Examination of Officinal Medicines

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A 3

Of Extracts and Pills, scarcely one or two are prescribed by more refined Physicians. Over two hundred waters must be distilled annually, though ten would suffice. No more Syrups are in common use, nor are more Conserves necessary; yet if it is required to prepare them all, it is to be feared that all the sugar brought by ships from the Fortunate Islands The Canary Islands, a primary source of sugar in the early modern period. would be entirely consumed. But let us suppose that of those items which number about three thousand in the Catalog, two-thirds are superfluous; would not the greatest part of the expenses be struck away? Therefore, so that this loss may be compensated from elsewhere, it is absolutely necessary that the prices of commonly used items be increased beyond what is just, to the greater detriment of the sick than to the profit of the Pharmacist original: "Pharmacopolæ": inasmuch as he must fill and occupy an entire house (if only it be large enough) with a useless abundance, and must constantly feed many attendants and servants, lest there be a lack of those who—in vain—collect, prepare, preserve, and guard things that must be thrown out again at another time.

What do the Physicians say to this? Surely no small amount of blame overflows onto them, since the Pharmacists original: "Pharmacopœi" are rightly subject to their inspection and governance as ministers; there is no one who does not think that what is not banished from the Apothecary Shops original: "Officinis" pleases the Physicians. Let us now weigh, as is right, the condition of Official Medicines Medicines kept in stock according to an official formulary or "Dispensatory.", and let us judge whether most of them might not seem heaped together to the disgrace and reproach of Physicians. If someone should say perhaps that things which are intolerable are tolerated through negligence, or that through ignorance one cannot tell mouse-droppings from pepper A proverbial expression for being unable to distinguish between filth and value., what shall we answer? Truly, such things have not come to our minds only in these recent days. Let him who wishes read at least Johannes Baptista van Helmont’s The Laboratory and Dispensatory of the Moderns, likewise Daniel Ludwig’s Pharmacy to be Applied to the Modern Age; I willingly pass over others. Yet I do not think I have undertaken an entirely empty labor if I repeat those things not yet sufficiently said, and demonstrate more clearly that, with a safe conscience and our reputation intact, the Apothecary Shops can by no means be left in the state they are in at present.

This will appear more clearly hereafter, when I shall show that very many things held in them are entirely foreign, filthy, ignoble, spurious, superstitious, ridiculously prepared, and incongruously mixed. Each must be dealt with separately, so that all things may be understood more distinctly. Let it be, therefore—