The apothecary, ancient and modern, of the city of London / [George Corfe].

  • Corfe, George.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The apothecary, ancient and modern, of the city of London / [George Corfe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will over Valeriana officinalis. The “ hundred pence ” would be now £9 7s. 6d. “ She did it for My burial ”—that is, anointing* the principal parts, or scenting them after their many ablutions, was a common and ancient custom. The object of the following remarks is to illustrate the fact (1st) that the Apothecary of the first and last portion of the 19th century is a co-ordinate practitioner with the same personage who carried on this profession in the 12th century; (2nd) that such persons were viewed as educated men, though traders, who were more or less conversant with anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia medica, pharmacy, and medicine, including obstetrics and domestic surgery; The popularity of our License of 1815, the steady and important benefits that accrued to the public, the gradual but immediate efficacy of the Act upon the schools of medicine throughout Great Britain, by the increasing standard of education which the Society demanded from all candidates for such License, brought into the field of controversy a mass of harsh censure and misrepresentation, which has scarcely died out to this day, and which it is the object of the present memoir to remove from the minds of members who may be within or without the pale of this venerable Body. But what is there in a name ? is the question that thwarts me on the very threshold of my work ! “ JTis but a name, that is my enemy,” exclaims fair Juliet. “ What’s in a name ? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet ! ” And yet it must be met and answered. The earlier name Apothicarius is a7roTt6r]fu, to put away—aside. If this is vague, what have we to designate a surgeon ? Chirurgus—XeLP> hand, and epyov, a work. As to the denizens in Pall Mall, they have no distinctive title, for in Greek larpos “medicus” is applied indiscriminately to a physician, a chirurgeon, and an apothecary. So, taking one with another, we believe ours to be as good, if not a better desig¬ nation than either of them, I] “ Who names not now with honour patient Job, (Paradise Regained). himself a very Lazarus of sores; and who shall withhold this meed from the much-tried followers of the healing art ? “ Men who suppress their feelings, but who feel The painful symptoms they delight to heal; Patient in all those trials they sustain. The starts of passion, the reproach of pain, With hearts affected, but with looks serene, Intent they wait thro’ all the solemn scene, Glad if a hope should rise from Nature’s strife To aid their skill and save the lingering life.” Grabbe.
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