HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF PHARMACY
HISTORY OF PHARMACY The beginnings of pharmacy are ancient. When the first person expressed juice from a succulent leaf to apply to a wound, this art was being practiced. In the Greek legend , Asclepius, the god of the healing art, delegated to Hygieia the duty of compounding his remedies. She was his apothecary or pharmacist. The physician-priests of Egypt were divided into two classes: those who visited the sick and those who remained in the temple and prepared remedies for the patients. In ancient Greece and Rome and during the Middle Ages in Europe , the art of healing recognized a separation between the duties of the physician and those of the herbalist, who supplied the physician with the raw materials from which to make medicines. The Arabian influence in Europe during the 8th century ad , however, brought about the practice of separate duties for the pharmacist and physician. The tren...