"Physician's prescriptions accurately prepared" - The Mid-Nineteenth-Century Prescription Books of Four Gloucester Chemists

Britain's mid-nineteenth-century healthcare economy has often been described as a "medical marketplace" in which struggling doctors faced intense competition from a range of unqualified rivals. Chemists and druggists, who proliferated in industrial cities and supposedly prospered by exploiting the poor and the gullible, are widely regarded as having presented a serious threat to medical livelihoods. However, the activities of four Gloucester chemists show how the dispensing of medical prescriptions brought individual chemists and doctors closer together. Competition between chemists and druggists for this trade was intense and it was instrumental in establishing them as trusted community pharmacists and giving impetus to the process of professionalization. Prescription books, an under-represented source in the literature, also show that customers for prescription medicines were surprisingly socially diverse and that most prescriptions were collected by women, with significant variation in dispensing activity through the week. This, and the volume of prescriptions being dispensed, suggest prescription medicines were regularly being used to treat chronic and less serious ailments, where collection could await normal shopping days. Significantly, prescriptions were the property of the patients and could be re-presented whenever they thought fit. For some patients, it thus effectively became an instrument of self-medication.

[The "homeopathic specific:" commercial legitimization of homeopathy in Barcelona (1902-1910)]

The change in position of homeopathic remedies in the health market produced by the emerging pharmacological paradigm was key to the popularization of homeopathy in Spain. The introduction of specifics and their marketing strategies led to a rise in popular legitimization of homeopathy, and the battles between different professionals created fertile ground for explaining and promoting this doctrine. This article analyzes a contextualized case in Barcelona in the early twentieth century, and explores from different perspectives the new role of pharmacists and medications in spreading homeopathy, centering on strategies for popularizing homeopathic remedies in Spain.

Pharmacists among Members of the Czech-Moravian Capuchin Province

Based on a profound examination and evaluation of archival materials, the paper reconstructs the lives of eighteen pharmacists - members of the Czech-Moravian Capuchin Province from the 17th to the 19th century, of which sixteen served as monastic pharmacists. In addition to the identified biographical data (based on archival materials), the Latin summary reports on the life of a particular capuchin on the occasion of his death (the so-called elogia) from the Capuchin Provincial Chronicle (Annales capucinorum) are edited, together with their commented Czech translation. The discovered data allow a deeper insight into the pharmaceutical history of the Czech-Moravian Capuchin Province, where three monastic pharmacies were operated in Brno, Prague in Hradčany and Olomouc, and also a monastic pharmaceutical study was established. The published material also provides some new data on contemporary pharmaceutical practice, which are set in the context of literature. The paper illustrates the transfer of knowledge between the world of secular and monastic pharmacy at the places where future monastic pharmacists received their education (the pharmacies “The White Eagle” in Karlovy Vary, the pharmacy of brothers hospitallers in Prostějov, “The Golden Eagle” in Opava, “The White Unicorn” in the Old Town of Prague). The paper also highlights the intensive involvement of monastic pharmacists in the management of plague epidemics in the years 1680-1713 (often at the cost of their own lives), as well as the above-standard proximity to the patients in monastic hospitals in carrying out routine nursing and pharmacy practice. The paper adds sharper contours to the image of the pharmacist at that time by detailing the life stories of individual pharmacists (e.g., the previous career as a military surgeon and the iconographic circumstances of death, or the career extension in the form of participation in the order meetings in Rome). Analysis of the preserved manuscript Annotationes medicae Fr. Absolonis from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries not only introduces an interesting pharmaceutical memorabilia, but also illustrates the professional maturation of the last Capuchin pharmacist. In the final part of the paper, the data about twenty-two pharmacists who unsuccessfully tried to join the Capuchin Order are given. It not only demonstrates admission practice in the Capuchin order, in which spiritual interest outweighed the practical, but also bears witness to other pharmaceutical phenomena of the time, such as the fate of the pharmacist from the abolished Jesuit Order or the development of pharmacy in the Carthusian monastery in Valdice.

By royal appointment - The Chase Family of Apothecaries

Medical dynasties are not uncommon, but medical dynasties which serve royalty are rare. This paper describes the work and responsibilities of three successive generations of the Chase family who served as apothecaries to a total of seven British monarchs. Two of them were also Masters of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, as also was a later member of the family.

[Father and sons: Feller family members in the context of the beginnings of advertising in Croatia]

This paper presents the role of Eugen Viktor Feller, a pharmacist and factory owner, with an emphasis on his marketing strategy in advertising his pharmacy specialty Elsa. Various types of contemporary press and advertising leaflets and packaging were used as a starting point for analysis. The abundance of the collected material provided an insight into Feller's communication strategy of the approach to consumers, comparing advertising in different media and time spans. Following the appearance and elaboration of visual communication phenomena as part of family interest, approaches and advances in the development of advertising in the projects of Feller's sons Miroslav and Ferdinand were presented. Upgrading to the father's positive marketing experience they begin a more contemplative advertising campaign. Ferdinand Feller introduces the concept of collective pharmaceutical propaganda into pharmaceutical marketing, while Miroslav Feller becomes one of the leaders in the development of institutionalization and professionalization of commercial graphic design. Thus, marketing development was demonstrated through marketing approaches and innovative ideas of the three members of Feller family, illustrating the shift in approaches that marked the beginning of a different management within an industrial society, where advertising became an indispensable part and a promoter of market relationships.

Pharmacy, pharmacists and drugs in the Terezín ghetto

The article describes the phenomenon of a pharmacy in the Jewish ghetto in Terezín (Theresienstadt) in connection with the local healthcare system and the history of this ghetto. It lists the names of the Czechoslovak Jewish pharmacists who passed through this ghetto, including their fates, whether they survived or were murdered in extermination concentration camps or died as a result of the cruel living conditions in the ghetto. The article discusses the fate of the so-called Mischlingskinder ("mixed children", i.e., persons deemed to have both "Aryan" and Jewish ancestry) and "Aryan" men and women from the so-called "mixed" marriages. In a separate section, the attention is also paid to the fate of Jewish pharmacists from Germany and Austria. In all chapters, the data illustrated by the fate of some pharmacists are stated. Key words: Jews pharmacy Terezín ghetto pharmacist shoah.

Joseph Jacobs: Apprentice to Crawford W. Long in Athens, GA; Pharmacist and Retailer of Soda Fountain Beverages in Atlanta, GA

In the 1870s, Joseph Jacobs was employed as an apprentice in the Longs and Billups pharmacy in Athens, GA. Jacobs later established a chain of pharmacies in Atlanta, GA. Coca-Cola was first sold to the public on May 8, 1886, at Jacobs' Pharmacy in the Five Points district of Atlanta, GA. The soda fountain in Jacobs' Pharmacy was owned by Willis E. Venable, who was related to James M. Venable, the first patient etherized by Crawford Long in Jefferson, GA.

Forty Years of ACPE CPE Accreditation

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) Provider Accreditation Program has been in existence for 40 years. During this time, the program has expanded and has been offered to a various types of providers, not only academic-based providers. ACPE credit has been offered to an increasing number of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other health professionals. This paper explains the evolution of the CPE Provider Accreditation Program, including the Definition of Continuing Education for the Profession of Pharmacy, its standards, types of activities (knowledge, application, and practice), CPE Monitor, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

[Chemistry and Pharmacy in the Journal of the Academy of Medical Medicine (1836-1843)]

This paper analyzes the articles published on chemicals and pharmaceuticals in the Periódico de la Academia de Medicina de Mégico. Through these publications it is possible to illustrate the transformation in the study of medical material of the era. At the same time, it shows discussions held by doctors and pharmacists about scientific news and analysis of local therapeutic resources.

Craft, money and mercy: an apothecary's self-portrait in sixteenth-century Bologna

The apothecary occupied a liminal position in early modern society between profit and healing. Finding ways to distance their public image from trade was a common problem for apothecaries across Europe. This article uses the case of a Bolognese apothecary, Filippo Pastarino, to address the question of how early modern apothecaries chose to represent themselves to political authorities and to the wider public. 'Mercy', alongside 'craft', was a pillar of apothecaries' social identity. By contrast, no matter how central financial transactions ('money') were to their activity, apothecaries did not want to be perceived as merchants. Thus, the assistance and advice apothecaries provided to patients and customers resulted as central aspects of their social role. In this context, Bolognese apothecaries aimed to defend their current status, which had been challenged by naturalist Ulysses Aldrovandi, city authorities and local monasteries. However, Pastarino's claims can also be seen as antecedents to the self-legitimizing strategy that seventeenth-century artisans deployed when faced with the need to enhance their new status as natural philosophers. The present study attributes a name, a date of birth and a shop to Filippo Pastarino, revising previous interpretations. More broadly, by focusing on how these artisans defended their position in the city it enriches our understanding of the self-representation of apothecaries.

[The pharmacist and deputy Henri Schmidt, the law voted in 1913 and said «for three years» and the position of mobilized pharmacists at the beginning of First World War]

Henri Schmidt was, with his fellow the senator Paul Cazeneuve, the main defender of the mention of pharmacists and pharmacy students in the articles of the law voted in 1913 for the recruitment of the army. After the description of their interventions to attain this end, and a short biography of these two politicians, the paper explains the activities of the pharmaceutical parliamentary group, during the early years of the war, in view to obtain the admittance in the medical corps of the pharmacists and students unprovided of rank, for the new creation of «auxiliary pharmacists», for the appointment as soon as possible of the maximum number of colleagues at this rank, and then for their promotion to the rank of «aide-major», resolution that appeared more difficult to obtain.

[Charles Ménière (1816-1887) : pharmacist and historian of the pharmacists who were in practice in the town of Angers]

Charles Ménière (1816-1887) was the young brother of the doctor Prosper Menière (1799-1862), who was the obstetrician of the Duchess of Berry, the doctor in chief of the deaf-mute Institution and an erudite ear specialist. Charles learned pharmacy in Paris. Coming back to Angers he bought a chemist’s shop. In 1871 he became the chief pharmacist of the Hôtel-Dieu. In 1857 he joined the Academic Society of Angers and presented many consequent papers between them one can find notes concerning the history of the Angers’s pharmacists. Its researches relate to pharmacology, mineralogy, hydrology and even philology.

[The image of a good pharmacist in the works of Saladin di Ascoli and Valerius Cordus]

Separation of pharmacy from medicine induced the requirements formulation for an ideal pharmacist. Two prominent authors did so, Saladin di Ascoli (the first half of the XVth century) in the work Compendium aromatariorum (1488) and Valerius Cordus (1515-1544) in the work Dispensatorium pharmacopolarum (1546). Both of them formulate similar postulates of both professional and ethical nature, namely a knowledge of Latin, good education, experience, good character traits, need of satisfied marriage; both say that the pharmacist is required to be a good Christian, they condemn alcohol, relationships with women, poisons and abortifacients, remember right relationship to money. In addition, Cordus adds a good financial situation. Their considerations had a great impact on further development of pharmacy across Europe.Key words: Saladin di Ascoli Valerius Cordus ideal pharmacist.

[The fate of Jewish pharmacists from the Czech Lands during the holocaust]

The authors describe the lives of several Jewish pharmacists and their families who lived and worked in the Czech Lands during the years 1918-1945. Their stories represented a typical mosaic, which corresponds to the fate of the Jewish community in the Czech Lands during World War II - all lost their property and the majority of them were murdered or lost their immediate families. Only a few of them succeeded to survive thanks to early emigration. Some of them lived until the liberation of the concentration camp Theresienstadt, too.Key words: Jews pharmacy shoah concentration camp Auschwitz.

[The apothecaries of the Saint-Honoré district of Paris in the 17th century. The apothecaries Antoine and Jacques Grégoire and Louis XIII’s first painter, Simon Vouet]

This article presents the biographies of the apothecaries who lived in the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in the 17th century. Two major facts emerge from this study. The first concerns the formation of a family network involving the apothecaries and the royal artists. The apothecaries Antoine and Jacques Grégoire became allied with Simon Vouet, the first painter of Louis XIII . Links were also made between Antoine Grégoire and Jacques Sarazin, the King’s sculptor, and then with Michel Corneille, painter to the King. The famous painting by Simon Vouet hanging in the assembly hall of the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris is probably the fruit of his collaboration with Jacques Grégoire, his brother-in-law and an erudite botanist. The other notable fact concerns the relations between Anne de Furnes, widow of Antoine Brulon, the rich apothecary to the King Antoine Brulon, and Molière, both in Paris and in the village of Auteuil. The other notable fact concerns the relations between Anne de Furnes, widow of Antoine Brulon, the rich apothecary to the King Antoine Brulon, and Molière, both in Paris and in the village of Auteuil.

[Guislain Decrombecque (1797-1870) and Alfred Wagon (1849-1928) originally of Auguste Béhal career (1859-1941)?]

Auguste Béhal (1859-1941), Maître de Conférences (Assistant Professor) at the Sorbonne then Full Professor at the School of Pharmacy (Paris), leads many vocations among these students (Blaise, Delaby, Delepine, Detoeuf, Fourneau, Sommelet, Tiffeneau, Valeur, etc.). However, why is he embraced the vocation chemist organic chemist ? This choice is undoubtedly dictated by the meeting of Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) and Charles Friedel (1832-1899) who made mature in him a passion for chemical research during his formation. Nevertheless, the historical context of the city of Lens, a modest city of 2.500 inhabitants in the north of France, and the influence of two other characters : Guislain Decrombecque (1797-1870), agronomist, and Alfred Wagon (1849-1928), 2nd class pharmacist, are also noteworthy. We will outline how these two people have directly and indirectly contributed to the Béhal career.

[1916 and the two major pharmaceutical journals at that time : the “ Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie”, the official journal of the Pharmacist’ Society of Paris, and the “ Bulletin des sciences pharmacologiques”]

When looking at the content of both of them in the middle of the First World War, indeed one can see a number of articles related to the war, but also several other topics : it is the year of the new law on toxic drugs with the creation of A, B and C classification of drugs. The controversy about pharmaceutical specialties and the growing influence of the pharmaceutical industry still remain an important issue in 1916. It is also an eventful year for the history of pharmacy, three years after the creation of the French Society of History of Pharmacy. One can read also several biographies of pharmacists who died in 1916, not only in relation to war, and of famous pharmacists like Gerhardt (not only for the discovery of aspirin) who was born one century ago. macy, three years after the creation of the French Society of History of Pharmacy. One can read also several biographies of pharmacists who died in 1916, not only in relation to war, and of famous pharmacists like Gerhardt (not only for the discovery of aspirin) who was born one century ago.

[Notes on a medieval apothecary : Ernulf, a spice merchant from Rennes during the XIIIth Century]

The recent publication of the cartulary of Saint-Melaine abbey in Rennes allowed to deepen our knowledge of the city of Rennes and of the entire region of Upper Brittany. Amidst the hundreds of people’s names that were conserved, appears that of Ernulf, piperarius, that we can translate by “pepper” and that we can connect by extension to the world of pharmacists. By chance, the preservation of Middle Ages sources enables us to find his trace in documents from Brittany but also from Anjou. Although it remains impossible to write his biography, the mention of Ernulf in several medieval texts enables us to assess our knowledge on health in Brittany during the Middle Ages. Most of all, these medieval acts quote the oldest “ pharmacist” known in the Breton peninsula.

An Asclepiad family - The Chamberlens and DeLaunes, 1569-1792: Five generations of surgeons, physicians, accoucheurs and apothecaries

When in 1747 Dr Peter Chamberlen wrote in his apologia, 'A Voice in Rhama', that he was nursed up (as from the Cradle) to all Parts of Physick, and that in Asclepiad-Families, he was not referring simply to his father and uncle, the Peters (Younger and Elder) Chamberlen of obstetric forceps' fame. They were surgeons and accoucheurs; his mother's family counted clergymen as well as physicians and apothecaries among their number and the young Peter must indeed have grown up in a family steeped in both medical practice and religious study. Both families were refugees from the religious terrors of sixteenth century France, arriving in England in the second half of the reign of Elizabeth l. Both were to find fortune and royal patronage as they became established in their new lives. One was to found a medical dynasty that lasted through five generations, the other to produce a generation whose varied accomplishments died as the eldest son outlived all his siblings, only one of whose children became an apothecary - and he was to predecease his uncle. This is a brief biography of these two families, bound together by the ties of marriage, profession, faith and nationality.

[The image of the ancient Indian pharmacists in the Chinese Buddhist scriptures]

In the Chinese Buddhist Scriptures, there are many stories or topics about the ancient Indian pharmacist, however, they are not the Medicine Buddha as people knows, but real doctors. In the Chinese Buddhist Scriptures, the doctors gave the medical service to the monks and the laymen. Some of them are respected as the "miracle doctor" or the "king of doctor" , influencing the medicine of ancient East Asian.

[Moyse Charas, a typical master apothecary and physician for his time (1619-1698)]

The life of Moyse Charas has been very stormy, especially after 1680. One can consider three main periods in his carrier : a first one from his birth in Uzès (France), in 1619, to 1680 ; his exile from 1680 to 1689 in various European countries ; and finally, his return to Paris in 1690 until his death in 1698. He decided his return to Paris and confirmed his conversion to Catholicism the 1st of July 1691, being received by Louis XIV and elected as a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1692. Charas dictated his one’s will the 12th of January 1698, a few days before his death. All along his very active life, Charas was noteworthy by two major achievements : his interest and works on viper and, as a consequence, on theriac ; and his book that became a reference for all apothecaries and physicians at the time, the Pharmacopée Royale galénique et chimique (the Galenic and Chemical Royal Pharmacopoeia). The present study examines specifically the influence of Charas’ pharmacopoeia to the Universal Pharmacopeia of Lémery, and the conceptual visible differences between the two authors. He decided his return to Paris and confirmed his conversion to Catholicism the 1st of July 1691, being received by Louis XIV and elected as a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1692. Charas dictated his one’s will the 12th of January 1698, a few days before his death. All along his very active life, Charas was noteworthy by two major achievements : his interest and works on viper and, as a consequence, on theriac ; and his book that became a reference for all apothecaries and physicians at the time, the Pharmacopée Royale galénique et chimique (the Galenic and Chemical Royal Pharmacopoeia). The present study examines specifically the influence of Charas’ pharmacopoeia to the Universal Pharmacopeia of Lémery, and the conceptual visible differences between the two authors.

[Nicolas Lemery, a pluridisciplinary Scientist]

Nicolas Lemery was born in Rouen, on November 17th 1645. He entered into an apprenticeship in order to become an apothecary in Rouen, and then he went to Paris in King’s Gardens where he became a pupil of Christopher Glaser. He went then to Montpellier where Matte La Faveur was demonstrator in chemistry. When he came back to Paris, he bought an apothecary office and delivered courses of chemistry, in his laboratory, rue Galande. He redacted in 1675 the first version of his Course of Chemistry, which was many times republished and translated in various languages. He developed especially his theories of the reaction between acids and alkalis. He was a Protestant and had to withdraw his office and choose to become a Physician, but when the Edit of Nantes was abrogated, he was converted to Catholicism. In 1697, he published the first edition of his Universal Pharmacopoeia, followed by his Universal Treatise on Simple Drugs in 1698. These two books were both republished and translated many times. His Treatise on Antimony was published in 1707. He became associate chemist at the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1699, and full member in 1700. He died in 1715. He played a very important role in the evolution of sciences.

[Pierre Pomet (1658-1699) and his Histoire des drogues (History of drugs) (1694 & 1735)]

Pierre Pomet is a Parisian, but as all great botanists, he liked travelling and bringing back sample of drugs that he was ultimately showing during his course at the Jardin des Plantes (Royal Herbs garden in Paris). Member of druggists and groceries storekeepers’ Community, he was not allowed to establish himself as an apothecary in Paris. It is as drug expert that he wrote and published in 1694 his “General History of Drugs, concerning herbs, animals and minerals, book enriched with more than 400 copper-plate engravings designed from nature : with explanations of their various names, their countries of origin, the way to differentiate them from falsified ones, and their properties, where one can see the errors coming from Ancients and modern writers ; the whole being very useful for the public”. This book was translated into English in 1712 and German in 1717. It is part of the reference books of the 17th century for pharmacy. In his introduction, Pierre Pomet explains that his goal is to avoid for drugs errors and falsifications that very frequent at that time. The book is then dedicated not only to physicians, apothecaries or students, etc., but also to all that used drugs.

Poison gas and thefirst World War: key role ofpharmacists

Poison gas has been the subject of attention from the French army (Grand Quartier General). The 22sd of April 1915, General Joffre decided that the General Direction for Health Service was in charge of the protection of troops against what he called "this new mode of terror, disease, and death". Actions are been launched to found ways for the protection means and to obtain for the army at least equivalent weapons. Pharmacists will have a leading role thanks to their knowledge in chemistry. Research laboratories were working in two areas: individual protection and production of aggressive agents. Paul Lebeau, Gabriel Bertrand, Alexandre Degrez, Charles Moureu were among many others very committed to fight and remains at the top and to react quickly to ennemy's attacks. At the end of the war, Paul Lebeau received the Legion d'Honneur medal for his contribution to war. The school of pharmacy was recognized as faculty of pharmacy, by a decree of May 14th, 1920. The knowledge that were obtained during this period will be used for the second World War, but the chemical weapon was not much used, as opposed to more recent usage in Vietnam, Irak and Syria.

The pharmacy in Gersfeld/Rhoen and Veit Jakob Metz (1792-1866)

A "Privileg" for a pharmacy in Gersfeld (Rhoen) was issued October 26, 1788 by the ruler of Gersfeld, the Reichsfreiherr Amand von Ebersberg (1747- 1803), to Peter Franz Wilhelm Feuchter (1766-1835). Feuchter was not only a dedicated pharmacist but also scholarly active both by publishing and by serving on various journal editorial boards. Vitus Jacobus Metz (1792-1866) was accepted 1808 as an apprentice in the pharmacy and later enjoyed private lessons from Feuchter (until around 1813, when he gave up the study of pharmacy to pursue medical studies in Würzburg). This major decision was possibly influenced by Metz experiencing the outcome of a dispute between pharmacist Feuchter and the physician Andreas Laubreis (*1778), dispute with an outcome favoring the physician. As a physician Metz great achievement was to establish 1830 the Mariannen-Institut, the lying-in asylum in Aachen, Bendelstrasse, the first such institution in Germany. How revolutionary and way ahead of its time the Mariannen-Institut really was can only be understood considering that it took over half a century until a similar institution, the second one in Germany, opened in Düsseldorf. With this short contribution we attempt to shed some light on the life and family of Veit Jakob Metz from Römershag (Bad Brückenau) and on the Gersfeld pharmacy, the place that played such a major role in shaping his personality.

Early decades of Madras Medical College: Apothecaries

The Government at Fort St George determined that a school for instructing and training candidates towards the titles of 'apothecary' was necessary to improve medical help to people in the 1830s. This led to the establishment of the medical school in Madras (presently Chennai) in 1835. The school got renamed as the Madras Medical College in 1850. From 1835, the Madras Medical School offered formal training to personnel to be called either 'apothecaries' or 'dressers' under the superintendence of William Mortimer, who was assisted by George Harding in teaching at the school. Apothecary D'Beaux and Dresser P. S. Muthuswami Mudaliar were subordinate assistants. These apothecaries were recruited essentially under the Subordinate Medical Service of Madras, which was established in 1812 and included non-commissioned medical servants. The Madras apothecaries launched the Madras Apothecaries Society in 1864, which aimed at promoting and advancing medical science and knowledge. This society existed until 1871. Formal training of apothecaries ceased in Madras by the later decades of the 19th century, although informal training continued, especially for army cadets and women. Establishment of medical schools in Royapuram (which developed as the Stanley Medical College and Hospital), Tanjavur and Madurai, in the early decades of the 20th century and the 'branch' of Madras Medical College in Calicut during the Second World War changed the complexion of training of medical personnel immensely in pre- 1947 Madras Presidency. The Royapuram and other Medical Schools in Madras trained medical practitioners granting the title 'Licensed Medical Practitioner' (LMP). Whether the apothecary-dresser training at the 'old' Madras Medical College had a role to play in these developments remains to be verified.

[Fragments of a correspondence between the Parisian pharmacist Émile Vial and the Dutch painter Johan-Barthold Jongkind]

We study a series of exchanged original letters between the Parisian pharmacist art lover Émile Vial (1833-1917) and the Dutch painter Johan-Barthold Jongkind (1819 - 1891) from april 13th, 1876 till February 1th, 1887.

Pharmaceutical studies during the Second Empire in the Gaceta Médica de México

Pharmaceutical activities during the Second Empire have been neglected by historians of science in recent decades, even though pharmacy was an important discipline in Mexico City. This is shown by analyzing 12 papers published in the Gaceta Médica de México, the journal of the Sociedad Médica de México. Examination of these papers helps us understand the interests, practices and pharmaceutical activities of some of this group's physicians and pharmacists, as well as detailing scientific endorsement of the therapeutic use of Mexican flora. This allows us to trace a historical continuity in the activities of pharmacists in the capital city throughout the nineteenth century. Abstract Pharmaceutical activities during the Second Empire have been neglected by historians of science in recent decades, even though pharmacy was an important discipline in Mexico City. This is shown by analyzing 12 papers published in the Gaceta Médica de México, the journal of the Sociedad Médica de México. Examination of these papers helps us understand the interests, practices and pharmaceutical activities of some of this group's physicians and pharmacists, as well as detailing scientific endorsement of the therapeutic use of Mexican flora. This allows us to trace a historical continuity in the activities of pharmacists in the capital city throughout the nineteenth century.

[Pharmacists in transition. Academy and Pharmacy in Mexico from 1833 to 1865]

From the second half of the 19th century, health disciplines went through an institutional and professional restructuring, which progressively altered the guild order that had characterized them to that point. In the case of Pharmacy, this process implied the generation of officially recognized spaces, as the chairs of Pharmacy and Medical Substance, founded during the Establecimiento de Ciencias Médicas (Establishment of Medical Sciences) (1833). In those spaces it was sought to institutionalize knowledge and modern practices related to Pharmacy. In this work we look over the first academic experience of the pharmaceutical community in that new space of instruction, based on the records belonging to the students enrolled in the Establecimiento de Ciencias Médicas from 1833 to 1865, year of the enrollment of the last generation. The information contained in those 163 records displays the way the pharmaceutical field was transformed, after the aforementioned restructuring. The reader will notice the diverse normativity, which regulated the joining of pharmacists to academic life (of which, until then, they were excluded). He will also realize how, among the first students enrolled in the Establecimiento de Ciencias Médicas, said normativity was broke in order to adapt it to the known ways of students and professors. Progressively, the guild instruction would be ousted by the institutional instruction (for example, the years of practice in the drugstores were rejected), so that the guild ways of teaching were changing to turn the pharmacist into an individual of institutional instruction.

["Doliarina and iron powder": an important medicine at Peckolt Pharmacy]

The pharmacist Theodoro Peckolt was one of the most important figures in the history of the chemistry of natural Brazilian products. Like other nineteenth-century pharmacists in Brazil, he developed formulations and sold them at his pharmacy in Rio de Janeiro, and these enjoyed great prestige in the eyes both of the public and the medical community. The article discusses the relation between the illness originally called "opilação" (ancylostomiasis, or hookworm) and nineteenth-century treatment. It focuses especially on Peckolt Pharmacy's "Doliarina and iron powder," a formulation extracted from the Ficus gomelleira rubber plant. One of the article's goals is to use modern methods to analyze Ficus gomelleira and identify the chemical composition of the drug.

[The gift of pharmacopoeias made by Mésaize to the Society of Pharmacists of Rouen]

Pierre-Grégoire Mésaize, a pharmacist of Rouen made an important gift to the Society of pharmacists of Rouen in 1831. 21 Books, mainly foreign pharmacopoeias, constituted this gift. Six were from Germany; five came from United Kingdom, three from Nederland, only two from France, and one from Belgium, one from Switzerland, one from Austria and one from Russia. This diversity of origins was quite informative about the quality of the content of pharmacists' libraries in Rouen at the beginning of the 19th century. Unfortunately these books could not be found nowadays in the Library of the Union of pharmacists of Seine-Maritime.

[A short biography of Paul Bonét-Maury (1900-1972) or parallel lives of a pharmacist: researcher and judoka]

Pharmacist by training, doctor in sciences and student of Marie Curie, he will be between 1925 and 1965 one of the pioneers of radiobiology, science of the study of the interaction between ionizing radiations and living matter. He will be the initiator of the teaching on the use of radioelements in medicine and pharmacy. At the same time as he develops a scientific work of international level, he makes a commitment prematurely in the judo of which he will be one of the first four French black belts. He founds in 1946 the French Federation of this sport of which he will be president until 1956, year from which he becomes a general secretary of the International Federation of Judo until 1971.

The Medicines of Katherine, Duchess of Norfolk, 1463-71

This article discusses the medicinal remedies consumed at the court of the Yorkist kings of England in the light of a lawsuit in the court of common pleas (edited in an appendix) between John Clerk, king's apothecary to Edward IV, and Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk, over the partial non-payment of the apothecary's bills. It argues that the consumption of apothecaries' wares in large quantities was not merely a direct result of the excessive diet of the late medieval aristocracy, but in itself represented a facet of the conspicuous consumption inherent in the lifestyle of this particular social class. The remedies supplied by Clerk over a period of several years and listed in the legal record are set in the context of contemporary collections of medical recipes, particularly a 'dispensary' in the British Library's Harleian collection generally attributed to the king's apothecary.

[How to become a pharmacist via the medical juries, during the Consulate and the Empire]

The law of Germinal an XI organized the education of pharmacists. It offered two different pathways to become a pharmacist. The first one needed three years in a pharmacy followed by three years of courses in a School of Pharmacy (located in Paris, Montpellier or Strasbourg) and the examination had to be passed in the School. The second one needed eight years in a pharmacy followed by an examination in front of a Medical jury. Medical juries were organized in every department and were composed by three physicians and four pharmacists. An interesting document, a book gathering together all the preparations realized during years 1811, 1812, 1813, collected by Claude Duméril in many departments, will allow to study what had been asked to the candidates in Rouen, in 1813, and what were reference pharmacopoeias used.