Andrew Borde and his medical works / by Hector A. Colwell.
- Colwell, Hector A. (Hector Alfred), 1875-
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Andrew Borde and his medical works / by Hector A. Colwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![and surgeon may be interesting. Sir William Butts, bis physician, received a salary of £100 a year, which was subsequently increased by 40 marks (£26 13s. 4d.) ; for attendance upon the Duke of Richmond (Henry’s illegitimate son) he received a further £20 per annum; and for attend- ance upon the Princess Mary his fee was a livery of blue and green damask for himself and two servants, and cloth for an apothecary. Thomas Vicary, in his capacity of surgeon, had £20 per annum, which, upon his promotion to be sergeant-surgeon, was raised to £26 13s. 4d. The sale of drugs was in the hands of folk who com- bined the offices of grocer (or spicer) and apothecary, and it was not until 1617 that the apothecaries obtained a separate charter. The first pharmacopoeia on record is attributed to Ortholf von Baierland (1477), though the first such compilation to attain a great degree of popularity was that of Valerius Cordus of Nuremberg (1542). In a previous Paper in this Journal I have indicated the complex character of the old medicaments, and it will easily be seen that in the absence of an authoritative guide our ancestors ran pretty severe risks when they took their dose. The first pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians did not appear till 1618. Borde, in his “ Breviary,” attributes rightly enough many uterine troubles to inefficient midwives, and here we find a further addition to the episcopal functions: “ In my time, as well here in England as in other regions, and of old antiquity, every midwife should be presented with honest women of great gravity to the Bishop; and that they should testify for her that [her] they do present should be a sad woman, wise and discreet, having experience and worthy to have the office of midwife. Then the Bishop, with the counsel of a doctor of physic, ought to examine her, and to instruct her in that thing that she is ignorant.” We may now proceed to an examination of some of the contents of the “ Breviary,” and before considering the question of diseases, glance at the anatomy and physiology of the time as set forth therein. To begin in the orthodox way with the bones, the reader is informed that there is no](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22445468_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
