A letter to Sir Francis Milman, Bart. M.D. President of the Royal College of Physicians, on the subject of the proposed reform in the condition of the apothecary and surgeon-apothecary, with an appendix containing the correspondence between the general committee and the three corporate medical bodies, by one of the committee.

Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Sir Francis Milman, Bart. M.D. President of the Royal College of Physicians, on the subject of the proposed reform in the condition of the apothecary and surgeon-apothecary, with an appendix containing the correspondence between the general committee and the three corporate medical bodies, by one of the committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    compounded all the medicines they used ; and, in some instances, exhibited what they had pre- pared. At this period, Surgery also was prac- tised in Greece by physicians ; and it was not until the time of Erasistratus that medicine was divided into three distinct branches. “ lisdem- “ que temporibus,” says Celsus, “ in tres partes “ medicina deducta est: ut una esset, quae ' victu ; altera, quae medicamentis ; tertia, quae raanu rnederetur. Primam ?ia.irr,uKYiv, secundam (papfji.ccKsvriy.riy, tertiam •^sipovpiKYiv, Graeci nomi- “ narunt*:” and it is extremely probable, from the voluminous treatise, which this author wrote on pharmacy, that he himself practised it, or was a dispenser of medicine. Without, however, pursuing further such remote inquiries, let us conhne oUr attention to the existence of the Apothecary, and the nature of his office in the earlier periods of the history of our own country. In the twelfth and thirteentli century the re- gular practice of physic in England was almost solely confided to the clergy t; or, at least clerical dignities were frequently conferred on Medical Practitioners; a circumstance which, prior to the period when a charter was granted to the College * Celsus de Medicina, lib. i. ' ‘ + Dr. CTiambrc, and the celebrated Linacre the first Pre- sident pf the Royal College of Physicianis, possessed preben-