fme_756151 - PHARMACIENS - APOTHICAIRES Médaille, Union Royale Pharmaceutique de Charleroi, Souvenir

PHARMACISTS - CHEMISTS - APOTHECARIES

Following the Muslims, European medieval pharmacy was enriched by chemical research. The common doctrine considered that diseases constituted morbid essences and that remedies acted as antidote. Also appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries. new remedies like arnica, valerian, cinchona. The corporation of apothecaries was united with that of grocers because sugar, rare in the Middle Ages, was considered more of a remedy than a food. Apothecaries began to be regulated by Charles VIII in 1484, then Louis XII separated apothecaries from grocers. Access to the profession of pharmacist was difficult, which did not prevent doctors in Molière's time from considering pharmacist-apothecaries as inferior. The first public school of pharmacy dates from 1576 and Louis XVI transformed it into a College of Pharmacy in 1777. Then, Bonaparte organized the first three national schools of pharmacy in Paris, Montpellier and Strasbourg. Finally, the arrival of synthetic substances after 1850 led to the development of modern chemical pharmacy..