DISMEMBERMENT  OF  PHARMACY  FROM  PHYSIC.  167 
The  market-place  at  Capua,  where  perfumes  and  scented  oint- 
ments were  sold,  was  called  Seplasia.  The  person  who  sold  the 
ointments  was  called  puponcoXyt;',  the  maker  of  them  was  called 
pupeipoq^  or  ointment  boiler.  But  there  were  persons  who,  be- 
sides ointments  and  perfumes,  sold  the  articles  used  by  physi- 
cians, and  as  they  frequented  the  Seplasia,  they  were  called 
seplasiarii.  This  name  continued  in  use  for  many  centuries,  and 
at  last  was  used  to  designate  the  persons  who  compounded  for 
physicians,  their  province  not  being  to  prescribe.  In  this  sense 
we  find  the  word  used  so  late  as  1541.  The  work  of  Nicolaus 
Alexandrinus  was  written,  as  he  himself  says,  for  the  use  ojf  the 
physician  and  the  seplasiarius.  Whoever  wishes  to  learn  the 
exact  nature  of  the  office  of  the  seplasiarii,  and  unguentarii,  and 
their  defence  against  the  imputation  of  base  practices,  will  find 
it  in  a  work  published  at  Rome  1603,  entitled  "  Collegii  aroma- 
toriornm  almge  urbis,  nominis  pharmacopoloe  et  seplasiarii  pro 
defensione  animadversio."  The  ancient  seplasiarii  had  been 
charged  by  Pliny  with  sophisticating  their  drugs,  and  selling 
stale  plasters  and  eye-salves,  the  refuse  of  their  stock.  We  learn 
from  the  same  author  that  the  physicians  not  only  purchased  this 
refuse,  instead  of  making  their  own  compounds,  but  were  even 
ignorant  of  their  composition,  to  the  great  detriment  and  danger 
of  their  patients. 
The  name  medicamentarii  signified  the  same  as  pharmacopolse  ; 
for  medicamentum,  like  pharmacon,  is  either  a  remedy  or  a 
poison  ;  and  medicamentarius  is  a  vendor  of  both.  The  pharma- 
copolas  were  in  the  habit  of  sitting  the  whole  day  in  the  forum, 
with  their  little  vessels,  boxes,  and  baskets,  and  did  not  return 
home  until  a  late  hour.  Some  of  those  persons,  instead  of  stand- 
ing stationary  at  their  stalls,  wandered  about  with  their  wares  ; 
they  were  called  neptodevzrjs,  or  medici  circumforanei ;  in  late 
times  they  obtained  the  name  of  mountebanks,  which  is  a  literal 
translation  of  the  Latin  name  saltimbanci — the  French  call  them 
charlatins. 
There  was  an  extensive  and  useful  class  of  dealers  called  pig- 
mentarii,  from  the  Latin  pigmentum.  Although  they  originally 
sold  painting  materials,  they  gradually  added  other  commodities, 
such  as  exotics,  spices,  all  sorts  of  condiments,  and  medicinal 
