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PHARMACY AND MEDICAL PRACTICE. 253
The apothecaries in Italy and France as early as the 13th
century formed confederacies, which framed their own
laws and kept a strict watch to see that their rights were
not encroached upon* In Germany the first apothecaries'
shops are said to have been erected at Wetzlar in 1233, at
Schweidnitz in 1248, at Wiirzburg in 1276, at Augsburg in
1285, at Esslingen in 1300, and'at Frankfort-on-the-Main
in 1343. In the 15th century, not only every considerable
town, but many also of the middle-sized and small ones,
had apothecaries' shops, as, for example, Znaim, Pressburg,
Krems, Budweis, Olmiitz, Briinn, and Kuttenberg.f The
education of the apothecaries was that of men training for
a handicraft.! The works of NiCOLAUS MYREPSOS
NICOLAUS PROPOSITUS, CHRISTOPHOR DE HONESTIS,'
SALADIN of Asculum, QUIRICUS DE AUGUSTIS, and others
served chiefly as the text-books.
Before permission to practise their business was granted
to apothecaries they had to undergo an examination in
which their masters and some doctors put the questions.
Superintendence of the apothecaries' shops and visits of
inspection were duties assigned to the doctors, and at a
later period were especially performed by the townphysicians.
Instruction of a practical nature in the treatment of the
sick was also, like practical treaching in materia medica, a
task which the universities did not impose upon themselves.
But we must not from this at once draw the conclusion
that the students of that time as a general rule
received no clinical instruction. Celebrated historians
have formed this erroneous opinion because in the accounts
which deal with the more ancient history of the academies
and medical faculties little or nothing is said on the subject.
Practical instruction in the treatment of the sick was inde-
* A. CORRADI : Gli antichi statuti degli speziali in Annali univ. di med.,
Vol. 277, Milano 1886.
t STAINPEIS op. cit. f, 29.
X STAINPEIS op, cit. f. 29b.