Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
November,  1910.  j 
Pharmacy,  A  Profession. 
527 
SHALL  WE  HAVE  A  PROFESSION  OF  PHARMACY? 
By  F.  E.  Stewart,  Ph.G.,  M.D. 
The  following  is  abstracted  from  my  lecture  on  the  above  subject 
delivered  recently  before  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  and 
the  Medico-Chirurgical  College  of  Philadelphia.  This  abstract 
represents  the  lecture  very  incompletely;  and,  as  the  subject  is  fun- 
damental and  vital  to  the  existence  of  pharmacy  as  a  profession,  the 
entire  lecture,  which  will  be  published  later,1  should  be  read. 
Pharmacy,  or  the  art  of  preparing  medicine,  is  historically  and 
in  fact  a  branch  of  medical  science  and  practice.  Like  theology, 
law,  and  medicine,  pharmacy  was  originally  practised  by  the  priests. 
Advance  in  civilization  finally  segregated  the  vocation  of  the  priest ; 
and  theology,  law,  and  medicine  became  separate  professions.  The 
segregation  was  accomplished  gradually.  The  priests  practised 
medicine,  surgery,  and  pharmacy.    In  England  this  was  the  case. 
In  121 5,  the  priests  in  England  were  forbidden  to  practise  any 
surgery  which  involved  the  shedding  of  blood.  About  a  century 
later  all  forms  of  surgery  were  forbidden  them,  and  thus  began  the 
division  between  medicine  and  surgery  which  still  continues. 
The  physician  was  still  the  pharmacist,  until  chemistry  was  born 
of  alchemy,  and  its  application  to  the  study  of  materia  medica  ren- 
dering pharmacy  more  complex,  it  was  finally  relegated  to  the  apothe- 
caries, who  in  those  days  were  members  of  the  Guild  of  Grocers, 
the  vocation  not  being  of  a  professional  character.  In  1607,  under 
the  title  of  the  "  Apothecaries  of  the  City  of  London,"  the  apothe- 
caries separated  from  the  grocers,  and  appear  to  have  prescribed 
medicines  in  addition  to  dispensing  them,  claiming  an  ancient  right  of, 
acting  in  this  double  capacity,  although  theoretically  the  apothecary 
was  the  humble  servant  of  the  physician,  merely  preparing  the  medi- 
cines ordered  by  the  latter. 
When  the  priests  or  monks  ceased  to  practise  surgery,  the 
barbers,  who  had  acted  as  their  assistants,  usually  ignorant  and  venal 
in  the  extreme,  practised  alongside  of  the  surgeons  proper.  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  medicine  being  still  largely  a  priestly  vocation, 
Linacre,  a  celebrated  divine,  physician  to  Henry  the  Eighth,  founded, 
1  Published  in  Pharmaceutical  Era,  May,  1910. 
