THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
SEPTEMBER,  1907. 
THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PHARMACY  IN  AMERICA. 
By  M.  I.  Wilbert, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Looking  back  over  the  three  centuries  of  time  that  have  elapsed 
since  the  foundation  of  the  first  English  settlement  in  the  territory 
that  now  constitutes  the  United  States,  one  cannot  fail  to  be  im- 
pressed with  the  far-reaching  influences  of  what  might  otherwise  be 
regarded  as  trivial  occurrences.  In  our  own  occupation,  as  in  others, 
these  happenings  may  be  considered  as  the  stepping-stones  that 
have  contributed  to  the  more  or  less  gradual  evolution  of  an  impor- 
tant and  altogether  indispensable  part  of  our  present-day  existence. 
The  first  settlers  in  the  English  Colonies  of  North  America  were 
usually  accompanied  by  men  who,  if  not  regularly  graduated  physi- 
cians, made  some  pretense  to  having  a  superior  knowledge  of  the 
healing  art.  If  we  review  the  meagre  records  and  traditions  of  the 
lives,  doings  and  accomplishments  of  these  early  pioneers  in  American 
medicine,  we  must  be  impressed  by  the  fact  that  many,  if  not  all,  of 
these  early  medical  practitioners  occupied  honorable  and  honored 
positions  in  their  respective  colonies  and  were  a  credit  to  themselves 
and  also  to  the  profession  they  chose  to  follow. 
Owing  largely  perhaps  to  the  outdoor  life  and  regular  habits  of 
the  early  colonists,  the  lives  of  these  medical  men,  from  the  Gentle- 
man Barber  or  Chirurgeon  of  the  Jamestown  Colony  to  the  highly 
cultured  and  erudite  Thomas  Wynne,  who  came  to  the  Pennsylvania 
colony  with  William  Penn  in  the  Welcome,  were  largely  devoted 
to  other  vocations  than  that  of  physician  or  surgeon.  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  in  speaking  of  the  early  medical  men  of  the 
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