”
Jalap 3s. 4d. ”
Rhubarb 14s. ”
Liquorice 1s. ”
A boar’s tooth 1s. each.
A dead man’s skull (cranium
humanum) according to size 8s. to 11s. each.
Musk 5s. per drachm.
Bloodstone 2s. 8d. per lb.
Opium 12s. ”
Elaterium 36s. per oz.
Lac Sulphur 3s. ”
Red coral 4s. per lb.
Oleum Copaibæ 2s. per oz.
Gum acacia 10s. per lb.
Turmerick 8d. per lb.
Elicampane 1s. 4d. per lb.
Galingal 4s. ”
Gentian 8d. ”
Spanish Liquorice 6d. ”
Hellebore, white 1s. ”
Hellebore, black 1s. per lb.
Pyrethrum 1s. ”
Sarsaparil, according to its
goodness, from 4s. to 5s. per lb.
Squills 6d. ”
Winter’s Bark 2s. ”
Lig. Aloes. 9d. per oz.
” Guaici 2d. per lb.
Senna Alex., the best 4s.
Cubebs 2s. 4d. per lb.
Nucis Vomicæ 1s. 4d. ”
Cardamom 4s. ”
Aloes Succot, according to its
goodness 4s. to 6s. per lb.
Scammony 12s. ”
Cantharides 4s. ”
Civet 5s. 6d. per dram.
Ising-glass 5s. 4d. per lb.
Sea-horse tooth 4d. per oz.
Sea-horse pizzle 4d. ”
Skink, a piece 1s. 4d.
Spermaceti 3s. per ounce.
Stag’s pizzle 6d. ”
Elk’s claw 2s. a piece.
White wax 2s. per lb.
Yellow wax 1s. 4d. per lb.
Cinnabar 3s. per oz.
Mercury Sublimate 5s. 8d., or 6s. per lb.
Seed Pearls 4s. to 8s. per oz.
Mother of Pearl 6d. per oz.
Mithridate 6s. per lb.
Aqua Fortis 5s. 4d. per lb.
Ol. Cinnamon £1 12s. per oz.
Ol. Vitrioli 5s. 4d. per lb.
Besides the above, precious stones in powder, and diamond powder, which
was regarded as a powerful poison, commanded very high prices.