Chapter 5

A PHYSICIAN.From a drawing, dated 1490.

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 amalgamatedin 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 JamesI.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 JamesI.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-oneyears, 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.

INTERIOR OF AN APOTHECARY’S SHOP.From a drawing by Drapentier, 1670.

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 suchcomplaint 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 histime:—

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 inquid pro quowithout 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.

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 inquid pro quowithout 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 as1599. Under the terms of a charter granted to the Faculty by King JamesVI., 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 providedthat—

“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 stipulatesthat—

“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, asfollows:—

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 broughtalong 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.

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.Spirits046An ointment014January 8.Spirits046Ten pills020A lohoch020Lozenges040Jujubes and sibertines008French barley010Ingredients016Syrups030A cordial julep0106A glister026January 11.Syrups030White powder004Five pills013The oiled sugar070Syrups056Oil of sweet almonds018Spirits of ptisanne076For a messenger016£353

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.”

AN APOTHECARY.From a drawing, 1641.

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 themultiplicity 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 theEleventh 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 followingitems:—

s.d.“Grene ginger”70Tabacco20Grene ginger80A masse of pills50An electuarye36

Under the name of Mr. Stanhope Townshend, 12th September, 1618,are:—

s.d.“A clyster”34A julep30A cordiall with behoardston30The cordiall julep30Hearbs for brothe04Rose water06A suppositorye06Another suppositorye06An unguent03A purge30Purgeing pills26

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 rathercurious:—

“Prescription symbolLiving viperj.Remove his head, tail and viscera, excepting his heart and liver, cut it into little pieces and mix it with the blood, andadd—Well water12 ouncesin a close vessel, boil for two hours and strain, and the broth will be made.”

Themateria medicaof 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 thanin the various plague waters that were recommended to him as unfailing antidotes for that terrible disease.

In the time of EdwardI.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 HenryIV.of France, met with an accident while on his mission. According to the records “he was physicked withconfectio 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 quaintannouncement:—

“Cornelius Tilbury, sworn chirurgeon-in-ordinary to K. CharlesII., 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. CharlesII., for which his Majesty presented me with a gold medal and a chain.”

AN APOTHECARY.From an engraving, 1517.

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 theMemoirs 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 regularfees 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, asfollows:—

To Doctor Dykes for comeing and laying plasters unto Will£0100For his plaisters and paines contributed towards the cure of Will, the sum of500

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 ofKeswick, “forxxiidayes 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 andscientific 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 thepil. aloes. et myrrh.of theBritish Pharmacopœia, commonly known by the old name ofPil. 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 hisRoyal Pharmacopœia, says: “In the month of May take a considerable quantity of healthy young men’s blood, let blood in that season who arenot red haired. This blood is to be distilled twice, or spread on plates and driedin 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 curiousrecipes:—

“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 facere uolueris mirabilemeffectumuidebis.’“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 andcram 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 psalmQui habitat(Ps. 90) thrice over water, with which then douche the eye,et sanus ærit.”

“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 facere uolueris mirabilemeffectumuidebis.’

“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 andcram 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 psalmQui 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 theSecretes 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 oftwelve years a lame and drye withered arme, lyke I styche so that nature gave it no morenouryshement—

“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 1547Alexis 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 womanthat 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 infectionwhen 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 orbeast; 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 theAquilaria 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, entitledThe House Apothecarywritten 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 thephysicians by prescribing in certain cases, and meddling generally “in matters which they did not understand”.

AN APOTHECARY.From an engraving, 1517.

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 shallalso 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 wasThe 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 allsides. It states that “if the apothecary finds you costive he sends you a clyster, at the price of half a crown, which by consultingThe 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. Themeasures 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 wasUnguentum 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 theAccomplished Physiciangives directions for the preparation of several. The London treacle water,aqua mirabilisandaqua raphani composita, were noted for scurvy. The London snail water was recommendedas 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, orpulvis 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. 11∕4d. 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 asCrocus 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 agood 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”:—

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