The literary sources of our pharmacopoeia : opening address to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Pharmaceutical Association.

  • Stockman, Ralph, 1861-1946.
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The literary sources of our pharmacopoeia : opening address to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Pharmaceutical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    medicine among civilised peoples has always been held sacred and holy, therefore, it is necessary that the Pharmacist should be an honest man, trained in his art, holding exactly the reason and mode of preparing medicines, and properly skilled.” It then goes on to explain that he should have what we in those days would call a high ideal of duty. “ Therefore he should blush to do in secret what he would not do publicly : he should do nothing in his profession negligently or rashly, much less therefore fraudu- lently, and that not from the fear of punishment but from a love of virtue : that he be pins, humanus, benignus, afFabilis, placidus, misericors, officiosus, ac erga pauperes mitis et liberalis, publica propriis ac privatis anteponens.” Besides being a model of all the virtues, he is directed to have a good knowledge of Latin, not only that he may correctly read prescriptions, but that he may improve himself by study, and thus become a good judge of drugs, being able to distinguish between bona, mediocra, and optima. The shop is to be in a healthy and good locality, remote from dust, fumes, and smells, the drugs and furnishings to be kept clean and in good condition. Without a prescription or permission from the magistrates, he is not so sell poisons, love-philters, emmenagogues, nor abortifacients, neither himself nor by his servants or apprentices. In filling prescriptions he is to be vigilans, circumspectus, et fidelis ; he must neither add nor subtract anything. Succeeding chapters deal with the collection, choice, and preservation of drugs, antidotes, weights and measures, and other matters. At the end is a decree of the “most illustrious town-council” of Augsburg concerning physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists. When necessary they are to confer together faithfully, candidly, and diligently, for the public good. Surgeons, barbers, and bath-keepers shall not overstep the limits of their own callings, but, mindful of their oath and office, shall only perform those services to the patient which appertain to their several callings, preparing no medicines, much less administering them, and very much less selling them. Quacks of all kinds are forbidden the town under the designa- tions of strollers, charlatans, empirics, apostates, Jews, artisans, fortune-tellers, pedlars, sleight-of-hand men, secret medicine