repared in the prescribed
form, without any fraud. The apothecary may derive the following
profits from his sales: Such extracts and simples as he need not
keep in stock for more than a year before they may be employed may
be charged for at the rate of three tarrenes an ounce." (90 cents an
ounce seems very dear, but this is the maximum.) "Other medicines,
however, which in consequence of the special conditions required for
their preparation or for any other reason the apothecary has to have
in {423} stock for more than a year, he may charge for at the rate
of six tarrenes an ounce. Stations for the preparation of medicines
may not be located anywhere, but only in certain communities in the
Kingdom, as we prescribe below.

"We decree also that the growers of plants meant for medical purpose
shall be bound by a solemn oath that they shall prepare medicines
conscientiously, according to the rules of their art, and as far as
it is humanely possible that they shall prepare them in the presence
of the inspectors. Violations of this law shall be punished by the
confiscation of their movable goods. If the inspectors, however, to
whose fidelity to duty the keeping of these regulations is
committed, should allow any fraud in the matters that are entrusted
to them, they shall be condemned to punishment by death."

{424}

APPENDIX IV.

CHURCH DECREES RELATING TO MEDICINE.

Besides the Papal documents referred to in the body of this book and
quoted in the original in the Appendix to the first edition
immediately preceding this, there is a series of decrees of Councils
and Synods of the Church which are sometimes referred to as
representing a distinct policy of opposition on the part of the Church
to science and particularly medical and surgical practice, as if their
purpose had been to force people to have recourse to prayers and
relics and pilgrimages and masses rather than to take advantage of
medical knowledge and surgical experience for the relief of their
ills. The Papal documents quoted and discussed in the previous edition
of this book proved to have no such meaning as was attributed to them
and the history of the medical sciences as traced, shows that these
Church regulations were not misconstrued either in their own or
subsequent generations in such a way as to have the effect of
interfering with the development of medical science or medical
education as has been claimed.