Читать книгу Medicine in the Middle Ages. Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy; translated by T. C. Minor онлайн

33 страница из 45

To put an end to the struggle, the College of Surgeons took the desperate but injurious resolve to admit all barbers to their institution and recognize their rights to a surgical degree. A year later, 1660, the Faculty of Medicine demanded that, inasmuch as the College of Surgeons admitted ignorant barbers to their school, the right of surgeons to wear a medical robe and hat and bestow degrees be denied. The Faculty of medicine gained their suit.

As an indispensable adjunct to the doctor at this period, let us now mention the apothecary and the bath-keeper.

The patron of the apothecaries was Saint Nicholas; they belonged to the corporation of grocers, where they were represented by three members. Their central bureau was at the Cloister Saint Opportune.

The inspection of drug stores and apothecary shops in Paris occurred once a year, and was made by three members elected from the central bureau and two doctors in medicine. A druggist in Paris served four years as an apprentice and six years as an under-dispenser; then the applicant was obliged to pass two examinations, and, finally, five extra examinations, the latter in the presence of the master apothecaries and two doctors. Notwithstanding their oath[8] to not prescribe medicine for the sick and not to sell drugs without a doctor’s written order, druggists then, as now, had frequent conflicts with physicians, as the latter are ever jealous of non professional interference and always asserting supremacy.