The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy

The earliest record of the apothecary in England seems to be of one Richard Fitznigel, who acted in that capacity to Henry II. This individual subsequently rose in degree at Cou...

The bard of Avon, in the wide and general knowledge he displays of the manners, ways, and customs of his own and other countries in his plays, makes many allusions to drugs and...

From very remote times a somewhat curious link has existed between the art of healing and religion, and those who proposed the cure of the body or the soul have ever sought to w...

A curious survival of the age of superstition and romance attaches to the red resin known as dragon’s blood, and is still largely practised by a certain class of uneducated wome...

The operation of distillation was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, although Dioscorides and Pliny describe a process which may be considered that of distillation in its...

Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_ present one of the most interesting pictures of life and manners in the fourteenth century we have in English literature. The father of English poet...

The birth of the art of healing goes back to a period of great antiquity. The instinct that first led man to utilise the fruits of the earth for his bodily sustenance, may perch...

The word chemistry was used for the first time by Suidas, a lexicographer of the tenth century, and at that time meant an alloy of gold and silver. It is alluded to in connectio...

One of the earliest magicians or soothsayers of which we have record out of the era of mythology was Tiresias. He lived in the times of Œdipus and the war of the seven chiefs ag...

Who first introduced mummies as medicinal agents is not known, but there is something particularly weird and gruesome in the idea of the ancient physician dosing a sick patient,...

Though Æsculapius is said to have lived so near to the time of the Trojan war, yet the Greeks knew very little about him. The superstition of the time gave him a position among...

An excellent picture of a physician of the fifteenth century is drawn by that master in the art of fiction, Charles Reade, in his work _The Cloister and the Hearth_, a story of...

The Faust-legend around which Goethe wove his great tragedy, was one of those floating traditions which were common in the romantic lore of many countries during the fifteenth a...

In the early part of the eighteenth century, the enterprising empiric seems to have hit on a new method of lining his pockets at the expense of the public, and we have the adven...

The words incantation and charm seem to have been derived from the ancient practice of curing diseases by poetry and music. Democritus says that many diseases are capable of bei...

Le Sage draws a vivid picture of the medical practitioner of his day in his well-known work _Gil Blas_. Doctor Sangrado, bigoted, obstinate, and dominated by one idea, was doubt...

The treatment prescribed by the monks, who were ready to cure the body as well as the soul, consisted mainly of holy water, prayer, the touching of relics, and a number of decoc...

The mortar is the most ancient of pharmaceutical implements, its earliest use carrying us back to prehistoric times, when the early Briton bruised his grain in the hollow of a g...

In his novel entitled _Japhet in Search of a Father_, Captain Marryat introduces to us that eccentric apothecary, Mr. Phineas Cophagus; and although the character is doubtless e...

The dominating ambition of the early alchemists was to discover the unknown. In the same spirit the modern worker in science gropes onward, and dreams of discovering some contri...

To obtain a clear conception of the great advance that has been made in medicine and pharmacy, it is necessary to look back through the vista of centuries at the Elizabethan apo...

Rome at an early period gave birth to several philosophers and practitioners in the art of healing. Cornelius Celsus, who is thought to have been a Roman, was a much esteemed wr...

To make a thorough analysis of this interesting subject, and trace the origin of magic, would take much more space than we have at our command; and we can only mention a few of...

Geber, an alchemist of great repute in Arabia, was believed to possess the power of creating gold by magic. He was a man of undoubted learning and a skilful practitioner of his...

The Roman philosophers, like the Greeks, claimed to possess occult powers, and the practitioners of magic and sorcery were numerous during the time of the Empire. We have a grap...

The apothecary of romance is almost invariably pale and lean, with head nearly destitute of hirsute covering, and a man of retiring habits and sad demeanour. This is perhaps bec...

Pharmacy, pure and simple, occupies but a small space in literature, although the disciples of the sister arts of medicine and alchemy have often formed interesting studies for...

Edmund Spenser was born in London towards the close of the year 1552, and in his after career, added lustre to an age which for brilliancy in literature has never been equalled...

Love Philtres were administered for the purpose of inspiring affection or hatred. In very early times they were frequently used, concocted, and sold by the magicians or sorcerer...

The early theory of the art of foretelling by means of the stars, and casting horoscopes, was as follows: The seven planets then known, including the Sun, with the twelve figure...

Ben Jonson gives a description of the itinerant doctor in Queen Elizabeth’s time, who travelled the country, usually accompanied by a jester or zany, as he was called, who carri...

That picturesque period when the astrologer formed part of the _entourage_ of almost every European court, and was petted by emperors and kings, is graphically described by Sir...

Earliest record of an apothecary in England—Powers granted to the College of Physicians—Foundation of the Society of Apothecaries—Nicholas Culpepper—History of the Society—Chart...

The art of embalming and its antiquity—Various processes employed—The cost of embalming—The practitioners of the art—The drugs and substances employed—Process used for the poore...

The mystery of dragon’s blood—Charms and superstitious practises connected with dragon’s blood—Use of dragon’s blood by the ancients—Modern practitioners of magic—Magic properti...

Drugs used by the Arabs—Avicenna—Basil Valentine—Paracelsus—His life and teaching—Van Helmont—Monastic Gardens—Mesué—Ebor-Taitor—The medical treatment of the monks—Hildegarde—Gi...

Early methods of introducing a nostrum—The origin of quack medicines—The Elixir of Life—The Collyrium of Danares—Sympathetic Powder—Hoffman’s Water of Magnanimity—Dutch Drops—_E...

The foundation of the art of healing—The most ancient record of medicine and pharmacy—The _Ebers Papyrus_—Origin of the term pharmacist—Drugs used in ancient Egypt—Early Jewish...

Monk physicians and their methods of treatment—Early hospitals—Their originators—The first school of nurses—Medical faculties of the thirteenth century—Examinations for title of...

The origin of the mortar—Derivation of the name—Primitive mortars—Grain crushers—Egyptian mortars—Antiquity of the mortar in Africa—A Cingalese mortar—Roman mortaria—Manufactori...

Practice of magic by the early alchemists—Demonology—Initiation of novices—Taking the oath—The ceremonial—Perfumes employed—Composition of the incense used—Black magic by burnin...

Origin of incantations and charms—The cure of disease by poetry and music—Ancient theory of the cause of disease—Precious stones as remedial agents—Influence of the planets on h...

Their antiquity—Definition—Object of their use—Egyptian amulets—Grecian amulets—Roman amulets—Chinese amulets—Knightly talismans—Precious stones as talismans—Metallic amulets—Wr...

Origin of the term chemistry—Practice of the hermetic science by the Egyptians—Al-Chindus—Geber—Rhazes—Merlin—St. Dunstan—Albertus Magnus—Vincent de Beauvais—Raymond Lulli—Arnau...

Celsus—Roman pharmacy—Methods of administration—Antidotes—Grecian remedy for hydrophobia—Chemical bodies and drugs employed by the Greeks and Romans—Dioscorides—His work on _mat...

Alchemical research—Its objects—Supposed composition of the Philosopher’s Stone—Claimants to the discovery—The theories of Rhazes, Merlin and Bacon—Bacon’s definition of alchemy...

An apothecary’s shop in the time of Queen Elizabeth—Description of the interior—The customers—Apothecaries’ prescriptions—Apothecaries’ guilds and their injunctions as to prayer...

Æsculapius—Hippocrates—Diocles—Praxagoras—Chrysippus— Hierphilus—Erasistratus—Serapion—Asclepiades—Galen—His system of treatment—Medical practice in the fifth century—Alexander...

The antiquity of magic—Early magicians and wise men—Variety of forms practised—Oneiromancy—Theurgy and Goetry—Historic dreams—Necromancy—Methods of evocation—Chiromancy—Origin o...