Pharmacy, An Illustrated History

1990

Storage: Medical WZ 417 C874

New York: Abrams

The images on these pages are a reminder that pharmacy has a rich history in many countries around the world. Compilations of medicinal substances and medicine recipes dating back to several centuries BC have been found in India, Egypt, the Middle-East and Greece. For example, the Ebers Papyrus is a record of Egyptian medicine dated to around 1550 BC. The earliest known Chinese manual on materia medica dates back to the first century AD. In Japan, the men who fulfilled roles similar to a modern pharmacist were highly respected between the sixth and eighth centuries. In Bagdad the first pharmacies (or pharmacy-like stores) were established in 754 and in Europe the first appeared in the twelfth century.