The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
THEOLD-T TIME PHARMACY
THE QUAINT ORIGIN AND CURIOUS
HISTORY OF THE DRUGGIST.
Ancient Clash Between Two Branches
of the observation-disclosures of
Fantastic Drug Latin.
New work MalI and Express.

portance.
Before that the druggist was viewed as a
creature familiar with the evil spirit. Still
further back he was a wizard or medicine
man, and beyond that point he is not -
be found by modern science.
The history of pharmacy has never yet
been written. All that we know of 1t is
gathered from a passage in one book, and
a reference in another, by law in one
country or an edict in second, by ancient
city ordinances and, queerest of ALL by
those invisible things we call words.
Etymology and phiology throw more light
upon the subject than any book ever
written.
Nearly all trades and callngs have at
least two names indicative of as many orr
gins. Thus, the toiler at the loom has sent
down through the ages the familiar names
of weaver" webster and weber"
Teaching is represented by teacher, tutor,
instructor, professor and pedagogue, while
the pharmacist, as if to show the impor-
tance of his profession IN the social econ
omy, can point to the long list of druggist,
pharmacist, pharmaceutist pharmacologst,
pharmacographer, pharmagnosist. apothe-
cary, leech, chemist, chymist physic and
pharmapolist. Each of these words carries
drug are time-honored terms, and are found
far back in English literature. IN the pro-
logue to the Canterbury Tales that great
master. Godfrey Chaucer writes:
There was also doctour of phisik,
Full redy hadde he his apotecaries
To send him dragges and his lectuaries."
ORIGIN OF DRUGGIST.
The root of druggist seems to be the
same as of the word dry, and undoubtedly
refers to the fact that nearly all the drugs
in the dark ages were dried before being
used for medicinal purposes. 1t is of in
terest to notice in this regard that the old
English root has been adopted by the
French, Spanish and Portuguese to indicate
the same calling, showing presumably that
long ago our own race had attained so high
a superiority in pharmaceutical matters
THAI the name of their calling was adopted
by alien tongues.
Apothecary comes, of course, from the
Greek. Its meaning in that language was
a Storekeeper The root thick is found in
such words as bibliot HEX and glyptothek,
the one being the equivalent of library and
the other of a hall of sculptures. Apo" is
mere prefix, so that apothek may be re-
garded as the Greek equivalent OF the Ger
man Lager, as seen in lager beer, or of
ens EngSh as epl%Sybe sra IN tne
when it assumed its present meaning is
difficult to determine, but was probably in
Rome during the reign of the later Caesars.
The Romans carried it to all parts of Eu-
rope, so that it is found to-day in about
the same form in every continental Ian
guage.
That the word apothecary was clearly
synonymous with pharmacist may be
doubted. In 1905 the apothecarieS were in
cOrporated In England by special act OF
Parliament. Queer as it may seem, they
were not Incorporated alone, but along with
grocers. and it was not until 1917 that they
oh tai Cd 6piv 0Ilor 1oiy. o1o
hcation with grocers would seem to indi-
cate that they carried stocks of goods of
nonmedicinal well as medicinal charac-
ter. Under the second charter they had the
right to practice medicine, and, to their
credit be 1t said, they did so well as to
cut seriously into the profits of the ply
sicianS Of that period. In 1850 the latter be-
gan to fight the apothecarieS and tried to
annul or modify the charter. They failed,
however, in the attempt, ana from that
time until the present day an apothecary in
England is legally entitled to charge for his
medicines, for his advice, and, what seems
queereSt of all to an American, for attend
ance upon sick person.
LONG BATTLE WITH CHEMISTS.
Although the apothecaries fought strongly
for their rights to practice medicine and
against oppression in their calling, yet in
the next century they assumed a different
attitude and fought the chemists and drug
gists who had come into being and We're
regarded in England as members of a differ
ent industry. This trouble began in 1720 and
lasted nearly up to the present century.
Even to-day an incomprehensible distinction
is drawn in Great Britain between the
apothecaries on the one side and the
chymists and druggists" on the other
The term chynIist or chemist as used in
pharmacy came into vogue in the early rart
of the eighteenth century, and was taken in
iards who had obtained it from the Moors OF
Grenada In the Moorish civilization the
doctor was a chemist and a pharmacist. In
the time of the Abencerrages they were the
leaders of the scientific world, and their
proudest title was chemist.
Its adoption by the pharmaceutical calling
shows that great progress had been made
in the profession and that the standards of
education had been raised to an appreciable
tury.
The term leech does not come as is gen.
orally supposed from the name of the aqua
tic worm, but from the older English or
Saxon word laece, a healer The name of
the worm probably comes from the same
root, as the leech was used at very carly
period 10 reduce Inflammation, local and
general. The word in its professional sense
went out of use in the Addisonian leriod
and is kept alive to-day by reason of his
torical or poetical associations.
The best drug names are those derived
from the old Greek word pharmakon, mean
ing medicine, viz: Pharmacy, the place
where medicine is sold; pharmacist and
pharmaceutist, he who sells it; pharmacol-
ogy. the science. and pharmacologist, the
master of the science: pharmacography, the
description and classification of medicines.
and pharmacographer, the deScriber. Then
there are the little-uSed words pharmacom-
athy, pharmacognoss and pharmapolist.
The term physic, like its derivative adj
1ective physician, was at one time applied
to the apothecary This use has passed en-
tirey away, but was just as accurate as
the present use of the word in the sense of
doctor of medicine.
CHANGE OF TERMS
AS apothecary has passed from the mean
ing of storekeeper TO that of pharmacist,
correlate change may be found in the de-
velopment of the word surgeon. 1t is de-
rived from the Greek cheir-ourgia, meaning
working with the hands, or massage. The
Latins adopted the word in the form CHR
urgia, meaning both a masseur and a bone
setter. This became the chirurgeon of the
Norman French and surgeon of our present
speech. Surgeons had a similar history to
that of the apothecary, as they were in
corporated in 1910, along with the BARRIERS
The small differentiation that existed be-
tween callingS may be gathered from the
fact that in the fifteenth and sixteenth CEN
turtles there were apOtnecarieS who acted
as medical men, prescribed and put up med
icine. There We're surgeon apothecarieS
who did all these things and also set bones
acted as obstetricians and engaged in small
operations. There were surgeons who did
not prescribe. but only operated, and