A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

Cork is the exterior bark of a tree, belonging to the genus of the oak, which grows wild in the southern parts of Europe, particularly France, Spain, Portugal and Italy[973 - Duhamel, Traité des Arbres et Arbustes, Tozzetti, Viaggi, iv. p. 278.]. When the tree is about twenty-six years old it is fit to be barked, and this can be done successively every eight years[974 - [In MacCulloch’s Dictionary the word every is changed into for, and the author then proceeds to observe, that “This erroneous statement having been copied into the article Cork in Rees’ Cyclopædia, has thence been transplanted into a number of other works!” The mistake, however, is wrongly attributed to Beckmann.]]. The bark always grows up again, and its quality improves with the increasing age of the tree. It is commonly singed a little over a strong fire or glowing coals, and laid to soak a certain time in water, after which it is placed under stones in order to be pressed straight.

This tree, as well as its use, was known to the Greeks and the Romans. By the former it was called phellus. Theophrastus reckons it among the oaks, and says that it has a thick fleshy bark, which must be stripped off every three years to prevent it from perishing. He adds, that it was so light as never to sink in water, and on that account could be used with great advantage for a variety of purposes[975 - Histor. Plantar. lib. iii. cap. 16. He repeats the same thing lib. iv. cap. 18, where he remarks as an exception, that the cork-tree does not die after it has lost its bark, but becomes more vigorous. In the southern parts of France the cork-trees are barked every eight, nine or ten years.]. The only circumstance which on the first consideration can excite any doubt of the phellus being our cork-tree, is, that he expressly says it lost its leaves annually, whereas our cork-tree retains them. In another passage however he calls it an evergreen[976 - Lib. iii. cap. 4. This difficulty the commentators have endeavoured to remove by reading here φελλόδρυς instead of the two words φελλὸς and δρῦς which are separated; and indeed φελλόδρυς occurs in other parts of the same work among the evergreens, lib. i. cap. 15.]. This apparent contradiction several commentators have endeavoured to clear up, but their labour seems unnecessary; for there is a species of our cork-tree which really drops its leaves. Linnæus did not think this species worth his notice; but it has been accurately observed by Clusius and Matthiolus[977 - Clusius in Rar. Plantar. Histor. lib. i. cap. 14, describes this tree as he found it without leaves in the month of April in the Pyrenees near Bayonne. Theophrastus, p. 234, says, “The cork-tree, φελλὸς, which drops its leaves γίνεται ἐν Τυῤῥηνίᾳ:” but the Aldine manuscript and that of Basle have Πυῤῥηνίᾳ. The latter reading is condemned by Robert Constant and others: but though the cork-tree is indeed indigenous in Tyrrhenia or Etruria, I see no reason why Πυῤῥηνίᾳ should not be retained, as it is equally certain that the tree grows in the Pyrenees, and that it there loses its leaves according to the observation of Clusius. If, on the other hand, we read Τυῤῥηνίᾳ, this is opposed by the experience of Theophrastus; for in Italy, as well as in France and Spain, the tree keeps its leaves the whole winter through. Stapel therefore has preferred the word Πυῤῥηνίᾳ. Labat, who saw the tree both in the Pyrenees and in Italy, says that in the former it drops its leaves in winter, and in the latter preserves them. According to Jaussin (Mémoires sur les évènemens, arrivés dans l’Isle de Corse. Lausanne, 1759, 8vo, ii. p. 398) it is in Corsica an evergreen; and Carter (Reise von Gibraltar nach Malaga, Leipsic, 1799, 8vo, p. 190) says that the case is the same in Spain, but he expressly adds that beyond the Alps it loses its leaves in autumn.], and its existence is confirmed by Miller[978 - In his Gardener’s Dictionary. Bauhin, in his Pinax, p. 424, mentions this species particularly.]. As Theophrastus[979 - Hist. Plant. lib. i. cap. 15.], Pliny[980 - Lib. xvi. cap. 21.], Varro[981 - De Re Rustica, i. cap. 7.] and others mention a common oak which always retains its leaves, it appears clear to me that the first-mentioned author, where he speaks of evergreens, meant our common species of the cork-tree, and that extraordinary kind of oak; but in the other passage that species which drops its leaves in winter.

That the suber of the Romans was our cork-tree, is generally and with justice admitted. Pliny relates of it, in the clearest manner, every thing said by Theophrastus[982 - Lib. xvi. cap. 8.] of the phellus[983 - The botanists of the seventeenth century, who paid more attention to the names of the ancients than those of the present time, say that the cork-tree is in Greek called also ἴψος, or ἰψὸς, which word is not to be found in Ernesti’s dictionary. I have found it only once in Theophrastus, Histor. Plantar. lib. iii. cap. 6, where those plants are named which blow late. Because Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. 25, says tardissimo germine suber; ἰpψὸς is considered to be the same as φελλός. Hesychius however says that ἰψὸς in some authors signifies ivy.]; and we find by his account, that cork at the period when he wrote was applied to as many purposes as at present[984 - Our German word Kork, as well as the substance itself, came to us from Spain, where the latter is called chorcha de alcornoque. It is, without doubt, originally derived from cortex of the Latins, who gave that appellation to cork without any addition. Horace says, Od. iii. 9, “Tu levior cortice;” and Pliny tells us, “Non infacete Græci (suberem) corticis arborem appellant.” These last words are quoted by C. Stephanus in his Prædium Rusticum, p. 578, and Ruellius De Natura Stirpium, p. 174, and again p. 256, as if the Greeks called the women, on account of their cork soles, of which I shall speak hereafter, cortices arborum. This gives me reason to conjecture a different reading in Pliny, and indeed I find in the same edition already quoted, the words cortices arborum. This variation ought to have been remarked by Hardouin.].

At that time fishermen made floats to their nets of cork, that is, they affixed pieces of cork to the rope which formed the upper edge of the net, and which it was necessary should be kept at the surface of the water, in the same manner as is done at present[985 - Plin. p. 7.]. The use of cork for fishing-nets is mentioned by Ausonius[986 - Mosella, 246.]; and Alciphron describes so abundant a capture that the net and the cork floats sunk by the weight. This use, however, was much limited by the high price of cork; and small boards of light wood, such as that of the pine, aspen-tree, lime-tree, and poplar, were employed in its stead[987 - Linnæi Flora Suec. p. 358. Gmelin’s Reise durch Russland, i. p. 138. It is a mistake in Duroi, Harbkescher Baumzucht, ii. p. 141, that ropes for fishing-nets are prepared from this bark.]. The wood of the Marum arborescens is used as floats in Guiana, and that of the Hibiscus cuspidatus in Otaheite[988 - Parkinson’s Voyage to the South Seas, 1773, 4to.]. The German and Swedish fishermen, and also the Cossacks, use for the same purpose the bark of the black poplar; but the Dutch and Hanoverians, who fish on the Weser, employ for their nets a kind of wood called in Holland toll-hout. It is a wood of a reddish-brown colour, extremely light, and of a very fine grain, which the Dutch, who export it to Germany, procure from the Baltic. At Amsterdam it costs a stiver per pound; but I have not yet been able to learn what wood it properly is.

Another use to which cork was applied, according to Pliny, was for anchor-buoys. “Usus ejus ancoralibus maxime navium.” These words Hardouin has not explained; and Scheffer[989 - De Militia Navali Veterum. Upsaliæ, 1654, 4to, lib. ii. cap. 5.], where he speaks of anchors, and what belongs to them, takes no notice of cork. Gesner, however, has attempted an explanation[990 - In Stephens’s Thesaurus he says, “Usus ancoralibus navium; int. sustinendis, et minuendo pondere ancorarum.”], but what he says is, in my opinion, not satisfactory. He certainly could not mean that it was employed to render anchors lighter. According to my idea, they may be easily made light enough without cork, and perhaps they can never be made too heavy. The true explanation of this passage is, that it was used for making buoys, called ancoralia, which were fixed to the cable, and by floating on the surface of the water, over the anchor, pointed out the place where it lay[991 - Pausanias, viii. 12, p. 623, where he speaks of the different kinds of oak in Arcadia. When any one had the misfortune to fall into the sea, the cork affixed to the anchor, ancoralia, was thrown overboard, in order that the person in danger might catch hold of it. This we learn from the account of Lucian (Epist. i. 1, p. 7), when two men, one of whom had fallen into the sea and another who jumped after him to afford him assistance, were both saved by these means.]. Our navigators use for that purpose a large but light block of wood, which, in order that it may float better, is often made hollow[992 - And to conceal contraband goods in them, of which I have seen instances during my travels.]. A large cask also is sometimes employed. The Dutch sailors call these blocks of wood boei or boeye; and hence comes their proverb, “Hy heeft een kop als een boei,” he has a head like a buoy; he is a blockhead.

A third use of cork among the Romans was its being made into soles, which were put into their shoes in order to secure the feet from water, especially in winter; and as high heels were not then introduced, the ladies who wished to appear taller than they had been formed by nature, put plenty of cork under them[993 - Xenophon De Tuenda Re Famil. and Clemens Alexand. lib. iii. Pæda.].

The practice of employing cork for making jackets to assist one in swimming, is also very old; for we are informed that the Roman whom Camillus sent to the Capitol when besieged by the Gauls, put on a light dress, and took cork with him under it, because, to avoid being taken by the enemy, it was necessary that he should swim through the Tiber. When he arrived at the river, he bound his clothes upon his head, and, placing the cork under him, was so fortunate as to succeed in his attempt[994 - Plutarchus in Vita Camilli.].

The most extensive and principal use of cork at present, is for stoppers to bottles. This was not entirely unknown to the Romans, for Pliny says expressly, that it served to stop vessels of every kind; and instances of its being employed for that purpose may be seen in Cato[995 - De Re Rustica, cap. 120.] and Horace[996 - Lib. iii. od. 8, 10.]. Its application to this use, however, seems not to have been very common, else cork-stoppers would have been oftener mentioned by the authors who have written on agriculture and cookery, and also in the works of the ancient poets. We everywhere find directions given to close up wine-casks and other vessels with pitch[997 - Before cork came to be used for this purpose pitching was more necessary, and therefore mention of pitch occurs so often in the Roman writers on agriculture. When the farmer, says Virgil (Georg. i. 275), has brought his productions to the city, he carries back articles of every kind, such, for example, as pitch. On such occasions our poets would have mentioned articles entirely different. Strabo (lib. v. p. 334) also extols Italy, because together with wine it had a sufficiency of pitch, so that the price of wine was not rendered dearer.], clay, gypsum or potters-earth, or to fill the upper part of the vessel with oil or honey, in order to exclude the air from those liquors which one wished to preserve[998 - As proofs of this may everywhere be found, it is hardly worth while to quote them. Columella, xii. 12, teaches the manner of preparing cement for stopping up wine-casks. The earthen wine-jars found at Pompeii appear to have had oil poured over them, and to have had no other care bestowed upon them. In Italy, even at present, large flasks have no stoppers, but are filled up with oil.]. In the passages therefore already quoted, where cork is named, mention is made also of pitching. The reason of this I believe to be, that the ancients used for their wine large earthen vessels with wide mouths, which could not be stopped sufficiently close by means of cork. Wooden casks were then unknown, or at least scarce, as Italy produced little timber, otherwise these vessels would have been stopped with wood, as is the case at present. The practice of drawing off wine for daily consumption, from the large vessels into which it is first put, into such smaller vessels as can be easily corked, was then not prevalent[999 - Alexand. ab Alex. Dier. Gen. v. 21, p. 302. When the Romans went out to the chase, they carried with them some wine in a laguncula. – Plin. Epist. i. 6. p. 22. I do not know however that these flasks were of glass; all those I have seen were made of clay or wood. See Pompa De Instrum. Fundi, cap. 17, in the end of Gesner’s edition of Scriptores Rei Rust. ii. p. 1187.]. The ancients drew off from their large jars into cups or pitchers whatever quantity of wine they thought necessary for the time, instead of which the moderns use bottles. It appears to have been customary at the French court, about the year 1258, when grand entertainments were given, and more wine-vessels had been opened than were emptied, that the remainder became a perquisite of the grand-bouteiller[1000 - Le Grand d’Aussy, Histoire de la Vie Privée des François, ii. p. 367.].

Stoppers of cork seem to have been first introduced after the invention of glass-bottles, and of these I find no mention before the fifteenth century; for the amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ of Petronius[1001 - Petron. Sat. cap. xxxiv. p. 86. In the paintings of Herculaneum I find many wide-mouthed pitchers, with handles, like decanters, but no figure that resembles our flasks.], to the necks of which were affixed labels, containing the name and age of the wine, appear to have been large jars, and to have formed part of the many uncommon articles by which the voluptuary Trimalchio wished to distinguish himself. It is however singular, that these convenient vessels were not thought of at an earlier period, especially as among the small funeral urns of the ancients, many are to be found which in shape resemble our bottles[1002 - Aringhi Roma Subterranea. Romæ, 1651. fol. i. p. 502, where may be seen an account of a flask with a round body and a very long neck.]. In the figure of the Syracusan wine-flasks, I think I can discover their origin from these urns. Charpentier[1003 - Glossarium Novum, i. p. 1182: “le dit Jaquet print un conouffle de voirre, ou il avoit du vin … et de fait en but.”] quotes from a writing of the year 1387, an expression which seems to allude to one of our glass bottles; but, when attentively considered, it may be easily discovered that cups or drinking-glasses are meant. The name boutiaux or boutilles, occurs in the French language for the first time in the fifteenth century; but were it even older it would prove nothing, as it signified originally, and even still signifies, vessels of clay or metal, and particularly of leather[1004 - Grand d’Aussy quotes from Chronique Scandaleuse de Louis XI. “Des bouteilles de cuyr.” That word however is of German extraction, though we have received it back from the French somewhat changed, like many other German things. It is evidently derived from butte, botte, buta, buticula, buticella, which occur in the middle ages. See C. G. Schwarzii Exercitat. de Butigulariis. Altorfii, 1723, 4to, p. 5.]. Such vessels filled with wine, which travellers were accustomed to suspend from their saddles, could be stopped with a piece of wood, or closed by means of wooden or metal tops screwed on them, which are still used for earthen-pitchers. In the year 1553, when C. Stephanus wrote his Prædium Rusticum, cork stoppers must have been very little known, else he would not have said that in his time cork in France was used principally for soles (p. 578). In the time of Lottichius, rich people however had glass flasks with tin mouths, which could be stopped sufficiently close without cork; and these flasks appear to have been as thin as the Syracusan wine-bottles; for he adds, that it was necessary to wrap them round with rushes or straw[1005 - See his Observations on Petronius, p. 259.].

Flasks covered with basket-work must have been common among the Greeks, if it be certain that πυτίνη signifies a flask of this kind. It appears indeed to do so, because Hesychius says it was a plaited wine-vessel, like the baskets which prisoners were accustomed to make. Suidas, however, states that it was a vessel woven of twigs, named in his time φλασκεῖον, from which is derived our word flask. It is probable that these wine-vessels covered with basket-work were only of earthenware, as glass ones were at that time costly and scarce. But I do not think it can be proved that a flask of this kind was called by the Romans tinia.

In the shops of the apothecaries in Germany, cork stoppers began first to be used about the end of the seventeenth century. Before that period they used stoppers of wax, which were not only much more expensive, but also far more troublesome.

That the use of cork for stoppers was not known in the sixteenth century may be proved from this circumstance, that it is mentioned neither by Ruellius[1006 - De Natura Stirpium, p. 256.] nor Aldrovandi[1007 - Dendrologia, p. 194.], though they describe all the other purposes to which this substance was applied. How great the consumption of it is at present, will appear from the quantity used by the directors of the springs at Niederselters alone; who in the year 1781 employed 2,208,000 stoppers, each thousand of which cost four florins, making a total of 8832 florins. They were furnished by a merchant at Strasburg, who was obliged to take back the refuse, which he then caused to be cut on his own account into smaller stoppers, and many of these could be used by the people at the springs. The experiment also was once made of causing the corks to be cut on account of the directors of the springs; but the carriage of the refuse became too dear, and there was no sale for the stoppers of the apothecary phials which were made of them.

In later times, some other vegetable productions have been found which can be employed instead of cork for the last-mentioned purpose. Among these is the wood of a tree common in South America, particularly in moist places, which is called there monbin or monbain, and by botanists Spondias lutea. This wood was brought to England in great abundance for that use. The spongy root of a North American tree, known by the name of nyssa, is also used for the same end, as are the roots of liquorice, which on that account is much cultivated in Sclavonia, and exported to other countries, and likewise the black poplar, for its bark is employed by the Cossacks[1008 - Gmelin’s Reise durch Russland, i. p. 138. Pallas, Flora Russica, i. p. 66.] as stoppers to their flasks, and the Æschynomene lagenaria, which is used instead of cork in Cochin-China[1009 - Loureiro Flora Cochin-Chin. p. 447.].

[That most useful substance, caoutchouc, now replaces cork for numerous purposes, and is superior to it in almost every respect, especially in its greater elasticity, in being subject to less injury from the action of many substances, and but slightly affected by moisture or dryness. It also keeps better, and is not much more expensive. The quantity of stoppers now manufactured by the Patent Caoutchouc Company is perfectly astonishing.]

APOTHECARIES

The history of the materia medica is a subject fit to be undertaken only by physicians like Baldinger, Hensler, Mohsen[1010 - Dr. Mohsen has already published a considerable part of what belongs to this subject in his Geschichte der Wissenschaften in der Mark Brandenburg, besonders der Arzneywissenschaft. Berlin, 1781, 4to, p. 372. Some information also respecting the history of apothecaries may be found in Thomassii Dissert. de Jure circa Pharmacopolia Civitatum, in his Dissertationes Academicæ, Halle, 1774, 4 vols. quarto.], and Gruner, who to an intimate acquaintance with what belongs to their own profession, have united a knowledge of every other branch of science. By making this acknowledgment, I wish to guard against the imputation of vanity, which I might incur as attempting to encroach on the province of such learned men. That however is not the case. My intention is only to lay before the public what I have collected respecting this subject, because I have reason to flatter myself, that, however trifling, it may be of some use until a complete history be obtained; and because I may have met with some scattered information, which, without my research, might have escaped the notice of abler writers. Whoever is acquainted with such labour, will at any rate allow that this is possible; and I hope the following essay towards a history of apothecaries will not prove unacceptable to my readers.

That the medicines prescribed by the Greek and Roman physicians for their patients were prepared by themselves is so well known, that I think it unnecessary to produce proofs with which no one can be unacquainted who has read Theophrastus, Hippocrates, and Galen. They caused those herbs, of which almost the whole materia medica then consisted, to be collected by others; and we have reason to believe that the gathering and selling of medicinal plants must have at an early period been converted into a distinct employment, especially as many of them being exotics, it was necessary to procure them from remote countries, which every physician had not an opportunity of visiting; and as some of them were applied to a variety of purposes, they were sought after by others as well as by medical practitioners. Several of them were employed in cookery and for seasoning different dishes; many in dyeing and painting, some of them as cosmetics, others for perfumes, some for ointments, which were much used in the numerous baths, and not a few of them may have been employed also in other arts and manufactures. It must have been very convenient for the physicians to purchase from these dealers in herbs, such articles as they had occasion to use; but it is probable, and can even be proved, that these people soon injured them in their profession, by encroaching on their business. In the course of time they acquired a knowledge of the healing virtues of their commodities, and of the preparation they required, which was then extremely simple: and many of them began to sell compounded medicines, and to boast of possessing secrets more beneficial to mankind. To these dealers in herbs belong the pigmentarii, seplasiarii, pharmacopolæ, medicamentarii, and others who were perhaps thus distinguished by separate names on account of some very trifling circumstances in which they differed, or by dealing in one particular article more than in another. Some of these names also may possibly have been used only at certain periods, or in some places more than in others; and perhaps it would be fruitless labour to attempt to define their difference correctly. That the pigmentarii dealt in medicines is proved by the law which established a punishment for such as sold any one poison through mistake[1011 - Digest. lib. xlviii. tit. 8, 3, 3.]. The herbs which Vegetius[1012 - De Mulomedic. iii. 2, 21, p. 1107.] prescribes for the diseases of cattle were to be bought from the seplasiarii; and that they sold also medicines ready prepared is proved by the reproach thrown out by Pliny against the physicians of his time, that instead of making up their medicines themselves as formerly, they purchased them from the seplasiarii, without so much as knowing of what they were composed[1013 - Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 11.]. That the pharmacopolæ carried on a like trade appears evident from their name; but people of judgement placed no confidence in them, and they were despised on account of their impudent boasting, and the extravagant praises they bestowed on their commodities[1014 - Maximus Tyrius, Dissert. x. p. 121. Aulus Gellius, lib. i. cap. 15.]. The medicamentarii do not often occur, but we are given to understand by Pliny[1015 - Lib. xix. cap. 6.], that they followed an employment of the same nature; and it appears that they must have been very worthless, for in the Theodosian code, male and female poisoners are called medicamentarii and medicamentariæ[1016 - Cod. Theodos. iii. tit. 16.].

It may be readily perceived that these herb-dealers had a greater resemblance to our grocers, druggists, or mountebanks, than to our apothecaries. It is well known that the word apotheca signified any kind of store, magazine, or warehouse, and that the proprietor or keeper of such a store was called apothecarius[1017 - Proofs of this may be found in Glossarium Manuale, vol. i. p. 298. From the word apotheca the Italians have made boteca, and the French boutique.]. It would be a very great mistake, therefore, if in writings of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, where these expressions occur, we should understand under the latter apothecaries such as ours are at present[1018 - In the Nurnberger Bürgerbuch mention is made of Mr. Conrade Apotheker, 1403; Mr. Hans Apotheker, 1427; and Mr. Jacob Apotheker, 1433. See Von Murr’s Jornal der Kunstgeschichte, vi. p. 79. Henricus Apothecarius occurs as a witness at Gorlitz, in a charter of the year 1439; and one John Urban Apotheker excited an insurrection against the magistrates of Lauban in 1439. See Buddæi Singularia Lusatica, vol. ii. p. 424, 500. One cannot with any certainty determine whether these people were properly apothecaries, which must be borne in mind in reading the following passage of Von Stetten in his Kunstgeschichte der Stadt Augsburg, p. 242: “In very old times there was a family here who had the name of Apotheker, and it is very probable that some of this family had kept a public apothecary’s shop. Luitfried Apotheker, or in der Apothek, lived in the year 1285, and Hans Apotheker was, in 1317, city chamberlain.”]. At these periods, those were often called apothecaries who at courts and in the houses of great people prepared for the table various preserves, particularly fruit incrusted with sugar, and who on that account may be considered as confectioners. What peculiarly distinguishes our apothecaries is, that they sell drugs used in medicine, and prepare from them different compounds according to the prescriptions given by physicians and others. But here arises a question: When did physicians begin to give up entirely the preparation of medicines to such apothecaries, who must now be more than herb-dealers, and must understand chemistry? And when did the apothecaries acquire an exclusive title to that business and to their present name? It is probable that physicians gradually became accustomed to employ such assistance for the sake of their own convenience, when they found in their neighbourhood a druggist in whose skill they could confide, and whose interest they wished to promote, by resigning in his favour that occupation.

Conring asserts, without any proof, but not however without probability[1019 - De Hermetica Medicina libri duo. Helmst. 1669, p. 293.], that the physicians in Africa first began to give up the preparation of medicines after their prescriptions to other ingenious men; and that this was customary so early as the time of Avenzoar in the eleventh century. Should that be the case, it would appear that this practice must have been first introduced into Spain and the lower part of Italy, as far as the possessions of the Saracens then extended, by the Arabian physicians who accompanied the Caliphs or Arabian princes. It is probable, therefore, that many Arabic terms of art were by these means introduced into pharmacy and chemistry, for the origin of which we are indebted to that nation, and which have been still retained and adopted. Hence it may be explained why the first known apothecaries were to be found in the lower part of Italy; but at any rate we have reason to conclude, that they obtained their first legal establishment by the well-known medical edict of the emperor Frederic II., issued for the kingdom of Naples, and from which Thomasius deduces the privileges they enjoy at present[1020 - This edict may be found in Lindenbrogii Codex Legum Antiquarum, p. 809. The law properly here alluded to, de probabili experientia medicorum, is by most authors ascribed to the emperor Frederic I., but by Conring to his grandson Frederic II. See Conring De Antiquitatibus Academicis. Gottingæ, 1739, 4to, p. 60.]. By that edict it was required that the confectionarii should take an oath to keep by them fresh and sufficient drugs, and to make up medicines exactly according to the prescriptions of the physicians; and a price was fixed at which the stationarii might vend medicines so prepared, and keep them a year or two for sale in a public shop or store. The physicians at Salerno had the inspection of the stationes, which were not to be established in every place, but in certain towns. The confectionarii appear to have been those who made up the medicines or confectiones. The statio was the house where they were sold, or, according to the present mode of expression, the apothecary’s shop; and the stationarii seem to have been the proprietors, or those who had the care of selling the medicines. The word apotheca seldom occurs in that edict; when it does, it signifies the warehouse or repository where the drugs were preserved. I however find no proof in it that the physicians at that time sent their prescriptions to the stationes to be made up. It appears rather that the confectionarii prepared medicines from a general set of prescriptions legally authorised, and that the physicians selected from these medicines, kept ready for use, such as they thought most proper to be administered to their patients. A physician who had passed an examination, and obtained a licence to practise, was obliged to swear that he would observe formam curiæ hactenus observatam; and if he found quod aliquis confectionarius minus bene conficiat, he was obliged to give information to the curia. The confectionarii swore that they would make up confectiones, secundum prædictam formam. It was necessary that electuaries, syrups, and other medicines, should be accompanied with a certificate from a physician to show that they were properly prepared. I must acknowledge that the edict alludes here only to some medicines commonly employed; and I am surprised that the recipes are not mentioned, if such were then in use. I have never had the good fortune to meet with the word Receptum used to signify a prescription in any works of the above century. The practice of physicians writing out, almost at every visit, the method of preparing the medicines which they order, may perhaps have been introduced at a later period. The book of receipts most in use, by which the medicines of that time were made up, was the Antidotarium, which the physicians of Salerno caused to be collected and translated into Latin from the works of the Arabian physician Mesues, and from those of Avicenna, Galen, Actuarius, Nicolaus Myrepsius, and Nicolaus Præpositus, by the celebrated professor in that city, Nicolaus di Reggio, a native of Calabria.

If it be true that the separation of pharmacy from medicine first took place in Africa, it is highly probable that the well-known Constantinus Afer may have contributed to introduce it also into Italy. This man, who was a native of Carthage, having learned the medical art from the Arabians, made it known in that country, particularly after the year 1086, when he was a Benedictine monk in a monastery situated on Mount Cassino; and the service which he rendered to the celebrated school of physic in the neighbouring city of Salerno, is well known. After his time, the monks in many of the monasteries applied to the preparing of medicines, which they sold to the wealthy, but distributed gratis to the poor, and by these means were much benefited in various respects.

It is well known that almost all political institutions on this side the Alps, and particularly every thing that concerned education, universities, and schools, were copied from Italian models. These were the only patterns then to be found; and the monks, despatched from the papal court, who were employed in such undertakings, clearly saw that they could lay no better foundation for the Pontiff’s power and their own aggrandizement, than by inducing as many states as possible to follow the examples set them in Italy. Medical establishments were formed, therefore, everywhere at first according to the plan of that at Salerno. Particular places for vending medicines were more necessary, however, in other countries than in Italy. The physicians of that period used no other drugs than those recommended by the ancients; and as these were to be procured only in the Levant, Greece, Arabia, and India, it was necessary to send thither for them. Besides, according to the astrological notions which then prevailed, herbs, to be confided in, could not be gathered but when the sun and planets were in certain constellations, and certificates of their being so were requisite to give them reputation. All this was impossible to be done without a distinct employment, for physicians were otherwise engaged. It was found convenient therefore to suffer some of the principal dealers in drugs gradually to acquire monopolies. The preparation of drugs was becoming always more difficult and expensive. After the invention of distillation, sublimation, and other chemical processes, laboratories, furnaces, and costly apparatus were to be constructed, and it was proper that men who had regularly studied chemistry should alone follow pharmacy; and that they should be indemnified for their expenses by an exclusive trade. These monopolists also could be kept under closer inspection, by which the danger of their selling improper drugs or poison was lessened or entirely removed. It would appear that no suspicions were at first entertained, that apothecaries could amass riches by their employment, so soon and so easily as they do at present; for they were allowed many other advantages, and particularly that of dealing in sweetmeats and confectionary, which were then the greatest delicacies. In many places they were obliged on certain festivals to give presents of such dainties to the magistrates, by way of acknowledgment, and hence probably has arisen the custom of sending new-years gifts of marchepanes and other things of the like kind.

In many places, and particularly in opulent cities, the first apothecaries’ shops were established at the public expense, and belonged to the magistrates. A particular garden also was often appropriated to the apothecary, in order that he might rear in it the necessary plants, and which therefore was called the apothecary’s garden[1021 - These gardens in most cities have been revoked, but they still retain their ancient names, though applied to other purposes. In this manner the œconomical garden at Göttingen is called by the common people the apothecary’s garden.]. Apothecaries’ shops for the use of courts were frequently established and directed by the consorts of princes; and it is a circumstance well-known, that many of the fair sex, when they have lost the power of wounding, devote themselves much to the healing and curing art, and to the preparation and dispensing of medicines. [Such indeed is the case at present in France, medicines being both prepared and dispensed by the Sisters of Charity, who attend the sick at the public hospitals, much to the annoyance of the chemists and druggists, who have frequently petitioned the government to interfere to protect their interests.] Dr. Mohsen says that the first apothecaries in Germany came from Italy. This may be probable, but I know no proof of it. I shall now proceed to give some account of the oldest mention made of apothecaries, which will serve to confirm what I have said above.

Of English apothecaries I know nothing more than what has been stated by Anderson[1022 - Hist. of Commerce, i. 319.], who says that king Edward III., in the year 1345, gave a pension of sixpence a day to Coursus de Gangeland, an apothecary of London, for taking care of and attending his majesty during his illness in Scotland; and this is the first mention of an apothecary in the Fœdera.

Of apothecaries in France no mention occurs before the year 1484; when they received their statutes in the month of August from Charles VIII.[1023 - Histoire de Paris, par Sauval, ii. p. 474. – Histoire de Paris, par Felibien, ii. p. 927. – Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, i. p. 618.] They received others in 1514 under Louis XII.; in 1516 and 1520 under Francis I.; in 1571 under Charles IX.; in 1583 under Henry III.; and in 1594 under Henry IV. These regulations were renewed and confirmed by Louis XIII., in the years 1611, 1624, and 1638.

For the most copious information respecting German apothecaries, we are indebted to Sattler. In the beginning of the fifteenth century an apothecary’s shop was established at Stuttgard by a person named Glatz, which, as the only one in the country, was first sanctioned by the count of Wirtemberg in 1458. In the patent given on that occasion it was said that Glatz’s ancestors had for many years kept an apothecary’s shop at Stuttgard, and had furnished it as a proper apothecary ought. In the year 1457 count Ulric gave to John Kettner, whom the year before he had appointed to be his domestic physician, leave also to establish an apothecary’s shop at Stuttgard, and promised to allow no other in his dominions. The apothecary received yearly from the count a certain quantity of wine, barley and rye; but, on the other hand, he engaged to supply the court with as much confectionary as might be necessary, at the rate of twelve schillings per pound[1024 - Sattlers Geschichte Würtenberg, v. p. 159. Addenda, p. 329.]. Both these shops seem afterwards to have been abandoned, and the count and the apothecary to have entertained the same opinion, that each could renounce his contract when he pleased. In the year 1468, one Albrecht Mulsteiner, or Altumsteiner, from Nuremberg, was appointed apothecary, with a promise that no other private or public shop should be tolerated except that at Wirtemberg. The patent is almost like that given to Kettner; but it deserves to be remarked that it contains, in an additional clause, a catalogue of all the different articles, with their prices. An apothecary’s shop is mentioned at Tubingen, under count Everhard, as an hereditary fief, the possessor of which bound himself to serve as physician and apothecary to the army in time of war. In the year 1500 duke Ulric of Wirtemberg allowed one Syriax Horn to establish an apothecary’s shop at Stuttgard, and appointed him his apothecary for six years. He was obliged to swear that he would supply government and all public officers, as well as the duke’s subjects, with medicines; and the body physician was enjoined to visit the shop once every year, in order to examine whether Horn conducted himself according to the regulations laid down for him, and sold his medicines at the fixed prices. In 1559 four apothecaries were appointed in the duchy, viz. at Stuttgard, Goppingen, Kalw and Bintigheim, which are still called the land-apothecaries. At the same period there was an apothecary’s shop in the ducal palace at Stuttgard, which the consort of duke Christopher caused to be furnished at her own expense; and from which the poor received gratis whatever medicines they stood in need of.

That there were apothecaries’ shops at Augsburg so early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, according to the conjecture of Von Stetten, has been mentioned already. By the records of that city it appears that a public shop was kept there by a female apothecary in the year 1445; and at that period a salary was paid by the city to the person who followed that occupation. In 1507 an order was passed that the apothecaries’ shops should be from time to time inspected; and in 1512 a price was set upon their medicines, and all others were forbidden to deal in them.

The antiquity of the first apothecary’s shop at Hamburg, which belonged to the council, cannot be determined; but it is with certainty known that one existed there before the sixteenth century. It was situated in the middle of the city, near the council-house and the exchange; and had a garden belonging to it, in the new town. Before the year 1618 there was at Hamburg also a private apothecary’s shop. In 1529 a city physician was appointed, and quacks and mountebanks were then banished. The annual visitation by the city physician was established in 1557. The oldest regulation respecting apothecaries is of the year 1586.

Apothecaries’ shops, legally established, existed without doubt at Frankfort on the Maine before the year 1472; for at that period the magistrates of Constance requested to know what regulations were made there respecting the prices of medicines. In 1489 the city physician was instructed to inspect them carefully, and to see that the proper prices were affixed to the different articles. In 1500 all the apothecaries were obliged to take an oath that they would observe the regulations prescribed for them; and in 1603 a decree was passed that no more apothecaries’ shops should be allowed for twelve years than the four then existing; and yet we are told that the fourth was first built in 1629[1025 - Lersner’s Frankfurter Chronik, i. p. 26, 493; ii. pp. 57, 58.].

In the police regulations drawn up at Basle in the year 1440, by which it was ordered that a public physician should be established in every German imperial city, with the allowance of an ecclesiastical benefice or canonry, in order that he might exercise his art gratis, it is said, “What costly things people may wish to have from the apothecary’s shop they must pay for[1026 - Goldasti Constitutiones Imperiales. Francof. 1607, fol. p. 192.].” Dr. Mohsen hence concludes that common roots and herbs were not then sold in the apothecaries’ shops, but expensive compounds brought from other countries.

The first apothecary’s shop at Berlin, of which any certain and authentic account can be found in the king’s feudal records, was established in 1488. At that period the magistrates gave one Hans Zehender a right to the hereditary possession of a shop, and promised to allow him yearly, to enable him to support it, a certain quantity of rye, with a free house, and engaged also to exempt him from all contributions, watching and other public burthens, and to permit no other apothecary to reside in the city. This agreement was confirmed in 1491 by the elector John; and in 1499 the elector Joachim I., on his coming to the government, gave the apothecary a new patent, in which his body physician was charged to take care that the shop should be furnished with proper drugs; that the medicines for the elector and his court should be made up according to the prescriptions; and that they should not be charged too high, contrary to the regulated prices[1027 - Mohsens Geschichte, p. 379.]. In the year 1573 there was an apothecary’s shop in the palace for the use of the court; but Mr. Nicolai[1028 - Beschreibung von Berlin, i. p. 39 and 87.] conjectures that it was only a portable one, and consisted of some chests filled with medicines. The present one was founded in 1598 by Catharine, consort of the elector Joachim Frederick; but the establishment, as it now stands, began to be formed in the year 1605, when Crispin Haubenschmid, the first apothecary to the court, was brought from Halle to Berlin. Catharine, widow of the margrave John of Custrin, caused an apothecary’s shop for the use of the court to be established at Krossen, under the inspection of her physician Wigands, because there was then no shop of that kind in the place; and at her death in 1574 she bequeathed it to the magistrates.

In Halle there was no apothecary’s shop till the year 1493. Before that period medicines were sold only by grocers and barbers. In the above year however the council, with the approbation of the archbishop, permitted one Simon Puster to establish an apothecary’s shop, in order, as stated in the patent, that the citizens might be supplied with confections, cooling liquors, and such like common things, at a cheap rate, and that, in cases of sickness, they might be able to procure readily fresh and well-prepared medicines. Puster was exempted by it from all taxes and contributions for ten years, but with this proviso, that during that period he should furnish yearly at the council-house for two collations in the time of the festivals, eight pounds of good sugar confections, fit and proper to be used at such entertainments. It stated, on the other hand, that in future no kind of preserves made with sugar, or what was called confectionary, or theriac, should be kept for sale or sold either in the market or in booths, shops or stalls, except at the annual fair. This apothecary’s shop was the only one in Halle till the year 1535, when the archbishop gave his physician, J. N. von Wyhe, liberty to establish a new one; but with an assurance, that to eternity, no more apothecaries’ shops should be permitted in Halle; and this declaration was confirmed by the chapter. Notwithstanding the archbishop’s promise, strengthened by that of his clergy, one Wolf Holzwirth, a skilful apothecary, who returned from Italy, found means to procure permission in 1555 to establish a third apothecary’s shop[1029 - Von Dreyhaupts Beschreibung des Saal-Creyses, ii. 561.].

In the year 1409, when the university of Prague was transferred to Leipsic, and every thing at the latter was put on the same footing as at the former, an apothecary’s shop was also established, which, as that at Prague had been, was known by the sign of the Golden Lion.

In the year 1560 there was no apothecary’s shop at Eisenach, and even in the time of duke John Ernest, who died in 1638, there was none for the court; but the place of apothecary was supplied by one of the yeomen of the jewellery.

In the year 1598, count John von Oldenburg caused an apothecary’s shop to be established at Oldenburg for the common good of the country[1030 - Hamelmanns Oldenburgische Chronik, 1599, fol. p. 491.].

In Hanover the first apothecary’s shop was established by the council in 1565, near the council-house[1031 - Grupens Origines Hannoverenses. Gott. 1740, 4to, p. 341.]. The consort of duke Philip II. of Grubenhagen, a princess of Brunswick, who was married in 1560, supported at her court an apothecary’s shop and a still-house, for the benefit of her servants and the poor[1032 - “By her apothecary’s shop and still-house one may discover what real compassion the Christian-like electress showed towards the poor who were sick or infirm; for, by having medicines prepared, and by causing all kinds of waters to be distilled, she did not mean to assist only her own people and those belonging to her court, but the poor in general, whether natives or foreigners, and not for the sake of advantage or gain, but gratis and for the love of God.” – Letzners Dasselsche und Eimbecksche Chronica. – Erfurt, 1596, fol. p. 104.]. Duke Julius, who came to the government of Brunswick in 1568, caused apothecaries’ shops to be established in his territories; and his consort, a daughter of the elector of Brandenburg, kept, for the use of the poor, an expensive apothecary’s shop in her palace; and the citizens of the new Heinrichstadt, near Wolfenbuttel, were allowed when afflicted by any epidemic disease, the dysentery, quinsy, scurvy, or stone, to be supplied with medicines from it free of all expense[1033 - This account is taken from the learned information collected by Professor Spittler, in his Geschichte Hannover. Gött. 1786, 8vo, p. 275. That the council of Göttingen began very early to pay great attention to medical institutions, is proved by the following passage from the Göttingischen Chronike of Franciscus Lubecus: – “Anno 1380, the city procured a surgeon from Eschwege, who with his servant was to be exempted from contributions and watching; and to receive clothes yearly from the council.”].

The apothecary’s shop at the court of Dresden was founded by the electress Ann, a Danish princess, in the year 1581. In 1609 it was renewed by Hedwig, widow of the elector Christian I.; and in 1718 it received considerable improvement.

Gustavus Erickson, king of Sweden, was the first person in that country who attempted to establish an apothecary’s shop. On the 20th of March, 1547, he requested Dr. John Audelius of Lubeck, to send him an experienced physician and a good apothecary. On the 5th of May, 1550, his body-physician, Henry von Diest, received orders to bring a skilful apothecary into the kingdom. When the king died in 1560, he had no other physicians with him than his barber master Jacob, an apothecary master Lucas, and his confessor Magister Johannes, who, according to the popish mode, practised physic, and prescribed for his majesty. Master Lucas, as appears, was the first apothecary at Stockholm. On the 21st of March, 1575, one Anthony Busenius was appointed by king John apothecary to the court[1034 - Von Dalins Geschichte Schweden, übersetzt von Dahnert. 4 vols. 4to, p. 318 and 394.]; and in 1623, Philip Magnus Schmidt, a native of Langensalz in Thuringen, was chosen to fill that office. In the year 1675 there were five apothecaries’ shops in Stockholm; since 1694 the number has been nine. The first apothecary’s shop at Upsal was established in 1648 by Simon Wolimhaus, who came from Konigsee in Thuringen, and from whom the present family of count Gyllenborg are descended. The first apothecary’s shop at Gottenburg was established about the same time. Towards the end of the sixteenth century physicians and apothecaries were invited into Russia by the czar Boris Godunow[1035 - Backmeister, Essai sur la Biblioth. à St. Pétersb. 1776, 8vo, p. 37.].

I shall here take occasion to remark the following circumstance: at the Byzantine court the keeper of the wardrobe, as the yeoman of the jewellery at Eisenach in the sixteenth century, had the care of the portable apothecary’s shop when the emperor took the field. It was called pandectæ, and contained theriac and antidotes, with all kinds of oils, plasters, salves, and herbs proper for curing men and cattle[1036 - Constantinus Porphyrogen. de Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzantinæ. Lipsiæ, 1751, fol. i. p. 270.].

[In England, in 1543, an act was passed for the toleration and protection of the numerous irregular practitioners, who were neither surgeons nor physicians. It was entitled “An Act that persons being no common surgeons may minister outward medicines;” the persons thus tolerated comprehending those who kept shops for the sale of drugs, to whom the name of apothecaries was then exclusively applied. On the 9th of April, 1606, king James I. incorporated the apothecaries of London and united them with the grocers; they remained so until 1617, when they received a new charter, forming them into a separate company under the designation of the master, wardens, and society of the art and mysteries of apothecaries of the city of London. It appears that the apothecaries of London did not begin generally to prescribe as well as to dispense medicines until a few years before the close of the seventeenth century.]

I must add a few observations also respecting the earliest Dispensatorium. It is almost generally admitted that the first was drawn up by Valerius Cordus, or at least that his was the first sanctioned by the approbation of public magistrates. Haller has remarked one older; but it is now known only from the title mentioned by Maittaire[1037 - Bibliotheca Botan. i. p. 244. Ricettario di dottori dell’ arte e di medicina del collegio Florentino, all’ instantia delli Signori Consoli della università delli speciali. Firenz. 1498, fol. Maittaire. Primum, quantum repperi, dispensarium.]. Cordus however appears to have first used the word dispensatorium for a collection of receipts, containing directions how to prepare the medicines most in use. This book it is well known has been often printed with the additions of other physicians; but, in my opinion, Conring[1038 - Introductio in Artem Medicam. Helmstadii, 1687, 4to, p. 375.] is in a mistake when he says that it was improved and enlarged by Matthiolus. I have in no edition found any additions of Matthiolus; and the error seems to have arisen from the christian name of Matthias Lobelius, which stands in the title of some editions, because his annotations are added to them. It is very singular that Kestner[1039 - C. G. Kestneri Bibliotheca Medica, Jenæ, 1746, 8vo, p. 638.] also has fallen into this mistake, who, however, says that the name of Matthiolus is only in the title, for in the book itself he found no appearance of his having had any concern with it.

CLOCKS AND WATCHES

A paper on this subject was read by Professor Hamberger, in the year 1758, before the Society of Göttingen; but as the publication of the Transactions of the Society was interrupted, it was never printed. I however procured the manuscript from the professor’s son, Secretary Hamberger, at Gotha, and I here insert it, corrected in a few places, where necessary, but without any other alteration[1040 - The author says that the principal writers on this subject are Alexander, a monk of the order of St. Benedict; Paute, his countryman; and our Derham.].

“Weidler[1041 - Histor. Astron.] and Chambers[1042 - Encyclopædia, art. Clock.] are, doubtless, both mistaken when they place the invention of automatous clocks about the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. The latter says, ‘It is certain that the art of constructing clocks, such as those now in use, was first invented or at least revived in Germany about two hundred years ago.’ The same account is given by Weidler, whom Chambers perhaps copied. But, however flattering this opinion may be to the ingenuity of the Germans, it is so apparently false in regard to the time, that one cannot assent to it; nor is it even probable in regard to the country, though it must be allowed that the art of clockmaking flourished very much in Germany, particularly at Nuremberg, about the beginning of the sixteenth century.

“As these two authors make the invention of clocks too modern, others, on the contrary, carry it back to a period too early. Without entering into any dissertation on the machines of Archimedes and Posidonius, which are said to have measured the hours of the day, I shall only observe that a certain writer pretends to have found mention made of a clock in the third century[1043 - Bona De Div. Psalmod. cap. 3. s. 2.]. In support of this assertion he refers to the Acts of St. Sebastian, the martyr, where Chromatius, the governor of Rome, says, when about to be cured by him, ‘I have a glass chamber in which the whole learning and science of the stars is constructed mechanically, in making which my father Tarquinius is known to have expended more than two hundred pounds of gold.’ St. Sebastian answers, ‘If you have made your choice to keep this whole, you destroy yourself.’ To which Chromatius replies, ‘How so? do we employ any sacrificial rights in the construction of an almanac or ephemeris, when merely the courses of the months and years are distinguished numerically for every hour; and the full and new moon is, by means of certain calculations, foreshown by a motion of the fingers[1044 - Act. SS. cap. 16. 20 Jan. p. 273. Chrom. “Habeo cubiculum holovitrum, in quo omnis disciplina stellarum ac mathesis mechanica est arte constructa, in cujus fabrica pater meus Tarquinius amplius quam ducenta pondo auri dignoscitur expendisse.” St. Sebast. “Si hoc tu integrum habere volueris, te ipsum frangis.” Chrom. “Quid enim? Mathesis aut ephemeris aliquo sacrificiorum usu coluntur, cum tantum eis mensium et annorum cursus certo numero per horarum spatia distinguuntur; et lunaris globi plenitudo, vel diminutio, digitorum motu, rationis magisterio, et calculi computatione praevidetur?”].’ This valuable machine, however, can hardly be called a clock; for if it had been an automaton, it would not have required to be moved with the fingers in order to show the time of full moon. If I understand the author’s words properly, it was not calculated to point out the hours; but to exhibit the sun’s course through the twelve signs of the zodiac, the motion of the rest of the planets, and their relative situation in every month, or at any period of the year. That the signs of the zodiac and the planets were represented on the machine, appears from what follows. St. Polycarp (the companion of St. Stephen) said, ‘There are the signs of the Lion, of Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio and the Bull; in Aries the moon, in the Crab an hour, in Jupiter a star, in Mercury the tropics, in Venus Mars, and in all those monstrous demons is seen an art hostile to God[1045 - “Illic signa Leonis, et Capricorni, et Sagittarii, et Scorpionis, et Tauri sunt; illic in Ariete Luna, in Cancro hora, in Jove stella, in Mercurio tropica, in Venere Mars, et in omnibus istis monstruosis daemonibus ars Deo inimica cognoscitur.”].’ But whatever this machine might have been, it was of no use to others, or to posterity: it was broken to pieces by these saints, so that, even allowing it to have been a clock, the knowledge of it must have been then lost.

“We find also, that Bernardus Saccus[1046 - Hist. Ticin. lib. vii. c. 17.] ascribes the invention of clocks to Boëthius, in the fifth century; but Bernardus seems to have forgotten what he quoted a little before from Cassiodorus[1047 - Var. lib. i. in fine.], respecting the clock of Boëthius, that it determined the hours guttis aquarum. It must, therefore, have been a water-clock, and not a clock moved by wheels and weights. The same Cassiodorus had provided his monks at the monastery of St. Andiol[1048 - In the original, Monasterium Vivariense. – Trans.], in Languedoc, with machines of the like kind: ‘I am known,’ says he, ‘to have constructed for you a time-piece which the light of the sun indexes; moreover another acting by water which marks the hours both day and night; as frequently upon some days there is no sunshine[1049 - “Horologium vobis unum, quod solis claritas indicet, praeparasse cognoscor; alterum vero aquatile, quod die noctuque horarum iugiter indicat quantitatem; quia frequenter nonnullis diebus solis claritas abesse cognoscitur.” – De Institut. Div. Litter. c. 29.].’ We are to understand also, as alluding to such clocks, what is said by the writer of the life of St. Leobin, bishop of Chartrain, about the year 556[1050 - Mabil. Annales St. O. B. sec. i. p. 123.], when he tells us, that to him (St. Leobin) was committed the duty of regulating the course of the hours and the vigils.

“I come now to the seventh century. In Du Cange’s Glossary we find the word Index, which is explained to be the index or hand of a clock, or the small bell which announces the hours by its sound; and this opinion is adopted by Muratori[1051 - Antiq. Med. Ævi, Diss. 24, p. 392.]. Du Cange quotes in support of his assertion a monkish work called Regula Magistri, the author of which is not certainly known[1052 - Lucæ Holstenii Codex Regularum. Paris, 1663, p. 172.], but which Mabillon[1053 - Annales.] asserts to have been written before the year 700. The passages to which he refers are, ‘Cum advenisse divinam horam percussus in oratorio index monstraverit.’ (When the index being struck in the oratory shall have shown that the hour for prayer had come.) ‘Cum sonuerit index;’ and ‘Cum ad opus divinum oratorii index sonaverit[1054 - Capp. 54, 55. 95.].’ But Du Cange might have perceived, had he quoted the whole passage from the fifty-fifth chapter, that allusion is not here made to a clock; for it is said, not merely ‘cum sonuerit index,’ but ‘cum sonuerit index ab Abbate percussus.’ (When the index struck by the Abbot shall sound). It was a scilla or skella, perhaps only a board; and Martene[1055 - Index Onomasticus ad tom. iv. De Antiq. Eccl. Rit.] seems to understand the word index in the true sense when he explains it the signal by which the brethren were called to divine service.

“That machine which was sent as a present to Charlemagne by the king of Persia, in the year 807, is supposed also to have been a clock like those used at present; and if we follow the Chronicon Turonense, one may easily fall into the same opinion: ‘The king of the Persians sent a time-piece in which the twelve hours were marked by the performance of a cymbal and of certain horsemen who at each hour went out through the windows, and on their return in the last hour of the day shut the windows as they marched back[1056 - Martene, Coll. ampl. tom. v. p. 960. “Misit rex Persarum – horologium, in quo XII horarum cursus cognoscebantur, cymbalo ibi personante et equitibus, qui per singulas horas per fenestras exibant, et in ultima hora diei redeuntes, in regressione sua fenestras apertas claudebant.”].’ The description of it however, to be found in Annales Francorum, ascribed to Eginhard, shows clearly that it was far different from our clocks. The author says, ‘Likewise a time-piece wonderfully constructed of brass with mechanical art, in which the course of the twelve hours was turned towards a clepsydra, with as many brass balls which fell down at the completion of the hour, and by their fall sounded a bell placed under them[1057 - Ad a. 807. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, vol. i. p. 582. “Nec non et horologium, ex aurichalco arte mechanica mirifice compositum, in quo duodecim horarum cursus ad clepsydram vertebatur, cum totidem æreis pilulis, quæ ad completionem horarum decidebant, et casu suo subjectum sibi cymbalum tinnire faciebant.”].’ It was evidently therefore a water-clock, furnished with some ingenious mechanism, but having nothing in common with our clocks.

“About the same period lived Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, who is celebrated for having invented a clock[1058 - Panuvini Antiq. Veron. lib. vi. p. 153. Scip. Maffei Degli Scrittori Veronesi, p. 32. Muratori, Ant. Ital. Med. Ævi, Diss. 24. p. 392.]. His epitaph, besides relating other services which he did, says, —

Horologium nocturnum nullus ante viderat.
En invenit argumentum et primus fundaverat;
Horologioque carmen spheræ cœli optimum,