Interior of an apothecary's shop. Illustration from Illustrated History of Furniture,and stuff From the Earliest to the Present Time from 1893 by Litchfield, Frederick, (1850-1930)
In addition to pharmacy responsibilities, the apothecary offered general medical advice and a range of services that are now performed solely by other specialist practitioners, such as surgery and midwifery. Apothecaries often operated through a retail shop which, in addition to ingredients for medicines, sold tobacco and patent medicines.
In its investigation of herbal and chemical ingredients, the work of the apothecary may be regarded as a precursor of the modern sciences of chemistry and pharmacology, prior to the formulation of the scientific method.
The first apothecary shops were founded during the Middle Ages by Muslim practitioners.[1] By the 15th century, the apothecary gained the status of a skilled practitioner, but by the end of the 19th century, the medical professions had taken on their current institutional form, with defined roles for physicians and surgeons, and the role of the apothecary was more narrowly conceived as that of dispensing pharmacist.
