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Interior of an apothecary's shop. Illustration from Illustrated History of Furniture, From the Earliest to the Present Time from 1893 by Litchfield, Frederick, (1850-1930)

A historical re-enactor portraying a 19th century apothecary in Old Salem, North Carolina, USA.

Apothecary (IPA: /əˈpɒθɪkəri/) is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist.

In addition to pharmacy responsibilities, the apothecary offered general medical advice and a range of services that are now performed solely by other specialist practitioners, such as surgery and midwifery. Apothecaries often operated through a retail shop which, in addition to ingredients for medicines, sold tobacco and patent medicines.

In its investigation of herbal and chemical ingredients, the work of the apothecary may be regarded as a precursor of the modern sciences of chemistry and pharmacology, prior to the formulation of the scientific method.

The first apothecary shops were founded during the Middle Ages by Muslim pharmacists.^[1] By the 15th century, the apothecary gained the status of a skilled practitioner, but by the end of the 19th century, the medical professions had taken on their current institutional form, with defined roles for physicians and surgeons, and the role of the apothecary was more narrowly conceived as that of dispensing pharmacist.

In England, the apothecaries merited their own livery company, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, founded in 1617. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain when she passed the Society's examination in 1865.

Apothecaries used their own measurement system, the apothecaries' system, to provide precise weighing of small quantities. Apothecaries also were known to accept special requests for viles and poisons.

Noted apothecaries

• Dante Alighieri
• Benedict Arnold
• Silvanus Bevan
• Nicholas Culpeper
• John Keats
• Nostradamus
• John Parkinson
• Joseph Proust
• Raeapteek

References

1. ^ Sharif Kaf al-Ghazal, Jounal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine, 2004 (3), pp. 3-9 [8].

See also

• Herb garden
• Herbalism

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 30 September 2008, at 22:44.

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