DISMEMBERMENT  OF  PHARMACY  FROM  PHYSIC. 
163 
Scribonius  practised  in  the  manner  of  other  physicians.  He 
tells  us  of  one  Pacchiochus  Antiochus,  a  physician  also,  who  had 
a  secret  remedy,  originally  invented  by  Appollonius,  so  profitable 
to  him  that  he  would  never  disclose  its  composition,  although 
often  solicited.    Scribonius  says,  "  ipse  enim  clausus  componebat, 
nec  uli  suorum  committebat.    Flura  enim  quam  recipit  ipsemet 
contundi  jubebat  pigmenta  fallendi  suos  causa."    We  therefore 
find  this  physician  compounding  his  nostrum  in  secret,  and  pur- 
chasing and  pounding  more  drugs  than  he  employed,  in  order  to 
deceive  his  own  family.    We  also  find  an  implied  allusion  to  the 
servant  whose  province  it  was  to  powder  the  different  articles, 
for  in  those  days,  as  the  present,  pestles  and  mortars  were  used 
by  the  medical  practitioners  ;  they  were  made  of  Ephesian  or 
Theban  marble,  but  the  best  were  made  of  a  stone  called  Bas- 
sanites,  it  not  suffering  by  abrasion,  and  therefore  communicating 
nothing  to  the  medicine.    After  the  death  of  Pacchiocus  Antio- 
chus, his  wonderful  secret  was  disclosed  by  Tiberius  Caesar,  by 
whose  orders  its  composition  was  placed  in  the  public  libraries  ; 
its  chief  ingredients  were  colocynth,  saffron,  some  herbs,  spices, 
and  gum-resins  made  into  a  confection  with  honey.  Scribonius 
and  Marcellus  both  give  this  history  in  the  same  words. 
Galen,  notwithstanding  his  extensive  experience,  and  his  high 
rank  as  a  physician,  conducted  the  business  of  pharmacy  also  at 
his  own  house.  No  doubt  he  kept  a  servant  to  do  the  heaviest 
part  of  the  duty.  After  detailing  the  symptoms  of  his  patients 
he  frequently  says — "  I  compounded  for  him  the  following  medi- 
cine." Even  some  of  the  most  disagreeable  departments  of 
pharmacy  were  transacted  at  his  house.  I  need  not  refer  to  the 
disgusting  details  of  his  mode  of  procuring  human  faeces,  which 
he  used  as  remedies. 
There  was  a  physician  named  Cosmus,  who,  as  Marcellus  in- 
forms us,  had  amongst  his  secrets  a  wonderful  collyrium,  which 
cured  all  diseases  of  the  eyes,  and  consisted  of  twenty-eight  in- 
gredients. From  this  it  is  plain  that  Cosmus  must  have  com. 
pounded  and  sold  it  himself,  or  it  could  not  have  remained  a 
secret.  To  have  compounded  twenty-eight  ingredients  into  one 
collyrium  seems  to  imply  the  possession  of  no  small  pharmaceu- 
tical skill,  and  we  learn  from  the  facts  described  that  regular 
