tiring jars, bottles of many shapes and sizes, horn spoons 

 and other paraphernalia required in pharmaceutical opera- 

 tions. Fastened against the wall so as to attract the eye of 

 a customer entering, were the diploma of the proprietor and 

 his license to keep a pharmacy. From the ceiling hung a 

 small stuffed crocodile, the carapace of a tortoise and bun- 

 dles of dried aromatic herbs. 



The drawers, shelves and cupboards of "The City Phar- 

 macy" were well stocked with the substances dispensed for 

 external and internal remedies by the apothecaries of the 

 period. Alum, salt, sulfur, white arsenic, spermaceti, salt- 

 petre, vitriol, sal ammoniac, Armenian bole, coral, mother- 

 of-pearl, crocus martis, crocus veneris, amber, antimony, 

 turpeth mineral, album Graecum, crab's eyes, wax, were on 

 hand, as well as the highly esteemed bezoar stone, ambergris, 

 human skull, asses* hoofs, dried toads, and the cast-off skins 

 of vipers, so useful in dropsy. In large wooden boxes were 

 stored the dried leaves, flowers, seeds, bark and roots of 

 many aromatic herbs, including saffron, ginger, elder, worm- 

 wood, borage, rhubarb, aloes, jalap, rue, Abyssinian myrrh, 

 Solomon's seal, and St. John* wort, gathered on St. John's 

 day, and much in demand for expelling evil spirits from sick 

 persons. 



Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, dill, 

 Hinder witches of their will." 



The little explored New World across the Atlantic had 

 begun to contribute its valuable remedies, notably china root, 

 cosa, sarsaparilla and tobacco. Spenser enumerates other 

 medicinal plants in the following lines : 



"The mournful cypress grew in greatest store; 



And trees of bitter gall, and ebon sad. 



Dead sleeping poppy, and black hellebore, 



Cold coloquintida, and tetra mad ; 



Mortal samnitis, and cicuta bad; 



With which th' unjust Athenians made to die 



Wise Socrates." 



146 



