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The Apothecary

An apothecary is a person who prepares and sells drugs and other medicines like a pharmacist. This person also preforms procedures that are supposed to help cure people who have diseases and illnesses.

An apothecary would make medicines and that cure people. The medicines were made from herbs and plants.

The apothecarist had to diagnose the patients and compound medications for that person. Medical treatment was expensive so sometimes people diagnosed themselves from domestic medical books. In that case the apothecarist supplied the ingredients for the patients to make thier own medication.

The apothecaries didn't always make the medicines they performed some operations. For example when a person was drowning they would hang the person with a rope on a tree by their feet and then pull them up and down. Or they would put the person on a barrel and roll them on the barrel. Another example would be bloodletting; the apothecary would cut the patient thinking that it would rid the body of bad humors.

Dr. Humphrey's