Apothecary 2020

other factors? Certainly, documents surviving in the
British Library record payments to individual
apothecaries for their work. For example, on 10 October
1665 Thomas Dalton, apothecary, employed by Dr
Hodges, was paid £50 for “physicke” delivered to poor
patients that he visited in several City parishes.
Apothecaries were also attached to pesthouses,
established to isolate and treat plague victims. The City
of London accounts show an entry “To apothecaries and
chyrurgeons in the Plague time...£1,300.” These very
large sums of money suggests that medicines were
being supplied to significant numbers of people.
In 1841, artist J.Franklin envisaged the range of remedies that a
person might take to fortify themselves against the Great Plague. His
etching includes "Aqua ipedemica", balsam of sulphur, and vinegar,
and the man
Other apothecaries were recognised for their efforts
in alternative ways. Francis Barnard, apothecary at St
Bartholomew's Hospital, was granted fellowship of the
Royal College of Physicians in recognition of the
services he provided while his physician colleagues left
London: “Francis Barnard, Apothecary, hath officiated
and prescribed to the sick patients in their absence
wherin hee hath bin exposed to adventure his life, for
whose paynes itt is thought fitt that hee shall have £35
paid unto him being the like soome he hath yerely...for
the cure of patients.” (23 December 1665). King Charles
II awarded a piece of inscribed silver plate to apothecary
William Slade for services in the plague.
Apothecaries on the front line definitely went
beyond their perceived remit as medicine sellers.
William Boghurst relates in graphic detail some of his
experiences attending the dying: “Wherefore I
commonly drest forty soares in a day, held their pulse
sweating in the bed half a quarter of an hour together to
give judgement and informe myself in the various tricks
of it. I lett one blood, gave glister though to but a few,
held them up in their beds to keep them from strangling
and choking half an hour together, commonly suffered
their breathing in my face severall times when they
were dying, eate and dranke with them, especially those
that had soares, sate down by their bedd sides and upon
their beds discoursing with them an hours together if I
had tyme, and stayed by them to see the manner of their
death, and closed up their mouth and eyes (for they
dyed with their mouth and eyes very much open and
stareing); then if people had noe body to help them (for
helpe was scarce at such a tyme and place) I helpt to lay
them forth out of the bedd and afterwards into the
coffin, and last of all accompanying them to the grave.”
The Great Plague was the last bubonic plague
epidemic in this country, but the disease is still present
globally today with a confirmed case of a herdsman in
Inner Mongolia in July 2020. The World Health
Organisation reported 3,248 cases between 2010 and
2015, including 584 deaths with Madagascar the worsthit
country with annual outbreaks. However, with our
21 st century understanding of transmission and
treatment, plague can be treated very effectively using
antibiotics, and outbreaks contained.
In recent months, many Society members have been
on the front line in the battle to restrict the spread of
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