172         DISMEMBERMENT  OF  PHARMACY  FROM  PHYSIC. 
which,  if  used  in  the  present  day,  would  be  considered  a  very 
gratuitous  exercise  of  his  duty  : — "  The  aromatarius,"  he  says, 
"  should  know  the  taste  and  smell  of  the  different  simples,  so 
that  if  any  young  and  inexperienced  physician  should  wish  to 
prescribe  horrible  or  disgusting  medicines  for  any  sick  person, 
the  aromatarius  shall  not  allow  it  to  be  done,  but  shall  expostu- 
late with  the  physician  in  order  that  better  and  more  agreeable 
ones  may  be  substituted,  lest  by  the  use  of  the  former  the  stomach 
of  the  patient  be  disturbed. 
To  these  prudent  instructions,  for  the  benefit  of  the  aromata- 
rius, Saladin  subjoins  others  still  more  prudent,  touching  the 
utility  of  a  wife,  and  how  much  such  an  appendage  to  his  estab- 
lishment tends  to  keep  him  in  order. 
From  this  book  we  at  least  learn  that  the  edict  of  Frederic  II. 
was  not  inoperative  in  the  southern  parts  of  Italy,  and  that  the 
profession  of  the  compounder  of  medicine  was,  in  Italy,  in  the 
twelfth  century,  perfectly  distinct  from  that  of  the  prescriber. 
We  also  learn  that  the  compounders  were  so  ignorant  as  to  bring 
physicians  into  disrepute  ;  and  that  some  of  them  were  so  nefa- 
rious as  to  prepare  poison-potions  for  any  one  that  paid  them,  as 
indeed  is  broadly  hinted  in  the  "  Golden  Ass  "  of  Apuleius.  The 
ignorance  of  the  aromatarii  seems  to  have  been  an  universal  sub- 
ject of  complaint  and  dread  to  physicians  ;  and  the  labors  of 
Saladin  seem  to  have  very  little  improved  them.  For,  in  half  a 
century  after,  we  find  in  the  Thesaurus  Aromatoriorum,  written 
by  Paulus  Svardus  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  dedicated  to  u  The  Most  Worshipful  Doctors  of  the  College 
of  Milan,"  the  following  passage — "cum  animadverterem,  colen- 
dissimi  doctores,  quamplures,  in  nonnullis  aromatoriorum  apothe- 
cis,  errores  ignorantia  committi,  etc.,"  and  it  was  on  this  account 
or  pretext  that  he  published  his  book. 
There  is  some  uncertainty  about  the  etymology  of  the  word 
apothecary.  Spelman  defines  apothecarii  thus — "  vaticinatores, 
procuratores,  anglice  stewards."  Apotheca,  a  magazine,  from 
ano,  an  intensive  preposition,  and  rcdy/uu,  to  put  up  ;  and  apothe- 
carius  should  mean  the  steward  who  puts  things  together  with 
care.  We  have  certain  evidence  of  the  word  apothecary  in  a 
medical  sense,  and  confirmed  by  use  in  such  a  manner  as  to  con- 
