PROGRESS OP PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
265 
ART. LVL— A CONCISE HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PRO- 
GRESS OF PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN. INTENDED AS 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
By Jacob Bell, Londoiij 1843. John Churchill: pp. 108. 
The early history of our art in Great Britain, must have 
a direct interest for the American pharmaceutist, as in many 
respects we are a scion of the English stock, changed in 
many of its features by growth in a distant soil, and much 
modified by influences from continental Europe, which, 
until recently, the exclusiveness of the English have ex- 
cluded from their borders to a great extent. But a few 
years have elapsed since pharmacy here was in the hands 
of the physician's assistant, at his own office, and the apo- 
thecary, as now existing, was a character almost unknown 
in our country. These few years have witnessed a marvel- 
lous change in the relations of these two branches of the 
medical profession not less rapid than advantageously pro- 
gressive, and it will not be the least interesting feature of 
this notice of Mr. Bell's work, that it will afford us the means 
of contrasting the history of our development with that of 
our British fathers. 
Mr. Bell observes : ''At the period at which our history 
commences, pharmacy was in the hands of the physicians, 
who professed the healing art in all its branches, and pre- 
pared their medicines themselves, or superintended the pre- 
paration of them. The science of medicine was so little 
understood and so imperfectly cultivated, that it was in 
general practised empyrically, and was often confounded 
with sorcery and witchcraft. The Greek word ^aQfiaxsm 
signifies either to practise witchcraft or to use medicine, and 
this acceptation of the term was acted upon in our country 
as late as the 16th century. There were, therefore, persons 
