AmAp°rliir;i905arm"}     The  Evolution  of  Nostrum  Vending.  171 
legislation  in  America,  at  the  present  time,  would  be  a  boon  of 
inestimable  value  to  professional  pharmacy. 
The  real  modern  advance  in  pharmacy  in  England  and  in  all 
English-speaking  countries,  dates  from  this  charter.  The  first  step 
towards  reducing  the  processes  of  pharmacy  to  a  regular  standard 
for  the  guidance  of  dispensers  of  medicine  was  the  publication  of 
the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  College  of  Physicians  of  London  in  161 8. 
The  medicines  formerly  employed  were  complex,  heterogeneous 
mixtures  of  drugs  selected  with  very  little  scientific  knowledge  of 
their  action,  and  frequently  they  were  therapeutically  incompatible. 
The  large  number  of  drugs  of  animal  origin  recognized  in  this  phar- 
macopoeia, and  in  subsequent  editions,  is  only  significant  of  the 
status  of  medicine  and  the  trend  of  medical  thought  at  that  time. 
Snails,  vipers,  the  urine  of  men  and  of  animals,  calculi,  the  thigh 
bone  of  a  man  that  had  been  hanged,  are  all  examples  of  remedies 
extolled  as  specifics  for  a  variety  of  disorders.  The  polygenous 
character  of  many  of  the  formulae  given  is  illustrated  by  Confectio 
Damocratis  or  Mithridatium,  which^contained  forty  ingredients,  and 
the  Theriaca  Andromachi  or  Venice  treacle,  which  contained  sixty 
ingredients. 
In  1650,  Nicholas  Culpeper  published  his  "  Physical  Directory,  or 
a  Translation  of  the  Dispensatory  made  by  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians." In  this  he  severely  criticises  and  ridicules  many  of  the 
remedies  recognized,  especially  the  drugs  of  animal  origin,  such  as 
the  fat  of  numerous  animals  and  fowls,  some  domesticated  and  some 
wild ;  vipers'  flesh,  brains  of  a  number  of  animals,  excrements  of  hu- 
man beings  and  of  animals,  and  he  scarcastically  states :  "  They 
should  have  put  the  rennet  of  an  ass  to  make  medicine  for  their 
addle  brains."  Nicholas  Culpeper  was  himself  quite  as  much  of  an 
astrologer  as  a  practitioner  of  medicine,  and  his  work  is  not  at  all 
free  from  the  prevailing  superstition  of  the  age,  as  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing abstract :  "  The  head  or  a  cole-black  cat  being  burnt  to  ashes 
in  a  new  pot,  and  some  of  the  ashes  blown  into  the  eye  every  day, 
helps  such  as  have  a  skin  growing  over  their  sight." 
The  early  pharmacopoeias  were  full  of  substances  which  derived 
their  reputation  from  superstition  or  prejudice,  and  the  impossibil- 
ity of  obtaining  many  of  them  undoubtedly  led  to  gross  substitution 
and  adulteration,  and  encouraged  secret  practices  and  quackery. 
It  is  not  beyond  grave  suspicion  that  the  sophistry  and  cupidity 
