The history of the materia medica is a subject fit to be undertaken only by physicians like Baldinger, Hensler, Mohsen1010, 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 mistake1011. The herbs which Vegetius1012 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 composed1013. 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 commodities1014. The medicamentarii do not often occur, but we are given to understand by Pliny1015, 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 medicamentariÆ1016.

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 apothecarius1017. 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 present1018. 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 probability1019, 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 present1020. 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 garden1021. 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 Anderson1022, 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 Foedera.

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 pound1024. 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 16291025.

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 for1026.” 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 prices1027. In the year 1573 there was an apothecary’s shop in the palace for the use of the court; but Mr. Nicolai1028 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 shop1029.

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 country1030.

In Hanover the first apothecary’s shop was established by the council in 1565, near the council-house1031. 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 poor1032. 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 expense1033.

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 court1034; 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 Godunow1035.

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 cattle1036.

[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 Maittaire1037. 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, Conring1038 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 Kestner1039 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.