What is a renaissance apothecary?

An Apothecy dispensed remedies made from herbs, plants and roots. Elizabethan physicians were expensive and a priest often held this occupation, often the only recourse for sick, poor people

Elizabethan Medicine was extremely basic in an era when terrible illnesses such as the Bubonic Plague (Black Death ) were killing nearly one third of the population. The above picture is of an Elizabethan Physician. Just the sight of an Elizabethan Physician in his strange clothing, especially the weird mask, was enough to frighten anyone to death! But the Physicians clothes probably saved his life and prevented him contracting the illnesses and diseases of his patients such as the plague and typhoid. The underlying cause of many of the Elizabethan illnesses was the lack of sanitation, especially in large towns or cities such as London. There were open sewers in the streets which were also filled with garbage. This was occasionally removed and waste was dumped into the nearest river such as the Thames. Diseases were easily spread in this unsanitary environment where fleas, lice and rats all flourished. There was no running water, this was obtained from water pumps ( a main cause of the spread of typhoid ).

Only the very wealthy would receive the ministrations of an Elizabethan Physician who would have received an education at one of the Universities and the College of Physicians. The usual fee would be a gold coin worth 10 shillings - well beyond the means of most Elizabethans

The usual route that most people took was to visit the apothecary, or dispenser of drugs. The Apothecaries belonged to the Grocer's Guild and sold sweets, cosmetics and perfumes as well as drugs

§ Bubonic Plague ( the Black Death )
Bubonic Plague was treated by lancing the buboes and applying a warm poultice of butter, onion and garlic. Various other remedies were tried including tobacco, arsenic, lily root and dried toad!

§ Head Pains
Head Pains were treated with sweet-smelling herbs such as rose, lavender, sage, and bay.

§ Stomach Pains and Sickness
Stomach pains and sickness were treated with wormwood, mint, and balm.

§ Lung Problems
Lung problems given the medical treatment of liquorice and comfrey.

§ Wounds
Vinegar was widely used as a cleansing agent as it was believed that it would kill disease.

§
The medieval apothecary was the ancestor of the modern GP (general practitioner). In medieval Europe individuals selling wine, spices and herbs were known as apothecaries. They prepared and sold medicines to physicians and directly to patients. In addition, they offered medical advice and other products.

§ The apothecaries were originally part of the grocery business, but from the 1200s, across Europe they began to establishguilds, sometimes jointly with physicians. Their role was to supply drugs to doctors, rather than prescribe medicines themselves. They trained through apprenticeships and, from the 1500s, some university study as well.

The apothecary struggled throughout early modern times to attain a measure of independence. He first had to free himself from his traditional origins and associations with spicers and grocers. In London it was not until 1617 that the http://www.answers.com/topic/apothecary of the city were able to break away from the Company of Grocers and establish the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. In Paris it was 1777 before a royal decree finally separated the apothecaries from the spicers and established the Collège de Pharmacie. Prestigious apothecary corporations had been established even earlier-in Rome, Barcelona, and Nuremberg, for example-but the medical establishment had never conceded independence to the apothecary. The Collegio medicum, the prestigious association of the physicians in a particular jurisdiction, which was a http://www.answers.com/topic/fixture of the continental city, usually dominated. In addition, the apothecary was subject to strict controls by civil authority, ubiquitous municipal http://www.answers.com/topic/ordinances, royal decrees, and monopoly-granting court or church privilegia (grants, usually hereditary, which gave an apothecary sole right to practice in a given jurisdiction). In England, there was little control; in the provinces, the "surgeon-apothecary" found very little other than the mixed trade guild to which he belonged to http://www.answers.com/topic/impinge upon his practice.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, most people either grew there own medicinal plants or visited the local apothecary for ease of pain and other complaints. In large urban centers there were physicians who would treat the sick and write prescriptions for medicine which would be taken to an apothecary to be filled. In poorer or more rural areas it was more likely that people would go directly to the apothecary for treatment as well as medicines. An apothecary would mix remedies using minerals, plants and animal parts to create their recipes. Many of the spices that are used solely in cooking today were important ingredients for healing during earlier times. An apothecary normally had a garden in which would be grown medicinal plants, but exotic plants were also imported from far away lands. One example that may still be familiar today is cloves. The last time you needed a tooth filled or extracted, the dentist may have placed a swab that tasted very strongly of cloves next to your gum to numb the area before injecting something to numb your entire mouth.