BRISTOL PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
693 
Morning and Evening, in the last days before the Full and New Moon. It is an eminent 
remedy against the Epilepsy. 
But wliat in the name of common humanity are we to think of this ? 
Spiritus Sanguinis, Spirit of Man’s Blood. 
Distil it from the Blood of a sound Young Man, putrefied in Sand, and then rectifie it, 
SA. It is chiefly commended against Epilepsie, or Falling sickness, radically taking it away ; 
as also against the Palsie, Apoplexy, Ulcers of the lungs, &c. Dose gut io ad 20 and more 
for a whole month. 
Sound, full blooded young men must have had an uneasy time of it in these days. 
We have next the great-grandfather of our favourite “ Chicken Broth.” 
Tusculum Galli, Cock Broth. 
|St. An old Cock, well wearied with running till he falls down ; then kill him, pull off 
his Feathers, embowel him, and stuff the body with proper ingredients, then boil them in 
fountain water 9s. for five or six hours, till the flesh is ready to fall off the bones, and strain 
out for use. It is nutritive, and restores in Consumptions, Hecticks, &c. 
A pleasant afternoon occupation for the early English apprentice, was to go out into 
the fields, as the spring days came on, and gather Female Vipers, bringing them home 
All Alive! and here is what they did with their gatherings. 
Vinum Viperum, Viper Wine. 
Live female Vipers, gathered in the spring time, No. vj ; best Spanish Wine or 
Canary, lbvj; digest them (the vessel being stopt) without heat for six months, then 
strain out for use. Some make it by digesting the Vipers excoriated (and casting away the 
Bowels, Heads, and Tails) in the Wine aforenamed for some days. 
It is a most celebrated thing against the Lepra Grecorum, or Leprosie, the Elephantiasis, 
Barrenness, Plague, &c., and prolongs life. Dose §iij or *iv twice a day for some con¬ 
siderable time. 
We must now leave these strange times, and approach a period more fruitful in ad¬ 
vancement. As you all know, the Company of Apothecaries obtained several Acts, 
giving them increased powers in and round London ; but it was not until early in the 
present century that their jurisdiction extended throughout England and Wales. At 
a meeting of the Society, held on 20th November, 1812, a report was presented in 
which we find an unpleasant reference to some of the then existing druggists ; it says, 
“ Even druggists and their hired assistants visit and administer to the sick, their shops 
are accommodated with what are denominated private surgeries, and as an additional 
proof of their presumption, instances are recorded of their giving evidence on ques¬ 
tions of forensic medicine of the highest and most serious import.” 
The apothecaries seem very conveniently to have forgotten their early quarrels with 
the physicians, which had an almost precisely similar origin. The Act of 1815 altered 
the position of affairs ; many men then in practice, but whose qualifications were of 
the slenderest, entered the sacred gates of the Hall, and I well remember one of these 
gentlemen, who within the last few years was in practice in Somersetshire, and yet 
who could hardly write his name, and whose ideas of the spelling and grammar of the 
English language were extremely vague. 
Coming now to a period within the remembrance and experience of some now 
living, I ask your attention very briefly to the position of pharmacy during the last 
half century. 
A druggist’s business at the commencement of the present century, whatever else 
it withheld or demanded, was a most toilsome and laborious occupation. 
Our young men nowadays are accustomed occasionally to complain of overwork, 
and as things are, at the very best, few if any professions make so many and such se¬ 
vere calls upon a man’s brain and strength as our own. But fifty years ago, the 
country druggist, at all events, was a perfect drudge. Occupied from early morning, 
and expected to be at his post till nearly midnight, required to prepare by manual 
