Examination of Officinal Medicines

...less honor than shame, and for the Pharmacists original: "Pharmacopæis", more loss than profit. For the sick, there arises a sense of nausea rather than desire or confidence, because all sorts of things are gathered together indiscriminately without any judgment and are kept so "sacredly" in the Apothecaries.

Not a few people shudder—and I believe everyone would shudder—at the things prepared and distributed in the Workshops The "Officina" or workshop was the laboratory area of the apothecary shop., if they only knew the filth that contaminates the scales, the mortar, and the other utensils. I know women who would prefer to suffer any disease or pain, or even to die, rather than take a single grain or a single drop from the pharmacy, because they once heard that everything from "poor sinners" A reference to the remains of executed criminals, often used in "corpse medicine." ends up in the Apothecary. What, I ask, would happen if they understood that the skull of a gallows-bird with its moss Usnea cranii humani: a moss or lichen grown on the skulls of those left hanging on the gallows, highly prized in early modern medicine., or mummies abominable to the very sight, or dung and urine, or penises with testicles and similar things were prepared and dispensed there for the cure of the sick? For this reason alone, I remember a Physician—otherwise most successful in the cure of scurvy and very famous for many years—who was utterly abandoned and hated by everyone because they learned he used earthworms in his daily practice. Yet who would not be disgusted by vipers and toads, scorpions and spiders? And nevertheless, they are praised by Physicians of great name, numbered among the more "secret" medicines.

But it is also in the best interest of the Pharmacists that this intolerable multitude of shop-wares be restrained within certain limits. Good God, what an apparatus is required for the "simples" Individual medicinal herbs or ingredients, not yet mixed., both raw and prepared, and how much more for the compounds! So that the number of wooden, glass, and tin vessels may be greater, entities are multiplied beyond necessity. For what prevents the same remedy from being repeated under various forms? Look, here is dried Cuckoo-pint root Arum maculatum, here is the powder of the prepared root, here is the starch of the root. If you desire Hartshorn Deer antler, it is ready at hand whole or rasped, prepared "philosophically" Prepared via steam or chemical sublimation rather than just grinding. no less than in the common way, or at least burnt: behold the "magistery" A precipitate or concentrated essence. of Hartshorn, not to mention the jelly, the essence, the spirit, the volatile salt, the amber-colored liquor of Hartshorn, and so on. These are common enough, and thus the Pharmacist suffers no loss from them. But what if I were to review in a long series the entire Classes of Medicines under the titles of Species Dry medicinal mixtures, often for teas., Confections Medicinal preserves made with sugar or honey., Lozenges Small round tablets., Troches Medicated cakes or discs., and Thickened Juices?