Anser sumatur, Veteranus qui videatur, Post deplumetur, Intralibus evacuetur.
Rheumatism was to be treated with olive oil, and the pharmacist is directed to warm it while he repeats the Psalm “Quare fremerunt gentes” as far as “Postula a me et dabo tibi gentes hereditatem tuam,” then the Gloria and two prayers. This recitation was to be repeated seven times. There were no clocks available at that time, and this therefore was the method of prescribing the length of an operation. Dr. Moore says he finds this direction would cover about a quarter of an hour.
Medical treatises in verse were frequent and popular in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There are several in the British Museum. A curious specimen is preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, and it is reproduced in readable English in “Archeologia,” Vol. XXX, with notes by the translator, Mr. George Stephens, and by Dr. Pettigrew. They both believe it was written in the fourteenth century. It consists of 1485 lines. Of these it will suffice to give the first four, and one specimen of its sections. It begins thus:--
In foure parties of amā Be gynneth ye sekenesse yt yie han In heed, in wombe, or i ye splene Or i bleddyr, yese iiij I mene.
The following is entitled in the margin “Hed werk.”
Amedicyn I hawe i Myde For hedwerk to telle as I fynde To taken eysyl pulyole ryale And camamyle to sethe wt all; And wt ye jous anoyte yi nosthryll well A make aplaister of ye toyerdel; And do it in a good grete clowte And wynde yi heed yer wt abowte; As soon as it be leyde yeron All yi hedwerk xal away gon.
Two other specimens of these early poetical recipes from other authors may be quoted:--
ffor defhed of ye hed. For defhed of hed & for dullerynge I fynde wrete dyuers thynge Take oporcyon (a portion) of boiys vryne And mege it wt honey good & fyne And i ye ere late it caste Ye herynge schal amede in haste.
ffor to slepe well Qwo so may not slepe wel Take egrimonye afayre del And ley it vnder his heed on nyth And it schall hym do slepe aryth For of his slepe schal he not wakyn Tyll it be fro vnder his heed takyn.
The development of pharmacy as a separate organisation was later in England than on the Continent, and was very gradual. In the Norman period the retail trade in drugs and spices and most other commodities was in the hands of the mercers. These were, in fact, general shopkeepers, deriving their designation from merx, merchandise. They attended fairs and markets, and in the few large towns had permanent booths. Under the Plantagenets a part of the south side of “Chepe” roughly extending from where is now Bow Church to Friday Street was occupied by their stores, and was known as the Mercery. Behind these booths were the meadows of Crownsild, sloping down to what it may be hoped was then the silvery Thames. Probably sheep and cattle fed on the pastures which Cannon Street and Upper Thames Street have since usurped.